Advice on what AV equipment to buy?

[admin_exported]

Hope this is posted in the right place as it is my first post.

I have a budget of £1900 and want to get a new T.V, Blu-ray player, and A.V reciever what are your opinions on these or any other kit you can think of

Samsung LE40 B650 £700

Pioneer BDP LX52 £540

Pioneer VSX 919ah £460 or the VSX 1019 £600

I have an set of Kef 2005.1 speakers already so i hope these are up to the job.

Cheers Dave

 

[bigboss]

I think you should spend more on a better AV receiver than on a blu-ray player. AV receiver is the heart of any home cinema system.

You can get very good blu-ray players for less. Look at Pioneer BDP-320 or Panasonic DMP-BD60 or Sony S360 or the upcoming Sony S560. The LX52 is an excellent player, but you're compromising on the receiver. The BDP-320 offers a near identical performance for a lot less.

You can consider Denon AVR 2310 (£799) or Yamaha RX-V1900 (£780) or Onkyo TX-NR807 (£799). In Pioneer, look at VSX-LX52.

Definitely audition the receivers first. Pioneer receivers tend to sound a bit bright. Denon & Yamaha sound warm. It really comes down to personal preference. I didn't like the sound of Pioneer personally.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply,so percentage wise what would reccomend i spend on each piece of equipment also if you had £1900 what would you buy? as im quite new to this and its always good to hear other peoples thoughts

 

[Anonymous]

You say you have a set of KEF 2005.1 speakers , but remember if you are going to invest so much in an AV amp, you will need a decent speaker package as well that needs to be 5.1 minimum and this would take you way over your £1900 budget.

Personally I would budget less for the Blu Ray player, Sony BDP S360 at £240 and less for the AV amp maybe the Sony STR-DG820 at £300.00. This would leave you around £680 for a speaker package, Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 at £550. Oh and some change for decent HDMI and speaker cables.

This system, while not as hot as what bigboss suggests (and they are good choices) is non the less and excellent set up to partner your proposed Samsung LE40 B650 at £700 and would give you a great foothold into the world of home cinema.

 

[Anonymous]

Are my kef's not up to the job then? i thought they were quite a good package?

 

[pete321]

Considering the price range of the AV amp you'll be looking at, I'd say that the KEF's would be fine for movies. However, if you intend to use the system to listen to CD's as well, then you'd probably need full size speakers at the front. Again, if you want to use the system for music, my preference would be a Pioneer blu-ray player, probably the 320. I prefer the more forward sound from Pioneer to that of say the smoother but less dynamic Denon. If it's mainly for movies, I'd stick to a Sony BDP-S360 or the Panasonic equivalent.

I would also consider a secondahand AV amp, you could get a better amp which may only be a few months to a year old from the classifieds on another well known auidio visual forum.

 

[Anonymous]

smitty78:Are my kef's not up to the job then? i thought they were quite a good package?

Right ok I see, my bad didn't read what you said properly, I was wrongly assuming you only had 2 of the kef speakers Doh.

So yes your Kefs are fine, but tend to agree with Pete123, they are fine to for movies, but if you intend to listen to CDs as well then full size is the way to go

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your comments, certainly got alot to think about hopefully get to the shops this weekend and have a good look at some of the kit you have suggested.

Keep the ideas coming, as a newbie this advice is really helping

Thanks Dave