Which type of speaker system to get?

For £250 go stereo. If you want 5.1 you'll need to increase your budget. Also if you want "superb" quality then a av amp is pretty poor at stereo, so I would recommend a stereo integrated amp + av amp. But you can do that later, I'd probably get a stereo integrated amp then add a av amp. To add the remaining speakers is going to cost a fair bit, as you need centre, sub and rears.
 
heh you shouldn't be asking me that question. ;-) If you really want quality I can spec something out, but going to cost a bit more than £250. I won't go silly though :-P
 
No. 2.0

Stereo integrated amplifier plus stereo speakers. ie NAD C315BEE + ACOUSTIC ENERGY AEGIS NEO 1 SPEAKERS

Not that I heard the above system, just using it as an example.
 
If you go the second hand route and hunt around a bit you should be able to get a very capable 5.0 speaker setup with a decent AV receiver.

A few months ago I managed to get the following all for £250

Denon 3803 AV receiver
2 x Mission M71 Floorstanders
2 x Mission M73 Bookshelf speakers (including stands)
1 x Mission Centre speaker (can't remember the model)

Obviously the amp lacks HDMI but its really not a problem for me as my TV has a decent amount of inputs. For an AV receiver the stereo sound is very good in my opinion

Given the size of your room however it may be more beneficial for you to invest in a decent stereo setup.
 
Given that the main use is for music, I wouldn't go for 5.1, certainly not for this budget.

Get stereo which will give you great sounding music or get 5.1 which will give you reasonable surround and poor music.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;12052915 said:
Given that the main use is for music, I wouldn't go for 5.1, certainly not for this budget.

Get stereo which will give you great sounding music or get 5.1 which will give you reasonable surround and poor music.

Why do you think a 5 speaker setup will give poor music?
 
certainly not for this budget.

A cheap 5.1 which'll be satellite system won't sound that great - a identically priced bookshelf or standmount will sound far better. The smallest sat speakers are best to be avoided IMO.
 
Why do you think a 5 speaker setup will give poor music?

Because 5.1 wasn't designed to play music, it was designed to play back a 5.1 movie track. Music is recorded in stereo and therefore benefits best from a stereo set-up.

Asprilla's key tip for all things in life, not just hi-fi: always get the right tool for the job.

5.1 receivers are capable of producing stereo, but it's not what they were designed to to and therefore they aren't as good at it as an integrated stereo amp. Put a £100 receiver up against a £100 stereo amp and the amp will (99 times out of 100) produce the better stereo sound by some margin.
 
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