"Ian Mayo" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
Just getting to the end of a loft conversion, one room of which will be
the
home office/den.

I've had speaker cable laid from the desk to either side of the room, but
now have to think through how to use it......

From my desk, I'd like to be able to do the following:
- listen to Radio 4
- play CD's (from the computer or from some new appliance)
- play games from the computer in surround sound
- play DVD's on the computer
- view TV on the computer, listen through speakers
- have a single "master" volume control.

I've got a PC with an optical output, a TV-card, and DVD-player drive.
I'm
looking to purchase some speakers (to replace the 2.1 speakers I've got),
and somekind of appliance to connect them all togeher. Ooh, I've also
bought some 2-way ceiling mounted speakers from CPC:
http://tinyurl.com/s8na
They'
" A 2-way speaker for mounting into walls or ceilings. The
speaker consists of a 4" woofer and a 1 3/4"
polycarbonate tweeter. Quick and easy to fit. "

I currently intend embedding the speakers into the eaves of the loft
either
side of the corner where the desk is, in typical "surround sound"
locations.

I'm no audio-phile, and probably wouldn't recognise a great sound if I
heard
it - but would like to find the best "way-ahead". From some brief
investigation I'm thinking of getting a dvd-player with integral radio
tuner, then sending the Rear outputs to my wall-mounted speakers, and
using
my 2.1 output to cover front and bass channels, and some other speaker for
the centre. Yes, this sounds really cobbled together. My first immediate
concern is that the rear speakers for surround sound are normally tiny,
and
my 2-way speakers may not receive enough juice to make it worthwhile. If
the dvd-player outputs it's FM radio mostly through the centre and front
speakers, I presume it wont sound as good as if the sound was being sent
to
my larger rear speakers.

Anyway, enough rambling, I look forward to any input any body has,
Cheers,
Ian



Yup, unless I've missed something here, I would suggest you consider your
computer to be a 'multiple source' and output the sound digitally to a 5.1
HT amplifier. We use a Sony STR-DE485E which is as cheap as chips and, I
would think, well 'pokey' enough for your requirements.

Then you can more or less do what you want with speakers - allocating and
setting different sound levels as required and all controlled from the one
'master volume' control - remotely, if you wish. You would also be able to
add a (limited) number of other sources direct to the amplifier and
would/might have interesting recording possibilities......

Does that work?