Bit rusty, need some advice.
Discussion
I bought my original AV system in about 1994, and it has not been used for about 10 years, as we have moved about 12 times and lived in an apartment, plus terraced and semi-detached houses with paper thin walls.
It consists of
A Yamaha DSP-A 590 AV amp, with Dolby Pro-Logic Surround sound. The motorised volume on this doesn't work, so it's a PITA to change the volume.
We have a Cambridge Audio CD Player, Yamaha Tuner and a more recent DVD player, all of which I realise may now be obsolete.
We also have a pair of Mission 731 Front Bookshelf speakers on Atacama stands, the 73C centre speaker and a pair of 73S rear speakers
We have just bought a new tv and have a sky+ HD box and I'd like to resurrect some proper audio/home cinema in to our (new, detached) home. ( yes, it's been an expensive year)
We have 2 offices in the house in separate locations and we have at our disposal a media PC (which I've just wiped to run linux) and a tower PC running Vista, to which I can add 3 x 2 TB HDDs. We also have a laptop, a mac, a couple of android phones and an iPhone. The old TV (32" 10 yr old Samsung, 1 x HDMI port built in Freeview) will be going in on of these offices.
So, in order of me being arsed to do something about it.......
1a) Surround sound for the TV. Will the volume knob motor be (economically) replaceable/repairable in the Amp, or will I see a decent benefit from upgrading to something 5.1 in the receiver department - I don't want to spend more than £300 immediately, but can upgrade other parts bit by bit as I go.
1b) Is it worth getting some second hand floorstanders for the fronts and then use the 731s for the rears, as I remember the 73s(urrounds) being quite poor sounding on their own. Or should I just stick with what I have.
1c) or should I just ebay the lot as things have improved so much since I bought it all and start again.
2a) Can I get the Sky+HD box to send a signal to the other PCs and/or TV.
2b) Can a new receiver link in to the Network and use the Tower as a Media hub, and be easily controllable by the untechnical OH (on screen lists, or an app on her android phone)
Any help appreciated, I have a lot of catching up to do.....
It consists of
A Yamaha DSP-A 590 AV amp, with Dolby Pro-Logic Surround sound. The motorised volume on this doesn't work, so it's a PITA to change the volume.
We have a Cambridge Audio CD Player, Yamaha Tuner and a more recent DVD player, all of which I realise may now be obsolete.
We also have a pair of Mission 731 Front Bookshelf speakers on Atacama stands, the 73C centre speaker and a pair of 73S rear speakers
We have just bought a new tv and have a sky+ HD box and I'd like to resurrect some proper audio/home cinema in to our (new, detached) home. ( yes, it's been an expensive year)
We have 2 offices in the house in separate locations and we have at our disposal a media PC (which I've just wiped to run linux) and a tower PC running Vista, to which I can add 3 x 2 TB HDDs. We also have a laptop, a mac, a couple of android phones and an iPhone. The old TV (32" 10 yr old Samsung, 1 x HDMI port built in Freeview) will be going in on of these offices.
So, in order of me being arsed to do something about it.......
1a) Surround sound for the TV. Will the volume knob motor be (economically) replaceable/repairable in the Amp, or will I see a decent benefit from upgrading to something 5.1 in the receiver department - I don't want to spend more than £300 immediately, but can upgrade other parts bit by bit as I go.
1b) Is it worth getting some second hand floorstanders for the fronts and then use the 731s for the rears, as I remember the 73s(urrounds) being quite poor sounding on their own. Or should I just stick with what I have.
1c) or should I just ebay the lot as things have improved so much since I bought it all and start again.
2a) Can I get the Sky+HD box to send a signal to the other PCs and/or TV.
2b) Can a new receiver link in to the Network and use the Tower as a Media hub, and be easily controllable by the untechnical OH (on screen lists, or an app on her android phone)
Any help appreciated, I have a lot of catching up to do.....
The amp is pretty much useless IMO
DPL did not have discreet surround channels so may very well account for the rears sounding a bit poor, a decent newer amp will probably improve your surround performance to another level. There's plenty of choice for around your 300 budget. You could always upgrade the speakers later.
DPL did not have discreet surround channels so may very well account for the rears sounding a bit poor, a decent newer amp will probably improve your surround performance to another level. There's plenty of choice for around your 300 budget. You could always upgrade the speakers later.
Seconded, I'd leave the speakers be (at least for now) and concentrate on replacing the AV amp. If music is more important than movies I'd suggest downsizing to 2 channel but I'm guessing this is not the case otherwise you wouldn't have the 5-channel Mission set up in the first place...
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff