surround sound / home cinema

buckshee

So I got my blu ray player for christmas and now feel I need a bit of surround sound to go with it , nothing too amazing and costing around the £200 mark .

Anyone got any recomendations ? most of the ones I've looked at come with a dvd player which obviously I don't need

Ketman

Check somewhere like E-Buyer, I paid about £250 for a Sony one & the sound is fantastic mate.

Medders

Richer Sounds are probably worth a look too

razil

I prefer the separate amp (which includes a radio tuner normally too) rather than those all in ones with dvd etc

I think they do as much as 7.1 nowadays (6 speakers plus centre and woofer) , which my recent amp does, I recently moved from Sony to Onkyo but both are decent brands, Sony was easier to use though.

budget permitting try and get at least 3 HDMI inputs, and make sure its 1080p (true HD) capable, your TV needs to be too, to get the best results.

Friend Or Defoe

Try this LG surround sound. It's meant to be very good.

pork_pie

All in one systems are sh*t end of. If you got a Blu Ray player then connect it up to soemthing decent.

You need to go down the seperates route and also you must budget for speakers.

To get full HD sound you need a HD home cienma amp and the cheapest one is Sony STRDG820 which can be had for £250.
Dolby Digital? The one notch below Dolby HD (and DTS HD) you can get such home cinema amps for £150-200.

Offerings from Sony, Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, Marantz and Pioneer should be the only makes consdiered.If not, save up until you can.

Im my experience I never really bothered with Dolby 7.1. Too many speakers

www.superfi.co.uk

razil

http://www.dvd-home-cinema.co.uk/amplifiers-and-receivers/review-of-the-onkyo-tx-sr606-av-receiver/

OK I've got one of these, got a very nice trade deal on it.

Anyhow its a nice bit of kit altho quite fiddly so more for the enthusiast. Its only 1080i so for blu ray you may want to avoid this particular model. When I got to 1080p set I'll more than likely bipass the video part and just use it for sound.

It auto sets up the surround balancing which is funky

It has switchable 7.1 rears, which can also run a pair in another part of the house instead which is cool

Shame cos I recently sold my old floor standing speakers in favour of celing mounted

Friend Or Defoe

[cite]Posted By: pork_pie[/cite]All in one systems are sh*t end of.

Someone's been shopping at Richer Sounds!

As for too many speakers, ultra HD sound is going to be 22.2 - 3 level of 7 speakers with a left and right sub.

pork_pie

George

LOL I used to shop at Richer Sounds but got pissed off with having to return a lot of their products and having to yank a refund out of them. It was as if I was sold badly repaired products and a lot of the shop assistants don't know their arse from their elbows. Never again. I go to SUperfi when I can.

Home Cinema is starting to get a bit silly now where one is really paying for the useless toys and bells wnd the whistles and not the sound.

The Onkyo Razil mentioned is good as it offers a great deal for the money.

However ask these home cinema amps to play straight music and they sound pish. A £1000 home cinema amp is not going to sound the same as a £1000 conventional amp.The rate of turnover of these amps means buy it now you can bet it will be replaced the following autumn (thats when the manufacturers traditionally change their models)

In my opinion the sound format limit should really be 5.1 or 6.1 at a push. Some even offer 12.1 (and yes one day there might be a 22.2 format).The HD 1080p/i formats sort out the picture side brilliantly.

For the ultimate in sound and vision - go to a cinema.

No ones front room acoustics can copy that of the nearest Showcase or Warner Brothers

Swisdom

head on over to AVForums - there's a lovely bunch of chaps on there and they know their shit

razil

they do say the onkyo isn't as good as a conventional amp for music and wouldn't want to contradict any experts, however I use it for that playing music from itunes on my media centre - it has lots of different modes you can select including all speaker stereo and sounds great if you ask me

razil

can anyone recommend a decent projector for a home cinema, did some research way back on what kind of quality and spec but can't remember now

Cheers

razil

think I may have looked at this before

Optoma HD230X Full HD 1080p

johnny73

Have had an Optoma HD70 for the last 6 years or so. Has broken down twice in that time. On both occasions due to a design fault where dust accumulated inside the projector. Having said that I had it on a lot in its early years. Definitely worth the money.

If I where buying today in the same price range I would buy this one.

I'd also head over to the AVS forum for advice.

Big C

got the Optoma hd25e set up with a 120 inch screen, Yamaha rx-v675 amp and Q Acoustics Q7000 speakers, couldn't be happier. 3D is great too. Richer Sounds are good on the high street, give your local one a call beforehand and they'll even set up the equipment you want in their demo room so you can see it in action before you shell out.

razil

Good advice, will do today hd25 good too (cos its white)

revellinit

sevenoaks sound and vision.........just bought yamaha reciever 4 hdmi slots DAB good offers at the moment and very helpfull staff....... http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/

eaststandmike

revellinit said:

sevenoaks sound and vision.........just bought yamaha reciever 4 hdmi slots DAB good offers at the moment and very helpfull staff....... http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/

I will second this, the staff know their stuff and are very helpful.