Dreamer
Classified Forum Moderator
We're moving to a new house in a few weeks, and I've been planning the sound system. I want it to be pretty much "audiophile-quality" throughout the house, but since it is "old construction", I'm not really looking forward to stringing wires through it, especially considering it's a 2 story house.
The only time I'm going to really be feeding music through the whole house is when we are entertaining, so it will be digital source from my laptop using iTunes (Apple Lossless compressed files, of course!) But I want to have speakers in at least 3 areas in addition to the main listening room (which is downstairs): Outside on the deck, in the kitchen, and in the living room, all of which are upstairs.
So here's my solution: Apple Airport Expresses... I'm going to run the laptop directly into the "main" system through a USB DAC (guess which one I'm getting?!?), and then feed the signal wirelessly through an Apple Airport Extreme to strategigally-placed Airport Expresses in the rooms where I want sound.
Attached to each of these units will most likely be some sort of integrated amps to drive some sort of smallish speakers for "ambience music" for parties and such. I don't want to get too crazy with these auxiliary systems, but I do want toe sound to be "better than Bose"...
I'm looking at Arcam integrated amps (the Diva 80 is on the top of the list), or maybe Krell KAV-300i's (if I can get them used for a good price), driving small Celestions, B&Ws, or maybe small Maggies...
So what I want to hear from y'all is opinions for small integrated amps. Like I said the Krell and Arcam are at the top of my list, but if y'all have suggestions in the under-$1000 range, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
--Richard
The only time I'm going to really be feeding music through the whole house is when we are entertaining, so it will be digital source from my laptop using iTunes (Apple Lossless compressed files, of course!) But I want to have speakers in at least 3 areas in addition to the main listening room (which is downstairs): Outside on the deck, in the kitchen, and in the living room, all of which are upstairs.
So here's my solution: Apple Airport Expresses... I'm going to run the laptop directly into the "main" system through a USB DAC (guess which one I'm getting?!?), and then feed the signal wirelessly through an Apple Airport Extreme to strategigally-placed Airport Expresses in the rooms where I want sound.
Attached to each of these units will most likely be some sort of integrated amps to drive some sort of smallish speakers for "ambience music" for parties and such. I don't want to get too crazy with these auxiliary systems, but I do want toe sound to be "better than Bose"...
I'm looking at Arcam integrated amps (the Diva 80 is on the top of the list), or maybe Krell KAV-300i's (if I can get them used for a good price), driving small Celestions, B&Ws, or maybe small Maggies...
So what I want to hear from y'all is opinions for small integrated amps. Like I said the Krell and Arcam are at the top of my list, but if y'all have suggestions in the under-$1000 range, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
--Richard