Home Cinema setup - help needed

spudbynight

spudbynight

spudbynight

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I am going to be upgrading my home AV setup (on a budget)

At the moment I have a 40" Sony Bravia TV which is about 3 years old. Perfectly happy with it so no need to upgrade.

I have a hodgepodge HTPC which is based around an old Athlon 4400e setup. I recently bought a new low profile case and a new 2TB HD to stick in it. It has a DVD drive and I use it for XBMC and PVR/iPlayer.

I don't have any speakers other than those in the TV.

I was thinking off buying the following bits for myself.

HP Proliant Microserver and using that to store all my media - £130
+ 3 2TB HDDs £150

New Zacate Based Fusion Motherboard and Ram - £150

Playstation 3 for Blu Ray Playback and the odd social game £180
YAMAHA YHTS400 for sound £350

Total spend in the region of £800 or so.

Anything there I am being silly with or should replace with something else?
 
Not a bad use of your budget at all and you'll end up with a pretty decent setup at the end. Very similar to what I use, microserver and Atom based HTPC.
 
Why bother having a server and upgrading the HTPC when you don't have to? Spend the money on a proper AVR/Speakers instead IMO. My HTPC is a knackered old P4 rig my housemate nicked from work, chuck a £30 gpu in it and tada full hd playback with hd audio bitstream.

Grab yourself a Q Acoustics/Mission/Wharfedale speaker set and an entry level Onkyo/Denon/Yamaha IMO.
 
jellybeard999 said:
Leave the HTPC as it is if it does everything you need.
Click to expand...

Problem with the HTPC is I recently stuck it into a new case and the new low height case doesn't give enough airflow to cool things. I need to improve the airflow in there which will mean buying a low profile cooler (which still may not do the job)
 
Could I throw a different Speaker setup in your direction?
I too was looking for something at a similar price - around the £350 mark.
The Yamaha was recommended, however I ended up buying (based on even better recommendations):

Onkyo HT-S5405

Price is about the same but from what I'm told it is a better setup.
I've been using mine for about a week now and the sound quality is really amazing.

*Edit*
Sorry - seems this was already recommended to you.
It really is a nice bit of kit and looks great too - but if it's not for you it's not for you.
 
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Jaap74 said:
No point getting Left, Center and Right speakers. Stick to stereo
Click to expand...

Biggest issue my wife has at the moment is lack of clarity with dialogue. Having a solid centre makes a world of difference to that.

I have been looking at the ONKYO HTS5405 - I might take my wife along to see it. Do you know if there are stands available for the speakers? Also, any sort of wireless module available for the surrounds. There is zero chance of me being able to run cables along the side of the room for surround speakers.
 
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Hmm...been looking at a few options today.

Been thinking about a seperate AMP and adding speakers.

I can get the Onkyo TX-SR608 from Richersounds for £299. That seems to just be an amazing buy from what I can see. Can't really stretch to too much on top of that for speakers at the moment.

I was thinking of grabbing some Wharfedale 9.1 speakers from here as left and right. I would then need to find a cheap centre from somewhere. I then have a setup that I can upgrade as I go but I think that Receiver is a bit of a gem.

Any thoughts?
 
spudbynight said:
Hmm...been looking at a few options today.

Been thinking about a seperate AMP and adding speakers.

I can get the Onkyo TX-SR608 from Richersounds for £299. That seems to just be an amazing buy from what I can see. Can't really stretch to too much on top of that for speakers at the moment.

I was thinking of grabbing some Wharfedale 9.1 speakers from here as left and right. I would then need to find a cheap centre from somewhere. I then have a setup that I can upgrade as I go but I think that Receiver is a bit of a gem.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I seem to remember reading a few good reviews on that amp.

With regards to your centre speaker, I am sure you know this already, but ideally you want speakers with the same tonal characteristics across the front 3 speakers, if possible. I know you are purchasing with a view to upgrading at some point in the future, so whatever front speakers you get, just make sure there is a centre channel speaker that you can purchase in the future to match them as best you can.

That is unless you are planning to upgrade all the speakers in one go, of course lol
 
Yep, got briefed about matching the tone in Richersounds today.

:)

There is this as a possibility

That takes my spend up to £669 plus stands/wiring which I might struggle to get past the wife.

Would I be better of with those speakers from Kef and a cheaper receiver? This Sony receiver is availble for £179 and I would then only have a total of £550
 
That Onkyo amp is a good buy, as it was a £500+ amp in 2010. If you could stretch to that, it will allow far more scope for upgrades to speakers in the future. Have you had a look over at AVForums for advice and in their "members" market place for some good speakers second hand?

I've been reading up over there myself and it seems the Wharfdales 9 and 10's match the Onkyo amps well
 
spudbynight said:
Yep, got briefed about matching the tone in Richersounds today.

:)

There is this as a possibility

That takes my spend up to £669 plus stands/wiring which I might struggle to get past the wife.

Would I be better of with those speakers from Kef and a cheaper receiver? This Sony receiver is availble for £179 and I would then only have a total of £550
Click to expand...
I agree with ljt, I think the onkyo has more potential, if you can stretch to it.

Is it possible for you and your wife to demo the onkyo and the wharfedale's with some samples from movies to see how good the dialogue is without a centre? If it sounds ok, it may be a short term solution until you can get a centre speaker.
 
I Had the same dilemma as you, until i took the Mrs to richer sounds and they wired up the cambridge audio CA 640r wired up to the cambridge audio S70 floors standards, S50 centre and the bookshelf speakers. after the Demo she was like wow! and she likes Oak lol so in the end we bought the whole setup.

dont tell the mrs your looking at a complete kit, tell her your just going to look for an amp + 2 small speakers lol like i did :D my Mrs hates wires but luckily i found a good deal on flat speaker cables which are hidden under the rugs. best chance i ever took and it paid of in my case.

hope it works out for you!
 
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My experience with centre speakers is that 2 decent stereo L +R is better than a poor centre. Centre channel amplification plays a big part too as my weaker (a cheap Gale centre) sings when plugged into my Yamaha DSP800 but sounds muddy when hooked into my Yamaha 363 (cheapo AV receiver). However I now use a single one of my old Rogers Bookshelf speakers as a centre and that's even better.
 
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