Hey all, I am a newbie to the forum. I am also not an expert but would lvoe to get some sound (pun intended) advice for yall.
I am at the tail end of a remodel and looking into some hi-fi equipment to setup some basic sound in my kitchen/living room. Before my remodel drywall was put up, I ran speaker wire to allow for some sound setup after the fact (didnt have time or budget to do a holistic audio integration).
So here is the situation at this moment: I basically have a kitchen with 2 speaker wire outlets in two corners of the room, and two ceiling locations for ceiling speakers in my living room - both sets of speaker wire go back to one location in the kitchen above a counter. I need to now determine speakers for the locations and a source for the sound...
FYI:
*** I tried to add links to each example but the forum wont allow until I have more than 5 posts, sorry. If you search google for the term I suggest, it is the first result in each...
My question is in many parts (sorry for the length of the post, I dont want to leave things too vague):
Speakers
1. I would like to determine good speakers for the kitchen corner locations (above cabinet placement), while I know this setup isnt acousticaly ideal. I have heard great things about these "orb speakers" - any persepctive? (***searchgoogle for example: "orb speakers")
2. I would like to get some basic in-ceiling speakers for my living room, but dont want to spend an arm and a leg. I will mainly be playing low level music for entertaining (no tv theatre goals here). Are Pyle speakers decent? (***search google for example: "Pro-8-inch")
Audio source
My main goal here is simple, small, affordable and nice looking componenets. I would like it to allow for iPod input, radio tuning and possibly CD functionality.
1. I absolutely love these Tivoli radios (***search google for example: "Tivoli Radio"), and hear that they are fantastic. I really dig the style and think it would be anice looking item to sit on the counter next to the speaker wire inputs. However, these do not have a supported ampped speaker out (as far as I can tell) - could I possibly add a pre-amp between the headphone out and the sattelite speakers? Smaller is better here, i do not want a lot of gear sitting on my counter if possible.
2. Another route that looked interesting would be this Denon mini-system I found (***search google for example: "Denon d-m33s"). Feature wise it looks great, and I could use the speakers at the remote locations in the kitchen (above the cabinets). But its a bit large to have sitting on my counter, so I have been a little aprehensive. Any other comparable units anyone can recommend that are smaller (mainly in depth)? Or other thoughts on this path?
I know this isnt a terribly "high end" question, but I hope someone out there can see my perspective of wanting a simple, clean option that is right for the situation. I dont need overkill here, I need functionality and a small foot print that offers decent ambient sound fidelity.
Thanks much!