Anytime I wanted to listen to music other that with headphones, I've had to turn on the Playstation3 and the TV.  I'm not the biggest fan of this method.  The PS3 kicks out a lot of heat (nice in winter but evil in summer) and the TV takes up a lot of energy.

I've got an iPhone and an old nano that I am going to hook up to some speakers and thus, have I entered the murky waters of confusion.

The easiest fix is just to buy a set of cheap portable speakers, plug the stuff in and away I go!  Except the sound quality of those speakers is really annoying.  I usually prefer silence to tinny-ness.

Then I went to look at better speakers.  I guess I can get a better quality of speakers that I would plug into my mac.  Currently, I am a fan of the  Audio technica AT-SPS7 but I want to go have another listen to them just to be sure.

If I understand correctly, I just need to make sure that the speakers I get need a line in function?

But then, hold the phone!  I look at the Apple Store and i see the Airmac Express with Airtunes and find that I can play music from my computer's library and use an app to make my iPhone the remote! I can have music in different rooms without wires going through the walls! How very interesting!  Go wireless!

And this can just plug into my speakers or my stereo.  Now I don't have a stereo (remember the PS3?) but this makes me want one.  But is this just great advertising or luring me in?

Aren't I just good to go with a set of speakers?  Do I even need the Airmac Express if I can be satisfied just hooking up my ipod with the Belkin mini stereo cables?

This posting has been my main guide in figuring this stuff out

http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=189739

Adding to the temptation is that I haven't bought a dock for my iphone yet.  I always plug it in and lay it on a flat surface.  Truth be told, I'm not a real fan of the docks.  I am kind of clumsy and was constantly knocking over the nano in it's dock. That led me to those mini stereos with the docks and the clock radio.  But reading lots of reviews doesn't encourage me that I will have an easy time with the connection clumsiness I encounter and I read that a lot of people experience problems with the interface with systems like Kenwood and airplane mode messages.

So this is my understanding:

I can get one of the mini stereos made to hook up to an iphone

I can hook up my iphone to PC speakers

i can hook up the iphone to a stereo using mini stereo cables

I can use Airmac express which would hook into a stereo or maybe PC speakers (but not regular speakers?) and use iphone as a remote

Here is my question:

Does it have to be a stereo or PC speakers?  What about regular speakers.

I will be going to a store tomorrow to ask all the questions and sort the stuff out.  I hope the person working there has a lot of patience for Japanese as second language speakers.  Ha.  This could be painful but I think I have researched as much as I can today.