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I'll document what appliances I'm using, the power source they use and how they work as I go.
Radio/Stereo:
I have 2 stereo systems, one goes with a surround sound system with my home theater, the other is stand alone for radio, CD's, PC sound, etc. Both of these run on 120 volt ac only. For the home theater system I'll have to power an inverter anyway, so I'll still use that sound system as is. I usually don't use the home theater for more than a movie or two a week, so the power requirements aren't that great.
I don't want to run my inverter just to listen to the radio, so I pulled out my old boom box I use in my shop. It's probably 20 years old, but still sounds good. Unfortunately it's either battery or 120 volt ac powered. But, the battery pack uses 8) D cells, which is 12 volts. So I soldered a new set of wires directly to the battery terminals, the wire is the plug end of an old extension cord, so I already had a plug on the end. Now I can plug the radio into any of my 12 volt outlets throughout the house.
The radio draws only .15 amps, or about 2 watts at normal volume levels. This is much less than running an inverter as the inverter alone uses about 8 Watts.
Here's the old boom box that's been converted to use external 12 volt power.
It was as simple as soldering 2 wires. I did cut a hole in the battery compartment door to allow the cord to exit. I also added a couple of wire ties inside the compartment to prevent stress on the solder connections.