I have Polk bookshelf speakers for a secondary system and they sound good. Couldn't you save some time, money and aggravation and paint the cabinets and redo the screens with some color that would blend better with the cabinet and the kitchen overall? Just a thought...

I'm not too particular about the sound in the kitchen, but I do have some input as I have the 161's in the kitchen, on top of a cabinet. Before remodelling the kitchen 5 years ago, we had some pretty cheap Realistic speakers (8" woofers, I think), hung up next to the ceiling at opposite ends of the very small kitchen. Sounded great. After the remodel, I got the Bose 161's because we were limited by the height of the speaker. As you know, the 161s are pretty "short". I'm not thrilled with the sound, and it's because of both the speakers and the placement. But we didn't want to see them, or spend a fortune. So just be prepared for the fact that they will not sound as good as your Polks. A trade-off which you will have to decide about. Steve

What about laying the Polk's on their back? It's not as deep as it is tall. As for small speakers take a look at Monitor audio. I think it's the, "Radius" line. The smallest ones are not much bigger than the Bose but should sound quite a bit better. Also the OMNISAT v2 SAT from Mirage is also very small. You're not going to get much bass out of such tiny speakers however. If you have space to lay the Polk's on their back then you save the money and it probably works out better.

mk

I would not lay any speaker on its back. First, very few speakers are designed to work accurately with their backs against a flat surface. Second, you will be listening "off-axis" -- the component speakers typically are designed to broadcast their sound less than 180 degrees around, so you'll be even below the edges of that boundary. Finally, speakers in kitchens -- even large, well-ventilated ones -- acquire disturbing amounts of grease; a speaker on its back will collect that grease on its speaker grille, which certainly won't do anything positive for sound.

If you're willing to buy used to get a good set of tiny speakers for non-critical listening and for not a lot of money, consider picking up a pair of classic Radio Shack Minimus-7s. They're about 7 inches high and four inches wide and deep. They are made of metal painted in black, white, or silver and they could easily be repainted if they still were visible after installation. Radio Shack no longer makes these, thought they still sell some which don't sound as good. The 7s are tough speakers and they're not very expensive through eBay and even cheaper if you're willing to "shop" craigslist and the like. I've used a pair on and off for the last couple of decades on secondary hi-fis. They're surprisingly good for the price and their size. Other very small speakers of that vintage came from a/d/s and Canton, but they'll be much harder to find.

Newer tiny speakers are available from Role Audio (6x4x5 and good-sounding but rather expensive and hard to find); NHT (a little bigger, but black, white, or brown, and decent-sounding); and Gallo (Nucleus and A'Diva lines). You'll have to go to a high-end audio retailer to find and listen to these, though.