Home Audio Frustrations..... argh!

panyan

panyan

panyan

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Im going to be renting a one bedroom flat, and would like a multi-room audio setup.
I was thinking 4-6 units overall to over the entire flat, all playing the same music.

It has to be cheap (sonos is a no-go!)
It has to be neat (no wires trailing about the place)

What would you suggest?
(budget £300-500)




Ive looked at:
- Sonos - nice and neat, good connectivity options, far too expensive
- Chromecast audio - cluttered as it needs to be hooked into other speaker systems (which I dont have), but it is cheaper (factor in that I'd need to buy speakers too)
- bluetooth speaker - nice and neat, fits within the budget - but I cant be bothered to carry it from room to room...
- google home's - nice and neat, but the "Max" is almost the same price as the sonos - no-go

UPDATE: landlord has OK'd ceiling speakers - so that is now a possibility
 
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@panyan we've got Google Home minis in 5 rooms, with a Google Home and a couple of Chromecast audio... For your limits renting a flat, the Mini would do you fine I'd say.

Tell all of the above to play the same thing and it just works. Sound quality is fine on the minis to be honest. The Audios sound canny as well, as I've hooked them to old hi-fi kit I had spare.
 
panyan said:
What are your thoughts on installing ceiling speakers, wired into a central amp + bluetooth receiver?
Click to expand...

Your £300-£500 budget would be stretched to breaking point to do two zones, let alone 4 to 6. Besides, cutting holes in the Landlords ceilings won't exactly go down well, plus you'll have to abide by all the safety rules for firehoods (£100-£120/pr) and LSZH fire-rated speaker cable. It's a non-starter. You have the wrong property and insufficient budget to do it justice for the amount of work required.
 
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The “smart system with digital assistant” is by the by. You don’t have to use any of the smart functions in order to achieve what you’re after with minimum effort on the budget you have.

Surely the landlord won’t be happy with you drilling holes and routing cables for ceiling speakers? In any case, most amps will only allow two zones for sound, and I’m not sure if both zones can be utilised at the same time.
 
Ceiling speakers in a rented flat? Can't see the landlord being happy with someone drilling holes in the ceiling...
 
why don't you go for 3/4 sets of sonos (Play) ones? (circa £130 each)

Use two in stereo in one room and have a third for another, assuming smaller bedroom or kitchen. Easy to move them as they're just a plug socket also. suits rental houses.
 
Sorry for moving the goalposts on you guys - but I really do appreciate your input!

The update is that my buddy is the landlord and he is happy for me to install ceiling speakers.

And if I am going to do that, I am happy to spend some proper money to get a decent long-term solution (rather than a Alexa/Google system which will needs to be replaced every 3-5 years)

But I don't have internet/wifi in the flat, which is another barrier to getting a “smart system with digital assistant” - I would rather just Bluetooth my phone to the audio system and play my tracks myself

Just to clarify - I only want one/two zones (its a one bedroom flat)

What sort of budget would you expect for installing ceiling speakers, wired into a central amp?

lucid said:
Your £300-£500 budget would be stretched to breaking point to do two zones, let alone 4 to 6. Besides, cutting holes in the Landlords ceilings won't exactly go down well, plus you'll have to abide by all the safety rules for firehoods (£100-£120/pr) and LSZH fire-rated speaker cable. It's a non-starter. You have the wrong property and insufficient budget to do it justice for the amount of work required.
Click to expand...

Bluecube said:
The “smart system with digital assistant” is by the by. You don’t have to use any of the smart functions in order to achieve what you’re after with minimum effort on the budget you have.

Surely the landlord won’t be happy with you drilling holes and routing cables for ceiling speakers? In any case, most amps will only allow two zones for sound, and I’m not sure if both zones can be utilised at the same time.
Click to expand...

MagicBoy said:
Ceiling speakers in a rented flat? Can't see the landlord being happy with someone drilling holes in the ceiling...
Click to expand...

The Craig said:
why don't you go for 3/4 sets of sonos (Play) ones? (circa £130 each)

Use two in stereo in one room and have a third for another, assuming smaller bedroom or kitchen. Easy to move them as they're just a plug socket also. suits rental houses.
Click to expand...
 
Decent in-ceiling speakers are going to be £200-£300 per pair. Add the cost of fire hoods (roughly £70-£100/pair) and you're already at £550 to £800 before you've bought an amp and thought about sources. The cheap in-ceilings you might have seen on Ebay really do sound awful.

You might be wise to reconsider the Sonos option. Play 1 speakers are bigger than they appear in the online ads. Although they don't support Bluetooth, if you add a wireless router to establish a Wi-Fi network, then you can run the Sonos app from your phone and have the music from it playing to either or both speakers via Wi-Fi.

Sonos started life as a wired/wireless home music system with a NAS drive as a source, so you don't have to use streaming services or have a broadband connection.
 
I can recommend yamahas range of ceiling speakers, for the money I’m impressed (I’m using NSIC600WH for Atmos, around £150 a pair)
 
I would echo the above thoughts that going for some Sonos Play 1s would make sense if you only want 1 or 2 zones. They’re around £138 from Amazon just now so could get a pair of Play 1s and set them up in stereo and a single Play 1 or or if you can stretch the budget another £50 then 2 sets of Play 1s in stereo.
 
Regardless of landlord, I wouldn't be installing speakers in a rented place. Stick with something that you can easily take with you to the next place.
 
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