new home cinema 7.1 advice

strix123

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Hello,
I am l looking for advice for which amp and speakers and only have £800 -£1000 to spend,i think i have decided on the amp being the Denon 1909 as it seems to have good reviews and good coments in the forum (unless there is a better way to spend £400) as for the speaker i was looking at the q acoustics 1010i 5.1 £399 and 1020i's for the front to make 7.1 or KEF KHT 2005.2 £399 (cannot afford .3) or the mordaunt short genie £399 and buying extra surrounds to make 7.1 or again any better package for the money i am new to the world of A/V so any advice would be gratefully appreciated.
 
strix123, how big is your room and what are your sources? The first thing is to decide whether your room and seating position are ideally suited to 7.1 compared to 5.1. You also need to bear in mind the minimal amount of true 7.1 content plus the additional cost of the extra speakers may mean it's better not to spread your budget quite so thinly (with the need to purchase those two extra rear surround speakers). The Denon AVR-1909 as an av receiver is a good starting point, though you should ideally audition one to see if it fits your needs. Your speaker choice would largely be driven by the size/shape of your room (hence the earlier question) and whether you're looking for something that's more discrete/compact or more conventional box-like speakers. Again, you should try to audition as tastes in the overall sound does vary from person to person i.e. some people like a more upfront presentation and other people prefer something that's a bit more neutral. Certainly if you have any music sources, the Q Acoustic speakers would be better than the Kefs IMO.

As well as those surround speakers you mentioned the obvious 5.1 choice would be the Quad L-ite package; they've been discontinued for a while, but certain colour finishes still seem to be available. For example, the rosewood and silver models are here. They're a popular choice and given their discounted price sound very good. The supplied sub is particularly good given the overall cost of the package now. The black ones seem impossible to find new now, but I did notice that Superfi are selling reconditioned ones without the sub for £299. You could then ally them with a different sub like the BK Elec XLS200 for example.

Robert
 
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thanks for your comments
my room is 24 x 12 and i am going to posistion all the speakers on the wall with the sides directly at the side of my seating with the rear being about 6 ft behind

sources/requirements

dvd
ps3 gaming/blue ray
sky
music

doesnt pro logic 11x change 5.1 to 7.1 ??

quad l-ites do seem to be popular and cannot find a bad word said about them so as i am going to use them for music would you say the l-ite or the 1010i would probably be more suitable than the kef eggs or the genies
 
doesnt pro logic 11x change 5.1 to 7.1 ??
Yes it does, but all you're doing is using the extra speakers to 'fill out' the space behind you in that kind of configuration rather than giving you extra discretely separate ambient surround sound channels. Some blu ray movies do have proper 7.1 soundtracks however. I would suggest you would still be better sticking to 5.1 surround; you can always add one or two extra speakers later (for 6.1/7.1) should you decide it's necessary and since the majority of av amps/receivers these days have 8 channel (i.e. 7.1) speaker output.

Yes, I would agree with your assumption that the Q Acoustic or Quad L-ites would be better for music than the eggs or the genies. If you can accomodate them, instead of the 1010i's for the front stereo pair you could consider the 1030i floorstanders as an option as well.

Robert
 
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