Wiring living room for sound - Advice sought

[admin_exported]

Hi all

This is a super useful site and I can't wait to put all the hints and suggestions to good use in my living room. Having recently become a daddy, nights out are being replaced by nights in so I'm determined to upgrade my home cinema set up from what is right now a bit of a shambles. When I watch DVDs now the sound comes out of the TV so weakly I have to crank up the volume in order to hear dialogue. Often the wife and I watch movies with the subtitles turned on so we know what people are saying - we're not even 40 yet!! The set up I have so far is pretty basic: 

TV = SONY KDL 40W200

DVD = SONY RDR HXD860

SKY+ HD

What I'm looking to do is set up home cinema by adding surround sound and a BD player but on a relatively thin budget (up to £1,000 all in for AV receiver, BD player, speakers and interconnects, cables). The Jamo A102HCS5  speakers get a good review on here and fit the price level. Interestingly the flat I have came with two B&W mounted into the living room ceiling so they could be added to the system. I'll then need an AV receiver but this is where I'm getting a little confused. I have been comparing the Denon AVR-1910, the Sony STR-DG820 and the Yamaha DSP-AX763 but an not sure if they could deliver outputs to the extra speakers in the ceiling (or even if it's worth bothering with them).  Any thoughts on which of the AVs  people could recommend or if there are similarly priced units that surpass them in performance/tech specs? I haven't done much digging on BDs yet but the Sony players between £200-300 look reasonable. Again any thoughts on alternatives would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for any help. 

 

dallassixers 

 

 

[d4v3pum4]

All three of those receivers are capable of 7.1 IIRC. The STR-DG820 has been replaced by the ST-DH800 which is probably the cheapest HD audio decoding 7.1 receiver. Where are the ceiling speakers mounted? Would they be at the front or rear? Some of the newer receivers have Dolby iiz which adds front 'height' channels. This first appeared with the Onkyo*07 range and now with Denon *10 receivers. I'm not sure how effective the height channels are though. Obviously if the speakers are at the rear, they could be incorporated as the rear surround channels for a 7.1 setup. 7.1 is best left to large rooms but if you already have the speakers, it would be worth using them.... The Denon 1910 is the pick of the bunch of the sub £500 receivers. The next model down, the 1610 is meant to be very good and similar in performance but is only 5.1 unless I'm mistaken.

£150 should get you a budget BD player from Sony e.g. S350, £280 will get you the Sony receiver above. That would leave you a few more ££ to get you better speakers than the Jamos. If you calibrate your speakers correctly and get a decent centre speaker you should be able to hear the dialogue perfectly well.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. The ceiling speakers are in the middle of the room between the sofa and the TV so nether front nor rear. I'll take note on the receiver and will do a little more work on the speakers. Any thoughts on speakers better than the Jamos but £500 or below?

ÿWill let you know how I get on.

dallassixersÿ

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Try here:

Home Cinema Deals

Until recently they were selling system 4 with the 1010i speaker package for about £1000 - if you ring your local branch I'm sure they'd do a deal.

The 1010i's and the Denon 1910 sound great together.

I'd forget about the ceiling speakers.

 

[d4v3pum4]

Check the dolby.com site re. placement of those additional speakers. Hopefully either one of the WHF team or someone with experience of using dolby iiz will be able to advise on whether you could use them effectively.

Speakerwise, see petertyson, hifix, royjowetthomecinema for the the Monitor Audio Radius or Vectors. I'm pretty sure £500 will get you a set of MA. Otherwise the Q-Acoustics mentioned above would be a good choice.