AV Receivers for playing music? Speakers?

[admin_exported]

I have recently bought a 40" LCD (samsung LE40A686) and a blu-ray player (samsung BDP1500).

I am planning on playing music cd's through the blu-ray with an AV receiver.

I would like to know which AV receivers are good for music as well as tv/cinema and which speakers you would recommend? I have a budget of approx. £500 for both the receiver and speakers.

Also should I be buying decent home cinema speakers or stereo speakers?

As you can probably tell I am far from being an expert on this subject and have had recommendations from various shop assistants which contradict each other.

Thank you

 

[Anonymous]

PS. would the samsung AVR 720 work well enough as this would fit in with my other purchases?

 

[Anonymous]

You should use a separate CD player, as Blu-ray players play CDs very badly. Try the Marantz CD5003 http://whathifi.com/Review/Marantz-CD5003/ which for only £200, is a good edition to your AV system.

As for your AV receiver, try the Sony STR-DG820ÿhttp://whathifi.com/Review/Sony-STR-DG820/ as it is a great AV receiver for the money, it can even decode HD audio, and it is musical too.

For your speakers you should try the Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom surround systemÿhttp://www.tannoy-speakers.com/s.php?product=280 the highly acclaimed F1 fronts will be great for your music and movies with the FC centre and FR rears completing your multi-channel speaker system all for £600.

Your TV and Blu-ray player setup is O.K, although it would be better with the Sony KDL-40W4500ÿhttp://whathifi.com/Review/Sony-KDL-40W4500/ and Sony BDP-S350ÿhttp://whathifi.com/Review/Sony-BDP-S350/.

You haven't mentioned cables and speaker stands but if I were you I would ditch your freebie cables and some dedicated audiophile cables and for your speaker stands try the Soundstyle Z2s.