As I'm hoping to have my own place soon (after 7 months in work provided accomodation which is pink), I'm hoping to get my decent TV & DVD player out of storage.

 

The TV has built in surround sound with left, right & centre speakers built in and little satellite rear speakers. It allegedly has a built in sub but it's more like a built in rattle.

 

I can use my hi fi speakers for fronts and disable the left & right in the TV. I could then get an active sub to give it some bass.

 

BUT ...

 

Would I get a significant benefit if I got a separate speaker setup and/or a separate amp ?

 

I really don't want to spend silly money - max of say £300. I'd much rather spend less, especially if the benefits aren't significant.

 

Does anyone know much about this stuff ?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

 

P.S. Sorry that all my requests for help are NZR but that's because I'm NZR !

Well in general TV speakers are pretty poor, so at a guess id say a decent amp/speaker set would be much better. You will be lucky to get an amp and speaker set for 300 quid, but im pretty sure it can be done, take a look over at http://www.richersounds.com they have some good deals on speaker packages I know, iirc they do an eltax 5 speaker pack for 150 and they have builtin subs in the fronts, and im pretty sure you could get an amp with dd/dts decoding for 150.

Id recommend you demo some stuff though, only you can say whether its worth the cash..

Cheers Clarkey.

 

So you reckon that even a cheap separate setup will be significantly better then just enhancing the build in stuff with hifi front speakers and a sub ?

 

Does it make a difference that my DVD player has a built in decoder and separate line level outs for each of the 6 channels ?

 

Sorry if they're crap stupid questions !

 

Dave

yes, that means you can spend less on the amp and mroe on the speakers, you wont be able to use dts this way though, but you will get better DD5.1. It is a simple upgrade in the future though to buy a reciever if you do want to use dts.

got £32,000 to spare??? check this out!! :eek:

Another link for you Dave - http://www.homecinemaheaven.com

 

I got my DVD player from them not so long ago - arrived nice and quick and they've got some decent Amp/speaker combos on there..

 

Personally I wouldn't use the decoder in the DVD player, but then I believe that a decent seperate decoder & amp will almost always be better..

 

Oh and don't forget you're meant to spend 10% of your budget on interconnects..

 

And while I'm at it - yep, using a seperate amp & speakers will almost undoubtedly be far better than what's in your TV..

 

Oh and I hope you have understanding neighbours (I've just spent the evening pi**ing mine off watching Blade 2 :D)

Dave,

 

I did the Yamaha amp, Yammy Sub that is rediculous, Yammy then changed to a Mission centre, bi-polar rears and Mission floor standers for the fronts.

 

Expensive? Yes. But it doubles as my Hi-Fi but IMHO my Bro bought a Sony surround sound system eons ago and it blew mine out of the water!

 

Newer Sony surround sound system is even better. I think it's around the 300 squids mark aswell and trust me is well worth the money! ;)

Thanks everyone.

 

For helping to empty my wallet.

 

AGAIN !

Money on hi-fi depends on how much you like music/films, but there are advantages in getting a setup made of several different components - that you can upgrade different parts at different times without having to buy a new system. Also useful when something goes wrong.

 

Another advantage is, as Timmy has said, you can use the speakers for music as well as films/TV.

 

Richer sounds are excellent VFM for a budget/intermediate system.

Cheers Nels - I've found there's a Richer Sounds nearby so I'll go and have a chat with them.

 

Dave