Page 1 of A decent Audio Set up..

I have a Wharfdale 750 and want to get decent cinema surround sound.
can someone give me a couple of ideas how to acheive this without breaking the 250.00 barrier.
Please give product recommendations if possible...

Have a look at this thread;
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=223&Thread=25696

for a "decent" sound but under £250, IMHO, no way. You need at least a DenonAVR-1601 (£300) just for the processor and for me, to get good sound, you`ll need 5 more speakers, I would go for the B&W speakers package at £950, and then you may need a sub, a "decent" on by REL cost £400 and thats £1650 before the stands for the B&W601S2 and cables and interconnectors. So I would save up until you have around £1800 before you can have a "decent" cinema at home.

Well, that`s the way I`ll do it, you might think it`s too much but I think it`ll be worth it. It`s probably sound better than your local multiplex. If you really want to push the boat out, there are system out there cost at least 10 X that. But the £1800 is what I would call minimum for a home cinema, those video logic package are a waste of money, very tinny sound with no atmosphere.

Raymond, that`s not exactly the most constructive reply ever, is it ?!

It`s clear that Trapperuk has a specific budget in mind, and telling him that something eight times as much is the minimum acceptable is pretty pointless.

Trapperuk - it sounds from your post as if you accept that you`re not exactly going to get true audiophile cinema surround sound, or THX certified equipment for £250 - and that would be true. You can, however, get Dolby Digital and DTS decoding for that money - check out the Videologic and Scan reviews in the Hardware section, or have a wizz around the forums and www.google.com to find other reviews and kits.

It is by no means impossible to set up a surround sound getup for that money, but it will not sound the best - you get what you pay for I`m afraid. It`d still be a good upgrade in a bedroom, plugged into a PC setup, or if you`re coming up from a nasty integrated mono, NICAM or ProLogic TV.

DanB

Oh yeah, Raymond, careful shopping will see a Yamaha A5 in your living room for £240 and that`d blow most people`s minds...

I know the reply wasn`t much help to him but it was in my opinion the minimum to get a "proper" home cinema. Sure, the videologic package will do the job and if it`s only for the bedroom and the occasional film then great piece of kid, but don`t expect ride of you life experience.

Unfortunatly I don`t have the room for a surround setup, not because of limited space but the arrangment of the room. So I have only Stereo from my Wharfedale DVD player.

Since music is also very important to me, I got myself a half decent amp (Marantz PM6010 KI signature) for the job. It`s definitly better than most Surround sound amp under £1000 for music but it`s only in stereo. However it does a pretty good job for DVDs too, the bass is tight and fast will great delivery of soundstage.

Oh, I know the yamaha A5 butI only is good only need a processor like the DSP-800 from yamaha to get surround sound, the Marantz can handle the front 2.

Trapperuk - I`ve just bought a Yamaha VS-10 (DD, DTS, 5 speakers + subwoofer) for a shade under £300 from John Lewis (price match with unbeatable.co.uk). It sounds amazing compared to my old pro-logic TV. Even my wife`s impressed, although "it`s too LOUD", apparently :)
I wouldn`t hesitate to recommend it if you can stretch your budget by 50 quid.

They also do a cheaper DTS system (TSS-1), although it`s quite a lot less powerful and doesn`t have a remote. It IS £165 though, so well below your target price.

Trapper,
I`m sure Raymond knows his stuff about hifi, but I beg to differ on his knowledge of "HOME" cinema. I`m sure his Wharfie sounds great through his audiophile hifi, through both of those two speakers.

(We have a Wharfie in our bedroom, it sounds amazing through both of our two stereo television`s speakers)

I`m sure his choice of kit would put your local cinema to shame. But that isn`t what you asked, or what most people want.

Since getting into DVD, We`ve moved our audiophile hifi to a different room, if we want pure sound we listen in a different room.

If we want to have "FUN", we watch DVD on a 150 inch screen pumping the sound through a Videologic Digitheatre which more than fills a 30 by 20 foot room. And we had to move to a detached house before we could get passed 30% of what it could do.

As a hifi, it`s not going to replace many hundreds of pounds of quality hifi amps and speakers for musical purists, how could it? but in the family room it kicks a*s.

So go for those recommended cheap setups, the Videologics are good, I`m still pleased with the original Creative Desktop Theatre we had before it (which could rattle my spine in a 17 foot by 12 foot room) but in a family room we needed a remote. Those Yamaha setups sound really interesting.

Dave

Unfortunatly I don`t have the luxury of another room specially for music, so the DVD and CD player have to live next to each other.

As for HiFi, I do know a little bit, enough not to fall for one of those mini stereo most people consider HiFi. But I also know a bit about Home cinema, and also enough not to get one of those all in one package system. The salesman in Dixon may say they are really good and sure, for £250 they are a bargain to get into surround sound but for me I would save up for a proper system (I am still saving up for one.....need minimum of £1300 to get the whole system to match tonally, thats on top of £1400 for the HiFi already).

For Trapperuk, he should enjoy his videologic or creative labs setup but when he wants to upgrade, he`ll have to start from scratch, but if he goes "seperates" he could change one component at at time. This way makes mre sense for long term but if he`s happy with it then ignore what I`ve said.