AVR broken - replace or change audio set up?

[thestorieswetell]

Sooooo - my son's 18th party at home went really well except the Denon M39 AVR + CD broke. I'm having it looked after but it looks like it'll cost £100 to fix, if it can be fixed. It has made me rethink how we listen to music at home and whether I can ditch the AVR/speakers instead of fixing or replacing.

I've started to look at Chromecast, powered speakers, wireless set ups, etc, and what I can change to get us going now and add to later in other rooms. It I s fairly complex and I can't help thinking about how much electronic kit we already have - can we use some of that? Also, 18th birthday + Christmas = not much £ so better to stagger it.

This is us: we are 4 adults who are umbilically attached to our mobile devices for everything and all use Spotify Premium, but we all listen to real CDs together in the dining room through AVR & bookshelf speakers, and we watch the TV occasionally together (though the internal speakers are terrible) in the living room.

This is what we want: to get rid of as many wires as possible; to play CDs and Spotify Premium through some really good speakers in our dining room; next year to get some speakers for the living room so I can play the same music in there, or play different music in there, and connect the TV up to the speakers.

This is what we have: a broken AVR which played CDs and had USB for smartphones, a set of old-fashioned speakers that can't currently be used, several laptops, a good laptop with a broken screen and an external CD/DVD drive, iPads, smartphones, a smart TV (no separate speakers), DVD, Apple TV, XBox, 18MB wifi, plug in Devolo (for extra wired connection to router).

My ideas so far:
1. Get unit fixed ( may need new speakers too) or buy new - could be either like-for-like, or a micro system. Cost about £100 .

2. Buy powered/active speakers - cost £100 - and connect to wifi through Chromecast. Set it up so we can stream Spotify to it. In the short term, use the laptop with the external CD to play CDs through the new wifi speakers. If this is even possible! In 2017, get rid of laptop and buy CD player for dining room, then buy speakers for living room.

I need advice, suggestions and discussion.

Thanks

 

[americanaudiophile]

I would suggest using Sonos.
They have powered speakers that can be used as singles or pairs. A sub that can be used with them. They have a ConnectAmp that can drive 2 or 4 passive speakers. They have a Connect that can add Sonos to an existing stereo or home theater. Can even do surround sound with a Sonos Playbar and Play speakers as rears.
Spotify is especially well integrated with Sonos.
Not cheap but it works great and is easy to set up. Works with all the other streaming services too. Phones, tablets and computers are remotes for it and you can have up to 32 separate zones each of which can play different or the same music. You can start with one and add more.
Your lossless ripped CDs would be available in any room. Store them on any computer or NAS drive on the network.
Lots of options here without complex set up.