New Cinema System - Advice Required

[Anonymous]

£400 is much more than enough. You will be persuaded to buy expensive HDMI cables, but £5 cables from thatcable will be just as good .

Thats good to hear about the cable prices. The bad news is, once I've selected a home cinema kit from all the manufacturers out there, I've then got to start researching all the different cable suppliers.

This hobby should carry a health warning :rofl:

 

[Anonymous]

Looking good the GT50 is awesome!

Well, if its good enough for What HiFi, its good enough for me !!!

Seriously, it gets a good review and the ££ I'll save over the VT will allow me to get a better speaker system - currently looking at the Monitor Audio Apex and also the B&W MT60D

Sevenoaks might well discount their prices over Xmas too. It is also worth phoning around different branches getting quotes, you will see the prices fluctuate quite dramatically!

Oh the good old January Sales

 

[BenLaw]

Are you planning to do any demos? I'm particularly thinking speakers and amp.

If you spend anything like £400 on cables you're crazy. Use generic speaker cable and basic hdmi with decent build quality.

 

[Frank Harvey]

If you're also considering Apex (which I didn't mention as it was outside your budget), then I would definitely consider the Yamaha RXA3010 for them, as you'll not get the best from them with the Onkyo 818.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you planning to do any demos? I'm particularly thinking speakers and amp.

Oh most definately, I'm just trying to get a few equipment combinations together (as a result of my initial thoughts and everyones suggestions / recommendations on here) so I can road test them next January / February.

If you spend anything like £400 on cables you're crazy. Use generic speaker cable and basic hdmi with decent build quality.

I hadn't planned on spending that sort of money, but being new to the whole world of cinema seperates I had no idea of what sort of budget to leave for the cables

 

[Anonymous]

If you're also considering Apex (which I didn't mention as it was outside your budget),

They were, initially. But now the Panasonic GT range has been recommended over the VT range, that saves quite a few ££, and allows me to look at upgrades elsewhere - particularly speakers.

What are your thoughts on the B&W MT60D package ?

 

[Frank Harvey]

I think I mentioned earlier that for that sort of money, and that type of speaker package, it'll be as good as you'll get (without spending more). Depending on the room size though, a more capable subwoofer may be needed. If you want to keep it compact, try the KK Sound DXD808, which, for slightly less money than the PV1D, will give you better depth and higher output, while retaining speed for good music reproduction.

 

[Anonymous]

David, thanks for the suggestion - another bit of reading required.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Hello again TheCaptain,

Like bigboss and BenLaw, I'm struggling to understand how the cabling for your relatively straightforward proposed system can possibly come to anything like £400! Can you do us all a wee favour? Please list all the cables that you will need, linking which components, and the length of each cable. For instance, (a) HDMI cable from Blu-Ray player to receiver, 2 metres; (b) Loudspeaker cable from receiver to left surround speaker, 8 metres; etc. Do that for ALL the cables that you think you will need. I myself tend to use HDMI, optical digital audio and VGA from Lindy electronics http://www.lindy.co.uk but that's partly because several of my HDMI, optical and VGA cables are 15 to 20 metres long (to go between my three rooms), and Lindy's long cables are very reliable and just keep on working, and are not too expensive. For instance, a recent purchase was of a 20m HDMI cable, this one http://www.lindy.co.uk/20m-premium-standard-hdmi-cable/41118.html . £72 for 20 metres is not bad. Lindy do shorter cables also!

Incidentally, I'll endorse the spirit of what bigboss said about using cheaper cables, even within Lindy's own range. Once upon a time, about four months ago, I wanted two 2m HDMI cables, and I was feeling flush then. So I bought two cables, both from Lindy. This £9 one http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-premium-high-speed-hdmi-cable/41112.html and this £65 one http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-premium-gold-high-speed-hdmi-cable-with-ethernet/37421.html. I connected them using the twin outputs of my Yamaha RX-A2010 (and no, I don't have shares in Yamaha!) to two inputs on my LG 60PZ950T television in the kitchen, a big enough screen to show any differences. And, I sense you asking, could I see or hear any difference between the £9 cable and the £65 cable, which are from the same manufacturer?? Er, no.

For speaker cable, I've never done any comparative tests with other cables so I can't say objectively how good they are, but I use Richer Sounds' Cambridge Audio SYMPHONY 400 cable http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-cables/cambridge-audio/symphony-400/gale-symphony-400 , at £2:49 per metre, in all my rooms. I also use Richer Sounds for coaxial digital audio cables and AV interconnects.

Still can't think how you could get to £400 .......

 

[daytona600]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160935667251

 

[daytona600]

just had the same problem myself , no problem with the av gear in a cabinet

&the tv on a wall bracket , but trying to get 5.1 speakers buy the missus was a nightmare

finally found a solution on-wall 5.1 system & subwoofer atohm furitive

www.atohm.com http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160935667251