Page 1 of Best Home Cinema Setup for my room layout, requirements and budget?

I was condidering a Yamaha HTiB-45, but this is very expensive, with the cheapest I can find at about £299.99. The room concerned is just like any ordinary living room and unfortunately the TV has been shoved into the corner to the right of the fireplace. There is a 3 seater sofa facing the fire and a 2 seater in the bay window, with the fireplace & TV to the left.

I am going to have difficulty positioning speakers in this room because of the two different angles of seating and the fact that the TV is at an angle.

Ideally I want the system to integrate the HiFi, although I could just use the DVD player for playing CDs at first and use the rest elsewhere, but the Yamaha HTiB-45 doesn`t seem to have very big speakers - just satellites for the front L&R. Is this a problem?

Sorry if I appear to be going on BTW!

Current setup: Samsung 32" Flat Widescreen Virtual Dolby Surround TV, Samsung DVD-S224, Samsung SV-651B (extremely basic NICAM VCR) and a Pace set-top box for Telewest Active Digital.

The current HiFi (if you can call it a HiFi) is an Aiwa NSX-S505 mini system with 3 way (???) speakers. I would imagine the Yamaha would give better quality sound than this anyway, or is there another solution that would be cheaper. I don`t need a DVD player, but I would like an amp and speakers that`s preferably cheaper than the Yamaha.

I need Dolby Digital, Pro-Logic and DTS. Dolby Pro-Logic II would be a bonus, and a radio tuner might come in handy.

Right,

You`re going to have to do some saving, but it`ll be justified.

You`re best option is the Acoustic Energy Aego P5, which has everything bar Pro Logic 2, but for now, you`ll be fine.

It`s quite costly at around £500, but it WILL be worth it. It`s a superb system that sounds deceptively large in action and won`t be a problem integrating in your room, buy one and do an askwesty from the askwesty column to let me help you with positioning and set up.

You can use the radio from your digital set top box so you`re not going to really need one for now.

Other than that, the Sony Babe is great, don`t be fooled by sattelite speakers anymore, times have changed!

If you can though i`d urge you to plump for the Yamaha pack, the reciever is superb and so are the speakers. Either way, let me know and i`ll help you out.

Westy

Site Technical Help Editor and Moderator

Home Cinema Editor - Area450

Thanks for the reply.

So I`ve basically got three options. I like the look of the Acoustic Energy Aego P5, but what is it that justifies its high price (£487.98 inc. P&P is the cheapest I could find it) when it doesn`t have Dolby Pro-Logic II?

I`ve seen the Sony Babe system, but it`s not much cheaper than the Yamaha. I`m not quite sure what you meant when you said, "If you can though i`d urge you to plump for the Yamaha pack..." - are you saying this is the best option or that if the Aego P5 is out of my budget then go for the Yamaha over the Sony one?

Thanks for your help!

I`ve just read a review of the Sony HTIB-1 "Babe" system and it would appear that it isn`t all that good for connections - there is an optical and coaxial type input for the DVD player, and then there is a connection for another stereo source (i.e. the TV).

Also, I`ve noticed people tend to plug in the TV, VCR and set-top boxes in separately. This means that they have to select between the different sources on the amplifier, surely (?). Would this not cause problems if I left someone else in charge of the TV who didn`t know they had to select the right source for the DVD player, otherwise they would get the TV`s sound & the DVD`s picture.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 12th March 2003, 22:39

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1314

The AEGO P5 is a sexy little beast, with the emphasis on little.
But just picking up the tiny surround speakers you can feeel the quality.

Jumping into the surround sound market for the first time a few months ago, I ploughed through What HiFi mags and websites trying to find the best option for my pocket. This little beauty popped up again and again and hardly surprising.

Hi, I`m Jonpy and you may remember me from.......etc.

J.

It is a very nice system, but unfortunately it is a little bit out of my budget. I was after Dolby Pro-Logic II for the VHS collection. Pro-Logic II is supposed to decode the Dolby Surround on VHS tapes better than Dolby Pro-Logic because of better filtering or something, and it gives more of a 5.1 effect. I thought The X Files might sound a little bit better than it does in stereo!

The Yamaha is cheaper and has this. Can anyone tell me how the Yamaha compares with the Acoustic Energy system?

This item was edited on Wednesday, 12th March 2003, 23:34

I think I will probably end up going for the Yamaha because it`s cheaper and has Pro-Logic II. Also, because it`s a full-sized HiFi separate, it won`t look as messy when I expand (DVD player, dedicated CD deck, tape deck or whatever).

Thanks for all your help and I will post a question when I`ve made my purchase about the layout, etc.

Let us know what you think of it when you get it! I`m interested in that kit too, especially in it`s quality for music playback (I`m guessing DVD cinema playback will be good).
Jim

"If you can though i`d urge you to plump for the Yamaha pack, the reciever is superb and so are the speakers."

Westy,
What do you mean by this?? As opposed to the Aego`s?? The HTiB-45?

Ste

This item was edited on Thursday, 20th March 2003, 19:22

For his needs and budget, i`d urge him to go with the Yam pack.

The Aego`s would outperform the Yam sats easily without question, but at nearly £500 a pop, the Aego`s are not cheap. I bought 3 pairs from HifiBitz for just under £300, so that`s 3 subs, 6 Aego sats, and a lot of noise.

Thankyou, i`m here til tuesday

Westy

Site Technical Help Editor and Moderator

Home Cinema Editor - Area450

Just to let you know that the Aego-P5 is £400 at superfi.co.uk. The Yamaha is a good receiver indeed, it is based on the famous 430, but it has a slightly different remote. Otherwise there are also plenty of nice all-in-one systems.

The famous Sony DAVS-550 needs no introduction - multiple awards winner, region2 can be had for £300 at richersounds stores or £350 for multireg

The excellent Pioneer DCS-303 System (dpl-II,multireg,dts, nice design, excellent sound, multiple test winner) can be found for £290-£310 at many websites, eg. homecinemaheaven.com, webelectricals.co.uk,leconcepts.com, dvdplayers.co.uk, discountaudiovision.co.uk, pantheronline.com.

But if connections for the future is very important as well as superb sound, then Yamaha is the way to go. But if design is very important then the systems above should looked at, the sound of Sony and Pioneer are actually very good. If you can live without DPL-II but have a superb sound then Aego-P5.

This item was edited on Friday, 21st March 2003, 17:37