Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)
  • surround sound. educate me on modern stuff
  • DT78
    Free Member

    I have a pretty ancient samsung 5.1 system with DVD. it must be 10-15 years old. great sound, but it’s starting to play up. for some reason it keeps cutting signal from the virgin box intermittently and then being ok again 5 secs later. I know it’s the Samsung as if I bypass and wire the box direct it works fine. interesting no issues with firestick…

    anyway thought, its ancient I’ll look to see what I can replace it with. I might be being a bit dim but do these types of system not really exist any more? it seems to be all about soundbars, and from what I can see it’s all bloody expensive.

    I know nothing in this space, so is it a sound bar I want to replace the old system? and what do people so to watch physical DVDs these days? kids have got loads so dont really want to switch 100% to streaming..

    finally what’s decent out there that isnt silly money?

    frogstomp
    Full Member

    On the DVD front, does your telly have any USB sockets? If so, you could just rip your DVDs to a USB key / drive and plug that in.

    simon_g
    Full Member

    Soundbars are massively popular because as TVs got flatter, sound got worse and worse. For most people they give enough stereo separation, enough bass, enough “virtual” surround for them to be happy. I know quite a few people who went from amps and speakers all over to soundbars once they had kids and wanted stuff out of the way and for the most part they work well. Modern TVs can send control signals and audio over the HDMI lead to it, which lets the TV be the central thing and control it all from that remote.

    Disc-playing 5.1 systems have largely gone (although Currys still list one if you just want to replace) so it’s either a soundbar, a soundbar plus extra sub/satellite combo, or go AV geek separate amp and speakers route.

    A standalone DVD player is under £30, or blu-ray player £60. Else Xbox 360 / PS2 onwards play DVDs, and PS3 / Xbox One onwards play blu-rays. I ripped all our DVDs to the computer years ago before a house move so can just stream them to the TV.

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    twistedpencil
    Full Member

    I replaced an 5.1 amp last year, after it was wiped out by lightning, with a new Onkyo av receiver. The new amp is awesome, its driving the Kef speakers way better than the one its replaced.

    So my take would be just replace the amp if you’re happy with your speaker set up.

    I’m sure soundbars are better than tv speakers, but I suspect a 5.1 setup is better than a soundbar.

    We’ve still got loads of discs and I still buy 4k ones for films I love as streaming has it’s limitations on a projector, however the kids just stream the films they want to watch now, even though we have some of them on disc.

    Tech marches on, and I’m sure discs will become redundant before too long.

    DT78
    Free Member

    cheers for the comments. sound like I’m still a bit of a dinosaur.

    costs seem to have spiralled to. I seem to remember the whole setup was around £300. looks like that’s about the price of a single soundbar now.

    I’m not sure I’d be happy with just a single sound source…might have to browse richer sounds

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    If you’re going for a receiver check what impedance your existing speakers are, 5.1 packages tend to be lower 3 ohm speakers whilst receivers and amps are designed to drive 6 to 8 ohm.

    simonalex99
    Full Member

    Richer sounds, does a Yamaha home cinema package system. AV receiver and all speakers/subwoofer. £350

    https://www.richersounds.com/tv-home-cinema/home-cinema-packages/yamaha-yht1840.html

    The cheapest AV receiver they have is a Yamaha at £220 which looks the same one in the package. So it seems good deal to get the Yamaha package

    twonks
    Full Member

    Depends what you want as I find soundbars awful for sound quality and musical quality.

    Might be fine for tv and generic listening but, we have relatively old 5.1 speakers with a newish decent AV amp and the speakers still sound great with both music and movies.

    Will be going for extra speakers for Atmos duties ultimately but a nice set of floorstanders and their equivalent centre can be had quite cheap nowadays and is what I’d recommend if you have the space.

    doublezero
    Free Member

    Due to much nagging I gave in and got a soundbar, its ok but you will not get clear split sound definition especially at the rear without physical speakers.

    Its not bad but you can’t beat an AV receiver set up.

    sharkattack
    Full Member

    Can anyone recommend a decent sound bar for around £200, or are they all much of a muchness? It doesn’t help that they all look identical.

    I’m not a hifi fanatic and don’t need incredible sound quality. I just want to bypass the terrible TV speakers which vibrate at a really unpleasant frequency every time there’s a bit of atmospheric background music.

    rockhopper70
    Full Member

    I have a denim dht t100 sound base, so it’s a bigger unit the telly sits on.

    It’s a good one box solution that doesn’t dominate the room visually or audibly.

    I think it is a retired model, Phillips do one with a separate wireless woofer. The canton DM range always seem to get good reviews.

