Be Excellent To Each Other

I think I'm going for the TXSR607. And the Onkyo SKSHT528 speakers, too.

Edit: Email to self consulted!

Zardoz - if you put it on the wall the kids and dog can't reach it.

I was looking at the Canton speakers.

[edit]Or maybe not. a 6" sub? Grumble grumble.

Those ones suck shit.

Yes. But I can't really set it up in my lounge that way Grim... due to the layout and me not wanting to rip up the carpet to redo the cables for the surround.

I might build a moat.

im going to wait for this thread to mature a bit, hear all about the goodness, then blatantly copy the setup chosen

Ive been wanting surround for a while and its my birthday soon
Alternatively if someone upgrading has something none too sweet that can handle:

- Panasonic 37px80
- Xbox 360 (HDMI)
- PS3 (HDMI)
- PVR (HDMI)
- PS2 (maybe ditched due to amp)
- Wii (component)

I may be interested
let me know

They do? Any reasoning? To the drawing board!

No, sorry, bad joke.
SKSHT, you see.

Ahhhhh.

Also

Edit: Oh man. I'm going to end up spending a fortune on speakers if I go with a >100W amp, apart from the Onkyos the Boston Soundware XS is the first that gets close in rating.

The Onkyo everyone is on about can deal with that.

Yup. It'll do your separate optical audio from the 360, too.

Though with the 308 you'll be left with no spare HDMIs for Airports.

No-one other than Gaywood likes your Airports, Bik. I'm sorry.

I think Stephen Fry likes them too.

Why optical for the 360? Doesn't it push sound over HDMI?
Oh man. Now I have to get the fire out.

Not 5.1, bizarrely.

Ooh, the 308 does me fine, then. Unless the Slim fixes that.

excellent news

now i just need everyone i know to chip in for it for my Birthday

I have that speaker set, 'tis good for the price (especially now they're circa £160).

Very pleased with the quality and sound for the price.

Sorry for taking so long, I've been out most of the morning running around.
I think mine's a TX SR606 which they don't make anymore, it's been superceded I assume by the 607 which Richer Sounds are flogging for £250 which looks like an absolute bargain.

Yeah, the 607's cheap because it has in turn been replaced the 608, a snip at only £450!

I buy all my AV gear through my brother's company as he gets a massive 40% or thereabouts off, or at trade basically, so I got my amp for £220 instead of £400 a couple of years ago. And before anyone asks, he only does it for family as he can't really take the piss and I have to twist his arm to get me stuff, which admittedly isn't very frequent. He's just saved me nearly £400 on a 320Gb 13" MacBook Pro for my daughter.

It doesn't? That's fucking shit. I have a couple of optical leads - do you need some silly adaptor - I seem to recall there being some issue getting access to the optical out on the 360 if you were using a HDMI lead?

Yup. I'd be inclined to get the 607 as it's only £30 more and has 6 HDMI inputs.

Also MOAR POWAR!! I need to find out about the HDMI versions they support though.

I've been reading about this - it does do 5.1 but there was a problem with it requiring HDCP, for which it had buggy handshaking. A dashboard update was allegedly going to fix it. I haven't found anything to say a dashboard update did fix it, or if it's still a problem with the Slim.

Yes, you need an adapter if you want to use HDMI and optical out. I was sending HDMI to the TV and Optical to my AV receiver. I think I paid about a tenner for it.

You can just smash big grey plastic cover off the connector and then the optical out is no longer covered.

Someone on WotR has had no trouble putting surround over HDMI into a Sony amp from their Elite. So I assume it was fixed at some point.

Doesn't quite work. It'll make the Xbox reset if you change TV channel if you do that.

You know, I think it was me that said this, however since buying a proper lead to fix the problem it still does exactly the same thing.

Proper lead, or "proper-£3-from-DealExtreme-Ebay-or-other-shitster" lead?

Internet says:
http://www.slashgear.com/hack-use-a-che ... um-037755/

I spent only £99 on our complete Dolby 5.1 AV set up - that's the amp, speakers, cables, the lot - even included a DVD player and iPhone dock. It's a standard Panasonic jobbie; the speakers are tiny (approx. 4" tall!), even the sub is only three phone directories size. It serves our 42" Panasonic plasma (approx. £600 with 400Hz frame refresh rate).

It's very unobtrusive and does everything I want it to do. Sounds pretty cool routing the PS3 through it as well.

Ironic, really, considering how much I spent on my actual hifi which cannot, of course, accept any aux input without me spending a fortune on a preamplifier (which I don't want to do anyway, plus it has its own 'listening area' in our split level lounge). The little AV system does sound rather shit when playing audio CDs or when fed via the iPhone dock though, to be fair, but it's not intended for that purpose - you don't really want delays etc. with music.

Probably the latter. I'm fucked if I'm paying MS 30 odd quid for a wire.

Excellent, I'll get on it later.

Of course, this means I need a new 360 when I have a new amp, because my current one is pre-HDMI.

Christ I'm an idiot.

oopsie, wrong thread

I don't understand surround sound. I'm looking at a picture in front of me. Why is sound coming from behind me and to the sides? A mono track is fine if you ask me. Stereo for a touch of ambience maybe but mono is fine. Ta.

I too fear change. Although digital audio seems like a moderately good idea.

Does that go 'Beeep' ? I've never liked surround sound/stereo with films, even at the cinema.

Compared to HD, LCD, widescreen and everything else visual, surround sound adds more to movies/games (IMO) than anything else.

When it's done well. When it's done to show off it's a fourth wall breaking fuck.

Three Kings, I'm looking at you.

Were it not for the fact that my one went KERBOOM! I'd be absolutely raving about the Sony STRDH800 amp.

I replaced my Onkyo TR606 with a Sony STRDN1000, it really is very nice indeed

Credit card rollover day was yesterday. It has begun! Ah, drunk in charge of the internet at 1.30am. Just need to decide on the amp and speakers once and for all.

So of course my fucking laptop died today, didn't it. It couldn't have done it yesterday, oh no.

Operation Financial Ruination is progressing nicely - I've now got 3 Airports in a WDS network and Harmon Kardon Soundstick IIs for whichever-room-I-decide-to-put-them-in.

I went into Richer Sounds on Deansgate yesterday; they've got the Onkyo TX-SR607 but it's bit "industrial," whereas the Sony 1000 thing looks really nice, and would complement the TV, PS3 and 360 S to create some kind of dust-and-fingerprint singularity in the living room.

I'm a bit put off either since my laptop explodified, but that triggered my sorting out the joint clubcard credit card. Turns out I've now got £200 of vouchers being reissued next month which is half of a HP i3-based thing. That the Amazon Mastercard is rejigging to pay off higher-rated stuff first and I've got 9-months-with-3%-fee transfers at the moment. Lovely*.

Edit: Wait, how did that work, the main Airport isn't connected to the internet. Um. WDS is obviously far cleverer than me.

* Stupid.

I can imagine surround being useful in games (audio clues from behind you is a good idea) but in a film it doesn't make sense. Especially as camera angles change and as such sound has to suddenly come from somewhere else.

Didn't we already conclude that you're a heathen on that issue?



Edit: Also these H/Ks really are jolly lovely. And not just because they're styled like a 50s B-movie prop. Or because my sister's ex works for them.