AV setup! Compromise between film, music and space?

[F3RNY7]

Hi All

I'm planning my AV setup for my new house, and am trying to come up with a solution that ticks all the boxes. What I want is a system that can be used for film and music that takes up as little space as possible, whilst delivering a noticeable upgrade on TV speaker audio. I currently DON'T have any stereo/hi-fi system, but it's something that's been desperately lacking in my life as I currently only listen to music through my laptop (ugh).

I'm not an audio buff so reading the What Hi-Fi articles about warm sounds and tonal detail leaves me at a loss

My idea at the moment is to create a 3.1 system that will be upgraded to a 5.1 system when I've sold the OH on the idea of proper surround sound.

The system will be used for approx 75% film and 25% music and the budget is £1k.

I'm thinking:

- Yamaha RX-S600 AVR
- Q Acoustics 2010i speakers
- Q Acoustics 2000Ci centre
- Q Acoustics 3070S sub

I already have the Samsung TV that I'm taking with me.

The rationale:

- A good compromise between quality of film/tv audio (which will be it's main use) and music quality
- The AVR MUST support Apple AirPlay as the music will be played via my iPhone and MacBook, either through iTunes or (most likely) Spotify
- A slimline AVR is a huge plus, due to the space constraints
- Speakers must be wall mountable.
- Don't want a separate system for music and film/tv, again due to space constraints.

What do you reckon chaps? Decent set up for the money? Much better out there that I'm overlooking?

Thanks!

[Jakarta]

I have these Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers attached to a Denon AVR and it sounds fantastic.
You could always forego the stand-up speakers and use two bookshelf speakers at the front?
The reviews for these seem to rate them a top VFM.

Great value speakers

[F3RNY7]

Jakarta said:

I have these Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers attached to a Denon AVR and it sounds fantastic.
You could always forego the stand-up speakers and use two bookshelf speakers at the front?
The reviews for these seem to rate them a top VFM.

Great value speakers

Thanks for that.

I looked at a Denon AVR and liked it, but the slimline Yamaha would save a big headache, space wise. Pioneer also do a nice slimline AVR but it seems it doesn't support AirPlay.

[probedb]

Marantz also do a Slimline AVR.

[F3RNY7]

probedb said:

Marantz also do a Slimline AVR.

Yes I did see one in Richer Sounds, the nr1504. I much prefer the look of the Yamaha but the price point of the Marantz is appealing.

[OldSkoolRS]

You might struggle to actually find a 1504 as I did last month as I wanted a slim line amp for my conservatory. Of course I ended up spending more and getting the newer 1605, but so far pretty impressed with it with some old, but very compact M&K speakers on the end of it.

[XB70]

F3RNY7 said:

Yamaha RX-S600 AVR

Did not even know this existed and pretty much exactly what I am looking for - thanks!

At the risk of hijacking, but may be of value to the OP too, does anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers

[wseed]

I have a Q Acoustics 7000 5.1 setup and while they sound good to me and are very wife friendly in the looks department the sub suffers massively with interference from mobile phones. I have a lot of trouble getting them looked at (mostly from the retailer) but eventually the sub went back twice and was replaced with an equally faulty one. really spoils the watching experience when you get the "bum t t bum t t bum..." whenever someone gets a text and not what I expected from a £700+ setup at the time. Maybe this issue is limited to the model I bought maybe not.

[F3RNY7]

XB70 said:

Did not even know this existed and pretty much exactly what I am looking for - thanks!

At the risk of hijacking, but may be of value to the OP too, does anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers

I'll let you know as it's definitely the model I'll be ordering next week. It's grating on me that I'm paying more for it than I could get one of their current, full sized models for, but as it's discontinued you can barely get it anywhere, and it's one of only two receivers as far as I can tell that fits my size and functionality requirements.

I don't like the aesthetics of the Marantz at all.

[heisthegaffer]

F3RNY7 said:

I'll let you know as it's definitely the model I'll be ordering next week. It's grating on me that I'm paying more for it than I could get one of their current, full sized models for, but as it's discontinued you can barely get it anywhere, and it's one of only two receivers as far as I can tell that fits my size and functionality requirements.

I don't like the aesthetics of the Marantz at all.

It's not been on sale for very long at all, maybe a bit of a sales flop. Shame, I think they're lovely (albeit pricey) and I'm a huge Yamaha fan.

[Bit of a Unit]

I bought a very similar set up a couple of years back.

Yamaha 675 receiver and q acoustics 7000! Speaker package.

Very happy with the results. The inbuilt settings make switching between music and movies a doddle and volumes are fine for day to day use and it will shake stuff of shelves if required.

I went with the 7000i as they have lovely attached brackets for wall/shelf mounting.

Try exceptional av for their bundle offers, you'll get damn close to what you want for a grand. I bought from them, great service and value.

[AC43]

Bit of a Unit said:

Yamaha 675 receiver.

I have the earlier 673 and like it it.

I have it playing in 3.1 mode through Tannoy HTS 101 speakers

First time I've bought a set up for my TV that also sound good for music.

Edit; Missed the bit about Apple. I have an iPad that I use as a wireless Spotify client onto my other main system and just use a Harmon Karldon Bluetooth dongle plugged into the aux input. Can't talk about any of the Apple-specific wireless connectivity stuff.

Edited by AC43 on Friday 1st May 19:00

[F3RNY7]

heisthegaffer said:

It's not been on sale for very long at all, maybe a bit of a sales flop. Shame, I think they're lovely (albeit pricey) and I'm a huge Yamaha fan.

Maybe! I had my eye on the RX-V677 but the space I have for it to go in would be so much better suited to the slimmer model.

Ultimately it does everything I want and looks nice so I don't mind spending a bit more to get it

[heisthegaffer]

F3RNY7 said:

Maybe! I had my eye on the RX-V677 but the space I have for it to go in would be so much better suited to the slimmer model.

Ultimately it does everything I want and looks nice so I don't mind spending a bit more to get it

Don't blame you, sometimes the large size gets on my nerves. My missus is always grumbling about big my equipment is. Woof woof.

[XB70]

Picked the RX-S600 up - it is very small compared to the Denon monster.

I need to calibrate the sound properly but generally impressed so far.

The user interface on the TV is like CEEFAX from 1985 but the app for iPhone is useful. It picks up some of the songs on a share drive but only greyed out videos that will not play at all (the list does appear). Any ideas?

Will provide more feeback as I use it

[varsas]

I imagine they are not in a compatible format. Try something encoded in MPEG2 for video or 128k .mp3 to test, those should definatly work.