the battle of the cheap amps

[admin_exported]

Hey guys, after much confusion i ended up in my nearest superfi shop and question the staff their on which system i should get with my tight budget.

The very nice man warned me not to buy an all in one system as it would be much worse then spending the same amount on seperates. I told him I'd been looking at the Sony STRD820 amp and basically he told me that it was very limited and he could find me a better amp. After leaving this with him, he came up with the Onkyo TXSR506, which granted is £50 cheaper but doesn't support dolby tru hd,

He also recomended the Tannoy SFX 5.1 speaker package, that happens to be on sale.

I'll be using the amp with my ps3 and playing alot of game, movies and bluray through it. Is the sony really worse then the Onkyo or should I be paying out the £50 extra just to get that tru hd?

Any comments welcome

Thanks
Ollie

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/4448

 

[Anonymous]

I would recommend going for an amp that can handle HD audio to get the most from BD. I don't think the 506 will accept LPCM from the PS3 and thus the Sony is a better option....except....many recent posts have bemoaned the fact that the 820 is no longer available (nobody has stock). Sony have announced new models STRDH700 & 800 would be the ones to look at but will probably cost another £100 over the G820...

 

[Anonymous]

Play have the Sony STR-DG820 in stock at £269.99 or you can take a small gamble on the Sony STR-DH800 at £279.99 on pre order, but that model is not due out till end of July.

If it was me I would be going for the 820, even at the slightly inflated price. I have the Yamaha DSP-AX763 awaiting funds for a suitable speaker package.

good luck

 

[cram]

is it just the PS3 that you intend to use with the amp? If so I don't think that can actually bitstream TrueHD rather that it outputs PCM (sound wise there shouldn't be a difference in the quality).

 

[Anonymous]

well at the moment just the ps3 but in the future we might add a freesat box to it or some other console. It's proving hard to for see the future!

Thanks for the advice guys

Ollie

 

[Anonymous]

hi.. ollie

heard u mentioned that the tannoy sfx 5.1 is on offer. i actually have the same idea u had. sony avr and tannoy sfx5.1.

auditioned the tannoy speakers before.

but do u have any idea how does this set compared to the Jamo A102HCS5 speaker package?

or anyone else can help?

thanks

 

[stufran]

Similar thread posted by myself http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/205359.aspx.
I ended up buying a Onkyo TX-SR576 (7.1 version of 506) with Tannoy speakers. I did fancy the Jamos but couldn't find them anywhere within reasonable distance. I also listened to the Kef 1005s. I am completely happy with the set up although I should add that I'm not too anal about AV but do enjoy the extra dimension that having a reasonable AV system adds to the film watching experience (especially watching the dog duck during Quantum of Solace).
One word of caution with the Tannoys though - the mounting thread is on the underside of the speaker & I found it a complete ****** to fix them to my existing stands (required some level of bodged ingenuity).

 

[2cool]

How about buying an amp which has been discontinued you save alot and you can get an amp in the mid range spec for entery level money, to give an example when the onkyo 606 was about 2 months old you could buy the 605 for around £250 so i would look for an amp of higher spec around 8-12 months old and have a look at what deals are out there.