Complete and utter beginner

[admin_exported]

Hi.

Need advice on what system to buy. Heres what I have so far in terms of media to hook up:

• Sony Bravia TV
• PC with a motherboard sound card

Hence I use my PC at the moment to play MP3's (usually itunes downloads) The sound distorts at a certain volume.

Really would like a home cinema but at first would like to have a stereo to play the MP3's through and not have the sound distort and then maybe hook the TV up at a later date.

What do I need? An amp and some speakers?

How do I connect a PC to the amp?

Will I really ever achieve good loud sound?

TIA

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you can achieve a "good loud sound".
How much is your budget at the moment?
Do you want to continue to use your PC as music source?
Is your PC located in your listening room?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there. Thanks for replying

My PC is in the listening room (with TV)

The budget can afford up to £1k. If its really top quality I would overspend. Probably can spare £2k

I would prefer to have the PC connected however if its better to download onto a pen stick thats fine also. I have a generic MP3 player and ipods.

TIA

 

[idc]

Without recommending any products as yet here is how you could get such a set up to work, especially with up to £2K.

PC - USB cable - DAC (digital analogue converter) - phono interconnects - amplifier/av surround sound amplifier - HDMI - TV and from amplifier - speaker cable - surround sound speaker system.

That is making it as simple as I can. There are loads of variations such as Apple TV and missing out the DAC as the av amp will probably have one already. But if you use a separate DAC you could also have a separate two channel amp to run two speakers which double as hifi and av front speakers. But now it starts to get complicated.

Start searching the this site in the reviews section for products mentioned in the above list. That will give you an idea of what products are out there. You should also look in the Your Systems part of the forum. I find pictures make life easier and you will see numerous av setups. There is a popular one http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/103471.aspx where you can see how a setup comes together.

Then post back on the forum with specific questions and recommendations, as asking about a whole setup from scratch is very difficult to answer with any real meaning.

 

[Anonymous]

Thats just great! Thanks for your help, gives me a good starting point.

Thanks for taking the time. I shall start reading reviews.