I've gradually built up a beginners home cinema system for use with my ps2. I never intended paying over £1000 for both sound AND vision. But unfortunatly, considering so much dissapoints unless you spend that bit more, i've ended up spending about £3000! Suddenly the tv which i bought first seems a bit overwhelmed. It's a panasonic 28pk3. Great, detailed picture which looks superb with region 1 dvd's because 60hz significantly reduces flicker to make it barely noticible at all, without of course the 100hz problems of 100hz tv's.


Howver, my sound system has grown and grown to this: B&W 603 s3 fronts, B&W LCR600 centre, B&W 601 S3 surrounds and a RELQ200 subwoofer.

The amp is a SONY str-DB940 and the dvd player is a toshiba sd200.

All that for a 'begginers setup'...



Alarmingly, because i never MEANT to have a home cinema(just a capable small system to give me surrouns sound with a cheap tv) it all seems a bit big in my 4x4 metre room. Obviously at sometime i will be able to move my stuff into a larger room. I'm not stupid and will keep this audio setup for a few years yet.

This means i am about 3 metres away from the screen. Is this about the right distance for a 28" screen to be a sufficient size? I'm just not sure whether i should have got a 32", as when i go into a bigger room in time, it would be more suitable.

1. So is it the right size for a 4x4 room?

2. When moving into a larger room, will a bigger screen be more suitable and would sitting further than 3 metres away make the sound better? At the moment my rears are alongside the rear wall of my bedroom, so the sound field is restricted. Suddenly it's my ROOM that's the problem.

[kenfowler3966]

Personally I have ended up with a toshiba picture frame 36 inch set in the corner of a room 4x4 metres, although it does continue into the dining room, where we regularily view from the table there as well.

The tosh set is smaller than most 32 inch sets and is good at going into a corner by the rear shape. It seemed enormous when we got it, and we even considered trying to swap it for the 32 inch version when the first set proved faulty, however we stuck with it and think it is great. Indeed occasionally it now seems a bit small for a home cinema setup!!. However I dont like projector sets.

Basically if it fits into the room you will soon get used to whatever you buy.