Moving to new house and have a room to play with to set up a decent sized TV and want good sound system to work with it.

The primary function is for films and games but will also be required for music. Sound system budget is c£1.5k for amp and speakers, maybe over if worth it.

Music taste is a real mix between me and my partner and ranges from classical to hard techno with a bit of take that in there! 8O.

This is new ground for me so can’t decide if a boxed 5.1 system will do enough to keep me happy or if I should start with a 2.1 system with better speakers and see how I feel. The wiring faffage of 5.1 has to be worth it?

What lessons have people learnt and where are good sources to read about this? Magazines seem to say that everything is great so a little confusing.

I was wondering if I could get a 5.1 amp and run floor standing speakers left and right, a centre speaker and a sub to start. I don’t know if an AV amp will run floor standing speakers well? A sort of hybrid system so that it can handle music or does that not work?

Also the AV amp has to be usable by the other half – not rocket science to work along side the TV.

Any ideas or advice welcome

I have good ears (several work tests confirm this) and the best I can do is nod and smile when listening to really expensive systems…

Got a bog standard 10 year old sony system with dolby 5.1 and optical in (PC supports 5,1 optical out) and it’s great. Better than my ears.

I fancied a system to do both music and movies. Arcam Muso speakers seemed to fit the bill – pricey though.

Your biggest issue will be that the requirements for hifi seem to be rather different to those of movies. You’d hope a modern system would be able to manage this though.

A big AV amp will run floorstanding speakers no problem.

Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo are good places to start when looking at AV amps.

Look for one with power amp out puts so you can connect to a dedicated power amp for you front speakers when you want to upgrade the system.

The most important speaker for AV is the centre speaker. The most important speakers for music are the two fronts – so this is where to send you money.

You can add surround speakers later.

Also consider whether you actually need a CD player.

These days I stream most of my music so a Blu Ray player is fine for playing the occasional CD. My expensive two box CD player is really just an ornament now

While I like the idea of a good surround sound system the perceived wisdom from a couple of years ago was you needed to spend a wad load of cash on a decent AV Receiver to get a decent hifi sound for music along with the films. I gave up on the idea and we just plug it into our main hifi system and on the whole that does a pretty good job. I have an old Rotel amp so have no output for a sub woofer which would probably be nice for the full ambient soundtrack stuff but we get by. The main thing we miss is the “surround” experience ie hearing sounds coming at you from behind and the side. For the money you are spending you may get the best compromise by going for a good quality hifi amp that supports a sub woofer and decent speakers.

All IMHO of course. 😀

The most important speaker for AV is the centre speaker. The most important speakers for music are the two fronts – so this is where to send you money

How important is it for all 6 to be matched?

The most important speaker for AV is the centre speaker. The most important speakers for music are the two fronts – so this is where to send you money

How important is it for all 6 to be matched?

Depends how much input SWMBO has on what the room ends up looking like*

*See also: negotiations over where surround speakers look best vs work best

HTH

NAD Viso, great sound, in budget, usable by otherhalf, looks good…

I’ve got an entry level set of 5.1 and a pair of entry level floor standers – two separate systems. They used to make surround and centre speakers that matched my floorstanders but no longer.

How important is it for all 6 to be matched?

You would want to try and match at least your front three. This shouldn’t be a problem though as most speaker manufacturers will have matched ranges

You’ll be wanting an av amp that handles HD sound codecs – a must if you are watching blu-ray. Dolby HD and DTS Master Audio will blow you away in comparison to standard 5.1 My Yamaha is about 5 years old now so maybe all amps now come equipped, but check anyway.

This shouldn’t be a problem though as most speaker manufacturers will have matched ranges

Well mine are old.. so I went to ebay.. currently a centre speaker for 99p, that’s going on my watch list!

Is it possible to attach two amps to the same set of speakers?

I like the look of the Onkyo TX-NR515 AV amp and building a system around it. Maybe only starting with fronts and centre first but buying nice units. Slowly build it up as something to look forward to.

When I was in the market (obviously things have moved on) Onkyo delivered thundering movie performance but weren’t particularly good for music (ok an av amp is always going to be a compromise). I’d go for another Yammy in a heartbeat. However I always trawl What Hi-Fi and avforums before purchasing

Is it possible to attach two amps to the same set of speakers?

Yes and er no.

You can bi-amp, which is driving the tweeters and the woofers using seperate amps – they would need to be the same manufacturer and the same gain other wise you would get volume and tone differences.

You could wire up a stereo amp to your main speakers for music and also connect the main speakers to an AV amp for movies using stacking cables / jumpers. It would work but could potentially be very messy if you ever ran the output of both amps into the speakers simultaneously so its not really worth the risk

Problem is, I have a nice hifi set of amps, and a cheap AV amp for movies. I couldn’t think of a decent way of combining the two into one set of speakers for convience, so I just run both.

