[Jalopy6]

We bought a new house and had the living room pre-wired with 4 speaker drops in our living room ceiling. The wife wants to play holiday and other music for when guests are over.


The speakers will only be used for music. We plan to get a Sound Bar for the other Home Theater Audio since the wife is adamant against having speakers around the living room, and I'd rather not have ceiling speakers be part of the surround sound.


Looking at getting 4x Monoprice 6 1/2 inch Kevlar 2-way in-ceiling speakers 60W nominal, 120W max in the ceiling and am wondering what would be a good inexpensive receiver to use with these speakers to play music. My wife may want to play music from her computer (non-Apple) through the speakers as well. Can provide more info as required.


Thanks in advance!

 

[TonyApuzzo]

I bought an Onkyo TX-8050 for similar purpose and it is doing great. You can get a lot more info on it by doing a search here or Google for "Onkyo TX-8050 review." Most of the quirks have been worked out with the newer firmwares, so don't be too put off by older negative reviews. I got mine for under 200 bucks as a refurb from ShopOnkyo.com. The network streaming works well from my android tablet, PC or over the internet, but you need to buy an extra adapter if you want wifi (mine is hard-wired to ethernet.)


Another option would be a low-end network capable AVR like an Onkyo TX-NR414. If you don't like Onkyo, look for a Yamaha or Denon with DNLA certification, although I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything more capable for the money. Of course if you want to spend more, you can do much better than the TX-8050.


The network remote control is great for living rooms since you can hide the receiver somewhere out-of-sight and still be able to control it.