Home Cinema newbie - please help

[admin_exported]

I am hoping you guys can provide some 'expert' advice as upgrading my
home cinema system is proving to be a bit of a nightmare, mainly due to
the lack of proper advice that is out there, without some kind of
commercial tie / sponsorship

basically, I am quite happy with my Blu-Ray and TV setup, and wanting to add sound!!

in my movie collection, I have 70 blu-ray and about 300 DVD movies

my current hardware is LG's BD-370 blu-ray player and 32" LG5700 1080P flat screen tv

I am getting conflicting information from forums / magazine websites and retailers (especially the deep-discounters)

some say I should ditch my LG blu-ray player which is somewhat "average" and start again...

...its hard for me to qualify this advice as the Blu-Ray movies look pretty
darn good compared to my previous LG DVD player, and upscaling
the DVDs in my collection also looks good too!

Whether changing the Blu-Ray is going to make a bigger difference is debatable unless you are a magazine reviewer seeing lots of these products day in and day out?

but the sound is
definitely lacking, and having owned a premium Hi-Fi seperates system
(Arcam / Mission) in a previous life as a student with a student loan, I appreciate sound quality!

from reading equipment reviews from magazines like "What Hi-Fi", for a budget system, they
recommend an all-in-one system like the Sony BDVE300 which is a Blu-Ray
/ AMP with 5.1 speakers

-others sources recommend adding an AV Amp and 5.1 speaker to my existing LG equipment?

-some have recommended the Sony STRDH500 and Yamaha NSP280 speakers?

-others have recommended going higher up the chain with the Sony
STRDH800 which offers Dolby True HD / DTS-HD Master Audio and a higher
spec. speaker package like the Jamo A102HCS

my budget is somewhat limited (about GBP£400-500) and my
space is limited (an apartment flat, I cannot raise the volume too high
without irritating neighbours)

I am guessing that ANY system offering external speakers and an amp is
going to be superior to my existing TV speaker setup!

but how much should I spend?
its hard to test lower end systems as retailers are not interested in providing demos!

would going from the Sony 500 AV amp and Yamaha 5.1 speakers to the Sony 800 AV amp and
Jamo 5.1 speakers make a noticeable difference, considering I cannot turn up the volume too much?

Am I better off ditching my
LG blu-Ray and buying the complete Sony BDVE300 all-in-one system which has had 5 / 5
stars in What Hi-Fi tests?

Is the Sony BDVE300 all-in-one system going to actually sound better than the Sony STRDH500 with Yamaha speakers despite being a similar overall price?

I could probably get something back for my LG Blu-Ray player from a local "cash convertor shop", to add to the budget

please help, its very confusing... especially all these standards like Dolby Pro-Logic, DTS-HD, THX, etc. What should I be looking for?

 

[d4v3pum4]

hampstead bandit:others have recommended going higher up the chain with the Sony
STRDH800 which offers Dolby True HD / DTS-HD Master Audio and a higher
spec. speaker package like the Jamo A102HCS

That is the option I woud go for. Separates will offer greater flexibility in terms of features, number of inputs and overall sound quality. I would look at partnering the Sony with the Tannoy SFX. Otherwise, look at the likes of the Yamaha RX-V465 with the Jamos. Neither of these receivers (or Onkyo 507) offer video conversion so if you have any analogue sources, you would need to look at the next models up e.g. Onkyo 607, Yamaha RX-V565 and Denon AVR 1610 if you want to use a single HDMI to the TV.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the information, I will check out the Tannoy SFX speaker

I am not looking to use any analogue sources, I don't even have an aerial plugged into my system, just Blu-Ray and DVD played off discs

Any recommendations for speaker cabling without blowing a small fortune? I have a good quality HDMI for my Blu-Ray to TV, I take it I need another so I can run the Blu-Ray player into the AV AMP and then into the TV?

I'm a bit confused about the cabling as I have read my LG Blu-Ray has onboard DTS-HD and TRUE HD decoding, what does this mean in terms of its relationship to the AV AMP and TV?

 

[d4v3pum4]

Nowadays, you can buy an HD audio decoding receiver for a shade over £200 (Yamaha RX-V465) and receivers that handle LPCM only i.e. lack HD audio decoding but can process audio over HDMI from a suitably equipped decoding player such as yours are thin on the ground. With some discs and the advent of BD Live, secondary commentary and all the other guff that Sony think we need on a bluray disc, the decoding will have to be done in the player and output as LPCM. I wouldn't really concern yourself with this. The audio capabilities have nothing to do with the TV. By buying an HD audio decoding receiver you can either decode in the receiver or in the player.

Sorry, I don't believe in expensive cabling. I have various HDMI cables in my own system ranging from the freebies supplied with my HDDVD player and Sky+HD, Pro2 (hdcable), Octava and a pretty expensive Bettercables cable. There is no difference whatsoever. Just stick with a good quality cable from a manufacturer/supplier that offers a lifetime warranty such as hdcable. They have a sale on at the minute!

As for speaker cable, Van Damme Blue 2.5mm or HiFi 2.5mm is more than adequate imho. If you need any analogue cables e.g. subwoofer cable, see MarkGrantCables (Advertises in the mag). His custom cables are as good as they get and he also sells speaker and HDMI cables. You can't go wrong with his gear.

 

[Anonymous]

I got my pioneer VSX 819 for 250.00 new and delivered.

Better than the sony and yamaha for spec, from what I seen, I love it and no complaints.