Surround sound or Sound Bar

[TheHighlander]

As above

Looking to spend about £300. I know its not going to get me anything amazing but thats all I am willing to spend.

Would like something wireless aswell.

Was also looking into soundbars aswell.

What do we all think?

Thanks in advance

[Toaster Pilot]

I was going to start a thread asking this too - although I have a budget of £200.... It'd go with an LG 50" Plasma TV most commonly used to watch blu-rays.

Like the look of the LG SR906 surround sound system that Richer Sounds currently have in but I'm concerned about wiring because the house is rented.

[thetapeworm]

I'm no purist and I know very little about such things so my advice is likely to be scoffed at but I have an Onkyo 5.1 setup from Richer Sounds. They do a lot of "one box" kits but I just noticed this one that seems pretty reasonable at the moment:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/1-box-home-cin...

[sprouting]

I was going to suggest something similar to the above, speaker cables are easy enough to hide, or you

could opt for an AV amp (or a 2 channel amp) like http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/d... There's a lot of receivers for under £200 at the moment.

Plus a pair of bookshelf speakers http://www.richersounds.com/product/bookshelf-spea... And i think you'd be happy, with the view to adding surround at a later date.

[51mon]

I'm in a similar position myself, and am looking at buying myself a system for my living room to hook my TV up to, and to use for music from my PC / Ipod, and occasionally a mate's decks.

I've seen this system on the Richer Sounds website, and wandered if it looks any good? -

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...

It seems to have a few good reviews around the web, but I'm completely new to this and don't know my arse from my elbow when it comes to Hi-Fi stuff....! Probably worth adding that I'd be more interested in getting better sound for my music than for TV, as I'm not massively into films etc.

Si

[steveo3002]

ive got the model before the onkyo youve listed , its pretty good in a small room, lots of bass and imo too many ajustments possible

my main moan..and i doubt its just this product is that with a film on its all whisper whisper at sensible levels ..then some action comes on and BOOOOM RAAAR , which makes it hassle as you need to keep ajusting it for casual veiwing

[Skyedriver]

Was in Music Matters, Darlington last week, they were recommending a Yamaha one at IIRC between £200 & £300
Can check if you like

[Skyedriver]

Skyedriver said:

Was in Music Matters, Darlington last week, they were recommending a Yamaha one at IIRC between £200 & £300
Can check if you like

YAS 101 I think
Wondering about getting a "midi" hi hi and plugging the TV into that.
Any coments?

[saleen836]

Mrs Saleen wanted a new system for our tv (had been listening to it via old hi-fi), a 5.1 system was suggested but I pointed out the size/shape of our lounge was prohibitive to fully appreciate it, also along with the wires that would need to be used/hidden that we should look at soundbars. We now listen to the tv via this...
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-sc-htb20eb-...

We chose the above because it can be used as either a bar or 2 seperate speakers on stands, also as it is Panasonic (along with our tv) the volume can be controlled via the tv remote.

We looked at it in Curry's but they do not price match the internet so came home and ordered from Amazon and saved £36

Very impressed with it!

[majordad]

Saleen , bought the same as you on your recommendation and very pleased. Here in Ireland it was in PC Worlds Sale and I got it for €179 as they price matched Soundstore and gave me 10% as well !!

Thanks, it works well and is neat. Needs a Audio Optical Cable though , not included when using my 2009 year Panasonic TV.

[z4chris99]

I got a cheap second hand 7.1 Sony AV receiver and then got a sub and 5 mini set, i think they are sony too... I used two floor standees I already owned for the fronts.

bingo

no extra remotes as everything is on the Sony one.

cost?

£300

[jas xjr]

z4chris99 said:

I got a cheap second hand 7.1 Sony AV receiver and then got a sun and 5 mini. I used two floor standees I already owned for the fronts.

bingo

no extra remotes as everything is on the Sony one.

cost?

£300

Do you get many films with 7.1 on them yet ? Bit out of touch these days . Would love to experience it . Reason I ask is that I had an av amp a long time ago that was dts compatible , but at the time hardly any films were

[saleen836]

majordad said:

Saleen , bought the same as you on your recommendation and very pleased. Here in Ireland it was in PC Worlds Sale and I got it for €179 as they price matched Soundstore and gave me 10% as well !!

Thanks, it works well and is neat. Needs a Audio Optical Cable though , not included when using my 2009 year Panasonic TV.

Your welcome
We needed to buy an HDMI cable (£6 from Curry's) and just plugged it in via the HDMI ARC sockets, we are very pleased with the sound quality from it.

[z4chris99]

jas xjr said:

Do you get many films with 7.1 on them yet ? Bit out of touch these days . Would love to experience it . Reason I ask is that I had an av amp a long time ago that was dts compatible , but at the time hardly any films were

No idea. to be honest it was the cheapest 'good' amp around

it fakes 7.1 if the movie, or sky doesn't have it..

sounds fantastic on F1 but my neighbours don't like it so much

edit.
TV - LG 47LE5300
Amp - Sony STRDH520
Speakers - 2 anon 120w floor, Sony sub, center and 4 minis
inputs - Sky+HD, Apple TV3, PS3, Sony CD player, MacPro

Edited by z4chris99 on Saturday 5th January 15:43

[OldSkoolRS]

steveo3002 said:

my main moan..and i doubt its just this product is that with a film on its all whisper whisper at sensible levels ..then some action comes on and BOOOOM RAAAR , which makes it hassle as you need to keep ajusting it for casual veiwing

It's a common complaint, but in some ways I disagree: One of the benefits of HD sound is the very wide dynamic range. If you are lucky enough to have a 'proper' home cinema set up then those dynamics are part of the effect: You have the level set up such that you can hear the dialogue (and a decent centre speaker helps here too, not a tiny little box shoved under the TV hindered by the TV cabinet). Then when you get an explosion or similar high level sound it makes you jump, which is part of the effect, but equally it shouldn't be so shrill that it hurts your ears.

However, most decent amps will have a setting that allows for this: It's a form of compression and might have many names, but something like a 'night mode' or 'dynamic volume' can help. Also, a common issue when setting up surround systems is that the new owner will turn up the surrounds and subwoofer too high as they expect to hear them all the time (after all, they've paid good money for them and expect them to work for a living ). While not everyone wants to spend hours measuring the response as some AVholics do, at least taking the time to try to set up the speaker levels by ear is worthwhile to help with this problem. You can even bump the centre speaker setting up a couple of db as this will help with hearing dialogue to some degree. Also, trying to make sure that the centre speaker isn't shoved right under the cabinet will help too. Angling the centre up so it 'aims' at the listener can help clarity too.

Finally, adding a simple learning remote to the set up should mean that you use one remote to control the TV channels/features and the sound controls will operate the amp. The family won't even be aware of this as it will happen automatically. I bought a cheap Harmony remote meant for my conservatory setup and I tried it out on my living room set up and it works so well that I'm going to have to buy another for the conservatory.

This is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Harmony-300-Remot...

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Saturday 5th January 15:45