    I’d love a proper system, but the lounge is fairly small, we are in a semi and the base just suits.

    GeForceJunky
    Full Member

    If you are anywhere near Gloucestershire, I have a Onkyo AV receiver, Harman Kardon 5.1 speakers and blu-ray player currently for sale for £150. The amp only does 1080p passthrough though, so better suited to non-4K TVs.

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    oakleymuppet
    Free Member

    Yamaha AVRs are the best budget AVRs. Denon are best when you’re looking at 700-1000 quid.

    Soundbars will disappoint you if you’re used to half decent bookshelves.

    I’d love a proper system, but the lounge is fairly small, we are in a semi and the base just suits.

    Get small, front ported bookshelves or KEF T301/T101’s – wall mount them and use the AVR to roll off any boosted bass from the boundry effect. Use small dipole speakers for rear surrounds to make their effects less direct and more nuanced.

    toby1
    Full Member

    Don’t get a dog as the dog will chew through your rear speaker cables (that you never got round to putting under the floor) and then you’ll be left with a flat sounding 3.1 system 🙁

    If you had an old Samsung DVD/AMP and speaker package a soundbar will probably be ok, the trend has been towards bar and bases as they are tidier than full 5.1 setups, but they won’t ever get to the same level of sound quality.

    oakleymuppet
    Free Member

    Just use adhesive cable trunking and hide it along the skirting – the dog/child won’t chew through them then.

    jairaj
    Full Member

    Yep Simon_g perfectly explains it. At the budget end people tend to prefer the convenience of one box solution of sound bars so cheap multi speaker setups are rare now.

    I have an old Sony DVD 5.1 system that I don’t use. You can have it for free just make a donation to charity. It uses small satellite speakers and subwoofer. Nothing special but does the job fine.

    I’m based in Hertfordshire. If interested PM me and I’ll get you more details and pics.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Following, just bought a new TV and it’s digital out but my Logitech sound system is analogue… I guess I can find a cheap fax, don’t want a soundbar.

    jeffl
    Full Member

    @cynic-al I had the same challenge about 11 months ago. Got a cheap DAC from Amazon and optical cable to plug into the TV. Then phono to the amp. Works fine. The volume control on the TV even works the amp volume, which to me is pure magic over an old school phono connection.

    prettygreenparrot
    Full Member

    DVDs? I just use the PlayStation to play DVDs and Blu-Rays.

    I started off down this modern AV sound route with a Sony ‘one box’ AV ‘solution’. It was fine for movies and TV. Less so for music but not bad. And better than sound bars at the time. It still does good work at a friend’s.

    then it was a Yamaha 5.1 amp and a set of Tannoy 5.1 speakers from richer sounds.

    I’ve changed the amp for an updated model a couple of times. Once it broke so I bought a new one and had the old one repaired under the RS extended warranty. Then I bought a newer one that handles 4K. The others work with our other TVs.

    I changed the speakers a bit too. Kept the rear Tannoy speakers and replaced the fronts with some monitor audio GR60 floor-standers from a friend and the centre with a B&W centre speaker off eBay.

    If I were starting today I’d probably get a 5.1 amp and a speaker package maybe one of those mini-speaker like ones cambridge minx or similar. Like folks say, soundbars are a step above TV speakers but often so-so for music.

    I’d also work harder to figure out how to stop the pesky LG OLED moaning about turning itself off after a while watching stuff and occasionally ‘stealing’ the speaker duties from the amp. But that is probably another post.

    toby1
    Full Member

    Just use adhesive cable trunking and hide it along the skirting – the dog/child won’t chew through them then.


    @oakleymuppet
    , I have doorways on 3 walls in the room, a concrete floor and block built not studs walls (ex-MOD house) plus a fireplace/backboiler on the one wall without a doorway, hence it’s one of those problems I’ve yet to find a solution for, total pain in the butt!

    ji
    Free Member

    I have doorways on 3 walls in the room, a concrete floor and block built not studs walls (ex-MOD house) plus a fireplace/backboiler on the one wall without a doorway, hence it’s one of those problems I’ve yet to find a solution for, total pain in the butt!

    Run it up the wall in a corner, and then either neatly in the ceiling or slightly less so behind coving.

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    I’d also work harder to figure out how to stop the pesky LG OLED moaning about turning itself off after a while watching stuff

    My new LG was doing this when streaming using the built in apps….. It would reboot at random times which is very annoying.
    There’s been a recent firmware update -last week- and I’m told it’s not done it since (by my daughter’s who are home from uni and stream stuff on it constantly)

Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)

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