First foray into AV Receiver and 5.1 surround sound set-up!

[admin_exported]

I am looking at buying an AV receiver for use with my Creative Gamer PC 6 analogue channel sound card (my music), PS3 (Games and upscaled DVD's) and Sky+ box (mainly Sport). I am new to this and have a budget of around £250-300.

For the receiver I have been pointed and indeed drawn to the Yamaha RX-V363. I know it doesn't support HD audio, but this isn't really a problem to me as I currently have no HD audio source material.

I don't really know what I am doing with the speakers, but have seen that Yamaha offer the NS-P110 5.1 set-up in a package with the AV receiver (AV63 package - about £270). I gather the speakers will not be fantastic for that price, but will they make a good start for me? At least i could change them out in the future with an AV receiver. This set-up would I take it still be better than the £200 Logitech z-5500 system?

Advice and opinions all welcome!

Thanks very much,

Chris

 

[Gerrardasnails]

If you have a PS3, you have a bluray player and so you have the option of HD audio (I'm assuming you know that the PS3 is a bluray player too). Saying that, with your budget, it's pretty irrelevant. I would go forthis cheaper Yamaha http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=YAMA-RXV361 for £120 and then go for the Jamo A10HCS5. The speaker package is very good and you can save up for a better receiver and then sell it on and not make much of a loss.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gerrardasnails. Yes I know it is a blu ray player and can output hd audio, but I have no blu ray discs or other such content which contains hd audio, so paying extra for something which copes with it doesn't really bother me at this moment in time. I had seen the 361, but I thought the 1080p compatible switching and 24hz support was worth the extra on the 363, otherwise I would lose the feature when I did finally get a blu ray disc fired up on the PS3 if said PS3 was connected via HDMI to receiver and then full HD HDTV (and the black colour of course ;-) - everything else is going to be black unfortunately). Hope that makes sense!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

It does and it doesn't. You say you don't own any Bluray. You might in the future, you can rent them from lovefilm etc., and then you say when you finally fire up a blu ray disc the dearer Yamaha will give you 1080p switching and 24hz support (don't know what that is). The 363 will not be a great machine to use with bluray and the prices are seriously dropping too. I think that £200 for that Yamaha is a waste of money. You will be able to get the Onkyo 605 for about £270 in a few months time. My suggestion was to not spend a lot at all on a receiver until you have the money to get one that will give you some options for several years. I would have a scout on ebay for a half decent (black) receiver that will give you 5.1 and half decent sound. You might get a bargain for about £70. You can then spend more on better speakers and then buy a better receiver when you get some more money together.

 

[Anonymous]

The LDC TV I am about to buy has a 24fps true movie setting, which means it will play movies (I think only on blu-ray) as they were shot by the director, as you see them in the cinema. Usually on your TV the frames are sped up, which gives them a "TV" rather than "Cinema" feel". Or this is how I understand it anyway. Of course if I am right about it only working with blu ray then I guess it doesn't matter much for as long as I don't own/rent any blu-rays! Hum! Right, so say I could increase my overall budget to £400 which is feasible as I am now looking at a slightly lower costing TV thanks to the re-emergance of my sanity, what would that get me which you would recommend, or am I going to be needing to wait/save still to get something worth getting?

Thanks again for the feedback, I really do appreciate it!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

First of all the 24fps bit I understand. You will only see this benefit from a source that gives you 24fps also (bluray). If I were you, I would either look for a discounted Onkyo SR605 (probably £300ish) or bag the new one, the 606 at £400. Or alternatively, wait for the new Denons to come out and get one of last years models, the 2308 (if you are not worried about hd audio) and you should get a discount. To be honest though with £400, models like Denon, Onkyo, Sony and Pioneer, you really cannot go far wrong. It's up to taste and what you want it to be able to do. The Onkyo 605 and 606, apart from not having pre-outs for front speakers (handy if you want to incorporate your stereo seperate system), they are the best value for spec per £. I prefer the Denons and Pioneers personally, once I upgrade my Sony, I will go with these makes._

 

[professorhat]

Or you could look at an all-in-one solution like the Sony DAV-IS10 which will give you the amp and the speakers (and admittedly another DVD player) for about £350 - £400. Getting a separate amp and speakers as Gerrardasnails suggests will definitely sound better, but I think you'll struggle to get both for £400 or less. Now if you can scrimp and save another £100 - £150 together, you could go for the Onkyo / Denon combined with the Jamo A102HCS5 / KEF 1005 speaker packages which will trounce the Sony package.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you both, your help is much appreciated!

