Should I buy an AV receiver for my new home cinema?

SkScotchegg · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:36

Hi there people, just looking for some advice please, I have been wondering for weeks now if I should buy an AV receiver or not, I have been reading online but still not sure.

I have a recently bought a new projector (optoma hd33) and electric screen with 3D blueray player and I also own a PS3 and an Xbox 360 and I have everything plugged into my PC at the moment and all the sound coming out of the PC speakers but I'm planning on buying "Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System - 500W RMS" out of my next wage to upgrade my current surround sound speakers which are probably 10 years old now.

At the moment my PC sound card only has one optical input and this means I have to change wires every time I want to plug in the PS3 or Xbox and it also means that it will only output in 2.1 which is also one of the reasons why I'm getting the new speakers.

I just thought maybe it would make sense to have everything plugged into an AV receiver and then the receiver plugged into the speakers.

What do you guys reckon?

Thanks in advance.

CaNsA · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:44

SkScotchegg said:
Should I buy an AV receiver for my new home cinema?
What do you guys reckon?

A few months ago I went to Richer Sounds with the intention of spending £300 on an AV Receiver and 5.1 speakers.
£550 later and I'm walking out with a Marantz NR1402, 5.1 set and a pair of speaker stands.

Tonight I watched a 1080p film with DTS HD sound and it was awesome.
I love my Marantz. I would love to get the matching range and stack it like a boss.

Get your **** to Richer Sounds tomorrow then post pics of what you bought.

melmac · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:52

Yeah, I would say go for it too. It makes sense to have it all go through the one box.

Have you any budget set? Some users here might be able to give some advice. And I would suggest getting speakers and receiver.

SkScotchegg · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:57

Thanks for your replies. So it looks like thats a go for the av receiver but the thing about the speakers is I have all my setup together with the PC and I like everything to come out of the PC speakers which is why I was going to buy these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-099-LG&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=165

Which are PC speakers.

I've never really looked at normal ranges of speakers and dont know if normal speakers will work with a PC if you see what I mean.

Do you think it will be ok for me to just buy them speakers and then get an av receiver from richersounds and it will all work together? Or is there something I'm missing?

Marsman · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:57

Yeah I'd definitely get an AV receiver. The Logitech's aren't too bad if they are just over £200, but the choice of inputs is limited. They are ok for PC and console, but if you want to add others things as well, then you are soon going to get stuck.

£300 will buy you a decent budget AV receiver and 5.1 speaker package. You can get such systems for as little as £200, but you get less inputs and no HD audio decoding. The ability to decode the HD audio formats found on BD's might be nice to have. Something you won't get with the Logitech speakers.

CaNsA · 10 Nov 2012 at 22:57

Oh yeah, as melmac says.

I have my VirginMedia telly, Xbox360 and XBMC client hooked upto it.
The sound format auto changes to what ever the source media is.

Marsman · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:01

SkScotchegg said:
Do you think it will be ok for me to just buy them speakers and then get an av receiver from richersounds and it will all work together? Or is there something I'm missing?

When you say that, I assume you are talking about connecting the Logitech speakers to a AV receiver? If that's corrent, then no it won't work. Those speakers have their own amp and cannot be connected to a AV receiver. Same applies to all PC speakers.

SkScotchegg · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:04

Marsman said:
Yeah I'd definitely get an AV receiver. The Logitech's aren't too bad if they are just over £200, but the choice of inputs is limited. They are ok for PC and console, but if you want to add others things as well, then you are soon going to get stuck.

£300 will buy you a decent budget AV receiver and 5.1 speaker package. You can get such systems for as little as £200, but you get less inputs and no HD audio decoding. The ability to decode the HD audio formats found on BD's might be nice to have. Something you won't get with the Logitech speakers.

Oh I see, thanks for this info, I didnt realise any of this. Hmm...well now I'm thinking what do I do regarding the speakers. The problem is if I buy normal speakers I dont think you can use them with a PC? or Can you?

I'm going to have do some research into speakers, whilst typing this I'm sure I saw a sound card get released a while ago which has an hdmi input for its audio input and output, so maybe if I bought that sound card, which normal speakers, I could have the xbox/ps3/blueray player all plugged into the av and then from the av I could output the sound and picture to the projector and speakers and also at the same time have the PC plugged into the speakers.

Would be useful to know someone with a similar setup to what I'm wanting.

