Pioneer KURO - Surround system advise

skurella

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Hi

I am looking for advice in deciding which surround speaker system I should buy. I have Pioneer KURO 50" TV with its horizontal speaker that is attached to the bottom of the tv and I also have a BD player.

I am looking for either a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system with best sound clarity but definitely not with a BD/dvd player. I went through online reviews and Which? Best buys but all of them seem to come with a 'main unit'!

I also would love to go to a shop and see its performance instead of buying from an online retailer directly.


any suggestions please?

Thanks
SK
 
What is your budget?
Plenty of AV specialists around that you can demo AVR and speaker combinations. You may not need a built in bluray/DVD but you will need a 'main unit' in terms of an AVR (amplifier to power the speakers).
 
What is your budget?
Plenty of AV specialists around that you can demo AVR and speaker combinations. You may not need a built in bluray/DVD but you will need a 'main unit' in terms of an AVR (amplifier to power the speakers).
Hi PSM1 - Thanks for your quick response. I meant BD/DVD player by 'main unit'? Sorry for the confusion...

I still need to break this news to the Mrs but I am thinking around £600-£700. I would prefer the speakers to be tiny (like Bose ones) so that I can mount them on the wall around the tele in a triangular fashion I.e., two on the top and one below. My tele will be wall mounted noted very soon.

My living room dimensions are 8.5 x 3.5 x 2.6 (in metres) (L x W x H) and the tele will be on the right hand side of the living room towards the external Windows. I am planning to move the sofa so that it faces the tele.
 
Ideally the front 3 speakers would be same height and at head height when seated. So I would walk mount all 3 at same height. Plenty of options for you. A basic avr and sub/satellite speaker system would be easily achievable with your budget. Richer sounds would be a good place to start.
 
TV - remove the Pioneer Speaker to allow you to position a new Centre speaker directly below the TV.

Front LR - unless the TV is set very low place the new Front LR at the same height as the new Centre speaker (position them outside the width of the TV).

Surround LR - are best placed the side of you seating (usually wall mounted) and above your seated ear level.

Sub - when planning to use small Front speakers it is best to plan for the Sub to also be along the TV wall.

BOSE systems are not great when it comes to connectivity.

An entry level Denon, Sony, Pioneer or Yamaha AVR with multiple HDMI Inputs plus a budget 5.1 speaker system is where you should be looking.

Joe
 
Thank you very much PSM1 and Joe.

Is there any specific model you can suggest me please? I will plan a visit to RicherSounds in Kingston to see my options.

On sub-woofer : I was told I can place it anywhere in the room even inside a cabinet as it is used for low frequency sounds!!! I am not sure I was convinced with that statement. Do we need to place at the bottom of my tele? My builder is currently working on my cabinets and wall mounting on top of an old fire place, which I am not planning to use. I would like to inform builder if I need to keep sub woofer below my tele.

Thanks in advance
SK
 
'I was told I can place it anywhere in the room even inside a cabinet as it is used for low frequency sounds!!' - possibly true with a true Subwoofer only operating at very low frequencies (assuming you have a very well bolted together cabinet).

Where you are using small (very) limited range Satellite Speakers the 'Sub' has to operate up into the middle ranges which then means you can easily 'localise' where it is placed so the best option is to place it somewhere along the front wall to get good integration with the Front LCR speakers.

If you place it close to a corner or 'within' a cabinet you will likely 'boost' the bass output. If you place it 'in' a cabinet try and decouple it from the cabinet - sit it direct to the floor even if you are 'boxing' it in.

AVR - see the Review section here on AVF, plenty of great options. Personally I tend to use Yamaha most of the time.

Joe
 
Personally I would not put any speaker including a sub in a cabinet. A sub too near a corner can be a bad idea so can not see it being good boxed in even if on the floor. You can but in wall subs if you want something that us hidden. As Joe has said the sub at the front is the best option.
 
Thank you very much both of you. Although I planned to visit the store over the weekend, I couldn't do it! Builders are still busy in tearing my living room apart. I will visit the store soon and hopefully come up with a model and style for my living room...

Is there any link/url on AVFORUMS where I can understand various technical terms (like 'glossary') on surround systems. Frankly, I need to understand what a 'satellite speaker' or 'sub' mean ;)
 
I'm not aware of any "glossary" on the site but I'll answer these two for you.

"Sub" - is short for Subwoofer, which is this context is a stand alone specialized bass speaker that focuses on the really low frequencies - typically 25 < 150 hz. It is the sub that makes you feel the sound in the pi of your stomach.

A "Satellite Speaker" is generally considered to be a small "limited" range speaker that will be used in a AV setup. Typically people will talk about a set of speakers being a Sub/Sat set.

The Subwoofer deals with the low bass and the satellite speakers take on the rest of the frequency range say above 120Hz. This allows the satellite speakers to be smaller and more discrete as to make bass generally requires a much larger speaker and cabinet as it has to physically move a lot more air.

The opposite of a Sub/Sat system would be to use full range speakers which would, by necessity, be much larger.

Most movie sound tracks are mixed for a sub/sat system with the bass being directed to the subwoofer.
 
Hello everyone - I have managed to visit the shop today and got an idea of the systems and managed to understand all your above comments. Now i'm looking at the system specs to find out my receiver and speakers... The sales adviser showed me Tannoy speakers which were compact satellite speakers but i'm not sure how good they are. Any advice please?

I think I am looking for a receiver which has internet capabilities (wi-fi/ethernet/spotify) and also DLNA (as I have a NAS/Streamer). Airplay, Bluetooth and USB are nice to have too as we have quite a few Apple products.

