£350 budget for the following help please!!

[rossyl]

5.1 Speakers
Sub Active
5.1 (or 6.1 etc) Amp with various inputs for Sky, VCR, phono, radio etc.
DVD player with HD capability

Can i get all that for £350?

 

[Dfour]

Dont think your £350 will even get a dvd with HD capability alone.

We would also need to know what style of speakers your after.

You might be able to get most (no HD) in a all in one unit but otherwise it will be a scrape especially as you will need cables and interconnects on top of that.

 

[rossyl]

Ok.

First and foremost is to get a decent Amp, then worry about sepaker set up.

Amp
- Firstly must have inbuilt radio.
- Obviously I want many inputs, so I can plug in video camera as I want, a DVD player, SKy +, etc.
- Have DTS etc.
- 6.1 ideally or 7.1
- Powerful, for a 20ft x 20ft room.

For about £200 - £250.

Suggestions please!!

The DVD HD I think can be had here ws4.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=SAMS-DVDHD950

I'll probably wait for HDMI to come out in more force and for price to drop a bit.

Speakers would be sleek looking, but with a good sound from clear treble, detailed mid range, and deep bass (from sub most likely). I know I'm after a lot!

 

[gazzerdaman]

Look at the Cambridge Audio Azur 540R from Richer Sounds, that fits in your price range for a Reciever

 

[Knyght_byte]

erm, what do you mean DVD with HD, that doesnt exist.....you can upscale an image to a suitable LCD/Plasma/PJ that is HD resolution, but its still only taking it from a SD source (ie DVD)......HD-DVD or Blu-Ray arent available yet here, and even when they are i doubt you will get one for less than £500 for the first year...lol

i think Denons bottom range receiver-amp fits the price, i would imagine it fits most of your requirements as well, albeit at the bottom end of the market......

for speakers, tbh the more you spend the better it gets.....if you want very good treble control, especially at high freqs then you need to spend money, most cheaper speakers will give you good bass and room filling ability tho...they just dont sound so refined...

i found it better to buy a piece or two of equipment every 6-9 months....has taken me 2 years or so to build up my system, but now its complete its much better than it would have been had i opted to buy a cheaper system all in one to begin with.....

 

[Cable Monkey]

I recently sold a setup on the forums consisting of a Sony STR-DB930 receiver, Tannoy Mx3 floorstanders, MxC centre and Mx1 rears for the princly sum of £215 inclusive of delivery/postage. It all cost over a thousand new. It is the only way you will get near the quality you require at that price.

 

[Dfour]

If you want New recievers:

Yamaha 557

Sony 798

Marantz sr 4500 If they EVER get this back in stock its a total steal!!!!!!

Denon 1706

I DONT gaurentee these are the best prices but they seem quite good (especially the Marantz). Also the Cambridge audio as metioned before but I would be wary of buying just before they put out the newer models as the old models price might drop.

Hope this helps

 

[Nemeliza]

TOSHIBA SD-350 High Definition DVD/DivX player

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/108174/art/toshiba/sd-350-dvd-divx-player.html?srcid=3

£66 Inc. VAT!!!1

BARGAINTASTIC!

 

[rossyl]

thanks guys

some excellent suggestions there. I think I would be wanting brand new components.

What should I look for with the amp? Whats a shortlist of features?
7.1
How many coax inputs???
How many optical inputs???
I would need a minimum of 4 analogue inputs
A stereo mix to dolby.

Next a speaker package. I do have some decent hifi speakers. However I am aware of building a system with mismatched speakers, particularly if the impedance is different then I may end up with an unbalanced sound.

Further speakers that look nice will go down well!!

Thanks

 

[Dfour]

Only you know how amny coax/optical ins/outs you need and the ammount of analogue inputs. Most amps are 6.1 now with all the newer ones able to power 7 speakers + sub. All amps upmix stereo to 5 or more channels using Dolby, DTS or THX.