I came across the Pioneer VSX-1017 (AV-K) today. Peter Tyson is doing it for £270 delivered next day with two year guarantee. Link - http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/pioneer_vsx1017.shtml

Is this a good deal? Elsewhere it is £300-£400 (Richer Sounds £400). It got a good review in Home Cinema Magazine in April 08 and came top of five in a group test of the best sub £500 receivers/amps. It beat the Yamaha 761 (4th) in their opinion and it like that is THX2 certified which I hope is good! It is also black which is a bonus as all my other equipment is black.

It does the pcm over hdmi thingy (doesn't decode HD audio itself) but I think that is all I need if I am using the PS3 as the blu ray player in the future?!

I think the inputs are all ok: 2 x HDMI in to 1 out (1080p switching), 2 x coaxial, 4 x optical, 3 x RCA Audio, 5 x RCA A/V, 5 x S-video, 5 x composite, 3 x component, 1 x USB host, 7.1 multi-channel; provided the multi-channel input still allows me to connect my PC sound card with the 3x 3.5mm to 2x RCA cables? (undoubtedly a stupid question, but I want to be certain at this price!)

Then I would have about £150 left to get some decent speakers, I think I will stick to 5.1 speaker set-up rather than go 7.1, which should get me better quality for my money I hope! As always opinions are greatly valued. Your help has been brilliant. Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Forget that! Home Cinema Mag are rubbish. It doesn't do pcm over hdmi, do they even test these things when they review em?! Grrr! They are off of the christmas card list!

Looks like I need to decide between the Yamaha 761 (£235), Onkyo 605 (£300), Denon 1908 (£300), or to wait and hope that the new Sony 820 accepts multi channel input (unlike the 910, grrr!) and is in fact actually on the shelves in this country this year at a £250-£300 price.

I have at least decided to get the Jamo speakers you suggested (£175 with lambdatek). Just need to make sure I get an amp which gets the best out of them!

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="Chrispy"]Forget that! Home Cinema Mag are rubbish[/quote]

I'm sure Andrew, Clare et al will agree with you! You've touched on something I think is very confusing at the moment. Trying to get a clear cut answer as to whether certain amps / receivers accept certain audio standards is very confusing at the moment. Many accept HDMI video, but not sound. Others accept sound, but not the HD format sound e.g multi-channel PCM. Some will accept and decode bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio, others won't. The problem is, due to marketing, a lot of sites just report an amp has an HDMI input, and many people thus assume they can get the latest audio benefits from this, when sometimes this just isn't true. I spend quite a bit of time looking through technical specs on various websites before eventually having to find and download an amplifier's manual before I can actually tell if it can accept a certain audio signal, just so I can inform a fellow forum poster if what they are looking at will do what they want it to.

Why this can't be standardised for consumers (much like the HD Ready and Full HD tags has helped to standardise the video formats) I'm not sure. Clare, Andrew, rest of WHF team - can we feed this back and see if anything can be done?!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

I see you have a sony STR-DA1200ES and say you would upgrade to a Denon or Pioneer. Is the Sony any good as it is the amp I was looking to buy..that or the Onkyo 605. I play music alot and want something that plays good stereo. What Pioneer ones are good? Many thanks for any advice! Regards Andrew

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="wilkoman2000"]
Hi

I see you have a sony STR-DA1200ES and say you would upgrade to a Denon or Pioneer. Is the Sony any good as it is the amp I was looking to buy..that or the Onkyo 605. I play music alot and want something that plays good stereo. What Pioneer ones are good? Many thanks for any advice! Regards Andrew

[/quote] I'm assuming you mean me? It' an excellent receiver. Apart from only 2 hdmi inputs and no HD audio through hdmi, it pretty much ticks all my boxes. Stereo playback is better than most receivers (I've read it's better than the 605 but that does do HD audio).