I think the only way is to run the source into the AV and have the centre, surround and SW connected to it. Then take the source back out of the AV into the hifi amp, and switch both on when watching movies.

If movies really do mostly put music on the L and R fronts, and effects and speech from the others, then this might actually work. But it would only save two small satellite speakers, so it’s really not worth it is it?

This is the general feeling I am getting. If I was to sacrafice one it would be music over cinema. I just wondered if there was a known route to get your cake and eat it from the one set of equipment. Seems not. Another industry that keeps things difficult to sell more units! 👿

No, you can. An AV amp would be perfectly adequate for music. The only issue you’ll have is if you are particularly precious about hifi.

Having said that, you need to spend a bit more on the small satellite/sub speaker systems to compare with cheaper dedicated hifi. But if you’re not an audiophile you’re unlikely to care – and besides you have a decent budget.

I don’t like my AV system for music but the speakers cost £200 and the amp was something like £150 managers special.

I am definately not an audiophile so sounds like it should do the trick. The budget is to be spent over time, probably not in a oner. I just like having a cap on my projects so that things don’t creep too far, I save that for bikes! lol

To be honest if you weren’t an audiophile you’d think my cheapo system sounds ok, probably. You’d be able to tell the difference between that and my nice hifi, but just don’t listen to nice hifis and you’ll be fine 🙂

Just take your wonga into your local hifi shop, you’ll buy their respect with that lot 🙂

One thing though – you can’t buy much in stages – you could buy a 2.1 system first and the remaining speakers later, but that doesn’t save much really.

So mols my set up is as follows.

A nice beefy Yamaha surround amp

All the sources connect into the surround amp (this is good as it has bucket loads of connections)

The centre channel and the main speakers are then connected from the pre-amp outs on the surround amps to my hifi amps (Audiolab 8000 stuff). One amp drives the centre, another amp drives the main speakers.

All the surround amp drives is the surround speakers but I have the convenience of everything connecting through the one amplifier while having “proper hi-fi” when listening to music

I would have a look at What Hifi, and also post up on AVforums, for you’re budget there are great Amp/Speaker packages about, Richer sounds will give you an idea of what you would typically get, and they and most other GOOD AV shops will let you demo, or at least listen in their own demo room (which will sound different to your intended room)to some systems. Listen to as much as you can, take movies/cd’s with you.
http://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/home-cinema-system-deals/pah01964
http://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/home-cinema-system-deals/pah011071
With your budget you should have an awesome system.
Its worth having a wander around the room you intend to use clapping and seeing how bad the echos are, could be worth setting some money aside for a bit of DIY room correction?
Do some research and enjoy the process, its a toy when all is said and done.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/members-home-cinema-gallery/1346244-bodgit-scarper-fun-games-low-budget.html

Does it improve the movie experience, given that the movie music will sound better through the real amp?

Picked up pre-owned Arcam 7.1 amp , CD/DVD and B&W system for relative
peanuts compared to new price – there are a lot of “upgraders” out there and decent stuff can be had – however if you are looking at new only then do try to get an amp that can make music sound ok – movie style music can get pretty tiring .

I have to avoid the multi amp ideas although they sound pretty wise, or the better half will be the only noise I hear as she tries to work it. Shortly followed by something expensive with wires coming through the air in my direction! 😯

I have a Mordant Short speaker set, from about 4-5 years ago and a Onkyo amp from the same period. Combined cost for the lot was probably close to your budget, possible even less.

If you switch the amp to pure audio, driving from an ipod for example it is very quiet, I may benefit from a pre-amp here though. From CD is it not ideal, so I largely use it for TV And movie duties at which it is great, blu-ray is particularly good on DTS.

People may not say that 5.1 is worth it, but I’d disagree also my system does a great job and it didn’t cost thousands per speaker either.

mr plow – Member

I have to avoid the multi amp ideas although they sound pretty wise, or the better half will be the only noise I hear as she tries to work it. Shortly followed by something expensive with wires coming through the air in my direction!
Harmony remote sorts that though.

I’ve been running a dual setup for 14 years now.
All the money spent on the hi-fi, then bargain bits picked up from here/there/everwhere for the AV Audio side.

I still use an old Yamaha product DSP-E800 that is basically an AV add-on for a hi-fi.

Rega Ela II fronts with Rega Kyte pointing in from the side-walls at the rear. Centre is some big but cheap one from Richer Sounds (Paradigm I think).

It sounds absolutely fantastic for both.

