5.1 speakers for video room

[manius]

hello all
just turning my summer house into a little cinema for the kids
im not sure what 5.1 to get for in there its 12ft x 20ft im going to have 80"-100" screen ive only got a budget of about £200 for the speakers at the moment as i am going to spend a bit more on the projector then what i budgeted for

so any ideas or suggestions

cheers Nathan

 

[lucid]

£200 is right at the bottom of a budget for surround sound gear. If that £200 has to include a way to play Blu-rays then your only real choice is an all-in-one kit from the likes of Currys, and TBH they're much of a muchness. They're more about features such as NFC, Bluetooth and streaming rather than sound quality. Have a look at the Sony BDV-E3100.

What you'll find with the all-in-one kits is they have limited inputs. This means that if you want to connect other gear such as games consoles or other sources then you'll find yourself stumped or it won't be the right type of connector. You will then end up buying extra switches or converter boxes or just not bothering to connect anything at all.

If you can stretch your budget a little or can pick up a cheap BD player then your options start to open up a little. For £200 there's the Pioneer HTP072. This is the speakers and amplifier part of what will become your little cinema. There's no BT or NFC or streaming features with this type of gear at this price. The focus here instead is on sound quality and having a range of inputs so that it becomes a hub device for other bits of gear to connect to it. Long term that's a much better bet. You can always add a Chromecast stick or BT adapter as and when your needs develop.

There's an additional side benefit to a kit like this. It's something that you probably won't even have considered yet.

All-in-one kits such as the Sony have a relatively poor record of reliability. You'll find that the disc player part of it craps out first. When it does then you'll be faced with replacing the whole lot including the speakers because it's not possible to buy the main unit alone. That means then having to rip out the old- and install the new speakers. That's a whole bunch of time and money spent to fix a problem just with the disc player bit. With a separates system such as the Pioneer and your choice of BD player (any brand will work), you can replace the BD player any time. You'll be spending £50 instead of £200+ and it's a simple case of unplug the mains lead and swap over the HDMI cable. That's much simpler and less time consuming.

The Oioneer is the cheapest separates amp & speaker kit you can buy, but then again £200 for an all-in-one system doesn't give you a huge choice either. IMO the Pioneer is streets ahead of its Currys rivals and in the long run you'll be in pocket too.

 

[manius]

i was thinking more on the lines of a speaker system that you would plug into a pc as i would be using a pc to play the media to the projector

so woould i just need the speakers and a amp tthat would plug into the pc?

 

[finga]

id be looking for a 2nd hand logitech z5500 then, about 100 quid, getting quite rare nowadays though, may take a while to find one.
Although to be honest, if its just for the kids, I would just grab any pc 5.1 system, they arent gonna complain about it

 

[manius]

i like the look of the Pioneer HTP072 im sure it will be fine for what i need it for so i think im going to go with that just going to read a few more reviews and a little more research

cheers for the help guys