MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
We've just had our kitchen re-done and I'm now doing the finishing off bits - we'll have a TV & lo-fi (as distinct from hi-fi for all you fans) in there and the plan is to tuck some small speakers into a space above the cupboards at one end of the room.
They won't be connected with unidirectional de-oxygenised virgin Peruvian copper cable or anything fancy so we're just after something to make a half decent noise. I'm thinking along the lines of a simple 2.1 PC type system - but there's zillions out there and I'm not even sure that's the right solution so I thought I'd ask the good people of STW for their thoughts on the matter...
I got a set of these for the exact same purpose a month or so back, sound quality if fine for the kitchen and the bass is adjustable so you don't rattle all the crockery in the cupboard under the sub 8)
[url= http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0764492585.1260351856@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfjadejdemejdgcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=673091&category_oid=-29775 ]Sony SRS D25W[/url]
JBL Control 1 Xtreme in mine. Love'em. Saturday evening, listening to Craig Charles while cooking I keep wanting him to play "Move on Up" because it brings out the treble lovely.
I've got a 2.1 system for this - I really like it. I just got a £10 job from ebuyer but it works really nicely imo.
are you going to be using the amp in the lo-fi? I went to Richer sounds and got the cheapest pair of bookshelf speakers they had. They sound great for considering the miles of cable I have in a ball down the back of the units. It's a kitchen so there is always a dishwasher/washing machine/kettle/gas hob making noise so sound quality isn't a big deal - i even run mine in mono just balance everything out.
Good point about the amp! The lo-fi will probably just be CD player connected to amp (not much call for cassette decks or turntables these days & we'll get radio via the TV) and the TV has a headphone jack to get the sound out - so I guess I could either get a jack to phono lead for the TV & plug that into the amp & run normal speakers, or find a 2.1 system that'll take 2 jack inputs & plug the CD player straight into that & ditch the amp.
If you've got a hundred notes as the budget-ish then check out the Audioengine A2 - built in amp, two inputs nice sound, black or white. Great little powered speakers.
Fostex PM0.4's (powered monitors) are quite nice for the money.
I just decked out most of my ground floor with a load of little Eltax monitors off-of eBay for not a lot; nice even mid-fi as I move around the place.
Although round here it's apparently a dirty word, I use some Bose computer speakers, they were £80, and do the job fine, although I'm not a HIFI snob, so I probably don't know anything...