Quadrophenia

[rowlandc]

Hi guys - hope you can help.

I'm currently in the process of refurbing my kitchen, a 30ft by 17ft room. Hard floors etc.

Because of the room size, I would like to go for multiple small speakers and a sub to give a more immersive sound at lower volumes. The speakers must be very discreet and pass the wife test.

So, as a total amateur I've been toying with the following solutions:

1) Using a traditional hi-fi amp capable of driving two sets of speakers plus the sub for some easy zoning of the sound. Any recommendations?

2) Taking a 5.1 package such as the Boston Acoustics Soundware XS, connecting to a suitable AV Receiver and discarding/muting centre speaker.

3) Use a 5.1 speaker package with (1) above. Stick the extra speaker on ebay.

Any help greatly appreciated! Budget sub £1000 for amp and speakers.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Anonymous]

Hi guys - hope you can help.

I'm currently in the process of refurbing my kitchen, a 30ft by 17ft room. Hard floors etc.

Because of the room size, I would like to go for multiple small speakers and a sub to give a more immersive sound at lower volumes. The speakers must be very discreet and pass the wife test.

So, as a total amateur I've been toying with the following solutions:

1) Using a traditional hi-fi amp capable of driving two sets of speakers plus the sub for some easy zoning of the sound. Any recommendations?

2) Taking a 5.1 package such as the Boston Acoustics Soundware XS, connecting to a suitable AV Receiver and discarding/muting centre speaker.

3) Use a 5.1 speaker package with (1) above. Stick the extra speaker on ebay.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Chris

When you say 'zoning' do you mean you want to be able to playm the zones separately? If so, Sonos is a neat solution.

Regarding speakers, presumably they'll have to be wall mounted? If so, must they just be small or do they also need to be low profile? Or do you mean in-wall/in-ceiling speakers?

Budget?

 

[rowlandc]

Wall mounted at ceiling level. Just small ish. Don't particularly want to go down the route of building the kit into the walls.

Zoning within the same room to allow some flexibility.

Spend? About £1000 for the amp, sub and speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Wall mounted at ceiling level. Just small ish. Don't particularly want to go down the route of building the kit into the walls.

Zoning within the same room to allow some flexibility.

Spend? About £1000 for the amp, sub and speakers.

Caveat: this might take you a little over your budget, but not much.

I have Sonos throughout the house. In a kitchen-diner of a similar size to yours, I have two zones, each with a pair of Linn Sneaky Unik wall-mounted speakers at ceiling level. The speakers are relatively low profile, so whilst they're not actually set into the wall, they're pretty unobtrusive. I have them in white, because my walls are white, but they can easily be painted to match any decor scheme. As part of your building work you can get the speaker cables chased into the walls. I also had the whole house wired up with cat-5 network cable, which gives more reliable results than the built-in wireless in the Sonos zone players, especially in a big house. (That's not to say that the wireless is unreliable.) Sonos gives you two amplification options, the ZP120, which houses the networking gubbins, DAC and a pre/power amp, or the ZP90, which just has the networking stuff and a DAC and requires a hifi amp to feed into. With the latter you have good upgrade paths, e.g. by adding an outboard DAC or upgrading your amp.

Sonos has many virtues, four of which are: the interface is easy to use (you don't need to buy the horribly expensive controller; there's a free app for PC/Mac or smartphone); the networking works straight out of the box; the system can be added to as and when; telephone support is excellent and free.