Advice appreciated on choosing surround sound for BluRay

[alexblu]

Hi Everyone,

Been reading these forums for a while, and found it full of useful advice. My set up so far is:

Panasonic TX-37LZD85 TV
Panasonic DMP-BD50 BluRay Player

I have no sound set up at all and feel i'm missing out. I've never had surround sound of any form, ever! I know nothing about it unfortunately, and i keep reading about lossless audio, and stuff i don't really know about.

All i would like is some advice on what to get. My budget is £500 / $900.
I would be prepared to go a little over budget if it was recommended.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Also i dont even know if i should have 24P set to on for my tv, there is an option in the setup, i have it to on but don't know what that does.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[holsty101]

24p provides a smoother picture, try watching a scene with a long slow panning shot & you should see a difference with/without it, there's a thread about it somewhere round here ... (sorry I don't have time to look for a link for you, or have a look at this wikipedia article).

Are you living in the UK? This is an American based/centric forum, so while you could get some good pointers as to what to look for for a sound system (have a look in the Home Theater Gear sub-forum, if you check through the first 3 or 4 pages you should find plenty of relevant threads) I'd check out a UK forum for more specific info, try What Hi Fi to start with.

[alexblu]

Hi, yes I am in the UK, and thanks for the links / tips, i'll check them out. With regard to the 24p, i've tried experimenting with it today. When i turned 24p on for the TV, and 24p on for the BluRay player, wow, what a difference, the picture was so smooth! But for some reason in certain scenes there is some pixelation, and in other cases almost like a heat haze around certain characters in certain scenes. Its connected with HDMI cable, but with the interference its a bit of a distraction, and i dont know how to fix it, if possible.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by alexblu

Hi Everyone,

Been reading these forums for a while, and found it full of useful advice. My set up so far is:

Panasonic TX-37LZD85 TV
Panasonic DMP-BD50 BluRay Player

I have no sound set up at all and feel i'm missing out. I've never had surround sound of any form, ever! I know nothing about it unfortunately, and i keep reading about lossless audio, and stuff i don't really know about.

All i would like is some advice on what to get. My budget is £500 / $900.
I would be prepared to go a little over budget if it was recommended.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Also i dont even know if i should have 24P set to on for my tv, there is an option in the setup, i have it to on but don't know what that does.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

You have a couple of options. You can get a decent HTIB (home theater in a box) solution from a trusted company like Onkyo or Yamaha, or you can buy a receiver and some speakers and piece your system together slowly and as you get more money. The Home Theater forum should be helpful and AVS should be helpful as well.

[Sbert]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

You have a couple of options. You can get a decent HTIB (home theater in a box) solution from a trusted company like Onkyo or Yamaha, or you can buy a receiver and some speakers and piece your system together slowly and as you get more money. The Home Theater forum should be helpful and AVS should be helpful as well.

I would get the Onkyo 805 receiver with the 7.1 speaker system from Onkyo.

http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers...-32822862.html

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...yo-sks-ht540-b

http://reviews.cnet.com/surround-spe...tag=prod.txt.2

[holsty101]

Here's a couple more UK A/V forums to check out, AVForums & AV Talk, and another article about 24p.

You've got a nice TV/blu ray player & I'd try and spend a bit more than 500 on the audio side, maybe get an amp & (shitty) pair of speakers now then go for a speaker package in a few months, or get a decent pair of speakers that you can expand on at a later date.

If you can stretch to 745 now amazon has a pretty good deal on a onkyo receiver, Q accoustics speakers and cable package (Agros used to sell some speaker stands for 40 a pair).

If you have a Seven Oaks hi fi shop (or any other dedicated A/V shop) it may be worth going to have a chat with them, although 500+ quid is maybe a bit to low of a budget as far as they're concerned.

I don't really know what could be causing you picture troubles, especially if it's not happening without 24p, maybe try another hdmi cable? Firmware update for your player (Panasonic site)?

[dac_fan]

onkyo 606 is under 350.00 on amazon right now and check out www.fluance.com they have a nice setup for 300.00 including two standing fronts.

[abbazappaplant]

Pick up an onkyo receiver... an 805 would be great, but failing that, the 6 or 7 series are very good. For speakers... since you're in the UK more than likely you don't want or need an obtrusively large system due to space issues (just assuming) for you, I'd recommend

http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?Pa...PROD&ProdID=38

check them out, they're amazing and with the pricing the way it is, it allows you to build the system as you go along. In the end you end up spending a little more, but it will go a loooooooooong way!