What speakers do you own at the moment? Can you get a centre from the same maker and model as the ones you own? Its not so important that the rears and the sub are from the same manufacturer. So pick and choose

 

[rossyl]

hi thanks

No chance of getting a centre of the same make. I have some bookshelf Jamo's and some Harbeth/KLF Floorstanders (they are ugly as hell but sound beautiful!)

 

[AcademicBarzo]

£350 is not a lot of money, but a good starter set might be the following:

Yamaha NSP240 speakers (5.1 with active sub) @ £79.99
Toshiba 350 @ £119.99
Yamaha RXSL80S @ £149.99

You could always swap the Tosh 350 for a Pioneer 575 (lose HDMI but still get prog scan through component, gain SACD and DVD-A playback) or a Samsung 950 (keep HDMI, gain SACD/DVD-A playback, but lose flexibility of speaker settings for SACD and DVD-A + add £10). Don't think the speakers will be up to replay of this calibre anyway, and software is limited.

All these prices are from RS - know that the Tosh can be bought cheaper. Only thing I have not heard is the receiver, but as a Yamaha, the processing is likely to be good, and should make a good match with the speaker set. Note: for this sort of money you are not going to get a top sound, but it should all be ok. Of course, this type of system is a replacement for what you've got, which may not be ideal.

If you are looking for just an amp and some speakers, Marantz amps usually sound very good with music, and you should be able to pick up the 5500 for quite a bit less than £300. The centre speaker presents a condundrum - might be hard to get something to match your floorstanders. A number of amps these days come with speaker and room equalisations (and not just THX amps), but I have no idea how effective they are. Plus, those amps/receivers tend to be expensive. The Pioneer 915 is such a receiver; it is 7.1 and does have both an automatic set-up and speaker equalisation, but it has not met with entirely enthusiastic reviews (can be picked up for about £250), due to a supposedly bright, thin sound. Might be worth auditioning with your kit though. Having a matched centre is important.

An alternative would be to buy an amp with two zones, and use a 5,1 satellite package alongside your current stereo speakers, switching between them for home cinema and hi-fi duties. You probably need to double your budget to get what you want with full size speakers, especially if you are not willing to buy second hand.

Hope this helps

 

[kevinsmith98]

If you want New recievers:

Yamaha 557

Sony 798

Marantz sr 4500 If they EVER get this back in stock its a total steal!!!!!!

Denon 1706

I DONT gaurentee these are the best prices but they seem quite good (especially the Marantz). Also the Cambridge audio as metioned before but I would be wary of buying just before they put out the newer models as the old models price might drop.

Hope this helps

you can get the Denon 1906 from Empire Direct for just over £220; is that better value than the 1706?

Kevin

 

[Dfour]

you can get the Denon 1906 from Empire Direct for just over £220; is that better value than the 1706?

Kevin

Just checked and its £254.28 + p&p and as usual they have no stock It would be better than the 1706 though.

 

[Nt016]

damn thats cheap for the toshiba

 

[Nt016]

would go for this though, plays SACD & DVD-audio too: SAMSUNG DVD-HD950 High Definition

 

[pragmatic]

Does the toshiba play HD, it just says digital video out nothing about scaling (and at that price I doubt it'll do scaling or of any quality if it does)

 

[Jamesy_UK]

Sorry for the thread ressurection but being a bit noob on the denon 1706 amp, will the amp auto-detect the fact its setup with 5.1 instead of 6.1 or 7.1 and ajust accordingly? .
wifey agreed to 5.1 but no way to 6.1 or 7.1.

 

[pragmatic]

Yep everything is backwards compatable down to 5.1. and stereo even, the back channel on the few films with it, will be spilt between the 2 rears, depending on the size of your room you'll probably not notice the dfference.

 

[jasonl]

jamesy_uk: make sure you turn off the rear center (or surround back if the amp is 7.1) in your amp's setup so that in case you pop-in a 6.1 (or 7.1?)encoded title, you wont miss it coz if you leave it on, the amp will drive the 6th (and 7th) and you wont hear it

i hope i said it clear and hope this helps