Ive had a rather simple stereo system for a very very long time & decided it was time for a bit of an upgrade :)
Back in the day when I bought my last system, home cinema receivers made a bit of a dogs dinner of good music and I was wondering if much had changed?
Im looking at spending around Ã,£1,000 on a receiver... unless it turns out that Ill still get more joy from a Ã,£200 stereo amp :)
Anyone know of any good stores in central London with good listening room facilities? (or a good returns policy!)
Hard to go wrong with Tottenham Court Road. Sevenoaks Hifi are great for service and advice, but you pay for it.
Oh and youll want to look at this ;)
http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products/42/98/405/VSX-AX4ASi-S/index.html
http://www.avland.co.uk/pioneer/vsxax4asi/vsxax4asi.htm
Pioneer AV receivers are excellent. I have a previous generation version of the above and Ive been very impressed by its 2ch and multi channel performance. Im using B&W 602.5s/600 & LCR60 (all S3) speakers with mine.
http://www.richersounds.co.uk/splashpage.php?SID=1a2019bd8b82067e29499e9be0556cb0
Should have a couple in the London area.
TBH you should be able to find a reasonable 5+1 channel amp and be able to use it for DVDs too
From what Ive seen, the main big brand options are:
Harmon Kardon AVR 645
Pioneer VSX-AX4ASi
Denon AVR-3806
Yamaha RXV-1700
NAD T763
Marantz SR-7001
I just need to listen to them all :S
I bought my last system from Richer Sounds... and then interestingly discovered that many of the products they were trying to push in my direction (Gale, Mordaunt Short) were actually manufactured by themselves.
TBH youll get better advice over at avforums.
:-D
I dont know anyone at avforums... I barely even know you guys anymore ;)
Ill have to have a look - thanks for the tip
Ive gone off Harmon Kardon stuff of late.
Although I have a nice set of Avondale Audio Speakers :D
AVForums might be a bit overwhelming. A good stop gap is the technical folk at TheDVDForums.
Karmon Hardon are style over susbtance IMO. In terms of AV receivers, Pioneer and Samsung are usually excellent in both multichannel and stereo musicality.
Yeah, HK stuff is way overrated. Pioneer is a far better value, as is JVC. Id get high rated mainstream consumer stuff instead of financing somebodys yacht payment.
Something like the JVC RXD412B is an insane value with all sorts of funny shaped holes in the back and clean sound. $350 street here.
Why dont Pioneer do their European receivers in black?
I saw the US equivalent when I was last over there and it looked awesome in black :evil:
Go into SevenOaks and appear as though youre going to buy from them. Tell them what youre after, your budget and what interconnects you need. Theyll demo all the appropriate receivers they stock for you...
...then get it online (probably from RicherSounds) :)
SevenOaks have an amazing service; down in Brighton they had a blackout room for demoing projectors !
Im going to head into Sevenoaks this weekend and have a listen.
So far planning on looking at
Arcam AVR300
Pioneer VSX-AX4ASi
Denon AVR-3806
Marantz SR-7001
Theyre going to love me :)
Quote from: ISJX_IanIm going to head into Sevenoaks this weekend and have a listen.
So far planning on looking at
Arcam AVR300
Pioneer VSX-AX4ASi
Denon AVR-3806
Marantz SR-7001
Theyre going to love me :)
What are you considering for the rest of the setup? Or do you already have these bits.
Now thats a can of worms that I havent really opened yet :)
My initial (uneducated) thought was:
Fronts: Quad 12L2
Rears: Quad 11L2
Centre: Quad L2
Sub: Something compact, probably from REL/Velodyne/James
Basically Im looking at any speakers + sub combo up to Ã,£2,000
Quote from: ISJX_IanNow thats a can of worms that I havent really opened yet :)
My initial (uneducated) thought was:
Fronts: Quad 12L2
Rears: Quad 11L2
Centre: Quad L2
Sub: Something compact, probably from REL/Velodyne/James
Basically Im looking at any speakers + sub combo up to Ã,£2,000
I spent a lot of time listening to various setups about 4-5 years ago, and came to the conclusion that for the money B&W were bang on. Personally I have a DM600 Series 3 setup while my parents have a slightly older Series 2 setup with a Rel Q100E.
Id recommend for that budget you trial the following:
Fronts -
B&W DM602 S3 (bookshelf) - Ã,£300 (What HiFi Awards 2002)
B&W DM602.5 S3 (floor standing) - Ã,£400
B&W DM603 S3 (floor standing) - Ã,£600
Rears -
B&W DM600 S3 - Ã,£200
B&W DM601 S3 - Ã,£250
Centre -
B&W LCR60 S3 - Ã,£200
B&W LCR600 S3 - Ã,£350
Sub -
Rel Q201E - Ã,£725
Rel Q400E - Ã,£1000
B&W PV1 - Ã,£950 (What HiFi Awards 2005, 2006, Best Sub Ã,£750+, HiFi Choice Gold)
Depending on whether you want bookshelf or floorstandings for the fronts Id look into:
Fronts: DM602.5 S3
Rear: DM601 S3
Centre: LCR600 S3
Sub: PV1
Total - Ã,£1950
On top of this youll need two sets of speaker stands, whichll probably add upto an addition Ã,£50-100 per set on top - check out Attacama.
QED Silver QT speaker cable to go with :)
Links:
B&W PV1B&W DM600 S3 SeriesRel SubsAtacama
Ill be going for bookshelf speakers all-round.
I remember looking at the DM60x S3s a couple of years ago - never auditioned them. Theyre on my list to look at.
May also try out some Monitor & Acoustic Energy speakers too.
Its going to be a painful weekend for Sevenoaks ;)
Id stick your head into AVtalk.co.uk Ive alway found them helpful on all fronts. They also usually have members deals on some of the nicer speaker sets and there are several AV/hifi gurus who can point you in the right direction.