£2500 budget - home theatre - what would you buy?

[458man]

Hi Folks,

Can you recommend a good home cinema set up for circa £2.5k? I have had a BOSE lifstyle system for over 14 years and it's died so it's time to buy and set up a new TV and home cinema set up. The Bose has served me well and I have had a demo of the Bose Lifestyle Soundtouch 535 and it's awesome but at £3200 I'm sure we can do better. In all honestly we have probably listened to music more on the BOSE than use it as a home theatre so the same would apply for the new system. I need something that would sound good when playing music but also do a great job watching a movie.

I loved the discreetness of the BOSE wall mounted speakers and SWMBO does not want huge floor standing ones so I'm a bit stuck as to what I can get in this budget without overtaking the room.

Suggestions welcome. I'll pop in to Richer Sounds on the way back from work today and see what they say too..........

[458man]

chasingracecars said:

Can you elaborate a bit more, do you also need a TV, are you going down the projection route, is this a dedicated Home Cinema room or living room tv.

What size is the room, have you consider sound bars and satellite rears?

Sorry this is just a budget for the audio side of things. I have a 75'' on order already. The room is 18ft x 16ft. It's not a dedicated cinema room as such as we will be pretty much using it every day.

[458man]

chasingracecars said:

Well, if it is just audio you can't go a million miles wrong with a Sonos 5.1 setup, Playbar, Sub and two Play 1's however if you want to stay in the Bose camp the system you mentioned is much cheaper here...

http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/details.php?nrd=1&p...

Good find! I can get it cheaper if I traded in my older Lifestyle system I can get this for £2200! Just been told this buy Bose via their phone line...

The SONOS does not cut it for me.

[458man]

Chainsaw Rebuild said:

Another vote for 2nd hand high end kit here. Suggest you subtly get SWMBOs head around proper sized speakers too; just to open your options up. In my option the sound better too!

She just won't let me have proper speakers - she hates the look of them

[458man]

Red 5 said:

£2500 for an amp and speakers?

I would suggest you go and listen to this.....

Denon AVR-X4200. Plenty of power for small speakers, with amazing room EQ abilities. Cheap offers now ie £779
B&W M-1 (white or black) The best sensibly price small speakers ever? £745
REL T9i offers of £100 off at the moment, so £799

That's £2743 retail worth of kit easily buy able for £2323, with some space left for cables, stands etc.

Given the offers available and the need for small speakers, I think this is most suitable.
The main bit you could save on second hand, is the amp, but that's the bit that I'd least like to be out of date or without warranty.

Do you think that might fit the bill 458?

Many thanks for the response - this is exactly the type of info I was after. I have the budget but no idea on what to get within our remit. I'll enquire about this set up and see how this sounds Thanks again

Edited by 458man on Monday 25th April 21:25