Aimed at Dave really, but anyone with a bit of recent hifi knowledge should have some good advice...
Right just trashed the licing room and started again, i'm after hiding all the gubins behind the wall from the TV, so will have a whole through for cables etc... Now I've got some Bose and mission speakers so there taken care of but not being into this for so long I've no idea as to what to get to run a reasonable hifi setup... 5.1 7.6 12.2 you get the idea.. just after a cheapish but good amp that will run the speakers 5 if possible and do all the dolby bit and possibly link to digital music collection also...

So fire away, any ideas.

Daz

 

yamaha amplifier, yamaha amp, Home Audio Hi Fi, DVD Home Cinema items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

have a look on there m8 its a link to some amps there reliable aswell


but reli the more you spend the better the quality

 

Yamaha, Denon or Pioneer are the top budget AV amp choices. I run a Pio as they were reviewed as the best sounding budget model at the time, but I wish I'd stayed with Yamaha as I much preferred how it processed music on the surround settings (not true hi-fi, but great fun, especially She Sells Sanctuary played on the 'church' setting ). I really prefer 7.1 ,or 7.0 as you don't need a sub if your main pair are big enough (I recall you having Mission 753's ). The main thing you need to consider now though is the new HD audio formats, Dolby True HD and DTS HD MA. You may also want it to have a few HDMI sockets and let the amp do all the video switching too (I'd recommend at least 4, but that bumps the price up a lot ). The Yamaha RXV1800 would be my pick right now.

 

Dave if ever you want me to do a lecture on IP Quality of service and Sip, then I'm you man with regard to this wtf are you telling me... ... what do i need... recormend...

 

Sound - On DVD we have Dolby Digital and DTS in various flavours. These are being succeeded by DD True HD and DTS HD Master Audio, so to future-proof yourself you may want to buy an amp which has these now, although they are quite pricey ATM. With the size of your living room 5.0 (no sub) or 5.1 (with sub) may well be sufficient, but I much prefer 7.0/1 which adds 2 extra surround speakers middle left and right...

5.1 -> - 7.1 ->

There's also 6.1 which adds a centre rear to a 5.1 set-up, although I don't really see much point in that. Top of the range amps are now going to 11.2

11.2 ->

So, if you're going BluRay, PS3 etc and want to be ready for whatever else they throw at us then you need DDTrueHD & DTS HD MA. Many new top-end amps can be connected for online firmware updates to add anything new, much like the PS3 which gets DTS HD MA support soon (I think). My choice would thus be.... CLICKY.

Video - With multiple video sources you may want to simplify the switching by using the amp to do both audio and video. With 4x HDMI, and al the usual connections the RVX1800 will do all you need. Some AV amps also connect to and control Media PC's through network ports, but you're probably much better qualified than me to make sense of that bit. I just have my Media HDD connected via digital coax. They usually have a remote transponder too to control all the sources from a single remote.

Pop 'round and have a play with mine (good job Apple's not about much ) or speak to a specialist shop to tailor the device to what you want. If you want to go cheap then CLICKY

 

i currently run an onkyo amp and love it, also does hd sound aswell and the ps3 has now been updated so we now listen in hd aswell as watch it. Think you need to set yourself a budget then work around that, as for which set up i run the normal 5.1 as 7.1 just dosent work out well in my room therefore there's no point spoiling a good setup just to try and cram another 2 speakers in to look and both sound poor

 

Never thought of the PS3 option but thats an idea as will need one to play gt3 so, are we saying its a good starting place?
daz

 

No-brainer really. BluRay, games, internet, HDD, upgradable. Awesome bit of kit really. Oh, and it'll be GT5

 

there's better blu ray players out there, but there twice the price and to be fair you would be hard feched to see any real difference and like dave says a ps3 does so much more, plus there even better now that they do hd sound. Oh and dont forget it will also up scale your standard dvd's