STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

his advice is relatively sound providing you see through the salesman bullsh!t which you obviously have.

stormyuklondon1

nice little package, that comes in on budget..
Exceptional-AV.co.uk : : Specialists in Onkyo's award winning Hifi and home theatre systems
Onkyo are making some fantastic h/t products at the moment.
personally, i'd try whatever you get with the ps3 before stumping up for a seperate blu ray player. you may find the ps3 is all you need once set to out put high def audio, i had to go to a panasonic bd55 to better it for bluray performance.

urban

iTrader: (1)

You see thinking about it now after all the previous posts and subsequent reading other stuff I tend to agree.

I was thinking why is my PS3 blueray movie sound no where near as good as home cinema dvd - and now it all makes sense.

I sort of get surround sound a bit, but I think I might now just try sticking the TV/receiver optical cable into the PS3/receiver directly and see what the difference is.

I see the sense that seperates is better.
However with me its a living room - day to day use etc and must be also practical.
I suppose seperates are not really that different to what I already have in the the PS3 then becomes the DVD player?

Beef

You might find this of interest:

HT-IS100 (HTIS100) : Home Cinema and Hifi : Sony

3-to-1 HDMI switch, component inputs, optical inputs, 5.1 DD and DTS, and all for under £400.

It's not going to be good as a system made up of separates and top-quality speakers, and it doesn't do the HD audio codecs, which is a shame, but other than that it's a great all-in-one for the money. The way that all the connectors and amp are built into the sub is nice and tidy.

Just got one myself, and I'm really impressed by it. The fact that the speakers are quite so tiny makes it very popular with other halves, especially as they can be simply glued to the wall, and as it comes with a calibration microphone setup was very simple indeed.

Just another idea.

Ant

Plugging your tvs optical into the ps3 will not work .there both ouputs. You need a surround sound to make blu ray sound properly. As the film will be outputting 5.1 and blu ray don't give you stereo (well not many) that's why its sounds poo through the tv.

Have you checked your settings on the ps3?

urban

iTrader: (1)

Didn't really word that post too well quite obviously.

What I was really trying to say was that I'll unplug the optical cable from the back of the TV and plug into the PS3.
That'll mean PS3 optical out then goes to receiver optical in.

You reckon I'll notice a difference in the quality of sound then?

It's all a tad confusing trying to read about various amps?
Doesn't help matters when you don't really know what you should be looking for.

Jamz3k

Who were you speaking too in Richer?

If you are ringing them again either ask for Matt or Dave. These 2 "do" know their products and if buying ask for Dave or JohnMc and make it clean that your a good mate of mine and that i "Jamz" sent you.

And if do buy anything and need help setting it up, i'm a bit rusty but i used to do it day in day out.

Ant

If you've never ran your ps3 through the surround sound you'll notice a huge difference.

Using optical you'll get DTS and 5.1 but not DTS-HD or true HD but you'll be fine with just DTS.

Give it a go, might save yourself some pennys.

Jamz3k

I am of the opinion that a good majority of the opinions on AVforums aren't based on fact but instead, its what someone told them. Compare a £5/10 HDMI to a £30/50 HDMI on a 42" Television with a good source and you will see the different. More vivid colours and a generally stronger image is the result with less information being lost. This is especially true when using longer HDMI cables.

On the flip side if you have a £50 Philips Upscaling DVD player on a 32" LCD HD Ready LCD made by Techwood, you would be wasting your money on expensive cables. You wouldn't put remoulds on a Ferrari though?

I am willing to stand by this as I used to demo cables including HDMI cables to customers in order to upsell as i always believed that the proof was in the pudding.

My Toshiba HD-EP35, Xbox360 & Sky+HD showed varying levels of improvement in quality using QED Qunex HDMI cables.

Ant

Well I have a £50 quid cable(that I acquired from work) and £10 cable and there is no difference at all. Its a digital signal so aslong as it gets from one end to the other job done!

I do agree with cables 10M plus my dad had a very cheap one that long and 1080p was shocking through his projector . Kept freezing.

