Sorted the new TV last week, ended up with a 47" LG Scarlet LCD. Once I got it home, I decided my existing hifi and DVD looked a little dated and out of place.

Bought myself a PS3 to use for gaming, DVD and Blu ray, so now looking for an AV amp and speakers.

Seen a few people mention the Onkyo's. So far I've looked at the 606, 506 and the Denon AVR1909 that Stevey pointed out to me.

As for speakers, looking towards the KEF KHT2005.2 / 2005.3 or the Mordaunt Short Alumni's.

Anything else I should be looking at before I part with my hard earned ££?

Budget for the amp and speakers is around 1k.

 

ask alan where he seen the onkyo deal he mentioned to me sure he said 606 and kef 3005 for £800 ish

 

some good deals here
Hot deals from Creative Audio
you could have the 806 and the 1010i's i mentioned to you for £98 over you budget

 

speaker cable is upto you but look at the qed anniversary if you went for that get it from richer sounds and get the airlock plugs

 

Different deals around at the mo with people lining up to offer free cables etc....

Exceptional AV are doing a 605 & 1010i's for £740 - This will be spot on for your room size.

A 606 is an extra £30... Exceptional-AV.co.uk : : Specialists in Onkyo's award winning Hifi and home theatre systems

Seven Oaks are doing a 606 and Kef 2005.3's for £799. Not the 3005 as that package is £1,350

Offer PDF - Sevenoaks Sound & Vision

I'd suggest you'll not get a better AV Amp and speaker set elsewhere for that money.... The Kef's are the one I'd go for, they look great too. Knowing your gaff, they'll suit you better. Whereas the Q's probably sound as good, but look like standard speakers..

If asthetics are important and to blend the system into the room have a look at the Q-AV setup. Exceptional-AV.co.uk : : Specialists in Onkyo's award winning Hifi and home theatre systems

They're getting rave reviews and they'll fit under your TV (you may need to look at the brackets). They're a little more than the 1010 & 2005.3 at £540 and they'll throw £80 worth of cable in. 30m of QED anniversary and sub cable.

I'd agree with the cable suggested by Stevey, I have them for my HiFi setup...

What speakers do you current have for the Hifi mate?? You may want to consider running them as your front pair, saving space, and spending the extra on a better center, surrounds and sub. But that moves away from keeping all the channels on the same speaker range...aiding balance.

As you know, this is a real mine field, so I'd recommend not getting sucked into trying to squeeze the nth degree out of your money and sound (unless you're a masochist!! )... the stuff above for your budget will do what you want and more....

What I do recommend is AV Forums... an exceptional BB..

 

My preference....

Yamaha RX-V1800 - Sound and Vision

 

I've got some Mission Volare floorstanders, and I did think about adding rears, centre and sub. As good as they are, the cherry wood finish does'nt go with the room, so they need to go

As it stands I think I'll end up with an Onkyo 606, just need to sort the speakers out now. Drawn towards the KEF's, but open to any other suggestions!!! ( as long as they have a gloss black or oak finish to the speakers )

 

Looks like a good piece of kit. I'm heading towards the Onkyo's purely down to the price of it

£350 on a 606 will give me a few more £££ to spend on the speakers . . unless I do my usual and just end up spending twice the original budget then I may look at the Yamaha

 

You're welcome to call by for a look'n'listen

 

Done a bit more googling on the Onkyo amp and found a few packages.

Now swaying towards having larger speakers rather than going for a compact setup with the KEF 'eggs'.

What do you think to

Onkyo TX-SR606 + Mission E3 AV 5.1 + £155 cable pack

Onkyo TX-SR606 + Mission E5AV + £100 cable pack

or I could blow the budget well out of the water with

Onkyo TX-SR606 + Dali IKON6 5.1 + £590 QED cable pack

First Mission's are'nt really ideal tbh, due to the walnut finish For the extra £100 I'd be swayed towards the E5 package. Read a couple of bits online, and tbh they had some bad reviews. Comments mentioned were to expect more for the price (£2200), but as the full package is only £1249, I'm not really paying much attention to that bit. Can they really be that bad?

