Panasonic SA-HT880

dave1983 · 18 Jun 2010 at 10:48

My sister has just given me the Panasonic SA-HT880 home cinema system recenlty.

However I currently own a Pioneer 1-bit DLC Hifi Stack System, 380 Watts.

Which one should i stick with? Unfortunatley iv'e search google and cannot find the pioneer model it's a 1990's originally it had a tape deck & phono, it also has a 6 CD changer with a High Quality Amp.

if i can find the model i would show it.

lucid · 18 Jun 2010 at 11:12

What do you do most, watch movies or play music? Simple really

dave1983 · 18 Jun 2010 at 11:17

watch movies, im planning a home cinema.

the pioneer system was given by my dad, ill try and find the model.

lucid · 18 Jun 2010 at 12:22

No need to find the Pioneer model. It's not going to make much difference to the outcome. This is really a question of choosing the right bit of kit for the job.

If movies is your thing then the home cinema kit is going to be the best choice for the room. As good as you feel the Pioneer stereo kit is, it'll never do surround sound and fill in the space behind you with surround effects, or give you that bass thump that you get with a sub.

Keep the Pioneer as a music system in another room.

dave1983 · 18 Jun 2010 at 13:37

lucid said:
No need to find the Pioneer model. It's not going to make much difference to the outcome. This is really a question of choosing the right bit of kit for the job.

If movies is your thing then the home cinema kit is going to be the best choice for the room. As good as you feel the Pioneer stereo kit is, it'll never do surround sound and fill in the space behind you with surround effects, or give you that bass thump that you get with a sub.

Keep the Pioneer as a music system in another room.

this pioneer does do surround sound i finally found the kit.
it has a 7 band equaliser, which does have the choice of choosing different room enviroments like, disco, live and hall. you can alter the mood, Vivid, sharp, mild, Warm,

lucid · 19 Jun 2010 at 00:42

For proper surround the amp needs a few features...

a digital input - coax or optical
audio decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS
the ability to set speaker sizes and audio delays for each of the five satellite speakers and the subwoofer

The "surround" effects you have are just that...effects. They add echo and delay to a basic stereo signal. They aren't decoding the 6 discrete channels of a DD or DTS digital data stream.

Your stereo might have a Dolby ProLogic decoder. This takes a ProLogic encoded stereo signal and extracts the matrixed centre and mono rear surround channels. That'll do for TV channels which have Dolby Stereo.