iam looking for a hard drive based audio system that has a small controller built in to the wall, so not to take up too much space. and can connect to my existing speakers that are in my ceiling?

ive been looking all over the internet, but dont what a system like this is called. is there anything out there thats even close to what iam looking for? thanx for the help

 

This is kind of costly and I'm not sure if its what you want but....
This...


Is an iPod dock for some of the new Harman Kardon Receivers.

This...


Is a HK AVR 340. It supports the above dock. This AVR has multi-room support. So assume you had some other theater room in your house. You could setup 5.1 in that room. Then you could run the multi-room speaker outputs to the room where you have speakers in the ceiling. After that, just put some kind of IR receiver in your wall so you have something to aim your remote at.

Now you can play/control your iPod in your other room without taking a lot of real estate up for stereo hardware in that room.

 

Try this link and check out what a friend of mine has installed. It allows you to use your pc as the music storage device, then wirelessly pipe the music to anywhere in the house. Not sure if either could be wall-installed or not, or exactly how the signal is output to the speakers and amplified, but that info is out there I'm sure.

http://www.carltonbale.com/projects/...er_comparison/

 

I've installed a couple of these systems. It works well. The only problem is I believe you cannot skip songs from your remote. I think you can start a section of music and then just let it play. Not a big deal if you have the ipod dock in the wall. The only issue is the receiver has a particular input for their specific dock (harmon kardon). The in the wall iPod dock uses rca connections, so I am not sure it would work in this particular instance. Another option is something like a Elan system. It is very costly, but is pretty cool. You can get a Via Panel either outboard or in-wall that is full customizable, and a touch screen. You can hook up any audio source, you can even hook up surveillance cameras. It would have to be professionally installed as Elan is not available to the public, only directly through a dealer/installer. It is very pricey though. I think the cost on one Via panel is something like $1400. You can get a hard drive unit though as an add on that allows you to store all your music and pull it up in any room. We've installed a few and I am supposed to go to Kentucky for a 4 day training in a couple months. I'll better understand all the features then if you want any more info.