mmfz Posted September 30, 2010 Posted September 30, 2010 Hi AudioEnz Forum Members I have just joined the site and this is my first post. I’m hoping some members can give guidance for my starter home theatre project. I have recently purchased a Samsung 50” plasma (PS50C7000). This is 3D capable and comes with a blu-ray player (BD-C6900)and 3D glasses. I already have a Samsung DVD recorder. I did some researched beforehand and found the Panasonic screens are the preferred option but couldn’t get anywhere near as good a deal on the Panny I only have $1000 allocated to this project but I’m looking at it from a first steps point of view with adding to and upgrading sometime in the future as funds allow. What I’m hoping to put together is a starter home theatre system consisting of a receiver and maybe a centre speaker with possibly front left and right or a sub woofer depending upon what people think is the best course of action considering the limited funds. I’d like to get the centre speaker as I make furniture for a hobby and I’m itching to make a stand for the new TV, players, receiver and centre speaker. The receiver needs to be 3D capable i.e. HDMI 1.4 and even if I get just the centre speaker it needs to fit inside that budget. Denon seems a good choice but I’m open to all options, including second hand. We have just moved house and want to get quite a bit of work done to the new property hence the limited funds. Any help would be most appreciated. Cheers Mark
MVT Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 Hi Mark, and welcome. First things, $1000 on a centre, fronts, sub and receiver(3D capable).... Sorry to break it to you, its not going to be easy to get all of that for $1000. Personally I would be starting with as decent a receiver you have budgeted for, and a second hand pair of bookshelves. Next step, matching centre and front, allocate bookshelves to rear, then sub. receiver wise, Onkyo & Yamaha are the the best value for money, try the TX-SR578, or Yamaha RXV467. a bit of negotiating will leave a couple of hundy left for bookshelves. The new Yamaha's are a lot better than the '65 range, and would be my choice. Just my opinion, and way I would attack it. I'm sure there are more to come. Good luck!
Electra Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 Forget a hdmi 1.4 reciever, feed the video direct to the TV if you ever actually do use the 3D function ( which I personally think wont take off till you dont need special glasses ) Get a reasonable set of front speakers first - scour Trademe for some Wharfedale 9.5's or similar. Come back here for our thoughts on speakers once you have spied some. Over the longer haul, what do you think your budget will be? As for the receiver - someone else could answer better. I am not familiar with the more affordable ones and to be honest, have not touched a HT receiver for years.
little blue penguin Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 As you make furniture, why not build speakers? Build a pair and buy a used stereo amp of TM. That will at least get you up and running until you have funds to build surrounds. Oh, and welcome to the forum.
mmfz Posted October 1, 2010 Author Posted October 1, 2010 Hi Thanks for the replies and the welcome MVT- Your advice and plan of attack makes good sense and I was not surprised to hear that $1k won’t get me much but this is just the first cut. I’ll check out both those receivers and post back if I have any queries. Do you have any recommendations for 2nd hand speakers? Bang for buck sound quality wise being the main need. Too_tall- your idea of bypassing the receiver for video also makes sense as the blu-ray player is able to do any video and audio decoding. As a HT noob I may not understand this correctly but my current understanding is both the video and audio data go through the HDMI and the blu-ray player has only one HDMI port so I have no choice but to go through the receiver in order to get HD audio to the receiver and HD video to the screen. Is it true that the optical port can’t transmit DTS-MA audio? If it can then I could connect the player to the receiver that way and use HDMI to the screen from the receiver. The screen has 4 HDMI ports (v1.4) including one with ARC (audio return channel) and one optical port. My wife and I tried the 3D in the store and thought it was as good as the cinema so we are keen to use it even though there are only a handful of BD titles out currently. My long term budget is undefined at this stage but depending upon how much we enjoy the whole experience upgrading may move up the priority scale. More direction from the war office needed! Cloth_ears- Thanks for the excellent idea of making the speaker cabinets myself! Duh- I can’t believe I didn’t think of that one. Any advice or web sites to go to for sourcing the speakers and hardware? I’m pretty capable technically and have built my own computers for some years but I have no experience with hi-fi. Thanks again for the help. I’ll keep the thread updated with my progress. Cheers Mark
