Page 1 of Help: £750 - £1000 Digital Home Cinema Setup Recommendations

Hi,

I`m a relative newbie to the wonder that is DVD and have just discovered these forums. Great info, but I`d like to get some feedback on my plans for my first cinema setup.

I`ve currently got a 3 year old 29" Sony TV with built-in surround sound (L-R front and rear + centre). Picture is perfect for my needs but I really need to upgrade my aural experience.

I picked up a Toshiba SD510e DVD player for only £140 in the january sales at my local Debenhams. From the reviews, it`s awesome value for the money and should be able to perform adequately as a CD player too (until I save up the pennies)

Not wanting to splash out on an NTL subscription, I`m going the whole hog into Freeview Digital TV and am going to pick up a Pace Twin Digital TV Recorder (If you haven`t seen the spec, take a look!!!)

http://www.pacefreetoview.co.uk/02twin.asp

So this leaves me with about £500 maximum, to invest in a decent amp and speaker setup.

My requirements are as follows:
1) Must provide a decent sound in my large (30` x 18`) lounge, although TV will NOT be at one end and me at t`other!
2) Will ideally be able handle audio inputs from DVD, Digital Decoder TV decoder, plus anything else I throw at it in the future.
3) To please the wife, the speakers should ideally be as unobtrusive as possible (5-foot floorstanders are NOT an option)
4) To please me, the amp should be silver to match my other kit (sad but true)

I was having a flick through the Richer Sounds catalogue and they have a couple of Limit 5.1 systems which bypass the separate amp route altogether and just have on-board amplification. Their little `pod` shape definitely fit in with my wife`s `cute` requirements. However, am I committing treason by even mentioning this type of setup here?

Another question I have is regarding digital audio connections. I`ve read somewhere that with DVD-Audio discs, an optical connection is a step backwards from a full analogue setup. I`m not, and doubt I will ever be, big into DVD-A, but does the same ring true for standard DVD? The Tosh has full 5.1 as well as digital outputs so I`m happy either way, but seeing as I`ll be using the digital connection from the TV decoder, do many amps have TWO digital inputs?

Sorry for all these questions, but if I`m going to do this, I want to do it right first time. Any help or advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Big A

I let my mind wander....and it didn`t come back.

If you really want to go for a system without an amp - have a look at Klisph promedia 5.1 they are offically PC speakers but the performace will suprise you

http://www.mdc-hifi.co.uk/news.asp?ManID=11&NwsID=0

I wouldn`t reccomend many of the Richersounds own brand stuff really - try to but known stuff - Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer, NAD etc.

I know you can get a set of mission nxt speakers for about £300 and that leaves £200 for an amp of your choice....get something with prologic 2 it really is worth it. check out www.hyperfi.co.uk

Adam

Check out this receiver below don`t know wether it meets your requirements but Yammy equipment is generally very good

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1107

Also I was looking in our local Superfi shop in Leeds and they had in the window reduced the KEF 2005 speaker package for £800 to £550 + a further 10% off for today only.

God if I`d have had £500 I`d have gone in and bought them

Cheers Occean,

I`m not necessarily sold on an all-in-one amp/speaker solution, just thought the Limit package was a neat route to take.

Does Limit = Richersounds then? Is that true of all the non-regular named stuff there?

I`ll certainly take a long look at hyperfi. They seem to have some good deals.

Kebabhead, those Kef speakers look gorgeous! I`ve got some long hard thinking to do!

Anyone got other suggestions for specific kit?

Big A



I let my mind wander....and it didn`t come back.

This item was edited on Thursday, 10th April 2003, 14:41

Acoustic Energy Aego P5.
Won more awards than something that`s erm.. won loads of awards..

Ste

Those KEF speakers are awsome! I have a set and they are wonderful.They have just been updated so the old ones will be selling cheap (as said £550 ish)

Worth adding more to your budget in my opnion! Richersounds do the Pioneer 811 which would go really well with it!

Hi Big Adam,

I think on the home cinema mags you can now see Richersounds advertising the legendary Mission FS2-AV NXT (the flat panels can be had in silver and they are not too big either and they sound stunning, just check all the opinions at avforums.com, I myself have the mission FS1`s )speakers for only £300!!!, so get a copy and bring it in to the shop. Otherwise the excellent 5star rated Elac Cinema 1/2 (very small silver satellites and again lots of very positive owners at avforums.com) can sometimes be found for around £325 on the Internet.
Small and good speaker packages under £300 are very difficult to find.

