I have a recommendation: she can hire me (I'm in the area and this is the stuff I do for a living)

But to answer your question: yes, this kind of setup is still popular. I have clients who have insisted on ceiling speakers instead of going with a multi-room bookshelf speaker system like Sonos or Homepod. Some people want the speakers to be up off the furniture so they're more "hidden."

Tony is right that most home theater receivers support a maximum of 2 zones, and I promise that the UI to make use of that second zone is not going to be pleasurable, so I suggest avoiding that route.

The first thing I would ask is this: how many rooms/speakers? That would be a big factor in what I'd recommend for them. For example, my mother's house has speakers in four rooms. Two of those rooms are the kitchen and the living room right next to it. The other two are her bedroom and the master bath right off of it. This would be, in my opinion, a two-zone system at minimum and a three-zone at maximum (where I'd split the master suite rooms in two, but that's if she lived with someone).

As you can see, in this home I would never consider a system like Tony linked to. It's overkill. But if your friend had many rooms on many floors, you might need something like that system. Or perhaps a less expensive version like this (the control pads aren't required). But with either of those you still need sources.

And that's another question: does your friend have volume controls in the walls? It's not a problem if she does, but there's a question of how the volume is controlled if those controls are present. I don't actually like them because it limits how you control volume. You sort of have to use those wall controls and not do it remotely through your phone or whatever. Otherwise it's like adjusting your computer speaker knobs and also the volume level in your OS. On your computer it's best to leave one set and control levels with the other.

Here is my favorite setup, the one I end up selling most of my pre-wiring customers on, and one that can apply to your friend:

- speakers in the ceiling of the rooms they're most often in
- divide the home into logical zones
- for each zone, install a Sonos Amp
- for remote control, use the phone
- for local control, use Lutron Caseta Audio Pico remotes mounted to the wall or on stands

And that's pretty much it. You have a single volume control, and locally you can play favorite stations, pause, or skip tracks. You can also control the system with Siri and use Airplay 2.

The one thing this setup isn't ... is cheap. Each Sonos Amp is $600. The Caseta remotes aren't too pricey (around $70 for the hub and $40 for the remotes and $8 for each mount).

And of course in a new home there's the cost of the speakers and wire, but clearly that's not a factor here.

Withe Amp, you could combine a zones for now and break them up later. One Amp can power two pairs of speakers on its own, or four pairs with an impedance-matching speaker selector. With the selector you could physically disable a pair of speakers and perhaps only enable it for a party or something.

Anyway, I'd be happy to take a look at the home if your friend would like. I give free estimates