Surround sound kit for <Â£300 ?

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:31 am

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

Post by **simon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:42 am

I got this from John Lewis last year, very pleased with it.

http://www.johnlewis.com/Audio+and+TV/H ... oduct.aspx

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:14 am

simon wrote:I got this from John Lewis last year, very pleased with it.

http://www.johnlewis.com/Audio+and+TV/H ... oduct.aspx

How do you connect it up to your sky box ?

Post by **simon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:03 am

I use the optical output on the Sky box.

gorrie · Post by **gorrie** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:10 pm

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.

Post by **simon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:07 pm

Mine is just an amp too. I also bought a sony DVD player with upscaling and HDMI switching for around £90.

gorrie · Post by **gorrie** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:06 pm

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)

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:25 pm

Dodgy Dave's your man for this question....if its Samsung or Sony drop me a PM

Post by **simon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:04 pm

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!

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:27 pm

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

gorrie · Post by **gorrie** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:33 pm

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.

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:38 pm

gorrie wrote: Are your neighbours below the understanding type?

Andy.

Garages below ....

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:51 pm

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

gorrie · Post by **gorrie** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:52 pm

nice.

Looks like a newer version of mine... same speaker pack I think. Enjoy !!

Skyenet · Post by **Skyenet** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:21 pm

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