Simplest possible stereo for a 90 year old

[Scodiddly]

Now that my Dad has gotten his first shot of the vaccine, I need to start figuring out how to simplify his home stereo since it won't be more than a couple months before I can finally go visit him again.  Smart guy but technology is becoming challenging, so I want to assemble a dead-simple system with obvious controls, speakers in every room (he's a bit hard of hearing, too).

The basic plan is a sealed box containing those little amp modules to cover different rooms, with toggle switches for which ones are active. Amps are cheap enough now to where I can just throw channels at the problem instead of worrying about impedance combinations, which is nice.  A switch for inputs - TV, then I need to find the world's simplest AM/FM tuner to patch into the radio position on the switch.

All that is straightforward enough, but what would be nice is to be able to control volume with the world's simplest remote control. Hopefully something better than a BUD box on a wire with a volume knob, but that's about the level of complexity I want.  Any suggestions?

 

[fazer]

Not sure if this works but I have apps on my phone for all the stereo equipment.  The receiver comes up with just a volume control .  All the other controls are swipe pages.  Might be hard to see for a senior of which I am but I’m near sighted so can see up close without glasses

 

[Scodiddly]

Not sure if this works but I have apps on my phone for all the stereo equipment.  The receiver comes up with just a volume control .  All the other controls are swipe pages.  Might be hard to see for a senior of which I am but I’m near sighted so can see up close without glasses

Not a bad idea, but I'm thinking if it's not too complicated now, it will be in a couple years.  Since I live five hours away I have to plan a little more carefully.

 

[Tubetec]

Something like an older NAD stereo reciever might be the thing to get  ,

Generally they have two speaker zones and switching  A , B , Off,  A+B ,

The FM tuner is good quality and very easy to operate ,with a bright easy to read display .
You will also get preamp-outs making it easy to add extra zones , when you need to operate the remote zones you need only energise the amplifier in the required zone(s).
Models such as 7020 , 7140 ,7XX might be worth a look at .