Home Cinema upgrade - What kit ?

[Shadytree]

Morning all,

I'm in the process of re-decorating my basement and upgrading the kit I have in the Cinema room.
It currently has a 6 year old projector (not HD) and basic amp. So I'm looking to upgrade the Projector and AMP to link via Ethernet to my NAS and AppleTV for HD media streaming.

Budget is £4k

Any suggestions ?

[Ron Fellows]

Shadytree said:

Morning all,

I'm in the process of re-decorating my basement and upgrading the kit I have in the Cinema room.
It currently has a 6 year old projector (not HD) and basic amp. So I'm looking to upgrade the Projector and AMP to link via Ethernet to my NAS and AppleTV for HD media streaming.

Budget is £4k

Any suggestions ?

Ello Shady! Long time no speaky. Hope all is well mate.

I went down the Polk Audio route for speakers on a 7.2 surround and presence speakers up above the display all through my Yamaha amp. All I can say is wow. All are linked using ethernet to my NAS for all the HD too. I lately tried some new wireless system that was getting a good write up but its not quite there yet as I was getting issues streaming full 1080p HD across. So I'm back on ethernet. Get a good HD projector or if you can get one of these

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/plas...

Sorry I should say the amp you choose will be decided mostly by the speakers you are using. Ask in some of the specialist forums like www.avforum.com and they'll be able to suggest the level of power and quality that you should be looking for. Everything else is toys really.

Edited by Ron Fellows on Tuesday 20th December 11:10

[oola]

There are lots of options ... quite a lot of stuff is getting good reviews perhaps the JVC X30 (£3,000) or the Panasonic PTAE-5000 (£3,500) for projector and one of the Onkyo/Denon/Yamaha receivers depending on your preference. The Onkyo's (from the 609's upwards) have 4k up scaling which the Panasonic and JVC projectors have (although the JVC's is optical!) so I'd probably go with that over the Denon or Yamaha. You won't go wrong with any of those receivers though.

At that level, I'd say JVC and Pana were pretty hard to beat ... cheaper options would be the Epson range which are cracking for the money. We've installed a lot of the previous version of both and they really are impressive.


To compare on a price point the Onkyo 809, Denon 3212 or Yamaha RXA1010 are similar at £1,000 give or take a few quid.

[Shadytree]

oola said:

The Onkyo's (from the 609's upwards) have 4k up scaling which the Panasonic and JVC projectors have (although the JVC's is optical!) so I'd probably go with that over the Denon or Yamaha. You won't go wrong with any of those receivers though.

Thanks oola

So is it just better upscailing on the 609 and up, what am I gaining by paying more for the AMP?
(They all look the same to me)

[oola]

Shadytree said:

Thanks oola

So is it just better upscailing on the 609 and up, what am I gaining by paying more for the AMP?
(They all look the same to me)

You're welcome. Yes that's correct about the up-scaling. Well, yes, they do all look the same ... you just need to work out of the extra features are something you would actually use on the higher models to justify whether it's actually worth paying for them. Generally the higher models have more HDMI inputs (and outputs, top models have 2), higher wattage rating, THX certification, 12v triggers, RS232 connections and more channels of audio etc. They start at 5.1 and go up 7.1, 7.2 and then to 9.2 ... most are networked so can stream internet radio plus napster, spotify and lastfm.

From the 509 up they also zone 2 which allow (depending on cabling) audio to be played/controlled in a separate room/zone.

Here's a What Hifi review of the 609.http://www.whathifi.com/review/onkyo-tx-nr609

HTH