I am about to purchase an A/V receiver and speakers to accompany a new TV in my living room (about 12 by 14). I also have speakers in my kitchen, dinning room and courtyard. I would like to be able to pipe music to those rooms from my living room where the wire connections are. I will likely watch mostly TV and DVDs in the living room (80%) and music (20%).
From my research, I have two options: 1) use a good multiroom (powered zone 2) a/v receiver, that can drive my TV and 5.1 speaker system in the living room and also pipe music to another set of speakers without the need for another amplifier (using a speaker selector, though); or 2) by a Home Theater in a Box system and a separate amp to pump music in the other rooms. The advantage of Option 1 is integration, less wires, but the cost of such a receiver is usually high (for example, the Denon 2805 is around $7-800) and then to separately get 5.1 speakers (about $299 or up) runs the cost up even more. Option 2 would be much cheaper, because the HTiaBox solution includes speakers, but then I have to get another amp and more wires to make sure all sources are connected to both the receiver and amplifier. I realize that the Home Theathre in a Box receivers may not be as good as the stand alone receiver, but I am not a huge audiophile, so good (not great) sound is okay with me. Any advice? Preferably, I would like to spend less than $800 on the system.