Surround Sound choice
Discussion
Like some others on here, I'm dithering over the purchase of a surround sound system for both music and films. I dithered last year, got bored and overwhelmed by choice in equal measures, and eventually ran out of time to search. This time, however, I'm determined to buy something!
Budget is low-end, say £300 for AV Receiver and £200 for speakers (plus some for cables and iPod dock), as I doubt I could tell the difference between this and something twice the price (though I'm sure I could notice more at three times the price!). Prefer separates to a ready-made cinema.
So, I first looked at the Yamaha RXV467, as I found a cheapo deal with some Yamaha speakers at HiSpek. Then I visited Richer Sounds where I saw the same speakers at a knock-down price and the reason why! There I looked at the Onkyo TXSR308, but then discovered the world of "upscaling", and as I use a non-HDMI DVD player (Cambridge Audio DVD85 - not bothered about bluray upgrade yet) and Wii, it was suggested I pay extra to get an upscaling amp to retain quality and reduce cabling (or something like that).
So, I returned home for more research, and stumbled upon the Pioneer VSX920 (attracted by the Pioneer £100 discount!) and called participating shops to get the best price. Unfortunately, I then discovered it doesn't upscale, and so I escaped to PH to see what was recommended here! Obviously I'm now even more overwhelmed and confused, but did see Denon mentioned a lot, and both HiSpek and RS have the AVR1911 for £300. Is this the one I should go for?! (prefer silver, but all amps seem to be black these days).
The Speakers that I keep hearing about are Tannoy SFX5.1, but as ever, the more searching I do, the more negative feedback I find, so this choice isn't fixed either! My lounge/dining area is large (recent 9mx5m extension) so the sound will have some distance to travel, but I don't need shake-the-walls volume. I already have the speaker cabling in the walls, so don't need to worry about that.
Please can someone in the know give me a kick up the arse so that I can buy something in the next week or so!
Does anyone on here sell this stuff?
Budget is low-end, say £300 for AV Receiver and £200 for speakers (plus some for cables and iPod dock), as I doubt I could tell the difference between this and something twice the price (though I'm sure I could notice more at three times the price!). Prefer separates to a ready-made cinema.
So, I first looked at the Yamaha RXV467, as I found a cheapo deal with some Yamaha speakers at HiSpek. Then I visited Richer Sounds where I saw the same speakers at a knock-down price and the reason why! There I looked at the Onkyo TXSR308, but then discovered the world of "upscaling", and as I use a non-HDMI DVD player (Cambridge Audio DVD85 - not bothered about bluray upgrade yet) and Wii, it was suggested I pay extra to get an upscaling amp to retain quality and reduce cabling (or something like that).
So, I returned home for more research, and stumbled upon the Pioneer VSX920 (attracted by the Pioneer £100 discount!) and called participating shops to get the best price. Unfortunately, I then discovered it doesn't upscale, and so I escaped to PH to see what was recommended here! Obviously I'm now even more overwhelmed and confused, but did see Denon mentioned a lot, and both HiSpek and RS have the AVR1911 for £300. Is this the one I should go for?! (prefer silver, but all amps seem to be black these days).
The Speakers that I keep hearing about are Tannoy SFX5.1, but as ever, the more searching I do, the more negative feedback I find, so this choice isn't fixed either! My lounge/dining area is large (recent 9mx5m extension) so the sound will have some distance to travel, but I don't need shake-the-walls volume. I already have the speaker cabling in the walls, so don't need to worry about that.
Please can someone in the know give me a kick up the arse so that I can buy something in the next week or so!
Does anyone on here sell this stuff?I don't sell it, but I use it...
I got these:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s... - does what it says very well...and these:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...
Personally I've always found as long as the amplification is ok, the larger proportion of your budget should go with the speakers...
I got these:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s... - does what it says very well...and these:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...
Personally I've always found as long as the amplification is ok, the larger proportion of your budget should go with the speakers...
_dobbo_ said:
You don't say what TV you're using - how do you know you need the amp to upscale?
Fair point! The telly's a one-year old big Samsung plasma one, so likely does everything and could make tea for me too, but I want all my kit to go through the amp to minimise the spaghetti of cables.tobeee said:
Like some others on here, I'm dithering over the purchase of a surround sound system for both music and films. I dithered last year, got bored and overwhelmed by choice in equal measures, and eventually ran out of time to search. This time, however, I'm determined to buy something!
Budget is low-end, say £300 for AV Receiver and £200 for speakers (plus some for cables and iPod dock), as I doubt I could tell the difference between this and something twice the price (though I'm sure I could notice more at three times the price!). Prefer separates to a ready-made cinema.
So, I first looked at the Yamaha RXV467, as I found a cheapo deal with some Yamaha speakers at HiSpek. Then I visited Richer Sounds where I saw the same speakers at a knock-down price and the reason why! There I looked at the Onkyo TXSR308, but then discovered the world of "upscaling", and as I use a non-HDMI DVD player (Cambridge Audio DVD85 - not bothered about bluray upgrade yet) and Wii, it was suggested I pay extra to get an upscaling amp to retain quality and reduce cabling (or something like that).
