5.1 sound

[The Dentist]

Hi guys,

im looking to buy some surround sound speakers. Im not after out of this world performance, just something decent.
It will or am looking to hook it up to a samsung ue5000 hd tv.
My current setup is:

Samsung ue5000
virgin tivo
acer revo with xbmc
looking to buy a blu ray player - dont know which one yet.

in terms of the sound system, i am looking at this:
Xenta Wireless 5.1 Surround Sound Home Theatre System | eBay

I it any good? i like the rear wireless speakers but how is that technology like? will i notice any degradation? distance will b about 5 meters.

if that is a rubbish one, can anyone recommend a good one preferably with blu ray player?

 

[Mick]

Hello Mate,

I have never used wireless speakers, so cannot really judge, always been a little worried about wireless sound but never had any chance to test them out.

So not going to rubbish them lol, I would assume its the same as wireless internet its never going to be as good as wired... but still if its not got to be out of this world then I am sure it will be fine mate...

Can you not demo it anywhere ?

I am a massive Onkyo fan, so if I am going to recommend anything it's onkyo and the slightly older (but still amazing) NR (network reciever) models will blow you away mate at reasonable prices (around £200). But you would need a seperate DVD player and also wired speakers... unless there is addon speakers of course.

And a decent set of speakers at reasonable prices would be the tannoy (FX) range they are very potent little blighters that really deliver.

Mick

 

[The Dentist]

I will see if i can find places that do demos. Not really fond of going down to dixons or currys. There is a specialist place in camden i guess i could check out.

Dont really want to fork out too much tho as the area that the sound will cover is only small.

Also, if you look at the attached you will see the layout of the room. Is it better to go with the black setup or the red setup? for best distribution?

The square area is about 8 x 8 meters

 

[hawkish]

your revo with xbmc can handle blu-ray from an external drive like this Plextor PX-B120U - BD-ROM drive - Hi-Speed USB - 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD) / 4x (BD) - External

I would do that and use the cash saved to invest in your sound, it is half the experience after all. Always get a demo as speakers vary loads in sound quality. Have a look at the Yamaha YHT196 for starters

 

[Mick]

The black setup would be the better solution if the sofa is opposite the TV, which I am guessing it is.

If its Music orientated, most AV amps have a zone2 , you could add 2 extra speakers for stereo sound in the locations of the other two RED speakers

If it was me I would buy an AV receiver(onkyo) - bite the bullet and run the cables lol.

get the tannoy FX 5.1 ( I think its about 120 quid ), get two extra speakers for the zone 2.

Job done, and great sounding movies and music.

Mick

 

[Bally12345]

I think dixon have got a BOSE contract now, they got rid of all their KEF and other speaker brands, the only speakers you can get from their are the all in one systems which arent that bad actually, my old samsung system still sounds very good imo although the dvd player has packed in and I cant connect to speaker to anything lol... Get yourself a small onkyo an some Tannoy SFX5.1 Tannoy SFX5.1 Black | 5.1 Speaker Package | Richer Sounds

 

[zad]

If your doing it on the cheap Pioneer HTP071 Black | 5.1 Package System inc Speakers excluding DVD Player | Richer Sounds and a little bit more ..Onkyo HTS3505 Black | 5.1 Package System inc. Speakers excluding DVD player | Richer Sounds

Personally I would head over to avforums and buy some second hand gear off there..

 

[The Dentist]

Cheers guys, love some of the ideas. also looking at it, it seems it will not be cheap. i am also being baffled by some of the stuff and what it does so im gonna do some research before spending too much.

i was looking at spending a max of £150 but dont think i can get anything decent so cheap as possible, but setting myself a limit of 500quid for something longer term.

will have to go listen to a few both in store and some houses.