SkScotchegg · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:06

Marsman said:
When you say that, I assume you are talking about connecting the Logitech speakers to a AV receiver? If that's correct, then no it won't work. Those speakers have their own amp and cannot be connected to a AV receiver. Same applies to all PC speakers.

Oh I see, well it's a good job I posted as I would have made a mistake. This is defo more complicated then I originally thought.

Marsman · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:23

Not really. If you are looking at the Z906's, that's £240 right there on speakers. Buying an AV receiver as well, say £150 for a budget one. That would be near £400, or there about. £350 will buy you a decent budget AV receiver and 5.1 speaker package with an active subwoofer. With a cheaper £200 AV receiver + 5.1 speaker packages, you only get a passive subwoofer. That's ok if one only has £200 to spend, but you'd be much better off with an active subwoofer. Active means the subwoofer has it's own amplifier, and is not running off the AV receiver.

As for connecting the PC to the AV receiver. No problem at all. Depending on what kind of set up you are going for, and what graphics card you have, you can either use HDMI or SPDIF (optical/coaxial).

CaNsA · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:32

FWIW
Marantz NR1402 was £300
Tannoy SFX 5.1 was £200
Stands ware £50.

melmac · 10 Nov 2012 at 23:35

You are buying a receiver so you connect your speakers to your receiver and then connect anything you want to use to your receiver. So you can connect playstation, xbox, PC and just use the receiver remote to switch between them.

You can connect to your receiver from your PC using coaxial, optical, hdmi or analog depending on what receiver you get and what sound card you have.

And trust me, I would get seperate speakers. If you cant afford to get all the speakers and sub at once, get a good stereo set of speakers and add more later. Your ears will thank you :-)

SkScotchegg · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:18

melmac said:
You are buying a receiver so you connect your speakers to your receiver and then connect anything you want to use to your receiver. So you can connect playstation, xbox, PC and just use the receiver remote to switch between them.

You can connect to your receiver from your PC using coaxial, optical, hdmi or analog depending on what receiver you get and what sound card you have.

And trust me, I would get seperate speakers. If you cant afford to get all the speakers and sub at once, get a good stereo set of speakers and add more later. Your ears will thank you

Cheers for all your help so far mate, I'm actually quite excited for this setup now lol. I've been reading loads of forums this past hour on sound output through graphics card and I do have an ATI HD 5770 which they say can output sound with HDMI so looks like I wont have to buy a new sound card, and now I can just buy an av receiver with separate speakers like you guys mentioned. Can't wait to get paid now!

SkScotchegg · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:20

CaNsA said:
FWIW
Marantz NR1402 was £300
Tannoy SFX 5.1 was £200
Stands ware £50.

Cheers for the info mate, I had a look at all your gear on richersounds, I like the look of the amp but am not sure about the speakers as it doesnt say how loud they're? I was hoping for something like 500 watts? lol

Oh btw, money isnt really an issue at the moment as I'm still living with parents and working full time which is why I'm buying all this stuff now whilst I still have the chance as I plan to move out in 2013

CaNsA · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:24

From the tannoy website.

SFX5.1 Centre & Satellites
PERFORMANCE
Recommended amplifier power 15 - 100 Watts
Maximum Sensitivity (2.83Volts @ 1m) 85dB
Nominal impedance 6 Ohms
Frequency response (-6dB) 140Hz - 78kHz
Drivers HF: 15mm (0.59”) titanium dome, neodymium magnet system

LF: 75mm (3.00”) paper cone
Crossover frequency 4.5kHz (mid to high) 140Hz (to subwoofer)
Magnetic shielding Yes
Satellite Weight 750gms (1.65lbs)
Satellite Dimensions H x W x D 140 x 97 x 95mm (5.51 x 3.82 x 3.74”)
Centre Weight 1.5kg (3.3lbs)
Centre Dimensions H x W x D 120 x 230 x 95mm (4.72 x 9.06 x 3.74”)
Finish Black or white
Supplied accessories Wall mounting brackets
25 metres (82ft 6”) speaker cable
Optional accessories Satellite floor stands available in black

SFX5.1 Subwoofer
PERFORMANCE
Power output 100 Watts
Frequency response (-6dB) 45Hz - 140Hz
Driver 200mm (8.00”) paper cone
Inputs 140Hz - 78kHz
Drivers

Twin line or speaker level
Power requirements 160VA max
Fuse ratings AC100-120V / 60Hz - Fuse: T1.6A L /250V
AC 220-240V / 50Hz - Fuse: T800mA L /250V
Additional features ON / OFF/ AUTO power function
Weight 9.0kg (20.0lbs)
Dimensions H x W x D 345 x 250 x 370 mm (13.58 x 9.84 x 14.57”)
Finish Black or white

SkScotchegg · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:33

Oh so does that mean they're 300 watts if you add it all together? Sorry to sound dumb but I've never really had much knowledge on sound in general. Dont really know much about amps/avs/speakers/sound cards etc.

CaNsA · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:46

No idea mate, I just know they are decent quality, have decent range and the missus keeps telling me to turn it down.

SkScotchegg · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:51

lol, fair do's. Well richersounds is my preferred shop as its near me and I can go and get the stuff I want on the day I get paid so its best choice as I dont have to wait for delivery. Thats where I bought the projector and blueray player from so might as well get the rest from there...

On their website they have two bundles for av and speakers and this is what I can see:

SONYSTRDH520 & TANNOY SFX 5.1

and

YAMAHARXV373 & Tannoy SFX5.1

I read the specs on both of them and they seem pretty much exactly the same, obviously the speakers are the same but am not sure which is the best av, I'd kinda like to go for the sony one as I always liked sony TV's lol but do you reckon yamah are better for av's?

Thanks in advance.

413x · 11 Nov 2012 at 01:55

Don't worry about the watts, a good speaker will perform well at low or high volume

I started with a Yamaha v371 and a set of BA soundware xs 5.1
I have recently upgraded the whole lot to
Yamaha v1067
Monitor audio bx5 feonts
Monitor audio rx center
Monitor audio Bxfx rears
Monitor audio rsw12 Subwoofer

The difference the fronts make is the biggest noticeable change!

Point is the first setup was cheap but a lot better than anything like the standalone 5.1 sets. It also allowed me to upgrade gradually by swapping only couple of pieces out at a time.

I run a Htpc, xbox and phone through the receiver. It does so much it's amazing, first bit of kit I have had to read the instructions for in a while!

All my new stuff came from av forums! Get yourself on there! Will save you loads!

Edit.. In regards to the above post.. I went Yamaha due to it being supposedly better for music, I'venot heard aanother to be fair but I'm used to it so bought another at upgrade time.. I listen to a lot of music through it

Some way down on this page is my kit
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=136959&page=110

ginjaninja · 11 Nov 2012 at 09:10

I would notice the following.
Av receivers are great for amalgamating multiple inputs and outputs (pc, xbox, ps3, projector, monitor).
Av market place is full of rumour and style, value is hard to discern. You will magically find there is something a bit better for a bit more, at every budget point.
Testing speakers / receivers in a shop helps, but unfortunately it wont sound the same at home.
Apart from speaker/receiver quality -Size of speaker for room size is most critical, some speakers sound best when driven louder, bigger is not better when room is small. Test in a room of similar size.
Speakers are loosely paired to av output (richer sounds will advise) but more watts is not important.
There is an hifi forum below. Be prepared for even longer discussion.
Dont get sucked into buying branded speaker cable, its physics not marketting.
different receivers sound different on the same speakers as well as different speakers on the same receiver.
if you like listening to music in stereo include this in your testing, along with movie / game tests
The difference in stereo music quality is more easily discerned between setups than thumps and bangs. Music quality does not equal thumps and bangs quality.
May be obvious, but centre speaker is important for speech, front sides for music.

1. collate a test library of your content of your music, movies. Different sounds, volumes, pitches, surround scenes. Music, speech, thumps and bangs. Choose a subset and stick to it, become familiar with the content.
2. Choose av receivers in budget with neccessary inputs and outputs. Or possibly just fjnd a shop you trust and ask for advice.
3. Test av receivers on supposedly best single set of speakers in the range of the receiver.
4. Choose receiver.
5. Test receiver on choices of speaker sets in range. In quick succession. Or just trust shop to advise.
6. Get really confused, not remember what sounded better than what, and just buy what got most stars on what hi-fi.

I suspect the key differentiator are,
Power to room size. Effortlessness in volume range appropriate to room size.
Reproduction of content types, music, speech in films, surround in films, game thumps.

Gl