Ideal setup if I'm honest is the Onkyo with the Dali's. Listened to a pair of Ikon 6's a while back and really liked them, was just too tight to buy them. On that subject, am I really going to notice the difference between the Mission E5's at £1249 all in, compared to paying double that on the Dali package? (even if they come in light oak finish - perfect match for the lounge lol)

Home audio is a minefield to me - help!!!

 

Just found the Dali speakers in light oak for £1699, can get an Onkyo for £350 with a free QED reference HDMI cable . . . . doubled the budget, but cheaper than the full package above. Seriously tempted, and can sort out the other cables bit by bit. Not ideal but saves £500 odd on the intial outlay

 

Just wondering, you seem set on the Onkyo amp, but in reviews by mags and owners online my Yam always comes out on top and yet you haven't given my suggestion even a cursory glance. On the link you posted up you could get the Dali speaker package for £1800 and the RX-V1800 for another £550 (Sound&Vision), leaving £180 for any cables you might need (HDMI are cheap (DO NOT GET SUCKERED INTO EXPENSIVE ONES !!!), spend a bit on speaker cables though). Any reason why, apart from saving maybe £150 ?

 

I could only find the Yam in silver. Needs to come in a black finish to fit in 'cause I'm been about the look of the kit too.

Poor reasoning I know, but it needs to look good in the room

Will take another wonder across to the Yam site and check out any others before I order a 606 though

Edit - just found the rxv1900, but seems a fair bit more cash just for a black finish

 

You're going to have to either demo them or bite the bullet and hope they appeal to your ears and room setup.

Seven oaks and even Huddersfield HiFi have a demo room with the Kef's
I demo'd the IN80 1080p PJ Saturday at Huddersfield HiFi and the Kef eggs in their demo room weren't wired up.

I think I can see where you're coming from.... Are youe equating size to ability? You're probably thinking the Kef's won't cut it because they're small....??

Forget it.. from what I'm hearing they sound fantastic. Remember they don't need loads of drivers on show. A large cabinet in floorstanders is for Bass... Your V62's have 4 drivers (2 woofers and 2 tweeters) The Kef's (2005) will have 3 times as many and have a dedictaed Sub to boot.... They'll murder your Missions for room filling volume... The Dali's will take it to another level soncially, but I'm hearing the Kef's are punching way out of their price range. For a single living room the size of yours, I feel the Dali's will take over and, unless you can spot them EXACTLY, they'll be overkill.

PLUS, I feel the amp wouldn't do them justice... especially in two channel. Those speakers would need a better amp to tget the best out of them.

A rule of thumb is (hotly debated and of course subjective), is spend the equivalent on the CD, Amp and Speakers... ie if your CD is £1k, then spend £1k on the Amp and another £1k on the speakers.. then 5-10% of this on cables.

A £350 (non dedictaed Hifi amp as well) will not be the best match for £800 worth of speakers...

It is soooo easy to start ramping up the budget....

All my opinion of course....

Saying all this...... Get the best you can afford, but make sure it's properly balanced.... an unbalanced 5k system will sound crap against a nicely matched 2k one...

 

Dave's right with the Yamaha stuff... it is good kit... Unfortunately you won't be able to find a dedicated setup that meets all your criteria... I'd suggest giving Huddersfield Hifi a call and ask to listen to their Kef's.... this will at least give you a starting point... if they sound weedy and weak.. then at least you know,,,

 

The 1800 was available in black in EU and US markets Some searching around might find one, but as it's now superseded by the 1900 they are getting hard to find but cheap Every owner I have read comment on the 1800 who paid RRP or near is still overjoyed with the performance of it, so it's definitely a £1k product, but if you can get it for half that then

Amazon.com: Yamaha RX-V1800BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black): Electronics

 

Cheers guys for all the great advice. Without hearing the KEF's, I can guess how good they'll be. Even the KEF speakers and sub that run from my KEF dvd setup sound excellent. If the KEF's linked above are anywhere remotely near to them, and they quite possibly are, then I'll be happy

Reading so many reviews atm its hard to know which way to go.

Dave - as regards Yam a/v amp's YAMAHA DSPAX763-BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

is that along the lines of the 606? Checked the specs side by side and seems close.

