how to allocate budget of £ 5k for Home Cinema

[v1c]

try www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/product_ID/5028 not even haggling.

 

[JohnHolmes]

Can I ask which Miller & Kreisel speaker package would be the one
that would challenge the dali Ikon 6.5.1 (circa £2200). Apologies i
thought i knew a little bit about home cinema kit but i have never
heard of M&K.

The M&K Xenon pack

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?item=98cd3790f396694315d55d6bd9c8a09889b1887d854119fb

or even better the M&K 750THX pack

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?item=2834737cee9980713f58881c93173351309977ab1143042a

Though you could probably save money getting a SVS sub instead of the M&K for similar performance

 

[JohnHolmes]

What if you want hi-fi and movies though?

Buy a separate pair of hifi speakers

 

[The_Lhc]

v1c:try www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/product_ID/5028 not even haggling.

Amp's not in stock, although the blu-ray is, for about £580, lead time 28-64 days!

 

[The_Lhc]

JohnHolmes:
The M&K Xenon pack

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?item=98cd3790f396694315d55d6bd9c8a09889b1887d854119fb

or even better the M&K 750THX pack

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?item=2834737cee9980713f58881c93173351309977ab1143042a

Though you could probably save money getting a SVS sub instead of the M&K for similar performance

I have heard an M&K demo at the Bristol show a couple of years back, it was very impressive (that was the one that blew my eardrum out when I had an ear infection!), but I do listen to quite a lot of music and I don't think I could get two set of speakers past the missus!

 

[JohnHolmes]

Depends what you want most movies or music?

They are not bad for music, if your listening to music more than waching movies I would look at ATC, PMC or B&W but if you are the other way round go for M&Ks.

 

[The_Lhc]

JohnHolmes:
Depends what you want most movies or music?

Unfortunately the answer to that is "a little from column A, a little from column B".

They are not bad for music,ÿ if your listening to music more than waching movies I would look at ATC, PMC or B&W but if you are the other way round go for M&Ks.ÿ

I'm more interested in movies but practicalities of life mean we don't often get the time to watch films, so I end up listening to more music. Having said that I'm hoping that when the new screen arrives it'll be a good way of persuading SWMBO to watch more films!

I really need a good all-rounder unfortunately.

 

[JohnHolmes]

If I were you I would not buy brand new, I would look for 2nd hand gear apart from maybe the Plasma. Let someone else take the big hit, check out the classifieds at the www.avfourms.com for some very reasonable deals on 2nd kit.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Many understate M&K's music performance. Yes, they designed for movies, which means they're not as good as a hi-fi speaker for music, but if you look at the M&K's that use the 5.5" drivers, they fare much better with music than the K's and Xenons. As an example, you could get something like the LCR750's, M4T's and a KX12 sub for a little over £1800. As far as I'm concerned, the best M&K's for music are the 750's and 150's. The first time I heard M&K for music I was quite surprised how good they sounded, and how much more detail I was hearing in electric guitars.

When setting up M&K's for music, they need far more tweaking than they would do for movies - getting the crossover point is essential in getting good music performance, but this can vary from room to room, so there's nothing set in stone.

Even though you are into movies and music, I would say it's going to be down to which one you want to sound better. If you want you movies to sound better then music, go with M&K. If you want better music than movies, look at something like the KEF iQ or the Dali Ikon.

 

[Anonymous]

psawczuk:
I am really confused with the choice. Or maybe with this budget I shall go other route. Any help / advice much appreciated

1. KRP-500M or KRP-500A or PDP-LX5090

2. SC-LX71 or SC-LX81

3. BDP-51FC or BDP-LX71

4. B&W 684,686,HTM62,ASW610 or KEF iQ70,iQ10,iQc60 or Tannoys Signarure Revolution DC6

5. Sky HD or Freesat Humax PVR HD

6. genuine wall mount & branded hdmi & speaker cables or any other cheap stuff will do the job

Thanks

Have read this thread with interest as I was in a similer quandry when I bought my system over a year ago.
Now I know things have moved on with new model line ups since then, and I have done many posts on improving the mains to get a really good HiFi performance out of a AV system.

However a good sound and picture will always be a good sound and picture. Speaker wise a traditional speaker package will always outshine, and the two that do it for my ears are the Dali AV package and the Monitor Audio RS AV series.
Currently all the top brands of TVs are very close in picture performance IMO, which was not the case a couple of years ago so I doubt you will be disappointed with your final choice when auditioning them.
My take on AV amps really is down to what is inside them and how they are built. The good ones can put out up to 7 x 200wpc and to do that effortless they have to have a really big transformer and substantial reservoir capacitance. This unfortunately really effects the pre amp section and muddies the sound up. Which brings me back to cleaning up the mains supply to resolve this problem.
The latest Onkyo 876 has the greater potential with the power and grip on music to be outstanding. Furthermore as this year it has been knocked off its perch by Yamaha in the awards it is both available and heavily discounted, so with the money saved you can budget for mains improvements and decent cables.
If you are not interested in Sky sport channels its worth also thinking about the Sony RDR975 recorder. It's a really good machine that also stores your favorite CD's on its hard drive with excellent play back. (as good as a CD player)
As has been already mentioned by others buying off one dealer if possible will give you the best prices. I myself bought off www.wilkinsons.tv which are a family business who gave me a unbeatable package and really good service. That is worth having I think.

Hope my post has been of help.

All the best.