Audio Systems: amp for multiple speakers with iPod?, distribution amplifier, 8 ohm speakers

Question
I'm trying to find the necessary components) to drive 3 or 4 pairs of [unamplified] speakers (multiple rooms) from my laptop's or my iPod's earphone jacks.  A cheapie distribution amplifier from r.shack doesn't seem to fill the bill as I am also fighting with a mixture of low impedance (4, 6, and 8 ohm) speakers, and the iPod and laptop both seem to want to peer into 24 or more ohms.  I can add resistors to push the impedances to some common level, but don't know what level to shoot for, and I'm not sure that the distribution amp will output any reasonable (20-50) wattage per channel any way.  Without buying more speakers, how should I be proceeding, and if an amp is necessary, can you suggest one?  Thanks.

Answer
You need an amplifier and a impedance matching switch. That's the inexpensive way of doing it. If I were doing it, I would use a multi-channel amplifier one channel per two 8 ohm speakers. If you know the specs of the speakers choose amplification that is half of the wattage rating per channel. The power will double at 4 ohms.