Help a beginner/idiot please with small budget :(

[stustaff]

Ok heres what I would like -

the ability to plug in my equipment to 'something' that then plays that sound out loud, it must be better quality than my panasonics 37"lcd speakers, it would ideally have a headphone connection(for listening at night when wife is in bed) it will have a IR remote.

heres what I have to connect to it.

SKY HD+ box
Xbox 360
DVD player HDMI
Mac Mini

and a budget of just £200...

best I have seen so far is Play.com (UK) : Logic3 TX101 SoundStage 5.1 Surround Sound Cinema Speaker System : Electronics - Free Delivery not quite perfect as no headphone socket! or remote...

Can I point out at this stage that I KNOW im not going to get something great for this budget! im also not bothered if its 5.1 or not.

the main purpose for this is to remove the current issue I have of having some sound through my TV and some sound(mac min) through a cheap set of pc speakers.

Thanks

[Sephiroth0000]

SC-PT170EB-K Panasonic PANSCPT170EBK - 5:1 Home Cinema System HDMI WITH Viera Link

Hope this helps.

[Rich9600]

How about just going for a stereo amp and speakers.
For this budget you should be able to get a decent amp and a pair of speakers. Check out Richer Sounds for some bargains.

This will work as long as you have enough inputs on the TV to handle your video sources.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth0000

SC-PT170EB-K Panasonic PANSCPT170EBK - 5:1 Home Cinema System HDMI WITH Viera Link

Hope this helps.

looks good but couple of questions how do I put all the devices into this?
looking at the spec it says -

HDMI ports quantity 1
SCART ports quantity 1
Audio (L,R) in 1
USB 2.0 ports 1
Digital audio optical in 1

So my sky HD goes into HDMI?
Xbox 360 into optical?
Mac mini into audio in?
dvd??

its the inputs and stuff I dont get? or does everything go into the tv and then the L R outputs from the TV plug into it?

And im buying a DVD player that I dont want with these sorts of systems?

sorry as I said never seen one of these hooked up so really dont get how all of the devices get sound into this system?

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Rich9600

How about just going for a stereo amp and speakers.
For this budget you should be able to get a decent amp and a pair of speakers. Check out Richer Sounds for some bargains.

This will work as long as you have enough inputs on the TV to handle your video sources.

cheers this may be an option any recommendations of an amp?

Edit - this sort of thing?
http://www.richersounds.com/product/.../sony-strdh500

[dante01]

Originally Posted by stustaff

looks good but couple of questions how do I put all the devices into this?
looking at the spec it says -

HDMI ports quantity 1
SCART ports quantity 1
Audio (L,R) in 1
USB 2.0 ports 1
Digital audio optical in 1

So my sky HD goes into HDMI?
Xbox 360 into optical?
Mac mini into audio in?
dvd??

its the inputs and stuff I dont get? or does everything go into the tv and then the L R outputs from the TV plug into it?

And im buying a DVD player that I dont want with these sorts of systems?

sorry as I said never seen one of these hooked up so really dont get how all of the devices get sound into this system?

For starters, the Panasonic PANSCPT170E doesn't have the inputs you'll need. The SKY HD box will need to use the optical in or you wont get DD 5.1 audio from it. The Xbox could use the HDMI input, but I think this is actually an output and not an input? You're left with nowhere to connect either the Mac mini's digital audio or video.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by dante01

For starters, the Panasonic PANSCPT170E doesn't have the inputs you'll need. The SKY HD box will need to use the optical in or you wont get DD 5.1 audio from it. The Xbox could use the HDMI input, but I think this is actually an output and not an input? You're left with nowhere to connect either the Mac mini's digital audio or video.

Thanks that confirms what I thought.

I have to have at least one HDMI input for say DVD player
1 optical for sky
1 optical for Xbox
and the an aux input for mac mini

is that right?

[dante01]

Originally Posted by stustaff

cheers this may be an option any recommendations of an amp?

Edit - this sort of thing?
SONY STRDH500 at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

I'd advise against this. It too will limit your connections. It has HDMI, but only video switching and not HDMI audio. You still need to connect components with additional audio inputs and these connetions will need to be digital in nature. The DH500 only has 2 optical inputs and 1 digi coax.

We may as well cut to the chase and I'd advise you look at the STRDG820. It is the cheapest receiver you'll find with the connection options you require:
SONY STRDG820-BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

[dante01]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Thanks that confirms what I thought.

I have to have at least one HDMI input for say DVD player
1 optical for sky
1 optical for Xbox
and the an aux input for mac mini

is that right?

