Hi...I'm moving soon to a new home...we got to design the new home from scratch, and we did so with a home theater / sound system in mind. As of now, we haven't bought any equipment: only cabling for the sepeakers.

the layout is as follows:

http://www.postimage.org/aVsUNUr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVsUNUr)

1. 1 TV (Mounted On Wall)
2. 3 Independent Audio Systems: 1 Home Theater, 1 in terrace and 1 in kichen

Also, all the devices are going to be physically far away from the TV screen (say 10 meters). Cabling has been taken care of.

I have been seeing and liked the mac mini as the center of the system: from there I would play music, watch DVDs, watch stored videos and would probably like to do so using FrontRow or Plex or something similar. Besides that, I would like to connect a gaming console, a blueray drive and some sort of iPod connection (could be a plain 3.5 Aux. Jack).

Somebody recommended me to use a BOSE V20 Lifestyle HT system, but as this is going to be the most important purcharse I would like to get it right. I have read that BOSE is really expensive for what it does, and that better alternatives exist (Thinking Onkyo). Also, I like the idea to watch a movie in the Home theater and listen to something else (radio, ipod, cd, etc.) on the kitchen or terrace, and apparently Bose systems excel at this sort of thing. At least, I need to be able to shut down the part(s) I'm not using.

I'm a novice to all this, and I AM VERY CONFUSED. As i still haven't bought ANYTHING, what setup would you recommend? I wouldn't mind at all if the system isn't a BOSE...I just want the whole thing to work nicely and easily. I could really use your help here.

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH.

Juan

Looks like you want your home theater plus 2 additional zones of audio. Once you get this going you are probably going to want to grow that audio into extra zones... master bedroom, 2nd bedroom, bathroom, etc... you might want to consider that in the build.

I went fairly low budget with my system.

All of my equipment lives in the Salamander Synergy I put in the living room.

Living Room:
Onkyo 607 for 5.1 surround (I suffer from sofa against back wall syndrome)
Definitive Technology speakers
Samsung Plasma TV
Russound CAM6.6 Whole Home Audio Amp (This has 6 zones of amplification and 6 inputs... you can mix and match what you want to lisen to in the different rooms - zones)
Zone 1 - Master bedroom
Zone 2 - Office
Zone 3 - Living Room
Zone 4 - Entertainment room (powered by the Onkyo)
Zone 5 and 6 - Not in use yet

Source 1 - iTunes from a Windows Home Server in the office. The connecticity is via the network using an Apple Airport Express.
Source 2 - Tivo
Source 3 - The tuner from the Onkyo 607
Source 4 - iPod Dock
Source 5 - PS3 for CD music
Source 6 - Open

I use an iPhone and an iPod touch to wirelessly control and select music from iTunes. Each zone has a wall controller for the CAM6.6 and I am working on implementing a CAM6.6 control solution from the iPhone/iPod as well.

The Russound (and other similar devices) are great if you are gong with in ceiling speakers. If you just want to use bookcase style speakers I'd take a look at a Sonos system for the extra zones of audio.

There are a billion ways to skin the cat. The biggest deal for me was getting all of my MP3s into the WHA and having wireless remote control. (My wife likes to change the music while holding the baby and not getting up. The iPod Touch was key for us.)