Help! Do i invest in the new Arcam Movie or buy the latest 5 Star Surround amp £500 and 5 star Blu-ray player?

Memphismusic

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Nov 16, 2008
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Help required.

Main priority is stereo music, which i have a Cyrus 6a, Pioneer PD8700 platter CD and Wharfedale 420 speakers (yes i know i am odd, but like the sound) and am very happy with sound of that system after trying all sorts of modern Hi-Fi kit.

But i have a new 55" 4k TV, Sky Q, PS4, Sonos connect (play Spotify and Itunes music via ipad) and Pioneer BDP LX 71 Blu-Ray (i class this as high end at the time) player and have just about run out of connections and would like the best of both worlds of stereo and surround.

What do i do? Sky Q and PS4 (i also game and Netflix too, not too bad for an old duffer) only have optical outputs - The cyrus 6 has no optical inputs, so i can't go for a good AV stereo sound with this amp.

So the problem (and this must be the same for all us Hi-Fi and tech freaks) where do i start.

One option is to buy a Arcam Movie and get rid of my Pioneer Blu-ray player ( i have a spare set of Dali 3's and would just buy a matching centre and sub) but down side is running 2 sets of cables to my front speakers and swapping them when i want good stereo music.

Option two is to buy something like the news 5 star Denon AV amp and latest 4k Blu-ray player, plus new centre and sub, but i still have the stereo cable swapping problem and tried AV amps for stereo listening before and it was awful.

Can the Arcam Movie play stereo CD's as well as my seperate CD and Amp combo? The Arcam music is meant to be good, but can't add a sub and would still need a 4k blu-ray player, so that's a big spend.

Any good ideas anyone?
 
Get an AV receiver with pre-outs so that you can get the Cyrus 6a to drive your front speakers, and get a standalone 4K blu ray player.

I would recommend that you buy Wharfedale centre speaker. What's your budget for the subwoofer, and what are your room dimensions? Look at SVS, Velodyne and BK for subwoofer.
 

richardw42

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Re the PS4. The new Pro version will not come with a uhd 4K blu Ray drive. You could jump ship to Xbox. The new Xbox One S includes Uhd disk playback (as well as streaming). Two boxes become one.

This is what I did, the 1tb Xbox one s is £299.

An AVR is a handy thing to have, with its mix of inputs HDMI, optical, RCA. As BB says you could get one with pre outs and use your Cyrus, I personally would just use the AVR.
 

Memphismusic

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Yes the more I look at this, as you suggest the separate AV route looks like the more likely option with flexibility to upgrade other components when I want and also give me the connections I need while maintaining a good stereo set-up.

my room is only 5m deep by 6m ish wide.

I'm considering adding the Dali Vokal centre and sub and using either the 1's or 3's as the rear speakers, so although my old 420's at the front might be bit of a mis-match at least the rest was designed as a surround package with good reviews?

its not a huge room so don't want to overkill the size of the package.

Then when that's right upgrade the blu-Ray player.

Would cost me about £1k to add in all the speakers, £500 ish on AV and then maybe another £400-£500 on blu-Ray.

Open to suggestions if you think I could do this better?
 

Memphismusic

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I use to love my Xbox 360 and tried to build that into my system with Xbox music etc and just found the whole situation lacking in sound quality and couldn't control with iPad. Everything was hard work.

Found PS better pic quality for gaming and easy with Netflix so happy with that side now. But wouldn't use it for watching films.

then found Sonos which is fantastic as good enough quality for general listening, superb app on iPad and it lets me control and play my Spotify and iTunes music accounts at the same time and build a mixed playlist. You can't beat it!

AV amp is part of reaching my solution but it's never going to satisfy stereo sound quality playing a CD. But would be great for music blu-Ray collection.
 

Leeps

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Memphismusic said:
Would cost me about £1k to add in all the speakers, £500 ish on AV and then maybe another £400-£500 on blu-Ray.

Personally I'd spend £800 on the amp and £200 on the Bluray player. If using HDMI, then you'll be using the DAC in the AVR anyway. But £200 on a Bluray player is plenty these days, unless you want a 4K player. But the premium in price of 4K discs over 1080p discs is eye-watering. £25 for Star Trek when you can pick up the 1080p Bluray for a fiver? And even new 1080p Bluray releases are only £13 compared to £20-£25 for 4K. They're having a giraffe, especially when 90% of the movies they've released on 4k are dross anyway.

Just be aware that not all AVR's have pre-outs, so do double-check the spec before pulling the trigger.
 
D

Deleted member 2457

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bigboss said:
The Samsung 4K blu ray player will fall to less than £200 by Christmas.

Don't go on the star ratings alone. Even Oppo got 3 stars, yet it went on to win EISA award for best blu ray player.
Agreed, both are cracking players. The best two I have ever owned.
 

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