My Hi-Fi is all at the front of the room and then (because I use a projector instead of a TV, all the AV gubbins is hiddenish at the back.

.
But then if you’re not wanting high-end hi-fi I guess this is all nonsense – just demo Yamaha/Onkyo/Denon big amps against each other and choose one. They do all sorts of convenience stuff now like iPod/spotify/netflix/etc.

Does it improve the movie experience, given that the movie music will sound better through the real amp?

Well the hi-fi amps are just better amps generally so using them to drive the main speakers is a good idea whether it s for movies or music

I already had a decent HiFi and speakers and wanted some kinda surround sound.

The thing that put me off the 5.1 ‘boxed sets’ was the lack of inputs (couldn’t run DVD, TV, XBox etc all together). So bought a decent amp/receiver and a (cheap) set of surround speakers (inc sub).

I then hard-wired all speakers.

Sounded brill in our old house (small room) and just as good in our new house with 2-storey lounge. The amp has the ability to define each speaker for height and distance, plus room size etc.

So, yes, I’ve 7 speakers in the room – but no loose wires. So allowed 🙂

make sure you get a decent centre speaker, most of the speech will be routed through it so it can make a huge difference to the overall sound quality

Some modern recievers have the ability and setup options to use stero speakers in conjunction with 5.1 speakers. or alternatively allow you to setup up your 5.1 independently to your main two fonts so you can use them for music only giving best of both worlds at the press of a button

some denon recievers have this, but expect onkyo, yamaha, sony etc to have similar.

you might want to give some thought on matching the speakers and amp, bright clinical speakers and an amp might be a disappointing sound.

i would make this the heart of the system

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/sony/strdn1030/sony-strdn1030-blk

All depends wheather you want a ‘satelite’ 5.1 system or floorstanders, standmounts and a centre..

nice satelite system here:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/monitor-audio-mass_Surround-Sound-System_review

And a lovely b&w system here..

http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/p/b-w-685-theatreav-speaker-package/tv-home-cinema_speakers_av-speaker-packages?pp=96

Plenty more speaker packages here also..

http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/c/tv-home-cinema_speakers_av-speaker-packages

Thank everyone for giving me good food for thought.

An STW crash course. Sounds like demoing back to back is the way forward to start this adventure.

So I really like the look of the Song 1030 AV receiver above and I am thinking about the Monitor Mass speaker system. I have admitted to myself that I am not a music audiophile but this looks like lovely stuff and the other half will aprreciate that it does not take up/dominate the whole room. The integration of Sony products should work well enough that the better half can also work it.

Will need to get a demo of it to prove it is not a smelly mess when played together.

mikewsmith – Member
I have good ears (several work tests confirm this) and the best I can do is nod and smile when listening to really expensive systems

OK, I’ll bite, you are having a laugh?

What was your pre-ban username again?

When I was looking at a new AV Amp earlier this year I’d looked at the Denon 2113, Sony 1030, Onkyo 616 and a Pioneer. I liked the fact the Sony had built in wireless but it couldn’t compete with the Denon and Onkyo amps in either music or movies. Pioneer was a better musically but also cost a fair bit more. I went for the Denon in the end due to having a previous model which had been faultless and I’ve had no reason to regret doing so.
If you go to a good shop they will help you chose the speakers to go with the amp. I was surprised at how different they sound when mixed together. With us we already had some Kef Coda 10’s which have served us well and thought we’d go with other Kef speakers to complete the surround sound. After trying various speakers of different manaufacturers we went for Q Acoustics which have been very impressive for the price.
We had spent a full afternoon in the listening room watching and listening to same DVD’s and music until we were happy with our choice of components.

Floor standing front speakers, with matching surround would be my choice. 5.1 is plenty for a modest sized room. Speakers have more impact than amplification. An active subwoofer is always nice. So what did I end up with? Sonus Faber 5.1 speakers plus used REL subwoofer and a cheap Onkyo 5.1 receiver. The receiver was chosen on the grounds of 1) size – had to fit in a specific cabinet 2) HDMI switching for multiple inputs.

I used to run a used Denon receiver with a Quad 303 driving the front speakers, but it wouldn’t fit when we moved.

My top tip is to buy some used speakers and be sure the front three match.

Won’t know until I sit down with them I guess. Will get my audiophile mate to come along and slate away. I was thinking floor standing speakers to start with but reading and thinking about the system I realise that music is not as important to me.

Don’t forget how much music is used in movies to set the atmosphere.

as above I would go for a quality av amp from denon, yamaha etc a couple of floor standers and matching center, rears can be quite compact all tied in with a quality sub woofer. To make it simple for the SO a programmable remote should simplify it.