Home music - PC to sound system solution

[londonbairn]

In essence an amp will take an input signal (e.g. music from Sonos, Squeezebox etc) and output it to speakers.

Bookshelf speakers require an amp to drive them, which is why you could use a ZP120 as it has a built in amp, whereas the ZP90 does not. You either have to use "active" speakers with an amp built in (my understanding is these are not necessary the best in quality), or pass to an amp and then onto a set of speakers.

Depends on your budget too...such things can get out of hand cost wise. What do you want to spend?

 

[lucid]

(my understanding is these are not necessary the best in quality)

That's a rather sweeping statement. There are many qualities of active speaker. Granted, some are poor, but to condemn all on that basis means making that same arguement for all things.

There are some very high-end brands such as PMC and Genelec that would make you question the need for seperate amplifiers ever again. Equally there's a whole load of cheap and not so cheap active speakers that are over-hyped and that sound dreadful. In between are some great value products that perform extremely well.

 

[londonbairn]

I am sure there are, but if you are wanting to spend big, I would prefer seperates, and I would question the quality of a set of speakers you are willing to flog for £50 with an inbuilt amp (touting your business is against the rules here )

Op, if you are ever around Ealing, happy to show you what I have done with Sonos if you want ideas.