Please help me!

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Many years ago (about 20!) I was a subscriber to What Hi-Fi. As a student my budget was limited so I bought the best I could at the time... and then the family took over!

Therefore I still have a decent looking but old separates system comprising:

CD Player - Technics SL-P277A

Cassetter Player (I know!) - Technics RS-B465

Tuner - Denon TU-260L

Amplifier - Rotel RA-82OAX

I have just replaced the speakers - Wharfedale Diamond IVs - partly because the kids when younger had poked the tweeters and partly because I thought - wrongly - that one of them had 'blown'. I've just bought the Q Acoustics 2010s from Peter Tyson for a very reasonable £99.

Of course I have now realised that it is in fact the amplifier that seems to be faulty - there is hardly any sound coming from the left side and what you can hear is low level "fuzz". I had a look inside the amp but there is nothing obvious. I guess being 20 years old it's not particularly surprising. The question is, what should I do:

1) Buy a new amp as a straight forward replacement. If so what on a limited budget? I might just about be able to stretch to the Best Buy Marantz PM6003 at £250.

2) I have a newish Panasonic TH-42PZ85B TV and Sky HD - but have never had cinema audio (and would not really know where to start!). Could I buy a "cinema" amp to play both the hi-fi separates AND the TV - and if so how and what do I buy?! I guess I could use the new and old speakers for some sort of surround sound? What else would I need and how much would it cost?

As you can guess I was once a Hi-Fi fan but 20 years is a long time... can anyone help me please?

 

[Andrew Everard]

With an amp that old, good though it was, it's probably not worth having it repaired. I'm assuming the problem is there whether you play CD, tuner or tap - ie we're sure it's the amp and not one of the source components.

Yes, the PM6003 would be a great buy, but you could get away with the less expensive Cambridge Audio 340A, which would be well suited to what you have now.

AV amps? Yes, you could use your old and new speakers - I'd use the old ones on the rear channels, and the new ones on the front.

Suitable budget AV amps? You could get a Sony STR-DH800 for not much more than £200, which would be more than fine.

Extras? Well, apart from an optical digital cable to connect the Sky box to the Sony for surround, not much. Ideally you should have a centre speaker (preferably the matching QAcoustics one) and a subwoofer for the full surround effect, but you could run the Sony in 'phantom centre' mode - which splits the centre channel between left and right speakers - for now, and you may decide you can live without a subwoofer for now.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you! Yes, it's the same whichever source I use.

In terms of the AV amp - sorry but I really am clueless - can I put it in my hi-fi cabinet with my separates and use it to play them as well as Sky? If so that seems to be a good option! But where do I get it for just over £200 - a very quick scan shows the Sony at about £270?

 

[Sorreltiger]

Richer Sounds at £219.95 seems to be the best deal available.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, that Richer offer was what I had in mind, and yes you can play your other sources - CD, tape, tuner - through it, though of course the Sony also has a radio tuner built-in and/or you can listen to radio via the Sky box.

 

[Anonymous]

If I can play my separates using this as an amp, which cable do I go for? I think I my pop to Richer Sounds later, depending on the answer!

 

[big1986ben]

You can get the1010I for your rears for £40 at Richer sounds at the mo.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Speaker cable or analogue interconnects? You can use your existing analogue interconnects for the CD player and cassette deck, and one of the Cambridge Audio cables for the speakers. Oh, and as I said, you'll need a digital interconnect for the Sky HD box, but check the back of the box, as different models have either optical or optical and electrical digital out.

If you want a matching centre speaker for your QAcous, the 2000C is about £100.

 

[Anonymous]

I have speaker cable.

I guess I need to know what I need to but with the Sony AV Receiver:

I have a Panasonic DVD player, a Sky+HD and a Sony Playstation but am clueless about what I would need - additionally - on top of my existing 2 HDMI cables (Playstation / Sky) and Scart (DVD) that connect to the TV...!

 

[Andrew Everard]

OK so assuming your DVD doesn't have an HDMI output, leave that connected to the TV via Scart and add an extra digital audio cable to connect the DVD sound to the amp.

Sky can either go straight to the TV, with the optical cable feeding sound to the amp, or via HDMI to the amp, again with the optical audio, and then an HDMI from amp to TV. But there's little point in doing the latter unless you have other sources with HDMI output.

But which PlayStation is it? An original, a PS2 or a PS3? A 3, I assume, given that you have it connected via HDMI.

 

[Anonymous]

PS3

 

[Andrew Everard]

In which case, I'd go:

1. Sky HD HDMI to the Sony receiver, plus the optical cable
2. PS3 HDMI to the Sony receiver
3. Extra HDMI cable to the TV from the Sony receiver.

And to be frank, unless you're really attached to your DVD player, I'd ditch it and use the PS3 to play DVDs. It'll do a much better job.

 

[Anonymous]

Brilliant, thank you so much. Can I use my existing audio connectors for the separates to the Sony AV?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, you can.