Whole Package for £1500ish, what would you do?

[Where2Guv]

I'm looking to replace my TV and upgrade my audio a bit while I'm at it...

I currently have a 36" Sony Bravia which is way too small! The plan is to move that into the bedroom... I'm happy to bung a £20 Asda DVD player in combo with that... It will be hidden away in the wardrobe when not in use.

For tunes in the house, I currently just use an apple ipod dock which is pretty pants to be honest. I keep all of my music on the ipod and also on my macbook - which is generally sitting on the coffee table in the lounge. I've started to rip music in better quality thanks to help from this forum - thanks!

Ideally, I would like:
50" TV
Blueray & DVD Player
A sound system that can be used as Home Cinema... Not necessarily surround sound, but with plenty of oomph!

I used to have a budget 5.1 Kit that was pretty shocking. Audio would run out of sync with the film and wasn't really capable of acting as a stand alone Hi Fi.

I'd like to retain the capability of playing the occasional CD, but the most important thing is for the Stereo to handle input from the TV, the laptop and/or the ipod. Both would be ideal because then anything I watch on the lappy will come out nice and loud

I'm not an audiophile, but I do know that music shouldn't sound like it does on my current set up! Trouble is, that I don't know where to start really.

I like volume, I like crispness and I like tuneful bass. I listen to all sorts of music from Ska and Punk, through Drum n Bass via Classical. Film choice is also quite eclectic.

I'm quite happy buying second hand, as long as the stuff still looks smart and performs well.

Any help greatly appreciated, or else I will be at the mercy of the spotty mug with a saturday job at Currys!

PS: I have a pair of speakers above my bath, and a pair of cables running into the area where I plan to put my TV and ipod dock in the bedroom. Is it possible to link the speakers up to the ipod dock in anyway?

[danneth]

http://www.richersounds.com/product/plasma-tv/pana...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/blu-ray/sony/b...

something like that if it was down to me.

[danyeates]

Looks good to me.

Also look at the KHT 2005.3 speaker packages and the Onkyo AV receivers.

[Where2Guv]

danneth said:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/plasma-tv/pana...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/blu-ray/sony/b...

something like that if it was down to me.

Thanks mate,

So how would I connect the laptop / ipod to that little lot and would it make a decent stereo?

Also, the TV is a 46"... Is it better to go for a panasonic over something like an LG or a Samsung and lose a bit of size then?

[BiggusLaddus]

Yamaha will probably do an ipod dock for that AVR, or you could the headphone out socket on the ipod and plug into one of the phono inputs at the back. Same with the laptop unless it has more connections to choose from.

As cheaper AVR's go, Yamaha are supposed to be one of the better brands for handling music (onkyo not so good), but it is still not going to be nearly as good as a dedicated stereo amp. But a good thing about that Yamaha AVR, is that it has pre-outs, making it easy to add a stereo amp into the system later.

If music quality is more important than surround sound, then I would go for a decent stereo amp and a pair of floorstanding speakers.

[pmanson]

I've got the following set up which may work for your budget:

TV - LG 50PX590 (£600?)
Amp - Onkyo 605 (I think the 609 is £400)
Blu Ray - LG BD360 (£120?)
Speakers - Jamo A102 5.1 (£200)

That should leave you some spare cash for cabling - I used Belkin Pure AV 16AWG for the speakers and some half decent HDMI leads that I picked up from play.com

I've run this set up for a few years now and i'm still very pleased with it

[Where2Guv]

danneth said:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/plasma-tv/pana...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/blu-ray/sony/b...

something like that if it was down to me.

Thanks mate,

So how would I connect the laptop / ipod to that little lot and would it make a decent stereo?

Also, the TV is a 46"... Is it better to go for a panasonic over something like an LG or a Samsung and lose a bit of size then?

[danneth]

Where2Guv said:

Thanks mate,

So how would I connect the laptop / ipod to that little lot and would it make a decent stereo?

Also, the TV is a 46"... Is it better to go for a panasonic over something like an LG or a Samsung and lose a bit of size then?

ye would make a decent stereo, you could buy a docking station or buy a seperate cd player to, stream it etc etc various ways, tv shown is a 46" but if you shop around the 50" is available at the same price iirc for your budget that tv wont be beaten IMO

[matc]

Where2Guv said:

So how would I connect the laptop / ipod to that little lot and would it make a decent stereo?

Worth using an Apple TV?

[Willie Dee]

http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php - Ask over here, £1500 is a lot of money and can go very far in the TV/HiFi game, best off going to a specialist forum like that.