Couple of questions

eyetrip

eyetrip

eyetrip

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8 Nov 2006
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Well, I have resigned myself to the fact that I am not going to get away with spending less than about £300 just to make my wiring a little less messy...

So, firstly, in a smallish room, are surround sound speakers a bit of a waste? Or are they still effective?

If I got something like the Onkyo SR507 and only connected 2 speakers to it, would it downmix a surround source such as PS3 or Xbox? I move them between rooms and the other room already has a surround setup, and I hate changing settings each time I move them.

Speakers will be living on a desk, so need to be small, so would I need a subwoofer? Or are there decently priced small speakers that cover all bases sound-wise?
 
1) surround is still valid in a small room, just dont get excessively large speakers.

2) All good AV processors and receivers should be able to downmix to cover any missing speakers, you simply setup the processor with how many speakers you have (and if they are small/medium/large) and it will work out the best mix for you. I found that 3 channel (2+center) considerably out performed 2 channel for TV/Movies as it locks the speech to the TV better.

3) If you want good bass, but you have small speakers then you'll probably want a sub. Just dont turn the sub to high, not only will it overpower a small room, it will annoy the neighbours/parents/family etc. I have a fairly big room with my AV setup, and found that my estimation of the sub's output level was massivly out. When I bought a sound pressure meter and ran the tests, the sub was almost 10dB higher than the rest of the speakers. Sounds much better setup correctly.
 
Thanks for the reply

Currently my choices are between:
Onkyo HTX 22HD (Either 2.1 for £250 incl del or 5.1 for £300 incl del)
Sony HT FS3 2.1 (£300)
Or AV AMP and speakers which am still looking at to see what I can find for around £300.

AV Amp needs to do audio over HDMI, or I needn't bother with any of this.

Nice thing about the 2 systems at top is there will be less clutter - having amps built into subs.
 
HDMI is more a convenience rather than a necessity on an entry level system. IMHO you pretty much have to drop a ton of cash into an AV system to really benifit from HD Codecs anyway.

If the package you have has enough inputs, it doesnt matter if they are SP/DIF or HDMI (or even analog!)
 
I want HDMI exactly for that convenience. That's really what this purchase is all about.

Just to tidy up cables, get bit better sound than I do currently.

Current setup: connect xbox/ps3 to monitor via HDMI, then outputting that from headphone out on monitor to the line-in on my onboard audio processor, and then finally outputting that to the speakers.... oh, and I forgot about the extra cables and connectors I need to correct reversed audio form the headphone out on the monitor :)

It's currently an awful setup, which exists out of not wanting to spend loads of money on all this.

I want something that processes audio over HDMI, otherwise I will then once again require more cables for connecting everything if I was to start using optical as well...

And this is almost strictly for gaming (xbox/PS3), and playing some music on pc.
 
Well, a couple of optical cables directly from the Xbox, PS3 and PC directly to the processor/amp should be no problem, Not really sure why you are using the headphone out at all, the xbox and ps3 both have analog line outputs anyway.

But if convenience is your requirement you can look for HDMI, but I would expect the price to increase to get it.
 
Corasik said:
Not really sure why you are using the headphone out at all, the xbox and ps3 both have analog line outputs anyway.
Click to expand...

Though I couldn't use HDMI (for vid) and normal analogs (for audio) at the same time on 360 due to how they have placed the connections.
 
You got me questioning whether I should maybe consider using optical, and thereby opening possibilities for cheaper Amp + speakers...

Maybe something like the SONY STRDH500 and 4 x Wharfdale Diamond 9 speakers... still works out to £300 with Saturday delivery from Richer Sounds though.

Curse you! Nah, just kidding, thanks for the input again.
 
ffallic said:
Though I couldn't use HDMI (for vid) and normal analogs (for audio) at the same time on 360 due to how they have placed the connections.
Click to expand...

I suppose that may be possible if the connectors are actually so close together they block, I dont actually have a 360, but its no problem on the PS3 or the wii to use multiple connectors at once.

Optical spdif is pretty tidy though, and you can get some really slimline cables which really are not hard to hide away.

Hope you enjoy what you decide upon :)
 
Well, neither of those systems above are right for me it turns out - neither have headphone socket :( plus, many reports of buzzing issue with HTX 22HD and PS3....

Sigh.

So, it's starting to look like much pricier Amp with just stereo speakers for now. Or nothing.
 
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