What do I need next?

mikmo · 02-03-2009, 9:54 AM

Against my better judgement I picked up a pair of Tangent Clarity 8 speakers from a colleague (£120). Probably much too large for my living room but what the heck!

So, being new to this, what do I need now if I want to get the most out of these in my TV / Xbox 360 set up? I mean, what connectors, cables etc as well as what seperates!

Not keen on spending a fortune. Specific product recommendations appreciated!

CJROSS · 02-03-2009, 11:41 AM

If I were you I would buy a Stereo amplifier with a DAC section for connecting your digital sources :

Connect up your digital sources to the DAC section on the amp, use cheap £5 toslink cables rather than ICs from (CPC Farnell). And use 2x2.5mm2 Van Damme Blue speaker cable at £2 metrre.

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ssuellid · 02-03-2009, 12:49 PM

It depends on what your plan for system is. Do you eventually want surround sound? If so then you may want to consider a cheap surround sound receiver and just use it for stereo for now. It won't sound as good as the Sony mentioned above in stereo but it will give you a bit more flexibility for the future.

Or if money is really tight then pick up a cheap new or second hand stereo amp. Then connect to it using phono cables - probably find the 360 came with a suitable cable.

mikmo · 02-03-2009, 1:34 PM

Great advice guys, many thanks.

The upgradeability of a surround sound amp is tempting. If I do upgrade is the brand of front speaker, surround speakers, sub important?

Would I need to splash out on Tangent speakers / another high end brand or could I fill the gaps with cheaper speakers without making huge sacrifices in sound quality?

ssuellid · 02-03-2009, 1:58 PM

Ideally you would want the same brand of centre speaker and to a lesser extent the same brand rears. Don't worry about matching the subwoofer.

You could find other speaker brands that tonally match your Tangents but that may take a bit of work.

mikmo · 02-03-2009, 2:23 PM

Centre speaker is only £80 so that's not too bad. Priorities then:

Decent surround sound amp
Optical cables to connect TV, Xbox360 and my crappy stereo!
Decent speaker cables

In future I'll snaffle a Tangent Centre speaker and two other speakers (are rear speakers a specific type of do any two speakers work?)

ssuellid · 02-03-2009, 2:57 PM

You can use normal hifi speakers for rears. You can also get specialist rear speakers as well such as dipoles.

mikmo · 02-03-2009, 6:31 PM

My old man's got a spare one of these:

Pioneer VSA-E03
Pioneer VSA-E03

Is this a decent surround sound amp or is it the kind of technology that moves on quickly?

mikmo · 03-03-2009, 1:10 PM

Bump.

Anyone got an opinion on the Pioneer VSA-E03. Old fashioned and useless? Or do a great job?

ssuellid · 03-03-2009, 1:22 PM

Technology has moved on a bit with new HD sound formats for BluRay so its not going to be future proof.

The spec says it supports DD which would be fine for use with the 360. Any TV set top box you use will need at most DD so that is covered as well. If you are sticking to DVDs the only things you will miss out on is DTS.

mikmo · 04-03-2009, 9:06 AM

Sorry chaps, more questions!

I can get some good deals on Cyrus stuff. I've figured out that I don't want a pre or power Amp, better for me is one of their Integrated Amps. Is this right?

Product list is here: Cyrus Audio

Is there one of these amps in particular that is suitable for my Tangents and suitable for future upgrades to surround sound? Other than intergrated amp any other essentials I need to pick up?

Thanks so much for all the help so far... very embarassing how little I know!

mikmo · 04-03-2009, 1:36 PM

Ahh, my friend at Cyrus is now telling me I'll need a DAC aswell as an integrated amp. Is this right?

I'm afraid I'm running off into scary money territory now!

CJROSS · 04-03-2009, 2:11 PM

Mikmo, IMHO all you need is a stereo amp (your budget and speakers will dicatate that), a DAC to pipe your digital signals from CD, DVD, TV, DAB, Pc etc. This hooked up to your amp will save loads of ICs, cheap DACs are available that are stunning sounding. Look at the Beresford/CA DACMagic threads.

Finally kick the 5.1 rig into touch, unless you spend 51% of your time listening to 5.1 i would concentrate on a Stereo system.

The beauty of the amp I linked to earlier is that it has a DAC built into it - a stereo one !!

ssuellid · 05-03-2009, 8:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikmo

I want to get the most out of these in my TV / Xbox 360 set up?

Surely 5.1 is the answer to the question? I would say that surround sound is a must for getting the most out of games nowdays.

If mikmo had mentioned music or CD then I would agree that straight stereo is the option.

CJROSS · 05-03-2009, 9:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssuellid

Surely 5.1 is the answer to the question? I would say that surround sound is a must for getting the most out of games nowdays.

If mikmo had mentioned music or CD then I would agree that straight stereo is the option.

Depends how much he plays game on his system TBH.

TV is stereo unless you get Sky HD and only a small part of Sky HD is 5.1 (which sounds very nice via a 5.1 Amp i would say

)

Simple fact is that quality wise builidng a stereo system will give much high sound quality due to quality of components bought. if you can live with downsampling 5.1 to stereo (and many do) then a stereo system will be of a much higher quality. IMHO of course.

ssuellid · 06-03-2009, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJROSS

TV is stereo unless you get Sky HD and only a small part of Sky HD is 5.1 (which sounds very nice via a 5.1 Amp i would say

)

Normal Sky+ boxes have supported DD since around 2001. Prologic is also broadcast on a few programs iirc. The majority of programs are still stereo tho.

If the principle use was for listening to music then I would agree that stereo is the best option. But for gaming surround sound can make a massive difference.

As for Cyrus you could start with a stereo amp like the 6vs or the 8vs and then add an AV master 8 for surround sound in the future. You could connect your TV and 360 via phono leads to the amp.

The 6vs and 8vs have a nice fixed gain function that means that you use them as power amps in a surround sound system.

The AV master 8 does not support the new HD audio formats.

mikmo · 06-03-2009, 10:48 AM

Even with discount Cyrus stuff is horribly expensive so looks like I'm going to go with the free Pioneer VSA-E03

Have Sky HD and play a fair bit of Xbox so keeping door open to future 5.1 set up is probably a good idea. Will be downscaling to Stereo for now but guess that Tangent Speakers with this Amp will still be a big improvement on the current TV speakers.

I've now got this DAC thing in my head though. I needed one for Cyrus amp. Do I need a DAC to run Xbox / TV / Ipod through this Pioneer amp?

ssuellid · 06-03-2009, 11:05 AM

You don't need a DAC. You would not have needed one with the Cyrus setup either. A DAC would be used to improve a stereo digital source.

The Pioneer will have a DAC built in for the surround sound, which will also support stereo, but probably not as well as a dedicated stereo DAC.