What would you do for £2100..................

[admin_exported]

Jamo A102HCS5 180
Yamaha DSP-AX863SE 600
panasonic DMP-BD55 400
Panasonic TH-42PZ81 920
2,100

Jamo A102HCS5 180
Sony STR-DA2400ES 400
sony BDP-S550 300
sony KDL-40W4500 870
Humax HD Freesat 150
1,900

Would the Jamo speakers let both systems down? Would the in-built HD freesat negate some of the benefits of the Yamaha? What costs am I looking at for cables? What would you do for £2100

 

[professorhat]

I think the Jamos are definitely limiting both systems. I think I'd try and split the cost between the Blu-Ray player, the AV amp and the speakers more fairly. So, let's assume you go for the Panny TV (good choice I think), this leaves £1,180 for the rest. Personally, I'd spend the most on the speakers, then split the rest between the Blu-Ray player and the amp.
For me, the Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 package is brilliant value at £450 (NB - possibly cheaper elsewhere, I've not done any thorough searching during this). It's a more traditional system to the style package which may be a problem for you, but if you can fit them in, this is really worth it as the sound will be much improved over a style package.
This leaves £730, so my next step would to spend about £400 or less on one of the new AV amps like the Onkyo 606 or the Yamaha 763, or indeed the Sony 2400 you mention above. To be honest, there's a lot of choice on amps at this price level and I'm not familiar with most of them so I recommend auditioning where possible and checking out the WHF Awards Issue on Thursday for more help here.
So, with no more than £400 spent, this leaves £330 for the Blu-Ray player. You already have the Sony BDP-S550 up there at £300 so this fits in nicely here, but you could also look at Panasonic DMP-BD35 or even Sony's cheaper BDP-S350. The reason for the inclusion of the later is, with the one of the amps above, you'll have no need for the decoding abilities aboard the Blu-Ray player and also, you haven't mentioned speaker stands or cables which you also need to account for. Saving some money here could therefore go towards that fund.
Those are my thoughts, feel free to come back with any questions - I guess the main thing I would do before buying any of the above is go and check it out in the flesh and my thoughts would probably flow from there.

 

[Messiah]

Or you can pick up the Panasonic DMPBD30 for a mere £180.

 

[Anonymous]

The Panasonic is a good choice, and you'll still get the benefit of your receiver, as it has an optical out. I have it through the 606, with the Q acoustics 1010i package, and a Panasonic BD-30. I spent a good few months lurking on these forums and auditioning before taking the plunge a few months ago. Try and audition the gear if you can. If space is a big issue, the Q acoustics Q-AV system is a good compromise.

Happy hunting.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. I would have difficulty accomodating the Q1010i package but the Q-AV would go well although £100 more. If I reduced my budget for the Blu-ray what benefits would I loose? 95% of the time the system will be used by wife/kids for normal SD/HD TV, but the important 5% will be used by me for watching Blu-ray and my old DVD collection, and I'm after a bit of a cinematic experience and wow factor for that 5% of the time. Also where can I go to sample the different combo's?

 

[Anonymous]

Any good dealer should let you audition kit. You might get less of a discount than online, but you can usually have a bit of fun haggling for accessories like cables, speaker stands, etc. I can only speak for the BD-30 and the Tosh EP-35, but to my eye (and ear) both give fantastic quality for money, visually and sonically, on the Panny screen and Onkyo combo. I don't know how much of a step-up the new Bluray players are, but you could probably pick up a BD-30 for a good price (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0013UMYY6/interactiveda3048-21). Best bet is to find a dealer and arrange a demo of your different options, then you're better placed to decide what compromises you want to make. I would make it clear that if you're using the goodwill of a dealer to arrange a demo, you should be prepared to buy the majority of your system from them, and not disappear off to the net for all your components. I enclose the link just to demonstrate the good deals on offer if you don't have a chance to demo.

 

[professorhat]

rjackson37:If I reduced my budget for the Blu-ray what benefits would I loose? 95% of the time the system will be used by wife/kids for normal SD/HD TV, but the important 5% will be used by me for watching Blu-ray and my old DVD collection, and I'm after a bit of a cinematic experience and wow factor for that 5% of the time. Also where can I go to sample the different combo's?
Well, obviously a more expensive decent Blu-Ray player is going to be better than a cheaper one, but when you're on a budget, compromises have to be made. As shuggieb says, the only way to tell really what you're losing is to go and audition the different makes at a dealer.