[AdamAID]

Hi Everyone,

I have spent quite a while trawling these forums looking for suggestions, with some success, but thought I would post my exact problem to see if there is anything I've missed.

Current setup:
Sony Bravia LCD TV - no external speakers
Xbox - connected to TV via component cables for audio & video (I think the newer models have HDMI, but not mine)
Macbook Pro - connected to TV with mini-DVI to HDMI cable and phono on the macbook side, and red/black split on the TV side.
Virgin SD box - connected to TV via SCART

I have moved into a new house recently, and the previous owners have had 3 speakers installed in the ceiling at the back of the room.
The cables for these speakers come out near the TV corner, with 6 banana plugs on the end (cables read QED Balanced Concept, 3 red & 3 black).

What I would like to do is to buy an AV receiver that will allow me to plug the Virgin SD box, my MacBook, Xbox and possibly a future bought bluRay player into it, and have the 3 ceiling speakers plugged into it, plus a pair of front speakers & bass box, then have an HDMI cable going from the AV receiver into the TV.

I think to achieve this I need to get the following:
1) AV Receiver
2) 2 front speakers, and bass box
3) Lots of cables?!

Issues I am aware of from other threads:
a) The Virgin SD box probably won't connect directly into the AV receiver as most don't seem to have SCART in.
Does this mean I either have to have a SCART>xx converter which may mean a loss of quality, or keep the VBox plugged directly into the TV.
If I do the latter, does this mean that when watching TV from the VBox it won't use the additional speakers, and continue to just use the built-in TV speaker? Do I get around this by piping audio out from the TV back into the AV receiver?
b) How will the audio from the macBook connect into the AV receiver? Looking on forums it seems as though the macBook has optical out through the same port as the usual audio out that I am currently using. Do I need a special cable for this?

By total budget is ideally around £400 - I have looked at a few AV receivers from Richer sounds, but not really sure which is the best to get! The customer services chap in Richer sounds seemed keen on the Onkya 507, but I see this seems to have mixed reviews.

Thanks for any help / advice!

Adam

[davepuma]

Originally Posted by AdamAID

a) The Virgin SD box probably won't connect directly into the AV receiver as most don't seem to have SCART in.
Does this mean I either have to have a SCART>xx converter which may mean a loss of quality, or keep the VBox plugged directly into the TV.
If I do the latter, does this mean that when watching TV from the VBox it won't use the additional speakers, and continue to just use the built-in TV speaker? Do I get around this by piping audio out from the TV back into the AV receiver?

I would leave the VBox connected via SCART directly to the TV. I'm not familar with the VBox, what connections does it have? Your best bet, if it has SCART is RGB, so I would ensure it is set to RGB in the picture settings menu (if applicable) and run an audio cable to your proposed amp. The amp should be able to mix (matrix) this 2.0 input and output as a pseudo effect e.g. DTS Neo:6 or Dolby ProLogic II. These aren't true surround sound effects but they will give you audio out of all of your speakers from a 2.0 source. The cheapest receiver that offers video conversion of analogue sources to HDMI is the 5.1 Denon 1610 at £330, so if you do want to connect your analogue sources via the receiver (they don't have SCART connections), then you'll have to up the budget.

Originally Posted by AdamAID

b) How will the audio from the macBook connect into the AV receiver? Looking on forums it seems as though the macBook has optical out through the same port as the usual audio out that I am currently using. Do I need a special cable for this?

You'll need an optical (toslink) cable. It sounds like a mini-toslink to toslink cable but you can get a mini toslink adapter. Try audiovisualonline, I use them a fair bit for my cables. Their fisual pro at £5 is a perfectly good optical cable. They do stock mini-toslink to toslink cables as well.

Originally Posted by AdamAID

By total budget is ideally around £400 - I have looked at a few AV receivers from Richer sounds, but not really sure which is the best to get! The customer services chap in Richer sounds seemed keen on the Onkya 507, but I see this seems to have mixed reviews.

I'm not a fan of Onkyo but they do offer a fair bit of bang for your buck. Sony also offr a lot for the money. The 507 is relatively future proof but is 5.1 so the middle of the rear speakers (it sounds like the previous occupants had a 6.1 system) would go unused. Richer Sounds seem to be pushing Onkyo over other brands at the moment, going by a lot of comments from first time receiver buyers that have visited their stores. That could be simply coincidence, maybe they like Onkyo or they get a bigger margin. Hmm. Another recommendation is the Sony STR-DH800 (no video conversion) but has 7.1 so you should be able to use the centre rear channel. I'm pretty sure you should be able to turn off one of the surround back channels for 6.1. The Sony costs £280.

As you can see this doesn't leave you a lot for a pair of speakers and sub (plus cables). It might be an idea to just go with a pair of bookshelf speakers for the front channels plus the AV Receiver, then add the subwoofer when funds allow. A decent sub (See bkelec) costs £200 upwards.