Cheapo 7.1 for garden films

[TWODs]

Hi all,

Have an old Eltax symphony 5.1 speaker system I have just picked up cheap and currently have a couple of old Eltax Monitor IIIs, and a 1080p cheap projector.

For this years Glasto the Eltax Monitors took the line out from the projector into a small stereo amp (FOSI Audio TB10A, the SMSL DA1 I had wasn't quite powerful enough), source was USB to HDMI cable in from the BBC iPlayer from the phone and it was good enough.

Family now want to do film nights, so what I'd like to do is get a surround sound system going hence the speaker 5.1 purchase.

Thinking about how I tie in the 5.1 system and the monitors together, short of buying a 7.1 AVR which will defeat the Heath Robinson approach and need to pass under the budget radar, what I am thinking about is this:

2x SMSL DA1 driving the 4x Symphony bookshelfs for SR/SL and SBR/SBL (Already have one amp + £45.99)
1x FOSI TB10a driving 2x Monitors for main R/L (Already have the amp)
1x FOSI M04 driving Symphony centre speaker (+£59.99)
Sub Line in to Symphony Active A8.2 sub

The only thing I can find (Short of a whole AVR) to take the HDMI signal and split the audio out is an amazon "XYKJOBC"? 4k HDMI to HDMI Audio Converter (+£65.99).

So that would be (an additional £171.97) for a 7.1 system. I recognise I am not going to get the most amazing system out of this, but frankly neither the source, projector or sound system are at a level I would want to spend serious money on and it is outdoors, not in some dedicated purpose built cinema room. What I'd like is a reasonable experience for family and friends on warm evenings.

Will that work, or should I just try and pick up a second hand HDMI enabled 7.1 AVR around for the same price (recommendations)?

[TEKNOPUG]

Just buy whatever Denon or similar AVR you can find in budget second hand. I have a spare Denon AVR2310 available but you'd need to collect it!

[southendpier]

Are you close to your neighbours?

Regular garden film nights with very loud sound systems when neighbours have their windows open but can cause issues.

[TWODs]

TEKNOPUG said:

Just buy whatever Denon or similar AVR you can find in budget second hand. I have a spare Denon AVR2310 available but you'd need to collect it!

Will take a look, I think this is the sensible if somewhat less eclectic approach... might stretch to an eARC enabled system to take the feed from the garden room TV.

southendpier said:

Are you close to your neighbours?

No, in both ways.

[TEKNOPUG]

With your proposed approach, you're providing amplification to all the speakers but you have no way of controlling the signal. So all speakers will be playing exactly the same frequency, volume and timing, all the time. That's why you need an AVR processor. Otherwise you'd be better off with just a stereo 2.1 set up.

[TWODs]

TEKNOPUG said:

With your proposed approach, you're providing amplification to all the speakers but you have no way of controlling the signal. So all speakers will be playing exactly the same frequency, volume and timing, all the time. That's why you need an AVR processor. Otherwise you'd be better off with just a stereo 2.1 set up.

I was under the impression that using the HDMI in on the DAC and the 7.1 RCA outs would split the signals per the outputs, each output going to a dedicated mini amp, with the sub being active, this would maintain the split signals and the volume control on each amp being able to balance volumes of each element.

Then use the HDMI out to take the Video signal to the projector.

[TEKNOPUG]

Oh OK. When I googled "XYKJOBC" it just brought up an HDMI splitter. I'd still just buy an AVR.

[TWODs]

I agree also means when not in use in the garden I can link it to the TV in the garden room through an eARC out,, although finding an 2nd hand eARC enabled AVR for around £200 is proving challenging, it seems most 2nd hand are ARC but not eARC, but the that comes back to cheap solution rather than amazing sound.

[TEKNOPUG]

TWODs said:

I agree also means when not in use in the garden I can link it to the TV in the garden room through an eARC out,, although finding an 2nd hand eARC enabled AVR for around £200 is proving challenging, it seems most 2nd hand are ARC but not eARC, but the that comes back to cheap solution rather than amazing sound.

ARC would still give you Dolby Digital, DTS etc @ 5.1. Just not lossless formats. What sources are you going to use? eARC/ARC is only relevant if taking the audio feed from a TV. Use a Streaming stick/Blu-Ray player/Phone etc directly through the AVR and it's not an issue. Also what TV do you have?

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 8th July 12:53

[TWODs]

for this purpose a 43" Samsung DU8000.