I have a bad habit of asking open-ended questions like that. But that'll work, I'm fine with building it slowly. I may not even go for surround sound - with concrete construction and tiled floors down here it's hard to hide the wiring. A nice 2.1 setup works for me.
Thank you 🙂
There are multiple solutions to your situation but you mentioned of the room being of concrete and tile is an acoustic nightmare.
Sound bars come in two flavours - powered and those that require power from another source. The latter gets you into the better sounding sound bars and requires a decent source of power (receiver/AVR is the usual method).
If you want to build slowly, consider a 3.0 system to start. A left channel, a right channel and a center channel. This will serve for both music and your tv watching experience. Later you can add if you like rear channels and perhaps a sub-woofer.
An alternative is to invest heavy into a nice receiver and get interim set of lower end surround speakers such as the Energy Take 5 type of set up. These are nice small speakers. If you want to stay small and move up the line, then consider speakers by Orb.
As for wiring, there are loads of ways to hide wires. One way is a type of sleeve that looks somewhat like molding for a wall that is hallow. Many of these can be painted to match your walls and either are nailed/screwed to the surfaces or use adhesive. You simply run the wiring along the wall near the floor and corners etc.
In your situation, if you consider a 3.0 system. Get a decent receiver that you feel will last you at least 3 years, put it in an open rack with a center speaker and then a speaker to the right and left of your TV and call it a day. You will be amazed how much better having a center channel will make your movie/tv watching experience. As for what speakers, you will have to decide what is your best bang for the buck and what sounds good to your ears. Incidentally, many receivers now offer "airplay," which lets you play music from your iPod, iPhone, Mac, iPad via the receiver to your speakers. The only caveat is you want to have a receiver you can hook to your network.
If you feel a sound bar might be less hassle and meet your needs and have the funds (assuming you do get a receiver), consider the newer Goldenear offering which has gotten rave reviews and as some say, sets a new standard. Btw, a receiver is a good way to go to hook everything in then just one hdmi cable to your TV. If you have an older TV, you may need to use an optical cable to connect as well to the receiver.