[alexblu]

Thanks again for all the advice and links. I am thinking about getting the Onkyo 606, i'm pretty much convinced on that having read reviews as well now. As for speakers, not really sure, i like the look of a set of Pioneer ones, i cant link to them because i've not posted more than 10 times, but if you go to "play" dotcom and type in the search bar "Pioneer S-V410" its that set. I've not been able to find any reviews, but they look just the sort of speakers for my setup, and they can't sound that bad surely? Because of the way my living room is, having 7.1 speakers is going to be a bit too difficult to set up, but 5.1 will be easy.

As for the 24p issue, i read on AVforums that its an issue with the panasonic tv, apparently called "artifacting", it does it on all models of this panasonic tv. To be honest, 24p does look ultra smooth, but does seem a little speeded up, i'm not sure if i'd have kept 24p on anyway.

[alexblu]

I found one review of those Pioneer speakers, and it wasnt exactly positve. I think i need to spend the money and get the Q Acoustics 1010i 5,1 System, its £500 which is my whole budget for the system, and with £400 on the Onkyo SR606 thats a total of £900. Thats without stands for the speakers either...

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by alexblu

I found one review of those Pioneer speakers, and it wasnt exactly positve. I think i need to spend the money and get the Q Acoustics 1010i 5,1 System, its £500 which is my whole budget for the system, and with £400 on the Onkyo SR606 thats a total of £900. Thats without stands for the speakers either...

The thing about buying an a nice (more expensive) pair of speaker is that they will last for a long time. If you buy cheap speakers you may find yourself wanting to upgrade in a few years or less. I think you are doing the right thing. The Onkyo 606 and a good set of speakers will last you a long time to come and I think you will be blown away as to how much better Blu-Ray will sound (as well as other sources). IMHO, the sound is a big part of experiencing a movie. Let us know what happens!

[johnlt]

being in the UK you should have a B&W dealer in your area, check out the M1 speakers you could get 5 for about 1000 american not sure what the conversion is. They are a fantastic speaker just got 3 for my fronts. going this week to get 2 more to finish my 5.1 setup am also using a Yamaha RX-V 1800 the whole set up will cost 1800 USD when finished. I do use a subwoofer a velodyne DPS 10 but plan on upgrading to a B&W when i have the money. will be one bad ass system when finished wont take up much room and should give many years of pleasure. i know this isent cheap but in the long run it will be worth it.

[holsty101]

Originally Posted by johnlt

being in the UK you should have a B&W dealer in your area, check out the M1 speakers you could get 5 for about 1000 american not sure what the conversion is. They are a fantastic speaker just got 3 for my fronts. going this week to get 2 more to finish my 5.1 setup am also using a Yamaha RX-V 1800 the whole set up will cost 1800 USD when finished. I do use a subwoofer a velodyne DPS 10 but plan on upgrading to a B&W when i have the money. will be one bad ass system when finished wont take up much room and should give many years of pleasure. i know this isent cheap but in the long run it will be worth it.

I nearly got the B&W MT-30 pack a few years ago when I lived in the UK, that was gonna be just over 1500 (GPB) I think, IIRC the M1's were either 150 or 175 each.

I think if the O.P's already nearly doubled his budget that the M1's don't stand much chance at the moment, maybe if he gets the upgrade bug at a later point ...

If you (johnlt) have the space/inclination, have you though about getting a different pair of B&W's for your fronts? A few of the posts I read when I was looking at them said that provided a better sound.

[alexblu]

I've upped my budget already from £500, i dont think it was going to do it. I've managed to find a package deal for Onkyo TX-SR606 + Q Acoustic 1010i. It comes in at £850 which is well over budget, but probably worth it in the long run. I shall probably order it today, but it doesnt come with speaker stands. Are speaker stands universal, in that they should fit all types and makes of speaker, or do i have to get ones that are compatible with the Q Acoustic ones?

Thanks again for all the tips.

[holsty101]

It's worth it in the short term too ... Sounds better (uhh, apart from the financial hit )

Yeah, speaker stands are pretty universal, the only thing that changes is the price I don't think you need anything too expensive unless you're spending megabucks on the speakers so ...

The ones I had were 40 quid a pair from Argos, but I've just checked online & it looks like they don't carry them any more, it might be worth having a look in John Lewis etc for some, and the ones I've seen advertised by Q Acoustics (I think they were 70 a pair) might actually be about the cheapest you'll be able to find.

It won't do the speakers any harm to have them on the floor for a few weeks, and when you put them on stands they'll sound -so- much better