hOME cINEMA

missile

Thanks for taking the time to comment again. I have a house in Spain near Alicante where I have a rather old Sony 5:1 surround sound system. At the time it was great. First DVD I watched was Deep Blue Sea. I jumped when the shark banged into the glass. When it broke I really thought I would get wet.

I have recently bought a flat in UK which is where I want the new system.

Your tip about using taking a DVD sounds like a good idea. I am off to Holburn HiFi today. They offer a try at home deal which "sounds" good to me.

I do have a HD TV and Sky+, I did think about possible future upgrade of DVD recorder to Blue Ray, hence I looked at the Panasonic Blue Ray sound system.

Little_John

I would avoide the all in one systems myself, if the dvd player packs in you need to buy a new one if the dvd playre is integrated in to your amp/receiver it can just get a lot more expensive. if my dvd player dies I also have alot more choice of the player I buy. same with the amp if it goes I just buy a new amp.

And if deep blue sea is somthing you have a bench mark with on your old sony kit then take it with you as somthing to compare it to.

missile

I went to another two shops today.

Listened and was blown away by Harnan AVR 245 amp and b&w mt-20 5:1 speakers. I had a listen to the Bose Lifestyle system and it seems like magic getting rich sounds front tiny speakers. My wife was really impressed with the facility to add speakers in a.n.other rooms to play music stored on the Bose unit at the same time as watching TV in room 1.

Confused, logic tells me a powerful amp and big speakers for big noise. It seems the more I learn the less I know.

Little_John

You need to remember bose are very good and confuse the hell out of everyone when they hear the sound that comes from them. I just wanted somthing a little more flexable and I can have a 2nd set of speakers in another room if I wire them up to the amp its nothing new.

It isnt all about big speakers it is about the technology and how well the speakers, sub and amp work together Bose spend a lot of time tweaking their systems to make them work in perfect harmony and they are good at it. I wouldnt fly without my bose QC2 headphones.

It is all about you and what your ears like so "use the force" and use your ears to make the decision.

scheming_gypsy

I'm with the seperates crew.

I've got a 42 inch plasma and Sky+, i was using Yamaha 5.1 surround sound speakers out of the back of a 5.1 DVD player but decided i wanted to get the best sound out of it.
After popping to Richer Sounds i bought a Yamaha amp, the rx-v357 that cost around £160.


I plugged the Yamaha speakers into it and was happy enough until my boss decided he liked the sound from my amp and wanted to match it. He bought some proper speakers, Missions. After seeing them i decided i wanted to get in on the action and now this is my setup.



The rear speakers are wall mounted and about 15inches long and 10 inches high. As they're wall mounted i put them as close to the ceiling as i could and ran trunking around the top of the wall to hide the cables. I've kept my Yahama sub as i live in a middle house so not worth spending £100+ on a Mission sub to get the full effect.

I'm watching tv and the volume is at a decent volume, the sub shows at -30 decibels! i cranked it up to +25 once and a dog down the road started barking when a gun shot went off.

The amp has plenty of inputs for different sources and 2 optical which i use for DVD and Sky+ so i get 5.1 on Sky movies when it's available. It also has an additional A & B output which i plug garden speakers into when / if i have BBQ.

Best money i've spent that i couldn't afford.

missile

Many thanks guys, appreciate the photos.

One of the better dealers recommends Yamaha DSP-AX861 (and B&W speakers) in preference to Denon 1507 and qaccoustic 1010. Suggesting improved sound quality from a more powerful amp and better speakers. I doubt I would notice the improvement, but other factors seem to be Yamaha has upscaling for HD video and simpler control of all devices via one remote. I guess you get what you pay for?

It is a big investment and there seems to be no way to tell if cheap system will be adequate, more expensive seperates will be noticeably better than seperates. I don't need 100watt output and have ruled out the £30,000 option!

scheming_gypsy

personally i think the expensive sound difference is only going to be noticeable at high volume. In a normal house you're not going to be able to crank it up full volume so you might not notice you've got your monies worth.

Little_John

It isnt all about volume. yes a more expensive amp will go louder, bigger speakers will go louder but matching them up is the key a decent amp and carp speakers will sound pants if you get anywhere near their top end same with a poor amp and decent speakers.

Other things you get from spending more is larger frequency range and the speakers sound better accross the range no clipping or anything. at low volumes you can get the same rumble with a decent sub that you would need to crank a less capable system.

Ohh and im not sure about the mirror behind your system.

scheming_gypsy

Little_John wrote: »

It isnt all about volume. yes a more expensive amp will go louder, bigger speakers will go louder but matching them up is the key a decent amp and carp speakers will sound pants if you get anywhere near their top end same with a poor amp and decent speakers.

That's what i mean about the volume. If you're watching tv normally you probably won't notice the difference on a 30k setup and a £300 setup. If you compare a £300 and 30k system at higher volumes the sound will be be crisper on the more expensive system[/quote]

Ohh and im not sure about the mirror behind your system.

the mirrors are to hide the cables. Speakers, sub, amp, DVD, DVD recorder, Sky+ and PS2.. That's 6 power cables, an extension bar, scart, S-Video, optical cable, speaker wire etc etc. It took ages to think of way to disguise them and mirrors seemed like the cheapest option.

irnbru_2

missile wrote: »

other factors seem to be Yamaha has upscaling for HD video and simpler control of all devices via one remote. I guess you get what you pay for?

Yes.

However, if you're using non-HD sources you may want to check the quality of the upscale.

One of the advantages of upscaling for me was that I only needed one set of cables going from the amp to the screen.

Will you have more than 2 HD sources?