What amp/ reciever setup?

[Gingerbread Man]

Background: I currently have a surround sound DVD player with it's own 5.1 speaker/ sub package. Recently the DVD player function of it has gone tits up and I've written this off. I solely use it for it's speaker package.
I want to get ride of this and get the proper equipment.

Am I right in thinking that I need an amp (?) and also a speaker package?

The speakers from the Pioneer sound sound work still, can they be reused? They all return to the back of the DVD player unit.


I need the new setup to be able to cater for the below. The Blu Ray and TV are HD. Am I right in thinking that new amps (?) are HD sound compatible? Most of the below can output via digital optics.

Samsung 26" HD TV. (Output and receive HD sound/ vid).

Sony Blu Ray player. (Output HD sound/ Vid)

Panasonic Hard Drive/ DVDRW recorder/ player. (can be an optical output).

Wii.

Squeezebox wireless music player. (can be optical output).

Input for an ipod.


Anyway as you can tell, I'm not brilliantly clued up on this. I'm not a total audio geek, I don't want to spend thousands. How cheap can it be done? I'm used to the Pioneer surround sound, so anything as good as or slightly better would do me.


David

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Thursday 18th June 23:57

[pmanson]

Have a look at the Onkyo 607 (I think that's the new version), I have the older 605 which I picked up a couple of years ago for £400.

Speaker wise i've got some Jamo A102HCS5 which again i'm very pleased with.

I run everything via the amp either by HDMI or component.

[Gingerbread Man]

Cheers for the recommendation. Been looking around.

Do I need an amp and a receiver or am I mixing up two different/ the same thing?

Edited to say that I think they are the same thing.

So on looking around, Onkyo seem to be well respected. Do I need the 607 for my needs or could I go for a cheaper Onkyo model?

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Thursday 18th June 23:55

[kenbitcher]

Hifi buffs please excuse my ignorance but this is how I understand the world of Onkyo.

I've got the Onkyo 506 (predecessor to the current 507) and am pleased enough with it. AFAIK the main difference between the 600's and 500's is the upscaling ability of the amp (i.e. the 600 does, the 500 doesn't) but if you've got a good tv then this is irrelevant because the internal upscaler in the tv will be just as good.

The 500 has audessy eq2 which is supposed to give reference quality sound. Like I say I'm happy with the 506, the sound I get is rich and full without being too boomy for normal tv use, but movies games and music sound great. I'm using a tannoy sfx 5.1 speaker package at the moment, want to upgrade the fronts to b&w 601's at some point though (and that might just be aesthetics )

I'd recommend one, then upgrading your speakers at a later date.

[kenbitcher]

Oh, and i got the reciever, tannoy 5.1's and a samsung upscaling dvd player for £399 so you might be able to find a 506 cheapy cheapy at the mo

[Gingerbread Man]

kenbher said:

Hifi buffs please excuse my ignorance but this is how I understand the world of Onkyo.

I've got the Onkyo 506 (predecessor to the current 507) and am pleased enough with it. AFAIK the main difference between the 600's and 500's is the upscaling ability of the amp (i.e. the 600 does, the 500 doesn't) but if you've got a good tv then this is irrelevant because the internal upscaler in the tv will be just as good.

How do I know the quality of my TV's up scaling? Are modem TV's happy with this and the feature is mainly for older TV's lack a good one?

[Gingerbread Man]

Just read that the 506 can't accept HD audio?

[OldSkoolRS]

Try having a look on sites like Richersounds at the amps or receivers: Amps and receivers are similar, but only a receiver has a radio tuner in it an amp does not.

You may be able to use the sattelite speakers that came with your AIO unit, but the subwoofer probably is passive and the Onyko (or whatever) will most likely only output a line level (ie low) signal from it's subwoofer output as a 'proper' subwoofer will have it's own built in amplifier. If you did reuse your Pioneer speakers, you could still buy an 'active' subwoofer (with it's own internal amplifier) very reasonably from RS. The speakers from your AIO will easily be beaten by the Jamo/KEF/etc setups offered by RS and similar places anyway so it's probably better to bit the bullet and buy a set that will work well with the amp/receiver you choose.

BTW, you can find some bargain amps that don't do HD decoding as TBH it takes quite a good set of speakers to be able to appreciate the improvement offered by HD sound formats like DTS MA and Dolby True HD. Some over on the AVforums complain that HD sound has too wide a dynamic range and they prefer the compression offered by straight Dolby Digital/DTS. Personnally I like to have a surprise when the explosions go off, not have them muffled by some compression system, but then I'm lucky to have a detached house, so I can crank my Denon up to -15db on the main volume (which is pretty loud as I'm using a separate Arcam power amp to power the front three ).

Personally I like Denon amps and picked up a bargain end of line Denon AVR2808 (receiver) for £399 last year from Richer Sounds and it does all the HD sound formats including DTS MA and makes great use of the 7.1 soundtracks on some BluRays.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 19th June 21:10

[kenbitcher]

Gingerbread Man said:

kenbher said:

A load of old guff

How do I know the quality of my TV's up scaling? Are modem TV's happy with this and the feature is mainly for older TV's lack a good one?

Again, happy to accept i'm wrong here, but unless you're sat exceptionally close to the tv you'll not notice the difference between a good one and a bad one.

you're right about the hdmi audio too, i forgot to mention that i run sky, xbox and dvd through optical audio and to my philistine ears its awesome

[OldSkoolRS]

kenbher said:

Again, happy to accept i'm wrong here, but unless you're sat exceptionally close to the tv you'll not notice the difference between a good one and a bad one.

you're right about the hdmi audio too, i forgot to mention that i run sky, xbox and dvd through optical audio and to my philistine ears its awesome

While it may be true given the OP's 26" screen (thought he may sit very close to it for all I know), with larger sets there is a difference. I have an external video processor (mainly for greyscale and colour gamut correction with my projector) and I can see a noticable difference when the VP upscales Freeview from my HDD/DVD recorder (via HDMI at 576i) compared to the TV's built in tuner. On my projector I get a much better DVD upscale using the VP fed from the HDD/DVD recorder than that from my BlueRay player with it doing the upscaling. It all depends on how big your screen is, how close you sit and how critical you are.

Bugger, I came on Pistonheads to get away from AV stuff.

[Gingerbread Man]

I brought the 26" as it was to go in my room. didn't want a huge TV that I would have to sit too close to, so opted for the smaller screen.

It'll now being going in a lounge. I'll be sitting further away. I find the TV quality fine enough.

[deckster]

kenbher said:

I've got the Onkyo 506 (predecessor to the current 507) and am pleased enough with it. AFAIK the main difference between the 600's and 500's is the upscaling ability of the amp (i.e. the 600 does, the 500 doesn't) but if you've got a good tv then this is irrelevant because the internal upscaler in the tv will be just as good.

Not quite. The difference is that the 6xx series (and above, I imagine) will internally convert all the input signals to HDMI - so you can plug in S-video, HDMI, component etc. etc. and just have a single HDMI connection from the receiver to your TV. Whether or not you find this useful depends on your inputs, but personally I think it's very valuable.