Author Topic: Does anybody know anything about home cinema set-ups? (Read 691 times)

Pongo · « **Reply #15 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:10:21 PM »

I baught the Soney HTD-Dw840 system. With both Gold Coax and Fibre cables supplied for 600 Canadian. Only 500 wats total. But is great so far. I will likly switch it to a PC sound system some time in the future if I want a better theater set.
I got this one cause I have surround over Satalite as well. So I wanted two connects and it was in my price range.
Black hawk down has increadable surround.

mrsid2 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:12:37 PM »

No but really don't buy a crappy 5.1 system for £350 you will regret it. Go to listen to a pair of decent hifispeakers, you'll do much better with at least a pair of good speakers. Two good beats 5 POS anytime. Save on the surround section, get them cheap and then upgrade when you can.

That's what I would do.

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #17 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:15:04 PM »

sold them for years i donk know the uk market but i found these 2 systems by from what i can tell after 4 years of experience to be the best bang for the buck audio companys. i have seen crap from both companys on the extreme bottom end so try and get the grade above the lowest all in one system. dont buy a sony or other major japanese brand audio either all i have ever seen were at best reliable. yamaha and onkyo both produce a more expensive but better product in audio. and look around for a sony monitor if you can they are better. 4 years in tv and 3 in commercil telivision production ( at the station all the important monitors are sonys) and at both the electronics stores i worked at they hid the sonys to some extent because direct compairison made the standard tvs look like crap .

look arund heres a start

http://www.onkyousa.com/
http://www.elegantaudiovideo.com/onkhts650.htm

http://www.yamaha-audio.co.uk/pchometheatre/system/index.php

the dvd player makes a data stream that is decoded in the units i have linked to above. so you just plug in the dvd with either a coaxil ( expensive and optical ) or a short video cable ( shielded )

get thicker guage wire for your speakers spend some money but not a fortune.

we say 12 gage id say i guess its 3 mm thick wire copper to the speakers make shure both sides is copper i buy the audio wire for 50 bucks cause its clear but i hear house wire will do just as well. and if you can get the lowest name brand rca patch cables for any other components chuck the ones in the box.

http://www.monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=48

http://www.123av2.com/DetailPage.asp?ProductID=RECAP030

good luck hope i helped some.

mrsid2 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:23:56 PM »

I tend to agree, Sony products have been crappy lately.
They have underpowered amps, horrid customer service and they tend to break periodically. I had 2 sony cd-players break on me in 2 years after which I chose never to buy a Sony again. Tv's excluded though they seem to be top-notch.

Yamaha amps give a good price/value even if they cost a bit more. I have the DSP-AX2 and I've been very pleased with the performance.

DA98 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:30:24 PM »

And Sony HT speakers sound like CRAP.

mrsid2 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:40:42 PM »

Sony doesn't build speakers, they produce cheap plastic boxes that have moving parts inside that resemble sound.

The same is true to any system at $500 pricerange though.

funkedup · « **Reply #21 on:** January 23, 2003, 02:51:46 PM »

Just run it through your PC.
Get Audigy2, Klipsch 5.1, a Hauppauge WinTV card, and a video card with S-Video out. I'm set up similar to that, enjoying 5.1 sound for games, movies, and DirecTV.