Looking for guidance on new AV setup

ScarySquirrel

ScarySquirrel

ScarySquirrel

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Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new amp, speakers, and also a turntable. The things I've decided on so far are the Pro-ject Debut Carbon Turntable and an Onkyo-626 amp.

Where I'm stuck is on the speakers. In an ideal world I'd just buy the Q Acoustics 2000i 5.1 package, as I owned the 1000i package a few years ago and loved it. However £650 is a bit out of my range considering the amp and turntable purchase as well.

It's also worth mentioning that I'm moving house in 2 weeks, and I can't really picture how things are going to be arranged until we're in, so a 2.0/2.1 setup might actually be preferable, with the possibility of adding a centre speaker and/or surrounds if space/money allows.

Would the Q Acoustics 2010i in a 2.0 setup be decent enough to start with? Or will the bass be a bit crap until I add a subwoofer?

Any other recommendations for 2.0/2.1 in a similar price range?

Another option is to go second hand for the Q Acoustics 1000i range, but I don't know if the 2000i is worth the extra or not. For example, just seen some Q Acoustics 1020i bookshelf speakers for £35!!! Surely you can't go wrong with that!

Thanks
 
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That's good to know, thanks for responding. Looking at the items that make up the 5.1 package individually, it does seem that the sub is almost half the cost. So I'd probably be looking at around £300 if I shop around for a 2.1 setup. I think this might be my best option for now.

I can find the 2010i bookshelf speakers quite cheap second hand, just no subs kicking around.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
That's good to know, thanks for responding. Looking at the items that make up the 5.1 package individually, it does seem that the sub is almost half the cost. So I'd probably be looking at around £300 if I shop around for a 2.1 setup. I think this might be my best option for now.

I can find the 2010i bookshelf speakers quite cheap second hand, just no subs kicking around.
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yeah the sub is the expensive part of the package.

When I say good with music, they are fine, but having owned a dedicated stereo setup there not as good as that.

But I got them mainly for films and playing some tunes on my ipod through my x2000 avr.

Q acoustic also do the 2020i , think that is slightly bigger speaker , not sure how it compares to the 2010i
 
Why a turntable with an AVR? Onkyo's have never come across as particularly musical AV amps as it is so I can't see that sounding great to be honest.
 
It's got a phono connection so I figured it would make sense. Would a seperate amp for the turntable be better? Would this then connect into an AVR?

I should mention that I'm not an audiophile, so I likely wouldn't notice much difference. I never understand what people mean when they're decribing sounds either. I just know if something sounds crap.
 
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I think going back to the start may be a good idea here, if you want a turntable you obviously like your music so not sure you really want to be going through an AV Amp. Yes it will do the job, but its not going to do it particularly well. What is your whole system going to comprise of as I am assuming there are other things going into the AV Amp otherwise you wouldn't have bothered with it to start with, and what budget are you looking at spending?
 
Ok, thanks for your help.

I've just got an Xbox One and a TV with a built in freeview tuner, so I assumed the best thing would be to have an AV amp which let me plug the TV, Xbox One, and turntable in, then have whatever speakers I decide to get running off that.

In terms of how the system is used, it'll be a fairly even split between TV, Movies (although not a huge amount), Gaming (lots) and Music (lots). Music will either be from Spotify from a laptop plugged in via HDMI, or an iPhone, or from the turntable. Music will be mostly reggae/dub, old rock like Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Cream, The Doors, etc. and some newer electronic stuff, like dubstep, etc.

Budget wise, including the turntable, I'm looking at about £1k.

But if there's something worth getting that pushes the budget, then I don't mind buying bits and pieces over the course of a few months.

Does this help?

EDIT: I also don't mind buying stuff second hand.
 
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so £300 odd on the turntable, leaving £700 for amp/speakers.

The problem with AV receivers is they are packing in all these features and they don't cost an arm and a leg. That Onkyo as far as I can tell had a £500ish RRP, is a 7.2 amp and still has all the bells and whistles, on pure amplification it is probably not even the equivalent of a £200 stereo amp. Normally if you wanted something musical your looking at the top level Yamaha, Marantz AVR's but your budget isn't really stretching that far, I was going to suggest an Arcam, but again your not going to be able to get one in budget. You could get something older that might do the job though but it really would be just seeing what is available with everything you want, don't think they come up often but my old RX-V3900 will do what you want and do it well if you want an all in one box. There is a 3067 for sale over on AV Forums at the moment which would be much better than the Onkyo which will leave you a £250/300 on the speakers.
 
Ok cool, so is it more a case of looking for an amp which is more geared towards music in order to get the best out of the turntable?

What would provide a good balance between my need for music and game/tv/film? I thought that's what units like the Onkyo were supposed to be for.
 
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If its good with music it'll be good with movies/games/tv. To be honest they are all pretty good at that side of things anyway, just usually let down on music because that's not what they are made to do. Onkyo's are probably the least musical of all the AV Amps I've heard.

I actually bought some Zensor 1's for my girlfriend a few years ago and was thoroughly impressed, they make some excellent speakers, but you will need some stands to go with them. The whole Zensor range is impressive to be honest so they would be a good starting point.
 
Ok cool, I do like the look of them and they get good reviews.

So Yamaha and Marantz are a safe bet for more musically focused amps? I'm guessing most will have the necessary connections so a turntable can plug straight in?

Marants NR1504? http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/marantz/nr1504/mara-nr1504 - what would I miss out on with something like this compared to the Onkyo 626?

It looks like there's no phono input, so would I need something else to get the turntable working?
 
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You may have to go up the range a bit and get something a couple of years old but yea, they should have a phono input. If your going to buy the speakers as and when time allows, save yourself some money and don't get the matching subwoofer, get a BK Sub instead.
 
Jano said:
You may have to go up the range a bit and get something a couple of years old but yea, they should have a phono input. If your going to buy the speakers as and when time allows, save yourself some money and don't get the matching subwoofer, get a BK Sub instead.
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Ok cool. Reviews say the Dali Zensor 3s have decent bass, so should be fine for the time being.

If I get an amp which doesn't have phono in, would would I need to plug the turntable in as well?

Thanks for all your help by the way :)
 
You can get a phono stage which acts as a pre-amp, yes. In fact I think I saw a deal, possibly at sevenoaks in the last couple of week or so where they were selling turntables with a phono stage free...
 
Right, Just reading some more stuff and my thinking is that if I want to stick with a 2.0 setup, that I can get a stero amp (like the Marantz PM6005, or similar), and then use my TVs digital audio out to the amp as well so that I can still get sound from the TV/Xbox. I'm guessing that would work.
 
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