Help Buying Home Cinema

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Marvi_I

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#1  Edited By Marvi_I
Member since 2007 • 451 Posts

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum.

I am looking to get a home cinema system to go with my TV:

Panasonic TX-P50GT30B

Budget is around £300 £250.

If I have a Panasonic TV is it better to get a Panasonic system to go with it or does it not matter?

If anyone could recommend me a specific system that would be great.

I have found this one (SC-BTT500) for £250 and the reviews seem good but I don't know if something else would be better.

Lastly, are there any systems with just speakers and no blu-ray player? I would prefer to buy a PS4 (and use its blu-ray player) and buy the speakers system separately if its works out at a good price. Is that an option?

Thanks

Edit: No longer want a PS4 (sorry), budget changed

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GeryGo

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#2 GeryGo  Moderator
Member since 2006 • 12803 Posts

I'd recommend you some good 5.1 surround Harman Kardon receiver and some good quality Pure Acoustics speakers with it but the receiver alone costs 300£ (AVR151)

http://www.harmankardon.co.uk/harman-kardon-product-detail_uk/avr-151.html

speakers pure acoustics spark, can't find them anywhere.

other than the huge priced I really enjoyed a friend of mine showed me Microlab Solo 3C http://www.microlab-global.com/product/stereo-speakers-solo3c.html

or 7C http://www.microlab-global.com/product/stereo-speakers-solo7c.html

sound quality in those is amazing and is so powerful you don't need sub woofer.

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MonsieurX

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#3 MonsieurX
Member since 2008 • 39858 Posts

You're looking at HTiB with a proper receiver,Onkyo make great ones

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kraken2109

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#4 kraken2109
Member since 2009 • 13271 Posts

Richer sounds are a good place to start.

See if you can get last years model AV recievers cheap, like this £100 Sony (obviously depends where you live):

http://www.richersounds.com/showclearanceproduct/SONY-STRDH820/Sony+Strdh820.html

Otherwise you're looking at ~£150 for a budget reciever (e.g. http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/pioneer/vsx527/pion-vsx527-blk)

But that only leaves £150 for speakers. Second hand speakers are often great deals so look around on gumtree etc.

Otherwise:

Either buy a set like this £120 yamaha (http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/yamaha/nsp40/yama-nsp40-blk)

or build your own using good sized speakers:

2 pairs (front L+R, Read/Side L+R), e.g. Wharfedale Diamond 9 £40 a pair (http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/wharfedale/diamond-9.0/whar-9.0-blk)

Leaving you only £70. I would recommend spending the £150 for speakers on 2 pairs of bookshelf/standmounts and a centre channel. Cheap subwoofers are crap, and decent speakers like those wharfedales will go down fairly low without one.

Once you've saved up (or decide to increase your budget) you can add a decent sub. (Or of course find a bargain second hand which I would seriously look into).

The advantages of going the separates and receiver route is that it's much easier to modify/expand/upgrade in the future.

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Marvi_I

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#5  Edited By Marvi_I
Member since 2007 • 451 Posts

Hi

Thanks for the responses.

I got the budget wrong - its more like £250.

I have been thinking and I don't really NEED a blu-ray player part of the package but it might be good to have one anyway. I do want one package as I most likely will not be modifying/expanding/upgrading. I will probably not have an increased budget and would really like to buy it as soon as possible.

I looked up Onkyo and only found one system that is just above price range and that is this £280 HT-S3505.

I also found the one I mentioned in the first post (Panasonic SC-BTT500) from richersounds for £250.

Can you help me out with giving me a whole system in one, either with or without player (cheaper if w/o a blu-ray player) for around £250?

Or do you think I should go with either the Panasonic or Onkyo? Between these two is it worth paying more for the Onkyo?

Thanks