Just to confirm: Yes, that is the "proper way" to go about it: Speakers 2 are always-on, and Speakers 1 are controlled with the "Mute" button.  The bug is that when powering up, both speaker sets always turn on -- mute is *not* one of the sound settings that you can program like volume or treble/bass.  You can instantly press the mute button every time you turn it on; there is time before the sound starts blasting out of the other speakers.  But as Nick points out, MCL2 (which you connect to Speakers 2) is the B&O Way for multiple zones.

P.S.  You can also adjust the volume *before* turning on the 9500, by pressing "Sound" first.  In your case, both speaker sets are B&O so it doesn't matter, but it sure helps when Speakers 1 and Speakers 2 are different efficiency and normal volume for one zone knocks you out of the room for the other zone.  (As you can tell, I did not want to purchase and cable my second zone with B&O MCL, *and* didn't want to spring for B&O speakers either!-)

Thanks for the help! I just purchased a MCL2 Xtra passive speaker kit, I’ll install it soon. I’m sure it’ll be better a million times better than the janky IR repeater I’m using too! 

Yes indeed,you will be impressed.In many way's the MCL2 system is more robust than later versions,prap's due to it's simplicity relative to those?

The 'speakers will only switch on in each room if commanded from there,e.g,the 'speakers won't come on in the "extra" room unless you operate the system from there.Switching on  the  system from the "extra" room,will not turn on the speakers in the main room too!

There are other options including a timer mode where you can set up the timer in the Beocenter and then enable timer in the "extra" room to eg provide a radio wake up.

If you don't get a user manual with the kit,it's probably onsite,or I do have spare one you can have.

Nick