Harvey66 Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 If you don't mind a second hand receiver and can build your own speakers this will stretch your dollars a lot further. If I was in your shoes I would be looking to buy something like this for around $600. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Amplifiers-tuners/auction-320669779.htm I have one, they are well built and you won't beat it for sound quality in this price range IMO. Then I would build two of these (the Seas version will cost you about $300ea), http://www.eldamar.net/audio/rs150mtm/ I use one as a centre and it is a fantastic little speaker, the good thing is you can keep building them as funds allow until you end up with 5. You can source most of the parts locally from Cameron at HAS Audio. http://www.hasaudio.co.nz/index.php
Electra Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 Cloth ears has a brilliant suggestion. Now go to www.hasaudio.co.nz and start looking at kits there. Or if your really keen, go to humble homemade hifi ( google it )
mmfz Posted October 1, 2010 Author Posted October 1, 2010 The Yamaha RXV467 is available from JB HI-FI for $777 "Make us a Deal", and it looks like everything I would need, so if I could get that for $700 or under that would leave $300~ for speakers. I had a look at Wharfedales on Trademe and there were so many different models (Xarus, Diamond, Modus, Vardus) it was too much to make sense of. All the Trademe 9.5s were out of my price range but bookshelf style ones were affordable. As far as speaker specs go and keeping in mind the possible receiver (Yamaha RXV467- 700w) what sort of speaker specs should I be looking for e.g. watts, impedance, etc. There were some speaker cones as well but I'm really out of my depth with speakers so any direction would be really helpful. Thanks Harvey, for that info and links for DIY speakers. I'll check out the receiver now. Cheers Mark
little blue penguin Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 Hi Mark, Cameron at hasaudio is also a member of this forum (can't recall his handle) so he should definitely be top of the list to contact. If you hope to get good musical performance out of your system initially I would steer away from budget AVR's. There's what looks to be an excellent Marantz amp on TM at $380 Buy Now which I'd be keen on getting myself if I didn't already have unused amps lying arouind at home.
mmfz Posted October 2, 2010 Author Posted October 2, 2010 Thanks cloth_ears. Excuse my inexperience. Just so I have this clear. You would connect this up using the audio outs from the back of the blu-ray player to the aux 1 or aux 2 on the Marantz. Also the Marantz would only have two speakers. The digital to analogue conversion would happen in the blu-ray. How would this effect the HD sound quality?
little blue penguin Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 Yes that's how you would connect it, and yes the SQ is going to be limited by the Blu Ray Player internal DAC.
MVT Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 mmfz;134517 wrote: Hi Thanks for the replies and the welcome MVT- Your advice and plan of attack makes good sense and I was not surprised to hear that $1k won’t get me much but this is just the first cut. I’ll check out both those receivers and post back if I have any queries. Do you have any recommendations for 2nd hand speakers? Bang for buck sound quality wise being the main need. Mark mmfz;134524 wrote: The Yamaha RXV467 is available from JB HI-FI for $777 "Make us a Deal", and it looks like everything I would need, so if I could get that for $700 or under that would leave $300~ for speakers. Mark Good price, and as for opinions on speakers, you'll get plenty. i personally have Klipsch at home, i enjoy my music, and they are good enough for that. but my main priority is Ht and gaming, which they excel at due to dynamics. the 9.1's are an excellent value for money speaker here, you'll be able to find them brand new for under $300. maybe even some Polk audio TSI100's, which i also think are good value for money, and easily used as rears later. dont expect a lot in a huge room, but that at least will leave you wanting to upgrade (my next purchase would be a sub - velodyne impact series for the money). again i am assuming your major focus will be Home theatre/TV. if it is, then go for the latest edition receiver, and build. the new models with 3D and ARC, when you think about it do make a lot of sense in terms of cabling(one vs. many) and ease of use. 2ch amps second hand do have their place, if you want 2ch music more than HT.
