need help with outdoor system

If a speaker wiring run to outdoor speakers is available for your AVR, then IMHO Sonos becomes a good option. Set-up is straightforward:

You need a Sonos bridge (app 4" x 4" x 2" box) wired to your router. Run the Sonos set-up software to point the Sonos system to your music library. Plug a Sonos Connect (app 4" x 7" x 7" box) into your AVR as a new source. Select the Sonos Connect as your source for zone 2. Hard wire the outdoor speakers of your choice to the zone 2 output of your AVR. Control your music library via Sonos app on your iPad. You'll also get access to (and control over) Pandora, MOG, etc from the Sonos app on your iPad.

As a bonus, you get wireless access to your library anywhere you want by adding additional Sonos Zones (they make powered units both with, and without, integrated speakers) . Also, you'll have access on Zone 1 of your AVR (if you don't already have it there).

The Sonos hardware is +/- $450 and outdoor speakers are available at all price levels, so there's a fair bit of price flexibility in this approach, too.

Good luck.

Marty

@ DTC - what is DLNA? My AVR has a network card, but I have read that they are unreliable in this unit, and mine is 3 years old, and I've never used the network connection, so not sure if that is a reliable way to go.
Yup, I can connect my laptop to the AVR right now, using the vlink192, and control everything via Jremote on my ipad. Maybe I'll start out there, and upgrade to Sonos later. It's just kind of a pain to constantly hook/un-hook the vlink from my basement system...
Why do I need a Sonos bridge, can't the Connect just jump onto my wireless network? I have a wireless router. I find the Sonos stuff to be kinda expensive for what it does, I realize I get access to all kinds of internet media with the connect, but $350 to hook into my library seems high...it might not seem so bad after a little more research tho. I tried to buy a Sony media streamer because it was cheaper than the apple TV and had composite video outs, but wound up smashing it to bits in the garage with a 3 pound sledge because it was such a P.O.S. Moral of the story - going cheaper doesn't always get the same result...>sigh<
Speakers first! I was looking at the Def Tech AW6500

DLNA is a protocol that lets one media system talk to another wirelessly. Many receivers have it, . JRiver can connect to a DLNA server. However, I am not sure that a DLNA server on your receiver (if it has that capbility) can then deliver the audio to zone 2, which usually requires an analog input. Check the specs ouf

You can get a separate USB DAC to connect a laptop to the Denon. Something like the HRT Streamer II is less than $200, assuming you have a laptop to run Jriver in the same area as the Denon. You could either load you music files onto the laptop or have JRiver access them wirelessly from their current location. You can run JRiver on multiple PCs with the same license. You can set up JRemote to access either PC using the network access keys of JRiver. I only suggest extending you JRiver system because you already have it installed and working and because it works well for me on multiple systems.

Can you run speaker wires from you existing JRIver setup? It might be just as easy to add a small amp to that setup to drive the outdoor speakers?

Looks like I need to investigate which signal on the Denon can be mapped to zone 2. I was assuming that I could just use my old Vlink (I have two) and my wife's laptop to send digital signals into the Denon's DAC, then get that out to zone 2, but I'll have to look. Did not know you could run Jriver on multiple laptops, that helps.
I could run wire from my basement system out to the tub, but there isn't any way to control volume while using Jplay. Using the AVR, I could use an app on the iPad to control the Denon's volume, and select music with Jremote...but the run from the basement office would be a shorter run. My DAC has two sets of outputs, one balanced, so I'd have to buy those interconnects along with the second amp...and I'm running conduit and wire with the AVR route anyway, so I think I'll go there and use what I have.