When you mention everything being too expensive / frivolous / not needed, and then that you expect DC2 in April, I wondered how many rooms you are considering and what you already have in those rooms.
If you plan for doing several rooms, so he can have his choice of music while cooking a meal, or relaxing in the lounge, and you may be in your bedroom, listening to something else, then it starts getting quite expensive (2-3 rooms can easily start making a big hole in 1500 pounds depending on what options you go for).
Do you already have at least 1 iPod Touch for the home, and perhaps an iPhone (each) ? If not, then the Sonos remote control is nearly 300 pounds.
Don't get me wrong - the kit works very well, and I have played with it for hours overnight in a friend's Hi-Fi shop, but it does depend on several factors.
The range of units (which might have had additions since I last looked) include:
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All in one "ghetto blaster" style unit which can be moved room to room and has the speakers built in.
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Unit with built in Amp, for playing through 2 or 4 speakers (eg for kitchen/breakfast area, or lounge or bathroom - special steam resistant speakers available)
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Unit without its own Amp, to feed into an existing Amp and speaker setup.
The Sonos system is very popular, must connect at some point to your router and then forms its own wieless network, but once set up, can play music off existing PCs, online radio, and via a subscription, from Napster or Spotify. Also with Spotify, you could store up to 3,333 tracks per mobile device (you have to have Spotify Premium at a tenner a month for that, and you might need the same account for using Sonos, but it makes it double the cost of Napster. So if you are likely to want a large number of tracks, Spotify might work out better valur.
Yes, would love to fit this in every room myself, when funds permit.
Final point, there is a 'bridge' device used to connect the home internet router to the first of your Sonos devices, if it isn't convenient to put it in same room, but I understand you can use HomePlug units (perhaps 50 to 70 pounds for a pair) to allow the router to be connected to any other part of the house, with data traffic going on the ring mains wiring (look for 'data over mains' on Ebay or search engines if HomePlug doesn't show results - also be aware that Netgear and a few other 'big names' are likely to be more expensive that some other firms, like Solwise (from near Hull)).