AV amplifier and set of 5.1 surround sound speakers for ~£500

[Lee H]

speedalini:
Lee H:The trouble with using an iPod in my opinion is you're limiting the sound quality. You'll be buying some nice new kit and then putting compressed, lossy music files though it. I'd suggest you look at streaming and have the music in a decent format/bit rate. This will also open up more AVRs to you. The Bluray is wi-fi ready so you should be able to stream to it. You can do this using hardware solutions like Slingbox or Sonos, or even some free software like TVersity. Before I had Sonos I was able to stream music to my PS3 using TVersity.

Absolutely! should have tried this earlier but... I can stream music to both my blu-ray player and TV wirelessly! They both support .aac files and can obviously be controlled using their respective remotes and navigated via the TV screen. Once I find a lossless format one supports then rig up the amp and speakers it's 'job's a good 'un'! Assuming this all works out I can imagine any advantages left to having a fancy dock with universal connectors and all? More cash to spend on the amp and speakers then!

TVersity will convert on the fly to whatever format the item it's streaming to will support. It's not ideal, but it does work. I'd also look at Slingbox (sonos is probably out of budget for now) for true streaming

 

[Anonymous]

Lee H:speedalini:
Lee H:The trouble with using an iPod in my opinion is you're limiting the sound quality. You'll be buying some nice new kit and then putting compressed, lossy music files though it. I'd suggest you look at streaming and have the music in a decent format/bit rate. This will also open up more AVRs to you. The Bluray is wi-fi ready so you should be able to stream to it. You can do this using hardware solutions like Slingbox or Sonos, or even some free software like TVersity. Before I had Sonos I was able to stream music to my PS3 using TVersity.

Absolutely! should have tried this earlier but... I can stream music to both my blu-ray player and TV wirelessly! They both support .aac files and can obviously be controlled using their respective remotes and navigated via the TV screen. Once I find a lossless format one supports then rig up the amp and speakers it's 'job's a good 'un'! Assuming this all works out I can imagine any advantages left to having a fancy dock with universal connectors and all? More cash to spend on the amp and speakers then!

TVersity will convert on the fly to whatever format the item it's streaming to will support. It's not ideal, but it does work. I'd also look at Slingbox (sonos is probably out of budget for now) for true streaming

I have to say I'm getting a bit confused now! I can play lossless wave and wma files from my PC on my blu-ray player - would I benefit in any way by getting a slingbox/sonos or using TVersity?

 

[Lee H]

Slingbox or Sonos means that your PC doesn't have to be switched on if you have a NAS with your music on, plus you can control it locally without going back to the PC.

The view I took was to think, "what do I want my system to be one day". Rather than trying to buy it all at once. I had the NAS a year before I got Sonos and started ripping all my music to FLAC. In the meantime I streamed from my PC to a PS3. Then I added the Sonos and 18 months later added the AVR and decent speakers. Work out what is the best you can get now, and then save for the next add on.