Page 1 of Surround virgin seeks decent speaker package for great audio experience...

Am new to Home cinema and have just purchased a Toshiba 210e (MR) and Sony STRDE475 Receiver.
Anyone got any wisdom as to what speaker package to put with these separates??
I was looking at:-
Gale Moviestar £119.95 Richer sounds
eltax Liberty £249.95 Richer sounds
Missions are great but a wee bit pricey
Ideally would like shielded speakers for the fronts near the telly. not really bothered about sub at the moment, but I understand that good speakers are essential to the enjoyment factor having ordered decent dvd and amp.
Don`t want to really go above £275 if honest.
Any ideas.....?

PS. Has anyone purchased anything from Rings Electrical?? They seem knowledgable and free delivery in UK too.

Thanks

This item was edited on Sunday, 3rd February 2002, 12:56

Wharfedale Diamond Cinema pack, no questions :

http://www.qed-uk.com/?i=5MlnY0ds8Sl1&bg=216&bp=d8s3b&v=8

Diamond 8.3 fronts, Diamond 8 centre, Diamond 8.1 rears.

Just £1.33 over your top limit (£276.33).

No competition - the Diamond 8 series are winning accolades in all the music press.

QED (part of Miller Brothers) will deliver for free within about 48 hours.

Allthough the Diamond cinema pack is probably a really good package, I would personally go for this:-

http://www.qed-uk.com/?psc=3&i=RurnY0MXzCF3&bg=216&bp=6b&v=8

The mission cinema 6 pack, voted best home cinema speakers under £1000 by Home Cinema Choice.

The pack contains 5 speakers all exactly the same model, this is really important which I discovered when I upgraded to them from a mish mash of different size speakers. This means that when you watch a movie on them the sound of anything that flys arround the room stays the same because the sonics of each speaker is matched exactly, the diamond cinema pack I notice contains the same drivers accross the speakers but the front speakers are larger than the rears and that means they are going to sound slightly different to the rear speakers and the centre.

Another important thing about the cinema 6 pack is that it has a powered sub woofer, if you want to play movies just how they have been mastered on a DVD i.e. 5:1 channells (5 speakers : 1sub woofer) then you will need a sub woofer like this, and again from experience believe me it makes a massive difference.

Also, all of the 5 speakers are magnetically shielded so if you are tight for space, you can have the fronts near the TV, and the centre speaker above or below the TV.


Anyway thats my oppinion, what ever you go for it is amazing having 5 speaker surround sound, just more so in my oppinion if you utilize that 6th speaker which is the sub woofer.


Regards

Robert

The 6 pack won that award a while ago,if I`m not mistaken, and things have moved on a bit

thanks for the tip clayts, just one question.....

are the wharfedales shielded??

Incidentally, if you go to http://www.hifistore.co.uk they now have the matching dipole rear speakers for the Diamond speakers. They aren`t part of the Diamond range, but for the money they are an absolute steal.
Steer clear of the Mission now, its been outclassed by smaller and cheaper solutions in the 3 years its been on the market. Its a good package, but the Digithatre DTS does everything better for less money.

Go for the Wharfeys, they are the mutts nuts indeed.

Westy

P.S. As far as i gathered, the Wharfeys are shielded, they got close up and personal with my tv and dodn`t make any nasty distortions!

This item was edited on Monday, 4th February 2002, 12:23

Thanks to all who contributed..... I`m gonna lash out for the Wharfedale`s methinks!!
Keep the good advice coming.

We got the Mission 6 pack last year (about end of August, but they were ordered 2 months earlier - lack of stock)

They are pretty good to be honest, especially for just over £200. They sound a lot better than most speakers that are that size. It is true that they were voted best buy last year, and to be honest I couldn`t tell you what the best is now, but surely speaker technology hasn`t moved on that much?

I know when I bought my stereo speakers for my stereo amp a pair that was a 3 year old model blew everything else out of the water in terms of precision.

Have a listen first. At least with richer sounds you can take them back if they don`t sound right.

hi, thinking of getting the wharfedales diamond package myself. they are not magnetically shielded though so be carefull. usually your telly has it`s own speakers at the side these help to shield your telly from unshielded speakers any way