Hello to all … I am a newbie here to the forums and need some of ‘your advice’!

I am what I call an AV voyeur, i.e. Love the technology, read all the magazines and net reviews but due to moving to Spain, having kids etc my hobby really hasn’t materialised as much as I wish.

I have recently upgraded my Loewe TV to a Sony KDL-40W2000 with a Panasonic EX-75 and have a small Pioneer lifestyle system in my main lounge.

I have converted a granny flat attached to my house to an AV room: - 7.88*3.88*2.25M with a full acoustic tiled room, pre laid conduits for cables and separate mains ring to the house.

I have a budget of 30k – 40k Euros to spend on a 80/20 movie/music system (although the wife would prefer the lesser as we are expecting again) to spend and after lots of reading and a little listening (there are not many AV companies here in Valencia) I thought I had decided on the following –

Sony Pearl
Stuart screen ( discounted by AV company)
B&W 803 Fronts, B&W sub and surrounds matching fronts
Classe SSP-300 CA -5200
Marantz 9600 dvd player of Nad M55
Cables MIT and installation included in price of Eur 40,000

Now after reading the press I thought about changing to a complete NAD master system as it would come well in budget with the B&W speakers ….

…. Last week I came across another AV company in the city and he suggested the following

Krell Showcase Amp Eur 6,520
Krell Showcase Pre Eur 5,870
Sonus Faer CremonaFronts Eur 6,731
Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor surrounds Eur 2,795
Sonus Faber Cremona Centre Eur 3,077

Sonus Faber Cremona Sub Eur 2,404
Theme Scene H81 1080p Projector Eur 7,590
Cables Video Eur 750
Cables Audio Eur 2,750
Screnn Mella c244 Eur 1,395

I will be auditioning the alternative set up soon but ...

Does anyone have any ideas of other set ups considering my room size adn also the 80/20 movies / music split , or any ideas about the KRELL system ... it looks like its been around for a few years now ??

I thank you all in anticpation

Barca

[Arcam_boy]

for the speakers I'd highly recommend a set of b&w 802d fronts htm2d centre with 805s rears and a nice asw 855 sub. This lot will set you back quite an amount not sure what in euro but will sound amazing and beat any cinema going as for amplication......anything that'll drive that lot sufficently!

[Neil Davidson]

The NAD Masters has more than enough power and poise for your room although I would consider teaming it up with an Audyssey Sound Equalizer for best results.

The HD81 is out of it's league in these systems IMO and although I am not dancing for joy at how good they are, the Pearl and new JVC 1080P 3 chip models do offer amazing performance for the money, certainly better than the HD81. For single chip 1080P DLP you will find the Sim2 D80 hard to beat.

The Sonus Faber are good as are the B&W but you will find many other brands that are as good or better. The Aerial Acoustics Model 6s or even Model 7s would be a great match for the NAD and would fit well in the room.

€750 is too much for video cables unless you are running 50m or more of HDMI.

You don't seem to have any power conditioning in there which I would certainly spec on a system such as this.

For what it is worth, there are probably as many answers to this question as dealers in Spain but you want to make sure the budget is spent in the right areas.

HTH

Neil

Thanks for responses so far.

I have seen the revues of the new projectors and they look great! I think one thing is the last AV company is more of an Audiofile hence spending 2500Eur on the audio cables and 750Eur on the digital cables ?

Im slightly sceptical about HD and how it is going to work out , so will not be spending yet on a HDD player or Blueray , altough as i have xbox360 it would be cheap for me to get an add on player. But I would like a system that could maybe handle the new sound formats at some time.

Electrical conditioners have been mentioned , but not priced ...as you probably know Installers will try and push your budgets to the absolute limits. !!!!

What about Meridan ... Ive read great reviews about the G series but haev no ideas if they are availabel here or how much they cost.

Also Krell guys ... anyone have any or listened to any of their gear

PS Should I be in the pre pro room rathe than in here __

[Knyght_byte]

i'd say probably...so i'll move you

[Sherlock.T]

That kit should keep you happy for a couple of years can always upgrade later.