Advice on home cinema/AV amp/receiver

[admin_exported]

Ok, so I've decided to ditch my old hi-fi seperates as I rarely listened to vinyl, never used the tape deck and kept bumping into the HB1 speakers!

I've bought a nice Panasonic plasma HD TV. What I would like is:-

Radio - FM/DAB

Ipod connectivity

DVD playing with upscaling

Surround sound (maybe. not sure about all those speakers!)

My room is about 12' by 14'

Budget would be up to £800.

Thanks for your help

Stuart

 

[Anonymous]

Bump

Any or all advice would be much appreciated

 

[lobby]

What your after is not available at that price, Denon and Yamaha do av amps with Dab radio and ipod connections, but expect to pay around £800-£1000.

 

[professorhat]

The NAD Viso Two ticks most of the boxes for the price (especially if you're not sure if you want surround, this could be perfect). DAB radio is an optional extra. Also I'm assuming speakers are outside the budget...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies.

I have been looking at the What Hi-F 'Home Cinema in a box' and very much liked the look of the the Nad Viso Two (and five), though I confess to be a bit confused with the Home cneam in a box tag as I naturally assumed that speakers would be included but clearly they aren't on some of the items reviewed (but they are on some).

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys, me again!

As you can tell I'm very new to all this home cinema and surround sound stuff.

So if I go for the Nad Viso 2, I'm confused as to how I would connect my Humax 9200 freeview PVR (I plan to get the Humax HDR as well). - Do I plug the video and sound output of the Humax to the Nad and thence to the TV. And if I do that would the Nad upscale the video output to the TV.

Sorry about the daft questions!

Thanks for your help

Stuart

 

[Big Aura]

Sorry, haven't ever looked at the NAD. I'd be inclined to buy a full-on AV amp. I've Denon and it's good for a/v and (since I upgraded the mains cable to a Copperline Alpha) fine for music. Also look at the Sony and Yamahas at the £450-500 price point. Get just three speakers across the front (left, right and centre, obviously) and buy some surrounds later (when you get infected with the bug!). I have a Humax Foxsat and just listen to the radio through it, rather than a dedicated tuner - not sure if that impact quality, because it's rare that I bother with radio.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, thanks for the input. Again, though, does the Humax AV output go through the AV amp and thence to the TV?

Regards

 

[Big Aura]

Yep - the HDMI goes straight from the Humax to the amp, as will the HDMI from your blu-ray or DVD (if it has one) player and then the picture is passed through, via HDMI, direct to your screen.