PS3, Sky HD and need surround sound advice

[Jonb2010]

I've got a PS3 and soon to upgrade to Sky HD, hooked up to a Panasonic Th42px600. I have a surround sound system that has great sound quality but hasn't got a decoder, before I was relying on the 5.1 decoder built into my DVD player.

What I need is either a seperate amp and a new set of speakers or an all-in-one set. I don't want to spend a lot and I'm not looking for the latest kit, if I can get last seasons models for a good price then more than happy. I just need something that will have the inputs for my kit. Do I use some sort of HDMI pass through ?

Any advice would be very much appreciated on the sort of thing I can get.

 

[davepuma]

Budget? Size/Type of speakers you prefer/can accommodate?

Package solutions to look for would be the Sony HT-DDGW800 or HT-SF1300 (floormounted) or HT-SS1300 (shelf) that can handle LPCM (lossless multi-channel) audio via HDMI to benefit from the HD decoding abilities of the PS3. If you want separates, there are a number of AV receivers capable of handling LPCM over HDMI e.g. Denon 1908/1909, Onkyo 576/605/606, Yamaha 761/463/563/763/861, Marantz SR4002, Sony 910/820 etc. etc. These are the cheaper models. Then pair them with a suitable set of speakers e.g. Jamo HCS5 A102, Canton, Mordaunt Short, Tannoy SFX/EFX, Q-Acoustics etc. If you're not bothered about HD audio, the Yamaha AV63 is always worth a look but don't expect miracles from small speakers that cost £110 retail!!

 

[Jonb2010]

Thanks for your reply and very useful. I don't really want to spend more than £300 at the moment and I don't really want to compromise on speaker quality either. Maybe I could buy an AV Receiver now and use my speakers for a bit until I can buy some more. It would just mean that I would be without the woofer for a while.

I have seen Richer sounds advertise a Sony STRK880 for £149 instead of £250 which seems a bargain. It has 3 HDMI so I guess it will do what I need. Is it a receiver anybody has any knowledge of ? Will it do what I need it to ? I have noticed that it doesn't have HDMI sound, does this mean I can use a seperate sound input for the PS3 and Sky HD box ?

 

[davepuma]

The speakers may or may not be any use. Personally I would save up until you can afford to replace them all, otherwise you are not really gaining any benefit from your new receiver. If you're looking at £150 for a receiver, I would look at the Yamaha or Cambridge Audio. You certainly won't get HDMI audio at that price level and you might not even get HDMI switching. The PS3 can output DD/DTS (vanilla sound formats) over optical via bitstream to a suitable decoding amp. Sky HD has to use optical for DD5.1 as it only passes stereo over HDMI.

 

[Jonb2010]

Managed to pick up a Marantz SR4002, a little bit over budget but on the hunt for a set of speakers now.

Will I be able to setup the PS3 and SkyHD via HDMI ?