Installing speakers around the house??

My roommates and I want to put some speakers up around the house for our music instead of having to use just our computers; they aren't loud enough. What's the best way to go about this? We were thinking about putting small speakers, in a few corners with an input to plug into a laptop or an ipod.

Do we need a subwoofer or anything else? What kinda speakers should we look for and how do we go about doing this?

Thanks!!

Jamie

It all depends how far you want to go and what you want to spend. I have wired and installed multi room/ multi zone stereo through our whole summer house ( 8 Pairs of speakers, and 3 stereo singles for bathrooms. Is this your house that you can start drilling holes to install or does it all have to be reversable when you move out because your renting. Do you want to have volume controls in each area or just blanket the rooms with sound. Regardless to most of this you will need a preamp that can handle the wattage of all pair that you hook up. You could install a speaker selector so you could turn different zones on and off if you don't want music going to that room.

Kepp a watch on Craigslist for some powered studio monitors in the "musical instrument" section. I picked up a pair of Samson Resolv 65a powered monitors for $80 and they are great. I saw another pair for $100 later and was tempted but let it go.

get a nice portable system. then you can move it from room to room with you.

Just one room. Our dining room and living room are connected and thats where we spend most of the time when we have people over. All we really need is 1 speaker in maybe 3 or 4 corners with a quarter inch plug for an ipod or laptop. Nothing fancy, just want something a little more "surround" than a small iHome. What kind of speakers should I look for?

We're trying to do this the cheapest way possible but with a decent quality. I can get pictures of the house later if that helps.

If you want to go cheap, go get a surround system in a box. Stay with name brands.(and don't get the Samsung system).

If you want to go big, get a real surround system like a polk audio that comes in seperate components. If you don't want to run wire, they do have some wireless systems out there, but the sound quality may suffer.

Get some old tower speakers, hook up to any old school receiver, get headphone to RCA jack for ipod input and wire it out.

+1 to Dave. You can find a lot of older quality speakers and receivers on Craigslist cheap.

Hell, I have an old pair of Pioneer tower speakers with 15 inch subs in them I give you for free. you pay shipping of course.

This is the layout of our living room/ dining room. We are renting so I can't drill any holes into the wall that I can't cover up later =]

But we have shelves in 3 corners and can figure something out in the 3rd if needed.

I don't mind running wires, they can probably be easily covered up and out of the way. If the pictures help, what do you guys think?

Paul - That would be awesome! Any idea how much shipping would be to Montreat, NC 28757??

Ill find out. make sure you want them though. They are rather large.

I'm a senior in college and this is what I did. I had some old speakers laying around, and picked up a receiver on craigslist for 30 bucks. Do some research on the older receivers, and buy a quality middle of the road used one. There is no sense in buying something crazy expensive especially if it's older because it's not going to have the HD inputs and outputs your going to want later when you get to upgrade all your electronics. Don't buy surround sound speakers. They are for "surround sound." when you have surround sound the rear speakers don't push as much sound through them, and if you hook it up in stereo mode they are likely to blow. My roommate bought 1,100$ speakers and 2 blew at our first big party. Big waste. Further, your not going to be setting up a professional system, so don't blow all your money on wire. Get something quality, and it will run you about 20$ for a couple hundred feet. If you need to move out then run the wire either under carpet or along the floor boards. If you staple it right and run it tight enough it's wont be noticeable to anyone but yourself. GET A SUB. it's going to sound just as bad as your ihome if you don't have any bass coming out.
Another option is to get multiple shelf units and use splitters to hook them all into one stereo plug to put into your ipod. I actually have 3 systems hooked up as, one as described above, a shelf system, and then another shelf system hooked up through this. Makes it louder and if the shelf units are quality then it can't hurt.

also find an amp that has A&B inputs so you can use them a zones.

So speakers, receiver and sub is what I need to look for on craigslist then? Oh and wire?

yup and yup. 14 gauge wire preferred but you could get away with less. Try and find an electrical supplier where you can buy a box of speaker wire. Wholesale cost is usually around $ 100.00 for 1000' or you can go pay $ 100.00 for 100' retail.