Really want to get time to demo some kit, but struggling atm.

I could go with my initial plan of a/v amp and KEF's, and bag a pair of Ikon 6's that I wanted a while back along with a new CD player and hifi amp of some description . . oh what fun trying to decide

Thanks again for all the advice so far

 

I'd move up to a better quality Amp and save on the speakers....

Get the B&W 685's if you don't like the Kef's and spend some of the saved 550 on an Amp...

 

This is what Dave, Stevey, Dazza and I live for...

Just don't get me started on 2 channel.... I'm still lusting after a set of Proac's for my Sugdens...

 

Lol, thats the next task, although after having some Roksan kit on demo with the Dali Ikon's, for the money at the time I was impressed. Shame I pi$$ed it up the wall on some shed to drive round in

No doubt there will be new kit out now that is better, but I'll across that bridge after Christmas

 

Don't count on that. When I've demo'd new kit recently I've often found it lacking compared to older equipment. I'm sure Al remembers Chris's Musical Fidelity losing out to a 20yo Cyrus integrated, and being slaughtered by a 12yo valve amp. Although less than 1yo and a respected brand with a high price tag, it simply 'lost' a large part of the frequency range. I had the same experience when demo'ing some B&W speakers priced at near £3k. One of my regular demo tracks features a bass line which steps down very (very) low, and they had a glaring gap in the reproduction which was obviously a problem with the crossover. These experiences are what has led me to sit on what I have and keep my money in my pocket. That, and the fact that I'm tighter than a Scottish accountant

 

I really enjoyed those evenings.... top nights chilling to some great systems and some great music. Those MF's were very, very nice, but I'd agree they sounded 'modern'....and not to our liking with the 'older' aged and designed kit which had a much more 'listenable' quality...

Hence my matching comments... I'd seriously consider the Yamaha's with the B&W's and some good cables...

 

I have a plan

Requested a demo at Sevenoaks with the KEF 2005.3 and the 3005SE, on the Onkyo and Yamaha amps. Will have a listen and go from there

 

Report back soon intrepid explorer.

We await your detailed field report (replete with photos) with baited breath and moist excitement...

 

Si, had a quick read about the 763 and 863. They are indeed more a match for the 606 in terms of spec and sound quality. The 1800 is part of Yam's 'Pre-Eminent' range and is a marked step up in quality.

Yamaha DSPAX863

 

I'll post up my first impressions once I've opened the boxes that are sat in my lounge

Called into Richer Sounds this afternoon, and had a good look at the KEF 2005.3's. After a lengthy chat with the manager, he offered me a good deal but did'nt have stock til tomorrow. They could'nt get the 3005's for a few weeks yet.

Walked a few doors down into Superfi . . had the KEF 3005 SE's in stock, and a 606. £1099 saw me leave with both, plus 20m of QED silver cable and a QED HDMI lead. Looking around the KEF's don't seem to go for much less than the rrp of £999, so a 606 for £100 ain't bad

My thoughts are see how it goes, I can always sell the 606 and try a Yamaha in a few months if needs be

Plus they give me £100 in Superfi vouchers to use on my next purchase

Will update later, got boxes of kit to open

 

For some reason, all of that didn't surprise me. In fact, I'm kicking myself for not considering you'd spend ZERO seconds in making the decision

Well done mate...

Considering the purchase speed, I'll expect a full review by at least 7:15

Plus: Be first on your list for the 606 (I'm positive you'll be looking for a better Amp to power those mighty Kef's)

 

If you don't have it, you'll be needing THIS to test it out (or HERE for 1p more but free postage). Probably the best TV series ever made, for an amazing price (don't forget Quidco )

If you really want to test it though, wait for the BluRay, or buy the US R1 DVD set with DTS

 

I've had the KEF's for years, even tho' they are "enthusiastic" according to the reviews, the RX-V1800 is now the RX-V1900 and it's black, hence the S&V discounting last month.... I too have a black Blu-Ray, a black HTPC, and a black TV, so understand your choice. I may have to sniff around there too !

LOL

DunxC

 

get cars on blu ray, picture is awesome and has some good sound aswell got a few here if you fancy some testing and setting up some with awesome hd sound