The avforums thread/guide says 90% of people will be fine with the budget Hisense models.
An oled would be lovely but £1300 is a hell of a lot of cash plus then the sound system on top, its running close to £2k. I cant afford that much.
Coming from a 10 year old 32" lcd and tv only sound, i should see a pretty big step up even if i go budget tv and budget 5.1 system?
this is where ignorance is bliss.
if you for example drive a corsa and only ever driven a corsa and never experienced a luxury car before then you have no idea what you are missing out on. therefore to you a corsa would be an acceptable vehicle to drive and use.
someone who spends £50K+ on a car would find a corsa completely unacceptable unless in an emergency situation or in a pinch. they wouldn't buy one for themselves because they know how crap they are after experiencing a decent car.
a 5.1 system has it's pro's and cons. if you buy speakers they can be used for pretty much forever so long as they are passive and you don't damage them.
the only things which need replacing over time are AVR's and subwoofers as they have electrical components which wear out over time. so there is low maintenance costs but high initial costs.
soundbars if it breaks thats the full thing needing replaced. but generally cheaper to buy in the first place but not by much tbh these days with high end soundbars.
also with 5.1 you have to have the space for all the speakers and the wiring. a lot of people don't want wires. which is why i have a soundbar in the bedroom. you could obviously run wires through walls, etc. Extremely overkill for a bedroom setup unless you are a millionaire.
So there are pro's and cons to every sound set up. With both you can also look at second hand. I bought my YSP 2700 for around £250 2 years ago after some guy who owned it for 3 months wanted to go 5.1, it was a £600+ purchase at the time. i got the receipt too for warranty.
I also bought every part of my 5.1 system second hand bar the AVR and the speaker wire. All off avforums including a brand new unused BK XXLS 400 subwoofer at a substantial discount. I did buy a second hand AVR as a stop gap then bought brand new when 4K, HDR, atmos was all finalised. I sold that on for pretty much what i paid for it after a year.
The speakers I have I will keep forever. I will add atmos when it's much more mainstream and better speakers available. Which is another pro of seperates. you can add to it whenever you want. start small and expand. like buy 2.0 initially, then go 3.0 or 2.1 or 3.1, then go 5.1, then go 5.1.2 or 7.1 after that.
Sound again is similar to the car scenario. If all you are used to is crap speakers, you don't know what you are missing out on. The best way to get the best sound available is through a decent headphone amp and some AKG K702's which can be had for under £100 now and are comparable to £300 headphones from the likes of sennheiser.