And for receiver, I would suggest the real Yamaha RX-V430RDS in titanium (not 5540RDS which doesn`t has as good remote) with 2yr warranty and superb service from www.hifijunkies.co.uk for only £220. They do price match but no one else sells that the titanium version, so I wouldn`t think they would price match e.g. the 5540 version.

Otherwise Richersounds sells the 5540 version for £180, £20 cheaper than www.superfi.co.uk

Other silver brands are only Sony and Pioneer I would think (Marantz, Denon comes in goldish/gold). Sony 585S/685S and Pioneer 711S are other receivers but they don`t have as many sound modes as the Yamaha, however I don`t know about their connection capabilities compared with the Yamaha. I do know that it is a superb receiver and it has also won many awards.

dingdongcat (aka wasabi at the www.avforums.com)

Right,

First off, i`m going to be brave and say you`ll need an extra £100 if you`re to get a good set up that`ll last and cater for your needs. This is purely because something small and unobtrusive that si to fill a large space without sacrificing quality must be of good quality and not a compromise - this means extra pounds, but not many!!

So, here`s my bit for you.

First the amp, ok it`s gold, but come on, it looks gorgeous in the flesh and sets off a nice pallete with silver stuff.

Marantz 4300 here; http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/default.asp?src=pricerun&page=product&sku=107819 for £274 delivered.

Superb 6.1 reciever with DD Ex and DTS ES 6.1 plus Dolby Pro Logic 2 for making the most of CD`s and Sky/Cable broadcasts. Amazing i guarantee.

Speakers.

Acoistic Energy Aego 2 sub sat

Here; http://www.hifibitz.co.uk/warehouse/details.asp?ProductID=AEAEGO2WH

You`ll need 3 sets of these at £300 the lot. 3 sets!! Yes 3. Simply use one set run from the front pre out of the amp as the front left/right, another pair run from the centre and surround centre pre outs for the centre and rear centre sound, and then the last set run from the surround left/right for...er...the surrounds. The best bit here is, all of the channels will have totally effective bass management, due to having 3 subs, (you don`t have to use all 3, you could just use 2, under my guidance :-)), that very capably handle all the low frequencies very nicely and can be hidden from sight with no fuss! They are absolutely amazing speakers made by one of the UK`s top speaker manufacturers, believe me they are quite superb, and so bloody small!

All you need then is some phono leads to hook up the speakers and a digital cable to hook dvd to amp, http:www.beyondhifi.net is a great place to get some ace quality good value leads. You`ll need 3 pairs of these at your desired length http://www.beyondhifi.net/shopping/MoreInfo.asp?ProductID=290&CatID=98 remembereing they`ll need to be shorter at the front to connect to the Aego subs, (the sub has all the amplification built in with power for 3 channels in each sub), and then a longer for the rear. All you need to do is just seperate one of the twin pair by just pulling the wire apart at the `seam` that holds the cable together in the middle, which will then give you 2 single phono`s to use for the centre and surround back channels.

Sound complicated, it`s not in reality!! I will steer you the right way should you need the help! If you do, click on Ask Westy just to the left in the Opinion section and click the link at the foot of the page to get more in depth advice!!

Hope this isn`t too confusing, first steps are always daunting when you`re first buying, but we`re all here to help.

Cheers

Westy

Site Technical Help Editor and Moderator

Home Cinema Editor - Area450

This item was edited on Friday, 11th April 2003, 11:18

Wow, cheers guys.

Looks like I`ve got some serious thinking (and scribbling) to do.

Westy, I may well be following those links for advice. Got a bit confused by your initial description of the cables but I`ll have a sit down and work it out!!!

Thanks again!

Big A

I let my mind wander....and it didn`t come back.

Just to add to the melting pot.

Manrantz SR4300 is a great buy, but worth checking out the new Yamaha RX-V440. Has 6.1 surround like the Marantz and all the features, but is prices £299 new - have seen on unbeatable for £230!!

Guy I spoke to a WhatHifi the other day gave the impression that in their mag next issue, they rate it the best of the bunch to date.