The only reason expensive ones exist because people like currys and richer sounds is get them to make money as they hardly make **** all on tvs.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

snake oil I say!

urban

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, don't remember the name - he did announce who he was too.

Thanks for the offer though.
The guy I was talking to was pretty down to earth basically said that the TV should be treated as a monitor and only should have 2 leads connected.
1 HDMI & 1 Power

Everything else via the amp.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Is that the Sony STR-DA2400ES?

Where would you get it for under £300?

I've read loads of stuff today and this seems to come out trumps for the price?
Loads of connections on the back etc

Just need to pick speakers now.
This is a wee bit of a sore spot though.

House redecorated just before xmas with new carpet down etc.
So during this time I thought I'll fire the existing rear speaker cables under the carpet - hid them well out of the way
So its either cut and re-use those cables or look at wireless rears?

What do you think folks?

Ant

I'd rather use cheap 13 strand cables with good speakers then buying wireless stuff

urban

iTrader: (1)

Anyone got any comments on my cables under the carpet question above?

Jamz3k

What sort of Cable is it Shaun?

If i'm being honest, my rear Bi-polar speakers are using a lesser quality cable than my fronts and centre for two reasons. 1: I couldn't stomach using the same as the fronts as it was £10 per metre. 2: For movies/games the rears are for effect rather than outright full frequency performance, so i used a cheaper silver based cable around £2.50 per metre. Many will argue this is wrong but I don't listen to 5.1 Audio Music nor do i like to Stereo in 5.1 as i think its just plain wrong.

urban

iTrader: (1)

What type - I've no idea James - probably really cheap stuff no doubt?
What ever came standard with a JVC HTS51

I suppose I could join old and new speaker cable together and try to pull it through under the carpet.
Not sure that'll work though?

Could always banish the wife to the shops for a while and pull the carpet up
I'm lazy though and its a minor thing anyway

Jamz3k

The stuff you've probably got is bell-wire and will most likely restrict any system you go for but it'll get it up and running for it and you'll never the less still enjoy it. I definitely would replace it at some stage but decide on a system before going mad on cable. Richer Sounds do a very good little cable called Gale Symphony 100, it would be the ticket most rear speakers from a speaker package at your budget.

I once offered a customer to run the cables for his 5.1 system and since then i have never offered again as i ended up in an East Belfast council house crawling down a hole under the stairs with a torch trying to navigate my way thru the rubble of the houses foundation to get under his real woodfloor. Nightmare City but I said i would do it and i don't go back on my word even though i have been know to take panic attacks in small confined areas.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Guys,

Once again I ask for your help.

Onkyo SR507 or SR607 or Denon AVR1910
I think the 507 is for me anyway the better option(£300).
I can't see the benefit of spending another £150 for the 607 or Denon model?

What do you think?



Speakers then - 5.1 Packages by the way.

KEF1005.2 approx £330
Q acoustics 1010i approx £360

Harman Kardon HKTS7 any good?

And top end for me if I got a real good deal would be Mordaunt short Alumni (I know a deal is probably out of the question here)

also just found WHARFEDALE DIAMOND 9 HCP HOME CINEMA SPEAKER SYSTEM

I suppose I prefer the traditional speaker look instead of the KEF's

Thanks for all the help so far,
Shaun

urban

iTrader: (1)

Just took a wander into Richer Sounds.

Whilst I saw that amps are quite large, I didn't expect to see that size
They're big old chunky things alright - a bit like videos recorders from 30 years ago
I'm a bit put off now to be honest, and they don't look the prettiest either?
I know its not a beauty contest and they are there for one purpose, but come on

Beef

That's the advantage of the HT-IS100 I mentioned above. It won't be as good, but for most people it will be good enough, and there's no separate bulky amp.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Resurrecting..............

I've been looking at this setup
Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1 receiver + Q Acoustics 1010i (5.1) speakers + £155 QED cable bundle

In fact I was nearly about to order this - However, another thread says that the Onkyo receivers have reliability issues?