AV amp + Speakers

Gaygle

Gaygle

Gaygle

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
15,741
Location
East of England
Hi Guys,

I am looking for an AV amp to connect my PS3 Slim, Sky box (with optical out) and TV (Panasonic TXP-37X10B). I was then going to get a 2 floor standers and a centre speaker (i already have two rear speakers).

I was looking at the Sony STRDH500 for the AV amp and a pair of Q Acoustic 1030i's to go with it.

Now...would it be a case of *just* connecting the TV to the amp via HDMI and the Sky box via optical? How could i connect the PS3 to the amp??

Feel free to call me a moron - i have no idea about this stuff! :o
 
Depends which amp you buy, but i'd look at getting something that can pull the audio off the HDMI feed if i was you, otherwise it means more wires and messing around buying more cables to get stuff to output optical (if it hasn't got a port).
 
I was looking for something around £150 for the amp? Basically i just want nice audio from my PS3 and Sky. Is it as simple as just...plugging things in and it working?

ie. Just connecting the Sky box to the amp via optical cable and then the TV to the amp via HDMI?
 
i dont have Sony but a Yamaha 765 and have it setup the following way..

hdmi - yammy > Panny g10
hdmi -yammy > PS3
scart - Panny g10 > virgin box
optical - virgin box > yammy
 
Cheers for the reply.

Any other suggestions? Someone else said that some AV receivers don't deal with the audio or something?

Can anyone "spec me" an av receiver?
 
The Sony STRDH500 as mentioned doesn't support audio over HDMI and therefore doesn't support the HD audio formats.

It only has 2 optical ports which would both be used up with your sky box and ps3, limiting further connections, although it does have a coax input. It depends on what you'll be connecting to it in the future.

I'd recommend looking a level higher if you could afford it.
 
The onkyo 507 is also a descent amp for the money. I got mine for around £180 from richer sounds. Although thats over your budget the amp does support HD audio etc.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

How noticeable is HD audio over none HD? I thought 2 speakers hooked up with phono cables was WOAHMG!!!!111 I think maybe a £200+ AV receiver might be wasted on me?

Especially as i'm not getting awesome speakers either?

EDIT: Also, if the receiver doesn't support audio over HDMI...what's the point in it?? :/
 
Gaygle said:
Thanks for the info guys.

How noticeable is HD audio over none HD? I thought 2 speakers hooked up with phono cables was WOAHMG!!!!111 I think maybe a £200+ AV receiver might be wasted on me?

Especially as i'm not getting awesome speakers either?

EDIT: Also, if the receiver doesn't support audio over HDMI...what's the point in it?? :/
Click to expand...

It's difficult to explain until you've heard it, but the sound is cleared, more defined and more detailed.

DTS-HD is up to 24.5 Mbit/s
TrueHD is up to 18 Mbit/s

Comapring that to a DVD disk, which supports upto 1.5mb/s (DTS), but typically 384 kb/s - 448 kb/s with DD5.1 and 754 kb/s with DTS, you can see the much higher bit rates allow more data = MORE NOISES!

The STRDH500 is a budget receiver, for lack of a better defination it's like a HDMI switcher with audio inputs rather than a HDMI receiver. With it your audio will be more like DVD surround sound, you won't get the full effect of Blu-Ray HD audio.
 
My budget setup is:
Sony STRDH800, Panasonic TXP-37X10B, Jamo A102 speakers and a PS3.
Connected by HDMI and works a treat.
 
Gaygle said:
Thanks for the info guys.

How noticeable is HD audio over none HD? I thought 2 speakers hooked up with phono cables was WOAHMG!!!!111 I think maybe a £200+ AV receiver might be wasted on me?

Especially as i'm not getting awesome speakers either?

EDIT: Also, if the receiver doesn't support audio over HDMI...what's the point in it?? :/
Click to expand...

I agreed with khrall but it also depends on how good the encoding is, see this review of the movie Hero:-

I have this on Bluray and the sound is fantastic.

Miramax really screwed up here. The Blu-ray contains the movie's original Mandarin-language soundtrack only in standard Dolby Digital 5.1 format. Meanwhile, the ridiculous English dub has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. This wasn't an error. Someone intentionally decided to prioritize the dub. (The same thing has happened to the simultaneously-released 'Zatoichi', 'Iron Monkey', and 'The Legend of Drunken Master'.) Quite frankly, this is a shameful case of someone having their head up their ass.

As upsetting as this may be, the fact of the matter is that the quality of the movie's original sound mix will always be more important than the compression codec used. I'm sure you'll read reviews in other publications that will give this disc 1 or 2 stars for audio quality, but I won't indulge in that kind of hyperbole here. 'Hero' has always had an amazing soundtrack. Lossy Dolby Digital or no, it still sounds better than many lossless tracks for movies with lesser sound design.

This is an extremely aggressive surround mix with constant separation effects that create a truly immersive auditory environment. Fists fly, swords swing, and arrows cut through the air all around you. Low-end activity is loud and punishing. The powerful drumming in Tan Dun's score will get your heart racing, while deep bass sweeps extend as far as your subwoofer can handle. Many scenes in the movie have extraordinary auditory depth.

On the other hand, the lossy track often has poor balance between dialogue levels and overly-loud sound effects. The high-end scraping of steel on steel during the fight scenes can sound a little harsh and bright. The 1.5 Mb/s DTS tracks on some of the foreign DVD editions (while still lossy) were smoother and better resolved in these regards. No doubt, the Mandarin track would have benefited from lossless encoding had Miramax bothered to author the disc properly.
 
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