Which Amp and Speakers for home theatre?

[admin_exported]

I am planning to build my home theatre system and want to buy an amp and a speaker system that fit the purpose.

I was looking at Bose Acoustimass series and a few NAD/Marantz amplifiers. However, I am not sure of the tech specs that are typically given for these products. Can you please guide me what sort specifications I should be looking for while choosing these products. I am quite “uninitiated” with respect to these technical specs and it’s not always possible to audition these combinations. Hence any guidance you can provide will be very helpful.

Also, my budget is around £1000. Can you please recommend some good products in this range?

Many Thanks!

 

[timwileman]

not tried these myself but the onkyo 606 amp and the mission m cube speaker pack may fit the bill and they cost exactly your budget........

 

[professorhat]

Just home theatre or is music important to? If so, what's the ratio of cinema / music listening likely to be.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes...music is very important! and that includes Western classicals as well as rock. A ratio is a difficult question...but lets assume 50:50

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

If music is important, no issues with the NAD / Marantz amps (Arcam also do some A/V receivers) - choosing between them is more of a personal taste thing with music so auditioning is important. In terms of tech specs, this depends (on a home cinema front) on what you're using it with - DVD, Blu-Ray, Sky etc. At the least, you'll want Dolby Digital and DTS decoding built into the amp and at least one optical and one coaxial port (which would cover any DVD player). Any more optical / coaxial ports are very welcome for any other devices you might want to hook up (e.g. Freeview / Sky+ / Sky HD boxes). If possible, get one with an HDMI input which will accept Linear PCM signals, or failing that, one which has analogue 5.1 channel inputs. This will allow you to add a Blu-Ray player in the future should you want to. If you have a Blu-Ray player already, let us know which one it is.
On the speakers, I'd definitely suggest going for a decent pair of stereo speakers and then building your home cinema package around this. Something like the Wharfedale Diamond 9 HCP, the Q Acoustics 1010i package or the Quad L-ite package (all available for around £400 - £500) if you want to get everything all at once, or you could spread the cost and get something like the Tannoy Mercury F1s or even B&W 685s and build their respective home cinema packages up as you get the money. Auditioning these speakers with the amp you've chosen above is crucial to ensure you're getting a sound you like musically, as well as one that performs well with home cinema duties. Going this route though will give you a much better sound than using the Bose system in my opinion.