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I looked into this a while ago. Richer Sounds had a variety of reasonable looking speakers from recognisable brands but finding reviews was difficult.
There are a variety of Raspberry Pi options for streaming, although personally I'd be tempted to cheat and go with a chromecast audio.
Alternatively, stick a tablet to the wall and lead the audio up from that. Can use that for streaming music, radio, etc (this makes quite a nice solution, also has the bonus of being able to look up recipes, etc).
Either RCA or headphone jack would be useful too for plugging in other stuff.
aggi-
Right, thanks @aggi, @BRM, @mashton, @fizzy.bleach
So, the bit I need to sort first is the speakers and amp, and I'm gonna leave myself a few source options. Loving the suggestions thanks!
Such is the restricted space in the ceiling, I can only fit 4" speakers, so I am looking at a little pair of Yamaha NS-IC400.
Amp-wise, I can't wait for international shipping, and no time to DIY anything. OTP and shipped from UK on fleabay there are a few options, claimed power rating and price varies wildly, so any opinons on the following:
Topping TP22 Tripath £60 25WPC
SMSL SA-36A Tripath £35 20WPC
Pyle PFA300 Tripath £31 90WPC
Dayton audio DTA120 Tripath £120 60WPC
Olly398
Okay here's an interesting one - I have the chance to make a small 'second system' in my kitchen. The kitchen is tiny, so the only possibility is some ceiling mounted speakers - fortunately I am having a new suspended ceiling in a fortnight's time, with downlighters, at which point it should be relatively straightforward to ask a couple of extra holes to be put in for some ceiling mounted speakers. So Q1 is - any recommendations for those?
Secondly, the amplification needs to be small as I plan on hiding it in the ceiling void also. Q2 - does anyone have any experience or recommendations for Gainclone vs Tripath T Amps or anything else relevant? Low maintenance and low heat dissipation so no valves.
Q3 - the most interesting probably - what about the source? In the main system, I listen to vinyl, FM and CD. Here I'd probably like ipod and radio, which could be DAB (I've got a little portable unit with a headphone out). So the easiest thing would probably be a female headphone jack input, maybe mounted on a wall socket... but the future is probably some kind of wireless streaming, which all makes my head hurt, but if any of you clever people have ideas hit me, oh and I'd quite like to use a Raspberry Pi too, because reasons, thanxbai