The perfect AirPlay setup?

[l0renz]

Hi

Since my soundbar gave up on me I am looking for a new sound system that will be placed permanently in my student room (so it doesn't have to be portable).
It will be mainly used to play music (Hiphop, Rap, R&B, I like some Mozart as well) and watching movies (MacBook connected to an external monitor)
Because the market has so much to offer I don't really know what to buy.
Each of the devices I found in my 'pursuit' had pro's and cons.

The biggest advantage would be gear with AirPlay since I only work with OS X and iOS devices, but all the AirPlay devices are kept portable and rather small which takes away the stereo sound and most of them are equipped with batteries, what I don't like because the system will have line current the whole time, which is not really a healthy condition for batteries.

A second thing I need to keep an eye on is the price, I think a system of max 400 euros should do the job in my small room. I am looking for a wireless setup, preferably WiFi over Bluetooth.

So my eye fell on the SONOS Play:1, if I get two of those I'd have pretty nice stereo sound, only disadvantage is that I can't use them as desktop speakers, which gives trouble when I want to watch a movie or mix music in the djay app. And they will be standing on my desktop afterall.
Or is this possible?

Anyways, I'm turning to you guys hoping there's someone out there with more knowledge and experience, even perhaps knows an AirPlay 'surround' system. I just don't want to lose the stereo sound, so separated speakers look more appealing to me.
I thank you for helping me out, I've been looking on the internet for hours now, the more I look the more I get confused, I'm not that much of an audiophile.

God bless

 

[warvanov]

I'm rather traditional in that I prefer a standalone stereo (or surround sound) receiver and traditional bookshelf or floorstanding speakers. For your budget you can probably find a reasonably priced receiver that includes AirPlay functionality and a decent pair of bookshelf speakers.

The downside to this is that you may not immediately get the best audio quality that you can afford for your budget, but the upside is that you'll have a decent home theater receiver for when you move out of student housing and you can afford to expand with bigger and better speakers.

 

[l0renz]

Thanks for the input, I'll definitely think about it! My budget at the moment won't suffice so I guess I'll have to save a little longer

 

[Altemose]

Could you get whatever speakers you want with a standard 3.5 MM input, and hook it to the back of an AirPort Express that would "join" the network as a client?

 

[l0renz]

Could you get whatever speakers you want with a standard 3.5 MM input, and hook it to the back of an AirPort Express that would "join" the network as a client?

Yes I could! But it feels like I'm spending too much money on the AirPort Express and not on the sound quality of my speakers... What about a mini hifi system like the SONY CMT-SBT300W?
I don't know if mini hifi system is the right to use here but english is not my native language, sorry.
It's pretty attracting mostly because of the pricing, but I'd rather wait and save a little more if you find this a bad idea.

Thanks in advance!