Micro Systems that aren't too long

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
23,116
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Hi Guys

We're currently getting our kitchen converted and in the process i've thought it'd be pretty cool to get some speakers fitted in the ceiling.

I've ordered some of these, however my problem has come with finding something to power them. My girlfriend has always stressed that she just wants something simple and all in one that she can put a cd in or put her ipod in and it’ll just play rather than messing around turning on pre and power amps etc like in in the front room.

I then started looking at a lot of the little micro systems out there from the likes of Denon and Onkyo etc and they look pretty good. However they’re all around 30-35cm deep. Since the plan was to put anything we bought on a shelf around head height. This made me think that a shelf stickout out around 40cm would look a bit stupid as it’d be over an island type thing. Then I thought about a little mini hifi made up of Project boxes however that’s using separates and would mean we end up with multiple individual plugs and the cost kept adding up to silly levels.

I then started thinking about getting an old amp and cd player in the utility room (so out of sight) and then getting a wireless ipod dock in the kitchen so that was handy, the amp wouldn’t use much power when it was turned on, and if she wanted to play a cd it wouldn’t be too much hassle.

Problem is she didn’t seem overly keen on the idea, we then went to Currys where I thought if I showed her the big micro systems then she might agree, however she saw a load of cheap micro systems that were pretty small (I still think they’d look a bit silly on a shelf though) and its lead my to thing that something made by Gear4 or whatever else probably wouldn’t be able to power the Kef ceiling speakers very well.

Does anyone know of anything that could fit what I need or advise if those cheap little units would be ok?
 
Can you convince her to ditch the CD's? That requirment makes small and discrete a bit of a pain, if you can you could go with a solid state integrated amp based on a TA2024 chipset (tiny things hide them in a cupboard) and a iPod dock. Failing that a proper wirelss music system like sonos would be ideal, she could run it all from her ipod and it is totally idiot proof but maybe a little over budget!
 
Well i've already currently got a little t amp in the bedroom with an SB receiver and we used to have a SB radio in the kitchen but she found she never really bothered using it and missed being able to use her phone.

I have tried to suggest other things as all my cd's are on the server and she can find them all she just doesnt seem to want to and wants a little unit.

I've already got my way with the hifi in the bedroom and kitchen so i think i'll have to concede on this one even if it might not be "better"

At this rate i don't even think i'm going to bother my getting the ceiling speakers as it would just seem a bit pointless.



Here is a pic of what the kitchen will kind of be like. The idea was to have the shelf on the wall where the island thing meets it but i think it'll look stupid stuck out there anyway. I might try and suggest locating it on a shelf over to the left at the side of the oven as i could get away with a longer shelf there without it looking stupid.

The only thing i need to be careful is that if i keep suggesting alternatives she's likely to turn around and tell me to just do what i want as it'll sound like i just want to get my own way
 
I had thought of that but that would mea that the back of the unit was facing the rest of te back room and I don't think it'll look very tidy and won't last.
 
Well just let her go to argos and pick up a standard slimline micro system by jvc etc. then wire it to your ceiling speakers.

It is the kitchen after all, if you've got loads of nice kit elsewhere i don't know why you'd have it on for anything other than whacking something on to fill the silence.
 
Could always go for something like this mounted on the bottom of a cupboard, sure you could find one with a speaker out to run the ceiling speakers and an audio in for the Ipod dock.

AEG KRC-4323 Kitchen Clock Radio CD Player w. Remote or Sony ICF-CDK70
 
I tried a few things in my kitchen, in the end I went with a WiFi music player, the one I got has a built in speaker, is small and actually fills the room with a good sound.. It's fed from a uPnP server running on my NAS.. that was £40..

What I would like is a squeezbox touch, mounted on the wall, and a small £20 cheapish amp hidden out the way driving some hidden speakers.. but you are looking at £200 for the unit + amp..

You can get a "mini amplifier" off the bay for £20 that runs of mains or 12V, just has phono's in and some speaker terminals, you can hide that away quite nicely.. then decide what to connect,

e.g. Just a simple ipod dock that has headphone out/lineout (need to check the ipod volume does control the volume coming out the line out).. or if you had something to serve the music over the network, there are a number of wifi streamers on the market.
 
Last edited:
I have been angling for another streamer but she wants the cd aspect (probably due to about 500cd's being lined up in the back room - i probably shouldnt discourage her!)

After agreeing that anything on that wall would look silly due to the extractor we've decided to re-route the speaker cable to shelves in an alcove on the other side of the room (roughly where you'd be stood to see the above view) this means that depth isn't much of an issue so i'm looking at most Micro Systems now.

I liked the look of the Onkyo CR545 which seems to tick all the boxes but i'd like at least 1 aux input. 2 would be ideal as i'm tempted to get a Roth Wireless Ipod dock to put in the kitchen for ease of use (laziness mainly!) and then another input for me to connect a dac linked to my server
 
What about a Sonos box?

Depends what type of iPod she has. If it's a classic, then ignore my suggestion :cool:
 
She still wouldnt have the cd or radio though with a Sonos :(

Does the Sonos not support the classic then? Thats a bummer as thats what i've got
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom