Time to upgrade whole TV/AV system, suggestions welcome

Freakbro

Freakbro

Freakbro

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With the imminent demise of my Denon AV amp (it just lost it's HDCP handshake ability as the final straw) it's time to upgrade the amp and TV etc to 4K

So I'm looking for a 55" OLED TV and a 4K AV amp with Dolby Atmos, with a budget up to say £3k - factor in that I need at least 2 ceiling speakers for the Dolby Atmos

TV

I am being an unashamed brand snob here and I probably shouldn't be. I am coming from a Panasonic plasma and from what I have been reading the LG OLEDs are pretty much where it's at? With the B7 being well in budget. Though I have had my eye on the Panasonic EZ952.... is it worth the £300 more? It doesn't seem to get as good an overall review as the B7

AV Amp

I haven't really had much of a look yet at this, but I have been happy with the Denon (until it started dying of course :( ) but I'm not adverse to changing make, I would have thought a budget of around £600 would suffice? Any recommendations

Dolby Atmos is a must.

Speakers

I've got B&W surrounds and center, 600 series iirc, with a wharfdale sub. So I thought some B&W ceiling speakers would fit in, initial look seems to be ~£250 for a pair of 6" inset ones.

Media Streamer

I'm currently using a Minix box, but it's not H265 (even though it said it was) or 4k, so I would need another.


So, what's the best bang for the buck I can buy for those with ~ £3k :)
 
panasonic 65 902b (if you can find one) Denon 2300 (if you can find one ) should leave change enough for media server

if you decide to go LG it will probably tie in with your washing machine and microwave nicely :D
 
My advice: Get the LG B7, and the £300 you save on the TV - put towards better AVR/Atmos.

For instance, if you are going the ceiling speaker route I would definitively recommend 4, because it's so much better for overhead atmospheric sound than 2.

Of course, the trouble is you would need a Denon 4400H to drive 5.1.4, which is £1200!
 
I bought the B7... I think it's better than the Panasonic because the Panasonic interface / inbuilt apps are poor. The image quality is near identical - all OLED TV panels are LG - only the image processing is different. I had no interest in paying more for a worse experience and I use the inbuilt Netflix and Amazon apps often.

Panasonic also doesn't support Dolby vision and most of the HDR content I have come across on Netflix is all DV.

The inbuilt apps may not be important to you if you get something like an Nvidia Shield TV - which is the go-to streaming device. I have a Shield which is only used for Kodi. If you just wanted bare file access then any basic NAS which supports DLNA or Plesk will do the job for you as the TV supports both DLNA and Plesk.

As for amp... you can't really go wrong with Denon / Marantz / Yamaha in that price bracket. I have a Marantz SR7009 and it's great.
 
I'm in a similar position, I have my eye on an LG55C7 & Denon 2400H AV
Priced it up at just over £2k for the pair. Hoping to see a couple of deals on black Friday but not holding out too much hope!
 
The Sony STR-DN1080 is a good alternative to the Denon 2400. Very similar spec and performance but it also comes with Chromecast Audio built-in. If you don't care about that, get the slightly cheaper Denon.
 
Thanks for the replies :

@VincentHanna : Looks like I need to research the amp more then, as I was probably looking to go 5.1.4

@Robzere31 any reason you are looking at the C7 over the B7?

@crinkleshoes : I did read the HDR on the LG is better than the Panny, and that seems to be a crucial part of PQ, no? And a shield sounds like it's worth investigating.
 
I'd use an Xbox One S as the media streamer personally. You will get all your apps, is 4K, has 4K BD player, and is a games console if you care about that stuff, but means there will be regular updates on them. I haven't gone 4K yet, but use my Xbox One daily for media streaming, and with it's small media remote, I haven't used the controller in over a year. They can be picked up for under £150 second hand, and they aren't that old. Or get a new one for around £230, but I'd expect decent black friday deals on them now the One X is out. Even if you're not really a gamer, you can pick up a years xbox live subscription for around £40 a year (less from some online places / second hand members markets and the likes) and get 4 games a month for that. So a pretty good deal.

As said previously, as much as I'm a Panasonic fan, also would be coming from a Panasonic plasma, Panasonic simply don't have the apps. No Plex support was the big one for me, but there are plenty others missing. So I would also look at the LG OLED personally. But then I refuse to buy anything from Samsung ever again (except maybe, just maybe, their phones).