Looked at reviews of Yamaha RX-V379 and it looked good but network capabilities wise, it does not seem to tick all the boxes for me. Found this review site - The Best AV Receivers of 2015 | Top Ten Reviews and noticed Onkyo TR-NR636 is good however it says it doesn't support AirPlay and Apple's Wi-Fi audio streaming protocol. I am not sure about the latter. Does anybody know what is apple's wi-fi audio protocol? Does any Apple user owns this receiver? I would like to know their opinion.

I am open to any other suggestions on receiver and speakers too. On Speakers, I would prefer compact front/rear L/R speakers as floor standing ones might not go well with our small living room...

Thanks once again
SK
 
Before we start talking products, what sort of budget do you want to work to. This is important so that you can build a balanced system.

For example, if you are looking at something like a ONKYO NR636 or a DENON AVR-X2200 at around £500 then you should be looking at an overall budget of around £2000.

If this is the case and the sales agent was showing you the Tannoy TFX 5.1 set then I'd be saying that the Amp needs much better speakers to get the best out of it.

Also, you mention wanting a DLNA compliant amp - what do you intend to stream to it from your NAS?
 
Hi
I am willing to spend in the range of £1500-£2000 but I would like to stick to lower level, if possible.

On DLNA - Yes, I would like to stream videos/audio from NAS to my tele, if at all it is possible. It it can do it, I can get rid of Xtreamer streamer, which I am using for streaming the videos from my NAS. Frankly, I can live without DLNA feature though as its not a big deal:)

Another q- Do we have an option of speakers that can be 'connected' to the receiver without wires? Some sort of wireless connection?

Thank you for your continuous support
SK
 
The DLNA capabilities of pretty much all AVRs is limited to sound only so you would not be able to stream video through the AVR. You would need a separate streamer that is then connected to the AVR if you wanted to stream video.
You can buy wireless kits but the degrade sound quality so are generally not advised. They also tend to have a central receiver unit so you still need a power lead to this and speaker cable from it to the speakers as well so not exactly wireless. Wired connections to the AVR are by the best, easiest and cheapest solution.
 
Thanks PSM1.

What do you guys think of Yamaha Rx-v479? Although I liked Mission M-Cubed black speakers, it has one bad review here Yamaha RXV679 & Mission M-CUBED Black | 5.1 Package System excluding DVD Player | Richer Sounds.

I intentionally ruled out Yamaha Rx-v679 as it is for 7.2 but I am looking for 5.1. Why pay extra for the feature which I am planning to use. Did I get this right?

Any suggestions on Tannoy hts101? TANNOY HTS101Black 5.1 Speaker Package

Many thanks for your continuous support
 
Better quality avrs will all be 7.1 so if you want better sound quality then will need to pay for these things. 5.1 will be budget receivers so not sound as good. As a general guide you can spend 2 to 3 times the rep of the receiver on the speakers to get a well balanced system.
 
Thanks PSM1. I think I will go with V679. I really liked the compactness of Mission M-Cube sat speakers but review is putting me off! I wish I can go through its specs and understand/assess its performance :(... Do you know of any brands that may well go with V679 please? I am planning to go through those speaker companies' websites to find a 'better looking' ones but I would be grateful if someone could give me a direction. :smashin:

Many thanks,
SK
 
The specs will tell you next to nothing about how they will sound. Only going to listen to them will tell you that. Also take reviews with a pinch of salt as they are often biased in one way or another. Mission, monitor audio and mourdant short are often recommended for Yamaha recievers. Conventional sized stereo speakers will in general give better sound for a given budget over satellite speakers. If they have to be small then the monitor audio mass or radius range would be worth a look. Also the focal sub/sat systems.
 
It'll stretch your budget but have a look at the Anthony Gallo Micro/TR-1D Sub combination.

If you want small high quality speakers they are hard to fault.

As PSM says forget about comparing speaker specs they tell you nothing about how they sound/will they work in your room.

Joe
 
The Gallo Micro are deceptively small - placed correctly they produce a big sound and do a great job of placing voices/sounds in your room.

Definitely worth the price.

Joe
 
Thanks Joe. Trying to get a demo for this kit too...
 
I had a demo at RicherSounds and got a quotation for following speakers with Yamaha RXV679.

  1. Cambridge Audio MINX MIN22 Black Sat Speaker with MINX X301 Black Subwoofer
  2. Monitor Audio MASS 5.1 Black speaker package
  3. Mission M3 (M-Cubed) 5.1 speaker package
Any suggestions with the above combinations please? Their demo room is sound-proof and a proper home-theater set-up and with that setup, I liked all of them actually! Not sure how it will perform in my house....

I talked to O'BRIEN HI-FI for a demo on Anthony Gallo. He mentioned that they don't stock Micro/SE series as they are inferior to A'Diva speaker. I am awaiting their response for a demo date for A'Diva. Although A'Diva speaker will stretch my budget, I am just wondering whether this would be a better option with Yamaha??? Yamaha is coming at 400GBP and Gallo is around 1.5k ....

Many thanks
SK
 
'He mentioned that they don't stock Micro/SE series as they are inferior to A'Diva speaker.' - if you follow that logic you would not stock A'Diva as they are inferior to the Strada2!

The Micro/Micro SE are a good fit in terms of size and budget for many folk - with a 'limited' budget I woudl prefer to spend more on a better quality AVR to partner the Micro/Micro SE vs. a lesser AVR with the A'Diva/A'Diva SE.

Joe
 

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