Home Cinema Room is being prepped... advice on gear

[rajeeboy]

Hi All

My bespoke home cinema room is just about to be completed. Its 5m(L) x 4M(W). I'm getting excited but I think I need some new gear.

I have a Yamaha Z7 with a mix and match speaker kit including an old pair of Mission floorstanders, a Monitor Audio Radius centre speaker and two Mission bipole rears plus a B and W PV1 sub. The Blu Ray player is a Sony 5000ES. The projector is a JVC HD 350 which has never been used- I'm not going to replace that.

I feel like biting the bullet and upgrading the whole lot except the projector:

I was thinking of the Pioneer LX 86 (I've seen the old amp for cash offer on Pioneer amps) or perhaps the Yamaha Aventage range. However is this much of an updgrade on my Yamaha (which is a little long in the tooth now)?

Speakers wise I am considering buying a CM8 speaker package. Should I consider the CM9's package or is that too big a sound for the size of my room. Are there any other packages that would suit and match up? The attraction of the B and W stuff is I could mix that with my exiting sub.

I would if at all possible like something that is good with movies and music.

Blu Ray: Is an upgrade necessary perhaps to the new Oppo 103? I do have some DVD audio discs I would like to play.

Any advice or thoughts or streams of consciousness would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

I would keep the Z7 and get a bluray with two outs. THe CM range is good but I would consider investing in the sub if you have budget spare. The 350 is a great unit but again I would look at this - the new models are a serious step up.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I would also recommend keeping the DSPZ7 - it's still a cracking amp, and you'd be looking at the RXA3010 or RXA3020 to even get something on par - albeit with a few extra niceties. The SCLX86 won't necessarily be an upgrade, but it'll certainly give you quite a different presentation - far tighter and precise than the Yamaha, but it may be too different for you to adjust to.

I'll be testing out the Oppo players against my 5000ES next week, so I'll let you know how much of a step up that may or may not be.

There's a lot of speaker packages out there. As well as the B&W CM package, try the KEF R Series, the Monitor Audio GX range, and the PMC Twenty Series. For AV and music, my choice would be between the KEF R Series and the PMC Twenty series. Any of these speaker packages will sound fine with your DSPZ7.

 

[rajeeboy]

Thanks all. Very helpful. By the way, I should have mentioned that I'll be setting up a 7.1 system this time round. I was thinking of adding Monitor Audio biopoles to the sides. Would these match any of the speaker packages you have recommended?

 

[Frank Harvey]

I would generally stick to the dipoles from the manufacturer that you decide on for the rest of the speakers. All manufacturers have a particular 'house sound', and they'll have different characteristics (dispersion etc), so I'd always recommend the same manufacturer for al speakers - sub excepted as it doesn't have to match anything else as it is producing a frequency band exlusive to itself, and only needs to blend in with the speakers at the crossover point.