Completely confused and bewildered help needed for complete surrond sound package

[admin_exported]

Hi,

i need some advice, i was going to buy a 5.1 solo, but have decided to go the separates route, so was looking at Arcam avr350/dv137 as package, is this worth the money as i want a PS3 for gaming and blue ray, but was told that i will not get HD sound? so what do i do, speaker wise there are a few in the running from Monitor Audio Radius 250,s for front and centre 90's for rear and 720 for sub, or B&W XT2 for front, with M-1 for rears, PV1 sub and XTC for centre, or to really cut cost KEF 3005SE's, what is best?

Also advised to go for Marantz 7002 avr and 7600 dvd? is this better than Arcam or not,

these will be put with a pioneer lx508d tv and sky hd.

Thanks

 

[Wightknight]

Just to clarify one point: the PS3's sound capabilities have recently been upgraded. Please see http://whathifi.com/home-cinema/archive/2008/04/10/ news-flash-official-sony-ps3-announcement-due-at-5pm.aspx

With regard to speaker choice, it sounds like you need to have some fun in the demo room of a good hi-fi shop!

 

[professorhat]

Can recommend the B&W 685 Home Theatre package. You could partner this with the PV1 sub as well, though this will obviously whack the price up! I have the 685 package except with M1s as rears instead of 686s due to space constraints. When I demoed this set up, the 686s are better, but when I placed them where I was going to have to have them in my room, the M1s were better and gave a much better surround effect. The B&W or MA solutions will definitely beat the KEF style packages IMHO.

Assume music is important for you too, in which case I would say the Marantz is the good AV amp for this.