£2000-£2500 Home Cinema set up? Help needed.

[scoobysteve]

As title reads budget is £2000-£2500 for an Amp and 5.1 speakers,

Mainly be used for movies, would like floorstanders for the front.

Room is not huge but will be moving somewhere bigger eventually and will only be buying once.

Think the Onkyo 609 at £450 at Richer sounds would be the best bet for amp as it's had rave reviews.

Leaving £1500-£2000 for speakers.

Or would you spend more of the money on the amp???

Have seperate budget for cables.

All advice welcome.

Girlfriend loved the new Kef R series but sadly out of budget unless we just went for centre and a pair of floorstanders for now and added the rest later???

They did sound lovely and looked fantastic, think the piano black sold her ha ha.

Don't want the Dali speakers though as wasnt fussed on them at the show.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd go for a year old receiver and maybe Monitor Audio BX5 5.1 Yamaha 3067 can be had for £750

 

[CnoEvil]

Hi Steve

I would come at this the other way round, ie. Get a good amp like the Arcam AVR 400 with a competent budget speaker package that can then be upgraded bit by bit over time, when budget allows.

Decent packages would be:

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/8111
or
http://www.whathifi.com/review/q-acoustics-2000i-51-pack
or
http://www.hifix.co.uk/home-cinema-speakers/monitor-audio/bronze-bx2-av.html (this might be stretching your budget a bit, but gives a great upgrade path through the MA range).

Keep an eye out for good deals on recently obsolete amps or ex-demo eg. http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/pioneer/sc-lx83/pion-sclx83

 

[Frank Harvey]

Think the Onkyo 609 at £450 at Richer sounds would be the best bet for amp as it's had rave reviews.

Leaving £1500-£2000 for speakers.

Or would you spend more of the money on the amp???

If you really wanted R series, yes, I would spend more on the AV receiver. It's not that the KEF's are hard to drive, but amplification quality (and a few more 'real' watts) will help. I would recommend looking at something like the Onkyo 809 or Pioneer LX55.

Girlfriend loved the new Kef R series but sadly out of budget unless we just went for centre and a pair of floorstanders for now and added the rest later???

They did sound lovely and looked fantastic, think the piano black sold her ha ha.

You got off lightly - my girlfriend liked the Blades :rofl:

Another way of getting the system over a period of time would be that if you were going for something like the R100's as rear speakers, you could start off with those at the front, and then relegate them to rear duties at a later date when adding in the front speakers you want. It's really down to what sort of quality you want to end up with - if you want to get it all in one shot, the Monitor Audio BX5AV package will be a good place to start. This sort of package you will quite happily run with an Onkyo 609.

 

[CnoEvil]

I think David and I are coming from similar positions....get a decent amp and gradually work up to the speakers that you want.

Another way of achieving the R series, would be to start off with the centre (R200C - £650), most important, as around 70% of the info comes through here.

Get the Q100/300 for left and right, which can then be used for rear duties later on.....ie. perfectly acceptable for surround effects.

For temporary rears, get something like IQ1s which go for about £60 on ebay.

For a sub look at something from BK.

 

[scoobysteve]

Would there be any advanatge in going for the R600 or is that mainly for very large rooms?

Also do all your speakers have to have the same size drivers? As if I go for the R100 and R200 centre then eventually get the R500 floorstanders the drivers would be different sizes?

 

[CnoEvil]

Would there be any advanatge in going for the R600 or is that mainly for very large rooms?

Also do all your speakers have to have the same size drivers? As if I go for the R100 and R200 centre then eventually get the R500 floorstanders the drivers would be different sizes?

IMO You should always get the best centre you can afford, where AV is the priorty.

Having the drivers all the same size is the "ideal" but certainly not essential.

Rear speakers can be of a lesser quality....in your case the Q series would be fine.

Just my view

Cno

 

[umbucker]

Hmmm im more inclined to go the other wayto be honest. I would hate to commit to a full 5:1 package to know I was going to replace it all over time. I would say the speakers are something that if you get right, you could keep for a lifetime. The amp you will change every 5 -10 years anyway as technologies change,

Look at packages which are avalable such as the Tannnoy Revolution Signature 5:1 packages - then Onkyo, Pioneer do some very decent amps for around the £600 mark.

Further down the road if technologies such as 4K Upscaling take off and HDMI upgrades come along, you can then commit to a decent amp.

 

[bigboss]

I would spend 40% on the receiver & 60% on the speakers. Based on your budget, look at AV receivers around £800-1000 mark, & speakers at £1200 - £1500 mark.

 

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