SKY: HDMI for video and optical for 5.1 audio
XBox: HDMI if available as an output option?
Mac: HDMI via the mini's DVI output for video and S/PDIF for audio. The headphone jack is actually a digital output and you can get cables that have a 3.5mm jack on one end and a toslink optical connection at the other.
DVD: HDMI is it has this as an output?

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by dante01

I'd advise against this. It too will limit your connections. It has HDMI, but only video switching and not HDMI audio. You still need to connect components with additional audio inputs and these connetions will need to be digital in nature. The DH500 only has 2 optical inputs and 1 digi coax.

We may as well cut to the chase and I'd advise you look at the STRDG820. It is the cheapest receiver you'll find with the connection options you require:
SONY STRDG820-BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

Thanks Dante01

so basically as that WITH speakers is WAY out of my budget, i guess its really confirming the logic3 soundstage is the best/only option!?

connection wise it has
Optical inputs x 2 - sky HD, xbox360
Coaxial inputs x 2 - DVD player
Analogue input (L & R RCA) - Mac mini

So I can have everything into one device for under my budget.

or? do I get everything into the TV and then connect a couple of good shelf type speakers to its RCA L&R output? its a Panny TX37LXD70

[dante01]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Thanks Dante01

so basically as that WITH speakers is WAY out of my budget, i guess its really confirming the logic3 soundstage is the best/only option!?

connection wise it has
Optical inputs x 2 - sky HD, xbox360
Coaxial inputs x 2 - DVD player
Analogue input (L & R RCA) - Mac mini

So I can have everything into one device for under my budget.

or? do I get everything into the TV and then connect a couple of good shelf type speakers to its RCA L&R output? its a Panny TX37LXD70

You can't connect speakers directly to the TV. You need something inbetween the TV and the speakers to provide the amplification.


If you really can't afford to buy anything else then the logic3 would provide you with the very basic audio inputs you'll need, but it doesn't give you as many as a AV receiver or amp would. For instance, you are limited to only stereo sound from he mac mini. You're still left with the fact that all the video outputs of the components will still need to go individually to the TVs inputs.

Maybe save the money you'd be spending and make do until you can afford something better?

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by dante01

You can't connect speakers directly to the TV. You need something inbetween the TV and the speakers to provide the amplification.


If you really can't afford to buy anything else then the logic3 would provide you with the audio inputs you'll need, but it doesn't give you as many as a AV receiver or amp would. For instance, you are limited to only stereo sound from he mac mini.

Maybe save the money you'd be spending and make do until you can afford something better?

Thanks for your help Dante01 my mini only has stero output anyway!

You may be right about saving up! I may take a gamble in the short term though and give the logic3 bar a go as it gets decent reviews and should be able to shift it on ebay for a decent amount.

Its just very annoying at the mo having to walk over and change speaker volumes and connections etc.

[Rich9600]

Originally Posted by stustaff

cheers this may be an option any recommendations of an amp?

Edit - this sort of thing?
SONY STRDH500 at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

How much can you expand on your budget over time?

My first set up was a old pro-logic AV-Reciever and a decent pair of stereo speakers. Cost about £300 getting on for 10 years ago. I later added surround speakers to this set up and now a few AV-R's on I prefer not to dwell on how much I've spent over the years, but it sounds great!

Basically what I'm suggesting is that you could possibly streatch your budget a bit and go for an AV-R like the sony you suggested and spend about £100 on a pair of speakers. You would then get stereo sound, later you could buy additional surround speakers to get the benefits of surround sound.

Just a quick look round at stereo amps puts flaws up in my suggestion, not many have a headphone out or a remote at a price suitable to get decent speakers and stay on budget.

If you can cope with this you could get something like this:
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO A5BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.
No remote or headphone out, but you could turn down the bass for late night listening.
TANNOY CUSTOM-F1 at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.
I think these should work with this amp.

Do you have any speakers already, is your £200 just for the electricals or do you want a full set up for this?

[Rich9600]

Actually, just read more of the thread, the 820 is a far better AV-R than the 500. Dante01 is spot on here. I had a listen to a Sony 2400 when I bought my Marantz, good sound but for my tastes I prefered the Marantz. The Sony sound is certainly a good one though.

For a bit more money than the £200 budget you will get a much more capable AV-R. The only problem is that you will pretty much need to match or better the cost of the AV-R in speakers to get the best from it.

[dante01]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Thanks for your help Dante01 my mini only has stero output anyway!.

Like I said, if you use the S/PDIF headphone jack to optical, it is a digital connection and you can get 5.1 audio from it