What home setup do I want

lab4

lab4

lab4

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19 Oct 2010
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Hello,

we are having a cinema/theatre room added to our house.

Rectangular shape, 5.5m by 4m. No curves, alcoves or arches.

I'm getting a 65" smart tv for the far wall. I'm stuck on sound for the room.

Atmos sounds great fun, but appears to be massively limited content.

5.1 or 7.1 is the standard but choosing a decent system is a minefield.

An atmos soundbar is another solution with rear speakers ie Yamaha YSP 6500

Currently I use B&W 685, 686 and HTM62 connected to a Yamaha DSP and Pioneer amp.

We have a plex box, netflix and amazon Prime as well as sky.

So my question is "what would you recommend?"

Netflix has no intention of encoding atmos sound tracks. Amazon hasn't said. We don't own a blueray player, but the films on the plex are HD content from various sources, potentially none with the set atmos soundtrack.

Would an atmos amp do some magic to make use of the system, or is it a dream? Leaving a 5.1, 7.1 system or a fancy soundbar and rear setup. budget is up to around £1300 for the sound side.
 
This is going to be an interesting thread.

Budget is going to steer recommendations - I'd highly recommend looking at getting a projector and screen if you want to create an authentic cinema experience.
 
Nothing wrong the speakers, nothing wrong with getting a new TV. Whats the Yamaha and Pioneer's exactly? I would personally look at getting something like an Anthem MRX 510 and leave it at that.
 
Yeah nothing wrong with those speakers, you'd easily blow your budget replacing them and it'll sound worse.

Do you have a sub? If not that should be first on the list.

I wouldn't consider soundbars unless you're really pressed for space.
 
Ok, so from the sound of it (no pun intended) you all advise on a 5.1 setup.

Is atmos just a fad then? It appears to be with no one actually streaming content except for a few specific Blu-ray titles.

Presumably then a soundbar is meant as a cheaper alternative and less space-taking option as a proper center channel will do the same job?

Sorry to focus on the home theatre side, but I've spent years with B&W equipment for my office in stereo and the living room setup was by pure fluke.

So as most 5.1 systems now appear to consist of tall thin speakers, I'm dubious of their sound qualities.
 
I think your looking at the home theatre in a box type systems, which are generally pants. Soundbars are aimed at people who either don't have the room for a full 5.1 system or their wives won't let them have one ;)

As for Atmos, personally I'd say it's as much of a fad as 3D and curved TV's are, I haven't actually heard one in a home environment but I'd be surprised if it was as good as a properly set up 5.1 system. As Mid Gen says, if you don't have a sub, get one. BK Electronics do some decent ones for the money as a starting point. After that see what you have left and then consider upgrading the amps if they are old?
 
Decent 5.1 sound system and a projector. Cannot beat the feeling imho. 120" pulldown screen and a decent 1080p projector can be had for £600.
 
This thread makes me wish I had such a blank canvas to use, only space for a 48" screen and 3.0 speaker setup :mad:
 
As already stated, budget is the killer here.
For all that, a few thoughts:
- Unless you download a number of full on 1080 movies, or use a BD player, you don't actually need anything more capable than a unit that can process Dolby Digital and DTS.
- What connectivity does your existing hardware have? Do they have both HDMI and optical/coaxial digital outputs?
- If you're happy with DTS decoding at best and your kit has say an Optical output, then I'm going to suggest a s/h legacy amp. The big Denon/Yam amps (e.g. A1) were well over £1k when new, yet can be bought for peanuts now, just because they don't have functionality that frankly most people don't even use. The key benefits being that they were really well engineered and will happily blow away a cheapo entry level piece of kit (assuming both are playing say music, or DD/DTS soundtracks).
 
I have a feeling that the amps you have may actually be very good. You obviously put in a bit of thought when you got the speakers so I would be surprised if the same isn't true with the amps. The old Yamaha DSP's were always very very good too, which is why I'm rather curious about what you have. Mr Sukebe has touched on a very good point too, if you are happy going second hand you could end up with a top notch bit of kit for very little - my current AV amp is a Yamaha RX-V3900, retailed at around £2k, I picked it up a few years back for £400. You could quite easily pick up a Yamaha DSP-Z7 and a power amp for your budget quite easily.
 
Sounds like you're only going to benefit from 5.1 unless your willing to use higher quality source material than netflix and pirated films on plex.

I would strongly consider getting a projector if you actually want it to be a home theatre room.
 
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