Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Good compact system suggestions?

Murph, I am completely on board with digital music distribution. I rip all my music to a NAS for centralized distribution throughout my house. The physical CD player is a convenience item and not a necessity. The physical radio portion however is the necessity. I find streaming radio always lags behind live transmission by various amounts. My wife is an avid radio listener in the kitchen and will do the call in contests and the like, so 'real time' radio is important. However for everything else it will be used with a Sonos system which is why we need the auxiliary input.


Thanks all, the various suggestions helped me find more than just Bose to checkout! As well as the minisystems mentioned in this thread, I will be looking at Cambridge Soundworks, Polk and Tivoli (so far).

Use the Onkyo unit as the source and replace the speakers.

We had a Denon mini system in the kitchen for 4 years. Speakers were made by Mission.
The Denon had one of the best tuners i've come across. Never failed to pull in weak signals that my big Onkyo receiver could not.

I have a Denon mini system in my kitchen/dining area. I replaced the stock speakers with a pair of Polk Audio RT25i I picked up from a big box store for <$100 a few years ago. The CD player on the unit is broken, but I don't care since I use it purely as an FM receiver and amplifier. I have an semi-legal FM transmitter attached to an audio output on the receiver in my living room that send out whatever material is playing. The transmitter is strong enough to interfere with neighbors (~150ft last time I measured), but I have it set to dead frequency.

So why is it you are trying to jam your neighbors communication abilities again?
Conspiracy theory?
I smell conspiracy.

Guerrilla Radio!

Chesseroo (& kcarlile),
Yeah, I thought of the Audiobytes with my Sonos as source, but that doesn't solve the real time radio issue. I almost need to custom build exactly what I need!

I'll find the best compromise eventually...

Audiobytes with a new iPod nano or other PMP with built in FM tuner.

That solves the radio issue but won't stream from my NAS. Yeah, I know I'm hard to please!

If you like the concept of the Bose Wave Radio, but can't lower your standards enough to buy one, or want to 'custom build' your system, check out the systems by Tivoli Audio

Several years ago I bought their Model Two (mine's metallic taupe/cherry) and added their matching powered sub. I have it set up in our kitchen, playing either FM radio or often iPod via 3.5mm jack. They sell a matching CD Player too, but I'm so iPod-centric that it's not worth it to me.

The sound quality is pretty amazing, IMHO. It's truly perfect as a bedroom or kitchen system. And if you care about FM radio, it's the best FM tuner I've ever used. Amazing clarity & SQ from regular old, SD-radio. I've been very, very happy with the setup. It's worked exceptionally well for me for several years, and I've recommended them to several friends & family who have been equally pleased with them.

I've even hauled parts of it with us when we've gone on vacation, as it's nice to be assured of good quality music when on vacation in a hotel/condo/rental home, etc. And since the Model X units are modular, I can just grab the one mono main unit, or both stereo speakers, or everything + the sub.

And should anything ever happen to the setup I have now, and I could scrounge up the dough, I'd love one of their Music Systems. Not cheap by any stretch, but I have no doubt that the sound & build quality would be phenomenal.

And if you need a NAS-centric solution, they sell that too.

Good luck!