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Surround sound kit for <£300 ?
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:31 am
by Sanjøy
Sarahs birthday next week and we were chatting over the weekend how she never gets out to live bands or listen to her music collection. Cannot be minced buying a hifi when a surround kit and ipod will suffice. Wanting to spend <£300.
Looked at the below but put off by the glaring ommision of optical connections for the Sky+ box. How coudl they do that but include HDMI ?!
Product:
http://www.digitechelectronics.com/model-2367.html
Review:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=354463
Ideas ?
Cheers
SP
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:42 am
by simon
I got this from John Lewis last year, very pleased with it.
http://www.johnlewis.com/Audio+and+TV/H ... oduct.aspx
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:14 am
by Sanjøy
How do you connect it up to your sky box ?
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:03 am
by simon
I use the optical output on the Sky box.
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:10 pm
by gorrie
Have a look at some of the Yamaha kit. Very good. I decided to get just an Amp/Speaker package (ie, not integrated DVD player)... as I wanted a dedicated bit of kit for the sound so I could then change DVD players at a later date if I wanted (if DVD/HD or Blue Ray takes off... or cheap).
Mines is about 3yrs old now (so no longer for sale), and was a fairly entry level Yamaha at the time, but does the biz....
http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin ... HC_028.pdf
When I upgrade to a newer one (not for a while I think), I'll be checking out Yamaha's again.
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:07 pm
by simon
Mine is just an amp too. I also bought a sony DVD player with upscaling and HDMI switching for around £90.
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:06 pm
by gorrie
1000W Simon... Batten down the hatches !! Mines is just 450W and I can't get it anywhere near full crank. Although I did try when my neighbours were annoying me (which is quite often)
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:25 pm
by Andy G
Dodgy Dave's your man for this question....if its Samsung or Sony drop me a PM

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:04 pm
by simon
gorrie wrote:1000W Simon... Batten down the hatches !! Mines is just 450W and I can't get it anywhere near full crank. Although I did try when my neighbours were annoying me (which is quite often)
Yup, I can only get the volume half way before it's getting a little too loud!

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:27 pm
by Sanjøy
Simon I had a look round the model you have today in Jlewis, staff were chocolate tea pots, I had to help some poor old duffer who was buying HD & a LCD, staff could not even get the BBC HD demo channel up and did not know about 720 & 1080 etc.
Anyways, is the sub powered on your model ?
They had a couple of subs and naturally all the cables were hidden so I could not trace it. Not had one before so if it is not powered naturally it is not going to have the thump of powered or am I not
really going to notice since I live in a flat and will be at 30% power ?
Plan on connecting it up to:
Sky + via optical
Xbox via Scart
Basic Ipod Mini dock with IR (Andy / Shug can you reccomend ?)
Cheers
SP
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:33 pm
by gorrie
Sanjoy, I can't speak for Simons, but mine is powered and I have it at approx 40%.
One thing to watch out for is getting the sub positioned correctly in your room, as you want to try and avoid the waves colliding and causing a dead spot in the middle of the room. My room is a rectangle so I've got the Sub positioned to the left of the fireplace (Plasma above the fireplace)... but the sub is angled to the diagonal right almost as if you are hitting a cue-ball around all cushions (kinda).
Are your neighbours below the understanding type?
Andy.
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:38 pm
by Sanjøy
gorrie wrote:
Are your neighbours below the understanding type?
Andy.
Garages below ....

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:51 pm
by Sanjøy
After reading 50 pages
here I opted for the
Yamaha AV59 mainly due to the connectors on the back and the powered amp.
Not as pretty as the Sony but ticked my boxes.
Cheers
Gents

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:52 pm
by gorrie

nice.
Looks like a newer version of mine... same speaker pack I think. Enjoy !!
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:21 pm
by Skyenet
Sanjoy wrote:
Basic Ipod Mini dock with IR ?
I can recommend the Kensington Stereo Dock For iPod.
I got mine from 7dayshop but they don't have it anymore.
Available for a similar bargain price (about 1/3 RRP) from:
http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1662