Home Cinema & Streaming Setup/Upgrade Advice Needed

[admin_exported]

Thanks for reading this post.

I’ve not been able to upgrade my system for a few years. Wedding, house, baby etc – you know the drill – but I now find myself with an opportunity for a modest upgrade or two. I’d love to get peoples opinion of which pieces of my equipment have stood the test of time and what needs to go.

I’ve always used What Hi-Fi’s ratings system and best buys but never been great at system matching / telling if a speaker is too ‘bright’ or not so I may have well got this wrong in the first place but would be great to your feedback.

Anyway here goes:

TV: Sony KDL40W2000

Amp: Sony STR-DA2400ES.

Speakers: B&W MT-20’s with AS2 Active sub.

Visual Sources: PS3 & Sky+HD connected via QED Performance HDMI (the purple ones!). Panasonic DMP-BD85 connected by Van Den Hul flat HDMI. Apple TV

Audio Sources: Then for music I was streaming Apple Lossless files & Spotify from an Mac/iPhone through to an airport express, through a Cambridge DAC magic and then into the amp via an optical cable (True Colours Industries Coral).

Speaker wire: QED Silver Anniversary XT.

I’ve always been happy with the set up in terms of its functionality and flexibility – very easy to stream music from iphones and ipads (both of which we have and use). Apple TV slotted in nicely. Blu ray was glorious initially but obviously things move on. I’m looking for the same sort of functionality but to upgrade picture and sound quality.

Initial thoughts are the new Sony KDL46HX853 and or a new amp? Would the Yamaha RX-V673 be a good match to the B&W MT20’s? Are there noticeable difference from a £500 amp from 5 yrs ago to today’s similarly amps? From what I’ve read it sounds even though they’ve been given an upgrade that the MT20’s have retained their position as a very good small speaker package although I remember frequently reading you should upgrade to the PV1 sub if you had a spare grand knocking about? I’ve also bought a NAS drive but have had trouble finding the time to set this up but this presents another option. I’m not desperate for 3D TV but I guess my daughter may feel differently in a few years so probably worth thinking about that too.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback – like I say I follow the best buys from the magazine but consider myself very much a novice at this who dips back in when they squirrel away enough cash for an upgrade or too so thoughts thankfully received.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Thanks for reading this post.

I’ve not been able to upgrade my system for a few years. Wedding, house, baby etc – you know the drill – but I now find myself with an opportunity for a modest upgrade or two. I’d love to get peoples opinion of which pieces of my equipment have stood the test of time and what needs to go.

I’ve always used What Hi-Fi’s ratings system and best buys but never been great at system matching / telling if a speaker is too ‘bright’ or not so I may have well got this wrong in the first place but would be great to your feedback.

Anyway here goes:

TV: Sony KDL40W2000

Amp: Sony STR-DA2400ES.

Speakers: B&W MT-20’s with AS2 Active sub.

Visual Sources: PS3 & Sky+HD connected via QED Performance HDMI (the purple ones!). Panasonic DMP-BD85 connected by Van Den Hul flat HDMI. Apple TV

Audio Sources: Then for music I was streaming Apple Lossless files & Spotify from an Mac/iPhone through to an airport express, through a Cambridge DAC magic and then into the amp via an optical cable (True Colours Industries Coral).

Speaker wire: QED Silver Anniversary XT.

I’ve always been happy with the set up in terms of its functionality and flexibility – very easy to stream music from iphones and ipads (both of which we have and use). Apple TV slotted in nicely. Blu ray was glorious initially but obviously things move on. I’m looking for the same sort of functionality but to upgrade picture and sound quality.

Initial thoughts are the new Sony KDL46HX853 and or a new amp? Would the Yamaha RX-V673 be a good match to the B&W MT20’s? Are there noticeable difference from a £500 amp from 5 yrs ago to today’s similarly amps? From what I’ve read it sounds even though they’ve been given an upgrade that the MT20’s have retained their position as a very good small speaker package although I remember frequently reading you should upgrade to the PV1 sub if you had a spare grand knocking about? I’ve also bought a NAS drive but have had trouble finding the time to set this up but this presents another option. I’m not desperate for 3D TV but I guess my daughter may feel differently in a few years so probably worth thinking about that too.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback – like I say I follow the best buys from the magazine but consider myself very much a novice at this who dips back in when they squirrel away enough cash for an upgrade or too so thoughts thankfully received.

Hi

The upgrades that stick out for me would be a Panasonic plasma TV and a Pioneer amp, that is the route I would take. My local home cinema shop have the Pioneer 56 and before that all the 50's running of the M1's and I have always liked that sound. The TV that you have picked is another very good one I just personally like the Panasonic plasma range for this year. For example the ST50, GT50 and the VT50 all are very good. The PV1 would be the icing on the cake, but would probably come third in the upgrades for me.

I would definitely look around for deals on this stuff, there are some great bargains to be had, especially of outgoing stock.

 

[topbloke55]

I agree in that going for a plasma will being about a good improvement over the LCD TV. Make sure you get one you can calibrate the greyscale on.