So, I returned home for more research, and stumbled upon the Pioneer VSX920 (attracted by the Pioneer £100 discount!) and called participating shops to get the best price. Unfortunately, I then discovered it doesn't upscale, and so I escaped to PH to see what was recommended here! Obviously I'm now even more overwhelmed and confused, but did see Denon mentioned a lot, and both HiSpek and RS have the AVR1911 for £300. Is this the one I should go for?! (prefer silver, but all amps seem to be black these days).
The Speakers that I keep hearing about are Tannoy SFX5.1, but as ever, the more searching I do, the more negative feedback I find, so this choice isn't fixed either! My lounge/dining area is large (recent 9mx5m extension) so the sound will have some distance to travel, but I don't need shake-the-walls volume. I already have the speaker cabling in the walls, so don't need to worry about that.
Please can someone in the know give me a kick up the arse so that I can buy something in the next week or so! Does anyone on here sell this stuff?
My old pioneer surround system died at christmas , the front speakers are still fine & i have a pair of budget bookshelf speakers at the back (£ 50 a couple of years ago) i really did not want to go mad , so i bought the yamaha receiver at richer sounds at £169 & an active sub woofer & £50 0n 3 cables & it sounds terrific, you have to set yourself a budget & find the best you can , if you really want to go to town try these peeps Budget is low-end, say £300 for AV Receiver and £200 for speakers (plus some for cables and iPod dock), as I doubt I could tell the difference between this and something twice the price (though I'm sure I could notice more at three times the price!). Prefer separates to a ready-made cinema.
So, I first looked at the Yamaha RXV467, as I found a cheapo deal with some Yamaha speakers at HiSpek. Then I visited Richer Sounds where I saw the same speakers at a knock-down price and the reason why! There I looked at the Onkyo TXSR308, but then discovered the world of "upscaling", and as I use a non-HDMI DVD player (Cambridge Audio DVD85 - not bothered about bluray upgrade yet) and Wii, it was suggested I pay extra to get an upscaling amp to retain quality and reduce cabling (or something like that).
So, I returned home for more research, and stumbled upon the Pioneer VSX920 (attracted by the Pioneer £100 discount!) and called participating shops to get the best price. Unfortunately, I then discovered it doesn't upscale, and so I escaped to PH to see what was recommended here! Obviously I'm now even more overwhelmed and confused, but did see Denon mentioned a lot, and both HiSpek and RS have the AVR1911 for £300. Is this the one I should go for?! (prefer silver, but all amps seem to be black these days).
The Speakers that I keep hearing about are Tannoy SFX5.1, but as ever, the more searching I do, the more negative feedback I find, so this choice isn't fixed either! My lounge/dining area is large (recent 9mx5m extension) so the sound will have some distance to travel, but I don't need shake-the-walls volume. I already have the speaker cabling in the walls, so don't need to worry about that.
Please can someone in the know give me a kick up the arse so that I can buy something in the next week or so!
Does anyone on here sell this stuff?http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&...
Speaker wise - I've got a set of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s in Beech finish for sale, with the SW250 active sub for £200. Suspect delivery costs would make this impractical.
Otherwise get over to AVForums and check the classifieds, always an array of amps and speakers on sale there for knock down prices!
Your money buys you so much more second hand, but if you prefer new then the usual suspects Richer Sounds have already been mentioned!
Otherwise get over to AVForums and check the classifieds, always an array of amps and speakers on sale there for knock down prices!
Your money buys you so much more second hand, but if you prefer new then the usual suspects Richer Sounds have already been mentioned!
Edited by _dobbo_ on Thursday 13th January 12:36
I'm running a set of the SFX5.1 with a Sony STR-DH800 and they're brilliant for AV stuff but they are distinctly lacking musically.
My choice was based on the OH refusing to have speakers any larger in the lounge, but if you want them to handle music as well as TV, I'd go for bookshelf or floor standing speakers at the front.
My choice was based on the OH refusing to have speakers any larger in the lounge, but if you want them to handle music as well as TV, I'd go for bookshelf or floor standing speakers at the front.
There is a difference between converting video format (i.e. composite in, HDMI out) and upscaling in (i.e. 476p composite in and 1080P HDMI out). Most cheaper amps just convert, rather than upscale, leaving the TV to do the scaling itself.
I recently changed my amp at home from an Onkyo 606 to an upscaling Onkyo 1008 and the difference in picture quality was significant, so if you can get one with a scaler, I would.
For your budget, I'd maybe check out the classifieds on avforums.com as there is always someone after the latest model although you can't really go wrong with anything from Denon, Onkyo or Yamaha.
I recently changed my amp at home from an Onkyo 606 to an upscaling Onkyo 1008 and the difference in picture quality was significant, so if you can get one with a scaler, I would.
For your budget, I'd maybe check out the classifieds on avforums.com as there is always someone after the latest model although you can't really go wrong with anything from Denon, Onkyo or Yamaha.
Edited by hughjayteens on Tuesday 8th February 15:59
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