surround sound for small room and time to upgrade

[admin_exported]

confused - not sure i even understand the question! Old system Yamaha RX-V450 with Take 5.2 and matching sub. Moved to new house with TV room which coincideds with desire to upgrade to new full HD, freesat and blu-ray. Bearing in mind age of amp/speakers (although still faultless) do i need to upgrade to get benefit of new screen/blu ray etc. I gather that amp will not decode latest audio versions but am i stupid for thinking thid can be done on-board the bluray player, tv and/or freesat box and then fed to the amp by analogue component.

Add to this that the tv room I aquired is about 3m x3.5m with viewing acoss the smaller sides with seating right up against the wall. thus any rear speakers are almost at the side rather than behind. Would this negate the benefit of surround sound anyway and am i better advised to go for a spaeker bar or somthing akin to that?

Changing tack a little, I have almost totally replaced my use of CD's with the IPod. If as a result of the above my Yam amp becomes redundant could it usefully serve with an IPod dock to meet my music needs in our main living room (6m x 4m) with the above speakers or dedicated stereo speakers or should i ditch it altogether (such a waste) and get something like the Fatman I Tube or the Klipsch Room Groove or Avanti Flow.

With apologies for lack of knowledge, so hard to keep up with developments at my age, but thanks for any guidsance you can give.

AJ53

 

[Andrew Everard]

I'd have no problem with using your current receiver with the new set-up. The Yamaha has multichannel analogue inputs, so all you need to do is make sure you buy a Blu-ray player with onboard decoding and multichannel outputs, and you'll be all sorted.

Sound from the Freesat box or Freesat-equipped TV can also be fed into the Yamaha, usually via an optical digital connection.

Wouldn't have any problem with that speaker set-up, provided the surround speakers are beside, and not in front of, the listening position.

And with the budget you've just saved, you can buy that iPod speaker system!

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew Everard:
And with the budget you've just saved, you can buy that iPod speaker system!

Sounds like a female way of thinking......

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/2/299745/ShowThread.aspx#299745

Anyways as Andrew said, a blu-ray player that decodes onboard and outputs via multi channel analogue. I'd suggest something like

Panasonic DMP-BD80 which can be had for cheaper nowdays.

Also personally if I were in your position then I'd run the front 3 chanels around the tv as normal. I'd put the surrounds as high and in the corners as you can on the opposite wall to the tv, it will still give some more depth to the sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. REALLY HELPFUL. The Panasonic looks ideal but noticed the posting re Silver Denon so will wait to look at the anticipated reviews as my Yam amp is also silver.Points re speaker positions noted and will be tried. A big thanks.

Still want to know if a dedicated Ipod system such as those I mentioned will be better than just linking an ipod dock to the Yam amp and using the surround sound speakers. Any spare time to comment on this aspect?