AV equipment

[Mckee]

Hey everyone, after spending some time looking over these forums and others I have come to the conclusion that I still have no idea with respect to sound what I want or what i need to satisfy all my criteria. For around £250-£300 I would like a system that allows me to make the most out of my ps3/pc and TV (Sky). I have a pretty small room and thus did not know if I should go for a 5.1 system or simply get myself a decent 2.1 system.

In lamens terms can someone please identify what I need and if a 5.1 system really would benefit someone with a small bedroom. Sorry if this seems like a re-iteration of another thread, i promise I did attempt to read a fair few but could not come to any sort of conclusion

 

[Deleted member 2277]

I think the yamaha AV63 system is the best value system, provided you don't need a DVD player.

 

[jeffa123]

What are your room dimensions.
e.g. A 12' X 11' would be fine with a 5.1 with a wattage range of 500. As baseline.
15 X 12 - 630
18 X 12 - 960

This is based on a volumetric of 6' 6" standing room.

And no you don't have to have it loud to enjoy sound but response time affects the way you hear a sound. for instance a 5.1 sound system with the speakers all bunched together is as goo as having a stereo. So if you don't have the room to swing a cat or hang speakers then you probably don't have enough room for a 5.1 sound system of any true quality.

 

[whitecrook]

What are your room dimensions.
e.g. A 12' X 11' would be fine with a 5.1 with a wattage range of 500. As baseline.
15 X 12 - 630
18 X 12 - 960

This is based on a volumetric of 6' 6" standing room.

And no you don't have to have it loud to enjoy sound but response time affects the way you hear a sound. for instance a 5.1 sound system with the speakers all bunched together is as goo as having a stereo. So if you don't have the room to swing a cat or hang speakers then you probably don't have enough room for a 5.1 sound system of any true quality.

what on earth are you talking about ?? a 'wattage range of 500' means nothing.

a 5.1 with all the speakers bunched together is wrong and pointless and would sound like crap.

I would suggest the OP get a hifi amp and some hifi bookshelf speakers. this will easily be in budget and the 'quality' would be much much better than a 5.1 system.

But if the op has a lot of 5.1 sources and wants some nice cheap thrills, a small sub sat 5.1 system could work well, even in a small room, as long as the speakers could be positioned in at least roughly the proper positions.

This may work well if the op intends to watch a lot of movies, if it's just general gaming/tv watching a stereo system would be better IMO. and especially if the op is listening to music... go for stereo.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Hey everyone, after spending some time looking over these forums and others I have come to the conclusion that I still have no idea with respect to sound what I want or what i need to satisfy all my criteria. For around £250-£300 I would like a system that allows me to make the most out of my ps3/pc and TV (Sky). I have a pretty small room and thus did not know if I should go for a 5.1 system or simply get myself a decent 2.1 system.

In lamens terms can someone please identify what I need and if a 5.1 system really would benefit someone with a small bedroom. Sorry if this seems like a re-iteration of another thread, i promise I did attempt to read a fair few but could not come to any sort of conclusion

Reading that I would suggest the Sony DG820 AV amp, multiple HDMI audio inputs with HD decoding if needed, also LPCM which the PS3 supports for blu-ray up to 7.1, and optical for Sky (allowing future expansion to 5.1 if you buy the additional speakers over time), and will allow you to connect your PC via your soundcard with a 3.5mm headphone to phono jack cable.
The sound quality won't be on par with spending £220 on a stereo amp, but it will be much more flexible with what you want to do! Downside of the amp is no multichannel analogue but I dontt hink you need that, and if you haven't had much Hi-Fi level gear, I dont think you will notice a sizeable reduction in soundquality from ahving an AV amp that a stereo fiend might.

Get some decent bookstander speakers second hand (Mission 751, Cresta 2, Mordaunt 902i etc) and you should fit the amp, speakers and cable in budget, and if you have a very small room should be more than enough!

 

[jeffa123]

what on earth are you talking about ?? a 'wattage range of 500' means nothing.

a 5.1 with all the speakers bunched together is wrong and pointless and would sound like crap.

I would suggest the OP get a hifi amp and some hifi bookshelf speakers. this will easily be in budget and the 'quality' would be much much better than a 5.1 system.

But if the op has a lot of 5.1 sources and wants some nice cheap thrills, a small sub sat 5.1 system could work well, even in a small room, as long as the speakers could be positioned in at least roughly the proper positions.

This may work well if the op intends to watch a lot of movies, if it's just general gaming/tv watching a stereo system would be better IMO. and especially if the op is listening to music... go for stereo.

I suggest you read it again. What I said was basic distancing techniques. My point was that if you had a 5.1. speaker system with little distance between the speakers then you may as well just have stereo speakers. Of course there is the point about the Subwoofer. You don't need a huge Subwoofer if you have a small space. Then if it is an Active Subwoofer you may have a crossphase one or a switchable phase sub which is independantly amplified and is able to be setup seperately to the manageability of your room's volume. If you cannot understand that then you are looking in the wrong place. Try the Avforums and there are some interesting articles over there on Speakers and Sound setups.

 

[whitecrook]

I suggest you read it again. What I said was basic distancing techniques. My point was that if you had a 5.1. speaker system with little distance between the speakers then you may as well just have stereo speakers. Of course there is the point about the Subwoofer. You don't need a huge Subwoofer if you have a small space.

I read it again. I don't really see any talk of distancing techniques. I stand by my previous reply.

It doesn't really matter about distance between the speakers of a 5.1 system, as long as the speakers are correctly positioned relative to the listener. And absolutely should not be lined up, or bunched together.

I agree a huge subwoofer isn't needed if it is a small space. But with the typical bass-less sattelite speakers supplied with cheap sub sat systems, a 'bass producing' speaker is generally required.