Electra Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 cloth_ears;134538 wrote: Yes that's how you would connect it, and yes the SQ is going to be limited by the Blu Ray Player internal DAC. Probably no more so than a value oriented receiver would be however.
daver1553552689 Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 mmfz;134532 wrote: Thanks cloth_ears. Excuse my inexperience. Just so I have this clear. You would connect this up using the audio outs from the back of the blu-ray player to the aux 1 or aux 2 on the Marantz. Also the Marantz would only have two speakers. The digital to analogue conversion would happen in the blu-ray. How would this effect the HD sound quality? One of the things you need to decide is how much of an enthuiast you are as that will colour your options. As you say JB has a Yamaha for a good price and while this may not be to the enthuiast taste if you don't fall into that catagory I doubt you'll regret it. I'm presuming that since you have opted for the whole 3D thing you'll want to get the whole sound thing going asap and not necessarily to a high end level. If this is you I'd give the whole second hand sorta obsolete route a miss, get your Yamaha and move onto sorting your speakers.
Ernie1553552694 Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 Mordaunt Short do a range of entry level speakers that more than match the 9.1s. Killer pricing too.
gooki Posted October 3, 2010 Posted October 3, 2010 Out of interest, how big is the room, and how loud do you like it?
mmfz Posted October 3, 2010 Author Posted October 3, 2010 Hi everyone Thanks for all your comments and advice. MVT- Once again very good advice. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. My main focus is HT so HDMI, 3D, ARC and 5.1 sound are all the things I want from the system. The choice of the Yamaha RX-V467 is an excellent one and meets everything I want from the receiver including the price. I can’t see myself spending any money on a two channel amp currently as I’m not that into music. I do enjoy listening to music but I’m not an enthusiast. I’d been told speakers are a very subjective factor so your comments on the dynamics to suit HT are going to be really useful when I’m looking. I did have a Google to see what Klipsch and Polk speakers were available but they were all well above my speaker budget. Any links to suppliers under $300 would be great. Daver- Again, great advice, backing up MVT. Cheers. Ernie- Thanks for mentioning the Mordaunt Short brand. We have a retailer here in Hamilton so I’ll pay them a visit this week. Gooki- Our lounge is reasonably big, about 9 x 6 metres with a ceiling following the roof profile and we are probably going to open it up even more with renovations. The fact that we don’t like our sound too loud might help with the cheaper speakers. Anyway today we became the proud owners of a Yamaha RX-V467 sourced from JB HI-FI for $699. So the hunt is on for speakers for around $301. I got the receiver hooked up tonight and we watched a movie using it with a couple of old bookshelf speakers my wife reminded me were stilled packed in a box with my wife’s old Yamaha YST C11 stereo. I had completely forgotten about it! Even those old underpowered speakers sounded better than the tiny plasma screen speakers.Tried out the ARC and it works well but every now and then the sound slips out of sync then back in again. The guy at JB offered me a KEF C6 centre speaker for $301 (to make the deal a round $1000). Anyone had any experience with those? He also told me about plaited CAT5 ethernet cable being used as speaker cable so I tried it on the old speakers using some spare CAT6 I have and it seems to work OK. The original cables came with special wee plugs on them and I didn't want to cut them off. Cheers for all your help:D Mark
Shane Hanify Posted October 3, 2010 Posted October 3, 2010 Gidday Mark, congrats on the purchase. You're going to be very hard pressed to find anything near that price that's new. Clearout specials near xmas may nab you a pair of 9.1 wharfedales if they're still around - they've long been superceded by the 10.1 Mordaunt short have the entry level speaker at $250 but they are far too small for a room that size. They'd be ok as rears. The next model up The carnival 2 has an RRP of $449 and is a great little performer. I'd rate it above the Wharfedale 10.1. Realistically though, I'd go second hand - you can't even factor stands in at the price you're looking (at a pinch you can put standmounts on cabinets and TV stands - but I wouldn't). Plenty of bargains to be had through TM, but be sure to get a laid back or warm speaker - the Yamaha amps are voiced to be snappy (read bright) - especially when turned up a bit. Cheers, Shane.
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