Stereo/Home Cinema Enthusiasts
 

I've been out shopping, I love shopping for this sort of stuff :D

Ok, so I'e been into Sevenoaks Sound and Vision in Kingston and spoken to a gent in there who has recommended the following options to me for setting up my own home cinema system.

Speakers
KEF KHT 2005.2 (5.1)
KEF KHT 5005 (5.1)
Monitor Audio RS1 (for main front and CD use and when 7.1 is used)
QUAID IIL's (for main front and CD use and when 7.1 is used)
EPOS M5 (for main front and CD use and when 7.1 is used)

Amp/Receiver
ARCAM AVR 250
ARCAM AVR 250
DENON 3806

DVD
DENON 1920
DENON 2910

CD
ARCAM CD73T
AUDIOLAB 8000CD

Can I get some opinions/feedback on both using Sevenoaks and the options they have recommended? Some alternatives .. best place to get a good price etc ...

I am going in to have a listen to the following combination on Saturday and I'm thinking of getting them to setup a comparison as well.

ARCAM AVR250 (Amp/Receiver)
DENON 2910 (DVD)
KEF KHT 2005.2 (Speakers)
Monitor Audio RS1 (More speakers :D )
ARCAM CD73T (CD Player)

I should also mention that the TV this will be connected to is HD ready and has one input for it (and i found out afterwards that Sky will be broadcasting HD next year and will have a new box ...) :(

[Edited on 28-11-2005 by TP]

You can't afford all that man! - You've got some Ducati's to support

I only own one now :D

And I sold the van last week :(

I forgot to add that I have a HD Ready TV ...

I used Sevenoaks when I bought mine and was happy with them (and it was the Bedford branch), but that was 5 years ago, so can't comment on the kit

TP,

Go here, www.avforums.com

You can guarantee that someone there will have first hand experience of the kit you're looking at. I don't have first hand experience, but would be confident with Arcam or Denon (currently I'm using Denon)

But, prepare to be told at least once to audition it. Not sure if the Sevenoaks you're using has an audition room either. This is quite important, as if you can't hear the difference between a £100 speaker and a £300 speaker, buy the cheaper one. An audiophile you're not, and you really don't want to be a speaker snob :)

I'd also ask, do you need a separate CD player? Both those DVD players listed should perform well as a CD Player, unless you're after absolute perfection.

If you don't mind travelling a little, speak to Elliot at PJ's HiFi in Guidlford. Elliot's the installs director, and will not sell you stuff you don't need / can't appreciate.


Oh, and budget 10-20% for cables as well.

you are doing the right thing by auditioning them.

Make sure you take along a variety of CDs that fairly reflect what you listen to (no point trying to impress the salesman with your original 1993 prague symphony orchestra rendition of Vivaldi if you mainly listen to the spice girls).

Also make sure that the CDs you bring are ones that you are intimate with. Listen to them for a couple of days before you have your audition so you can hear the differences between your reference system and the audition system.

I'll get shot down by true enthusiasts (I am only an occasional dabbler) but I don't think you need to spend that much on interconnects or speaker cable. As long as they are of decent thickness and construction then I don't think the price difference is justified.

Update:

I had a listen to these systems yesterday. The denon amp sounded good but I could really tell the difference between it and Arcam AVR 250. Arcam it is then.

Speakerwise I'm happy with the 2005 Kef satellite's but the subwoofer with that package lacked a bit in AV - so I upgraded that to the sub out of the 5005 package and it was cool, you could feel the sofa rumble in certain scenes in the Matrix and some of the other AV samples. (I used the chapters in the first movie where Trinity and Neo enter the lobby to rescue Morpheus through to when the helicopter crashes into the side of the building)

I measured out my room and it's not really big enough to justify the 7.1 surround. So I'm going to run it 5.1 and bi-amp the front two RS1's for audio (takes the power that would drive the 2 extra channels for 7.1 and uses them as extra power to drive the main two speakers when using audio. When I'm listening to a CD it will only be two channel audio - if that makes sense!). The RS1's were quite good, I was very impressed.

Some of you are rolling your eye's now ... WTF is he on about ...

So I'm actually going to get the AVR 300 AV receiver for the extra power, especially in bi-amp mode where I'm expecting the RS1's to sound quite tasty. It was really quite good listening to Comfortably Numb, David Gilmour's guitar solo was really crisp and clear and the Denon had it sounding more blurred together ... I listened to it in the car on the way home and it sounded crap .. I can see a new car stereo on the horizon now ... it's a bottomless pit, and here I thought I'd gotten over my carbon and titanium addiction for the bike....

So there you have it :D

Yup :puzzled:


Huh???

:lol:

Stop wasting money and buy me a bike FFS ;)

All good stuff mate,don`t forget to budget for decent interconnecters,make sure you do some serious auditioning trying different combinations of music and hardware.Also remember the room it`s going in and the furnishings/positioning in that room,but take your time Tony,it`s a buyers market,don`t let us Poms push you Aussies around into buying the first thing you hear.