Can't really help on the amp front, other than I currently have an Onkyo I'm very happy with, but did look at the Yamaha's a while back, which do look very good too. Had a Marantz before the Onkyo and it was lovely also. So not really much help there.

I also fancied Atmos, but really don't fancy opening my roof to do it, lol.
 
Freakbro said:
it's time to upgrade the amp and TV etc to 4K
Click to expand...

Not to put too fine a point on it, but how much 4K content do you have? You have a Panasonic plasma TV, one of the very best if it's a VT or ZT, and it might well be worth waiting for HDR to finish its shake-out and for 4K content to become more common. Might it be better to just replace the Denon with something that will handle 4k and the rest later?
 
Freakbro said:
Thanks for the replies :

@VincentHanna : Looks like I need to research the amp more then, as I was probably looking to go 5.1.4

@Robzere31 any reason you are looking at the C7 over the B7?

@crinkleshoes : I did read the HDR on the LG is better than the Panny, and that seems to be a crucial part of PQ, no? And a shield sounds like it's worth investigating.
Click to expand...

I second Vincent's recommendation to go 5.1.4.

I originally wanted the C7 over the B7... because I think the stand and bezel look nicer. Ultimately, that is the only difference between the two models. I went with the B7 because only Currys sell the C7 and I wanted good aftersales service in case I received a bad quality panel. I picked up a B7 from Richer Sounds with a 6 year warranty.

In the flesh, the B7 stand looks nice and the silver bezel isn't noticeable - so I'm happy with it over the C7.

HDR is very important yes. Dolby Vision has become a much bigger nice to have than I thought it would be when making a decision as I didn't realise how much Netflix use it. In image comparison tests on OLED screens - Dolby Vision wins over standard HDR. With other manufacturers it has been possible to add Dolby Vision with a firmware update, so maybe Panny will add it - but last I remember there was no mention of it.

To really make the most of this, you'll also want to have a look at a decent 4K blu-ray player... the image fidelity is better than any streaming or download option, even if you have a full blu-ray rip and decent shield/pc streamer... blu-ray just wins.
 
Quartz said:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but how much 4K content do you have? You have a Panasonic plasma TV, one of the very best if it's a VT or ZT, and it might well be worth waiting for HDR to finish its shake-out and for 4K content to become more common. Might it be better to just replace the Denon with something that will handle 4k and the rest later?
Click to expand...

Bit of a chicken and the egg situation, I don't have much 4k content yet as I don't have a 4k TV :)

It's a GT30B, the 3d version, so still a lovely TV, but seeing some OLED 4k content (admittedly from a blu-ray player) the picture is stunning and I'm sold! :D. I appreciate what you say about waiting and I'm not an early adopter but with tech you have to jump in somewhere and accept it'll be outdated in 6 months :p and who knows when we will hit peak HDR?
 
Ok, i've decided to go the LG55B7, which is at John Lewis for £1399 at the moment.

This has saved me some budget over the panny, so I am looking at putting that into a better amp - especially since I'm sold on the 5.1.4

So i'm looking at the denon X-4400H for ~£1200, I think it has everything I need....am I missing anything with this choice? Don't think I can go to the X-6400H, as i'll have 4 ceiling speakers to get.
 
I ended up with the LG55B7, denon 2400H & Sony 800 4k blu ray player.
Just waiting for Sky Q to be installed then I'm good for a year or two. :D
Very happy with the choices I made, sound & picture quality is excellent.

Unlikely I'll add Atmos speakers just yet, (not sure the wife would approve of more speakers in the living room just yet!) but I like to have the option of expansion if I decide otherwise.
 
Freakbro said:
Ok, i've decided to go the LG55B7, which is at John Lewis for £1399 at the moment.

This has saved me some budget over the panny, so I am looking at putting that into a better amp - especially since I'm sold on the 5.1.4

So i'm looking at the denon X-4400H for ~£1200, I think it has everything I need....am I missing anything with this choice? Don't think I can go to the X-6400H, as i'll have 4 ceiling speakers to get.
Click to expand...

That Devon is ott for b&w 600 series. If you're spending that much on avr upgrade speakers and subm
 
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