im searching for a budget 2 channel setup


as all people living in SF homes there is always a problem for speaker placement weird areas in victorians and arts and craft homes need app;y here. i have only one place in the kitchen area to setup an immaculate budget system not costing more than 4000 to do this. the problem is the area its going to situated in the speakers have to be placed next to a wall and beside an old victorian couch , the amps and cd player below the couch as not to be seen but heard, remote is a must. music played will be from my wifes iphone and ipod, if you have any great ideas at all and know these kind of constraints it will be much appreciated i have been an audiophile for nearly 25 years and this is the biggest challenge i have ever faced. any suggestions ?
sionlim

Showing 2 responses by manoterror

The Apple Airport Express runs on wifi, so you should be able to connect to it, even under a couch. You can then stream from your Mac, iTouch, iPad or iPhone through it, to the amplifier. I have all my music in Apple Lossless, and it sounds every bit as good as CD.
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

The Peachtree Nova would make a good amp, with a built-in quality DAC, and tube pre-amp stage to warm up the digital content. Make sure there is plenty of ventilation with any amp under a couch. That kind of scares me.

As for speakers, I would look at the Anthony Gallo Reference Stradas. Great write-up in 6moons, and they are designed to work well on, or very near a wall. Paradigm Signature S1 v3, or Mirage OMD-5s would also be a good bet. I would mate with a sub of course. There are some that fit under a couch. Soundmatters makes one, Sunfire does and I’m sure others do as well.

Good luck!
Mot
One more thought. If you have a coffee table by the couch, you could run a small iPod dock amplifier. In my office, I use a ROTH MC4 with Mirage OMD-5s and a Mirage Prestige S8 sub. It's small, nice looking, and with the tube pre/solid amp...it sounds amazing.

Or maybe some Active speakers like ADM 9T. I'm just not excited about an amp under a couch...that spells trouble. :-)
Mot