Expensive Blu-Ray or good blu-ray +amp

[markyd]

Assuming I could justify spending £600 on a new blu-ray player, would I be better off bying a new AV amp and a budget player such as the Sony 370 for the same money?

I have an Sony 930 amp which has an external 5.1 input for any external D/A HD decoding requirements. I'm happy with the SQ, but there is no HDMI in/HD audio decoding.

Or should I just stick with the Panasonic BD-85 (was top of my shortlist)

Cheers

 

[manicm]

At that price you'd want the player pay equal attention to picture quality as well. After all it is a Blu-ray player.

 

[Anonymous]

if i was you buy the panasonic bd 85 you will get a great picture quality sound and solid build quality and a lot of features and the panasonic make is very reliable and top notch.

 

[Messiah]

Personally I would get the cheaper BD player and a new amp. I would be very surprised if the Panasonic picture quality was that much better and I think you would gain a better experience by upgrading to the HD surround formats.

 

[Anonymous]

Messiah:Personally I would get the cheaper BD player and a new amp. I would be very surprised if the Panasonic picture quality was that much better and I think you would gain a better experience by upgrading to the HD surround formats.
totally agree , the difference in picture quality between various blu-ray players is very marginal at best imo ..

the difference between av receivers of differing class can be clearly heard..

 

[Anonymous]

vote for messiah

 

[michael hoy]

xon501:vote for messiah

Is he up for Prime minister!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Messiah:Personally I would get the cheaper BD player and a new amp. I would be very surprised if the Panasonic picture quality was that much better and I think you would gain a better experience by upgrading to the HD surround formats.

He would get the HD formats with the older amp using analogue cables to the multi channel in on the Panasonic.

I would go this way and then upgrade to a better amp in the future - what speakers do you have OP?

 

[markyd]

He would get the HD formats with the older amp using analogue cables to
the multi channel in on the Panasonic.

I would go this way and then upgrade to a better amp in the future -
what speakers do you have OP?

That's what I was
thinking.

I don't know what the bass management is like on the
Panasonic, but I think my amps inputs are direct to the power amp (via
volume knob!) on the amp. HD D/A decoding and level adjustment ( LFE
boosting etc), on the blu rays analogue outs would need to be done on
the player - if possible.

It's a difficult call for me. I could
get a Sony 370 and a Denon 1911 for that money. Then there is always
'last seasons' hardware going for a song. Decisions, decisions...

Speaker
wise I have some really old B+W matrix 805's (which really sound nice
BTW) and a B+W LCR6 center . Just got some Q-AV surrounds to replace
some B+W 601s which were to big. The Q-AV's are far more suitable than
the 601's for that purpose. I dont see the point in large surrounds in
most environments.

 

[markyd]

Oh, and probably getting a BK XLSS400 sub at the end of the month