Basic sound system for Panny TH42PX80B

[Cass]

My Panasonic TH42PX80B arrives tomorrow, and I want to do something cheap and cheerful sound-wise immediately, with a view to upgrading later. I’m thinking of getting an Onkyo TX-SR505 (605/606 is too pricey) and hooking it up to a basic set of 2.1 speakers initially. My sources are a Virgin V+ box (which has optical out) and a Toshiba SD370E DVD player (which has digital coaxial out). Will this work? Is it a good plan as a basic starter system, or would a little more cash get me significantly better results? I'm very much a newbie with this type of thing!

 

[professorhat]

Unless you're on a really tight budget, I would go for the 605 rather than the 505 unless this is really only for short-term use. The thing is, the 605 is only about £75 - £100 more than the 505 now, but offers decoding of all the new HD sound formats via HDMI. Even if you don't think Blu-Ray will succeed (and I mean in mainstream terms as opposed to the Hi-Def war obviously), those sound formats aren't going anywhere (in terms of TV broadcasts for the future etc.).

If you don't, you're going to find that in a few years, not only will you want to replace / upgrade your 2.1 speaker system, you'll also want to replace your amp as well as it won't decode all the "standard" formats of that time (i.e. in the same way Dolby Digital is a standard format now).

Just my opinion though, naturally...

 

[Cass]

Thanks for the good advice, Prof - I think I will save up for the 605. I also noted your recommendation on another thread of the Q Acoustics 1010i speakers, which could well be my ideal solution in that department.