What component to buy

bertiespiv

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Hi,
I have just bought a panasonic TH42PZ700 plasma TV and a sony playstation 3. I have a semi decent stereo system of which I would like to retain the speakers and subwoofer (Monitor speakers and a Polke subwoofer).
I would be grateful for any pointers as to the best audio unit to purchase to bring all of this together and the best connects to use to get optimium TV, Blue-ray and gaming sound and vision.

Thanks to any kind contributors.
 
I would be grateful for any pointers as to the best audio unit to purchase to bring all of this together and the best connects to use to get optimium TV, Blue-ray and gaming sound and vision.

Do you have a top limit on your budget for an amp?
 
Not really enough to do the rest of the kit justice really - I'm no Hi-Fi buff.
 
Given that you didn't set a max budget I would look for an amp that can decode the HD sound formats, to give a little bit of future proofing. Starting point: Onkyos 605 or higher models in their range:

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/hotsystemsAMP_ONK605.htm

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/hotsystemsHC_ONKYOAMPS.html

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/hotsystemsAMP_DEN2808.htm

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/hotsystemsAMP_YAM1800.htm

Do you have any specific requirements such as zone 2, bi-amping, pre-outs, up-conversion, up-scaling, analogue inputs, number of HDMI connections...

Is this just for PS3 and TV? any other inputs?
 
Thanks for your recent input.
I have just bought the Onkyo 505E. Now all I have to do is connect them all together. I was intending to go HDMI from TV to PS3 and Optical from PS3 to 505 to optimise blue ray and gaming sound and vision - do you agree?
What would you advise from TV to 505E for optimal TV sound, (HDMI, Scart etc.)

thanks
 
Shame you didn't reply to the previous post. I would have said to look for an AV Receiver that has front pre-outs so you can keep your stereo system and integrate it into a 5.1 setup. The 705 is the first on the Onkyo ladder that does that. I run a similar setup with my Arcam and Denon gear and it works a treat.

Stick with HDMI from the Onkyo as it does up to 1080p passthrough via HDMI.
 
i would just plug the HDMI from PS3 straight to TV then optical from PS3 to Amp. Going through the amp on the 505 doesn't give you much extra. You probably need to change the audio settings on the PS3 to bitstream
 
I always like to keep things tidy, and the less cables the better, hence I use hdmi for both sound and vision.
 
I always like to keep things tidy, and the less cables the better, hence I use hdmi for both sound and vision.

Bit tricky to do that with the 505 though as it only passes HDMI through and doesn't take sound from it so you need the optical link AFAIK ?

I really wouldn't have picked this amp to pair with a PS3 as you can't get the HD audio formats from the PS3 over optical and the PS3 lacks 5.1 analogue outputs.
 

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