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@Guy: Regarding the connection box/terminal block, could you give some more details on how this would work as I’m not that experienced in wiring? I guess one wire in and two wires out for each of the seven wires of the MCL, right? What kind of terminal block would you recommend? I’ve got a rather long MCL cable with the speaker plugs in one end that I connect to the Beomaster. Not sure if it’s possible to cut some of this at the other end for the shorter connections. Otherwise need to find another MCL or make as suggested by speedsixdave (very good suggestions there!)

You can just use relatively cheap terminal block like this:   ... and to connnect just use the MCL cable (connected to your Beomaster's speaker 2 sockets) and split out the 7 individual wires into one side, with then two wires from each connection the other side (one to each room or zone).  You can put the terminal block inside some kind of box if you want to hide it. And if you use the MCL2AV with passive speakers (connected directly to the MCL2AV's loudspeaker sockets) you will not have independent volume control (the crcuit diagram of the MCL2AV just shows a relay  in the loudspeaker circuit).  To achieve independent* volume you need to add a Passive (or MCL2P) connected to one of the MCL2AV's Powerlink sockets. *  Note the volume control will not be strictly independent - see the following text from the MCL Handbook: This volume control permits you to reduce the volume in the link room without affecting the volume in other rooms. The volume can be increased by 12 dB in the link room without affecting the volume in other rooms. If the volume is increased further, the volume in other rooms will be increased comparatively.  

Great, sounds pretty straight-forward. I should be able to get one of those terminal blocks easily from a local store.

Thanks also for clarifying how to get independent volume control for the MCL2AV using passive speakers, this clarifies things.

@speedsixdave: thanks for the additional clarifications. Agreed that it sounds odd that the MCL2AV needs an additional power supply even if it's only used as a MCL2A and connecting passive speakers directly. But it seems this is the case. It's possible to buy a variable mains adaptor 5-24V DC (2.4A at 15V) here with various plugs that could work, but I guess it would be easier to get an MCL2P/Beolink Passive (though it adds quite a bit of bulk) for not that much more or just get active speakers and a cheaper 12v adaptor. I haven't decided what to do yet but I  might get an MCL2AV anyway just to try it out. I got the MCL2A yesterday by the way and it works great with the Beolink 1000! The only issue is that the cable for the transceiver is very short. Do you think it would be possible to repurpose one of the longer cables that I have for the MCL82 transceivers for the MCL2A? The difference seems to be that seven cables (like MCL) are used for the MCL82 transceiver but only five for the MCL2A.

Any decent cable with 5+ cores should be fine to extend the transciever cable - the MCL82 cable should be fine.  The installation instructions do say that it should be no more than 10m long.  (The cable originally supplied is 5m).  Be aware that the cable is soldered at the transciever end, so you will be best just extending from the current bare wires - you could use another short piece of terminal block, or solder and wrap the wires for a neater join.

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Would the set up with the BL3500 require the MCLAV, given that it’s an active speaker? How would you rate the sound of this speaker? It seems you can still find them quite cheap.

You do not need the MCL2AV for this. The Beolab 3500 is a link room speaker with built in IR eye and can work both as a Masterlink or an MCL2 (only for the MK1 version of the Beolab 3500) speaker. To use it in the MCL 2 system you will need to connect it via it's 8 PIN din connector which has a special pinout. You can find a wirring diagram for this a little over half way down this page Alternativly you can connect a Beolab 3500 to a Beolink converter type 1611 via Masterlink, and then use a 7Pin Din cable from the Beolink converter to the Beomaster 5500 TP2/AUX connection