Home Cinema System / Hi Fi - Samsung/Sony combo

[admin_exported]

Hi

We are looking at replacing my age old pathetic hifi and decided that our best bet, given that we watch a lot of flims and music, would be to get a home cinema system that would also be good enough for our limited music needs.

We have been looking at the Sony DAV-IS 10 after reading the reviews in What Hifi and seeing the ridiculously small size of the speakers - as my other half does not like the idea of anything too obtrusive.

On visiting the Sony shop (to look not buy) it became apparent that to get anything out of this we would need to replace our 6 year old widescreen TV - as all the connectors have changed from those days!

We looked at a few options and the Samsung LE32R87BDX 32 Inch seemed like a good "cost effective" bet again given the WhatHifi rating. We have found a deal for this TV plus the DAV-IS10 for £880.

Given my ignorance, I was interested in whether anyone was able to say whether this was a good option, suggest any alternatives and also advise as to what cables/connectors we would also have to buy - the last time I was in the market for such equipment they came as part of the deal - but apparently this is no longer the case - and the Sony guy was saying we would need an £80 cable.

We would be connecting the above systems to a Sky+ box - not HD at this stage, but may consider this moving forwards if I can sneak through the upgrade with the wife! Our lounge is 5.69m x 3.3m with wooden flooring if that helps!

Many thanks for any advice you can offer someone who has no idea about this sort of stuff!

http://www.directtvs.co.uk/Samsung_32_inch_HD_Ready_LCD_TV_LE32R87BDX/version.asp http://www.directtvs.co.uk/asp/basket.asp?R=6500&V=remove http://www.directtvs.co.uk/Sony_5.1_Home_Cinema_System_DAV-IS10_DAV-IS10/version.asp

 

[Andy Clough]

Well, the Sony/Samsung combo sounds like a pretty good deal to me, especially if you can get it for £880. Given that the Samsung's official price is £700 and the Sony's £600, that's quite some saving!

If you wanted an even better 32in TV, I'd opt for the Panasonic TX-LXD700 (£1000), but I doubt you'll get such a good discount on that.

As for connectivity, you'll need an HDMI cable to connect the Sony DAV-IS10 to the TV (QED's HDMI-P at £50 is a good buy), and a Scart cable to connect the Sky+ box to the TV (something like the QED SQart P2110 at £30 will do nicely). So £80 on cables sounds about right to me. Oh, and you might want a digital optical lead to feed sound from the Sky+ box to the Sony unit (again, QED do one for around £35).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this Andy...

I have seen the Panasonic TX-32LMD70 for £530 and the TX-32LXD69A for £500 How do these compare with the TX-LXD700 and the Samsung for that matter?

Also - given our budget (£1K max) - are there are any other good options we ought to be considering?

We have seen the Philips WACS 700 wireless system as a good looking alternative for multi room music rather than the home cinema route...which my wife liked the look of...but I wasn't sure of whether it was any good - and also I thought combining a home cinema system that we could use for music would be better value?

Our main concern is ensuring how we would wire the home cinema system - as we don't have carpets to hide them under - which means running them around the skirting board I guess - but don't want ugly wiring! Don't know if there are any DIY tips for doing this!?