Page 1 of How Loud can you go ? Sony htk215

I am seriously tempted to purchase the Sony htk215 DTS amp, but before I do i wondered if anyone who has bought this amp can answer me the following.

I have a medium sized living room and wondered how loud the system got and if there was any distortion of sound at loud volume. Will it rock my socks off or not , can I belive that a loud sound can come out frrom something so small? I also have a cyberhomead512 dvd player and have checked the connections on the back. I has phono sockets for the speakers and woofer etc plus otical coaxal , i presume that the coaxal cable would be ok for the amp. Does the amp come with all the leads etc ? Cheapest on line is £270 anyone seen it cheaper ?

Have you considered the Yamaha VS10? Our guru Westy seems to rate that as the best "all in one" solution, and can be got for £300 odd. See his review over at http://www.area450.com in the home cinema section. [end of ad for Clayt`s site]

I have the HTK215 and am fairly happy with it.

I haven`t noticed any obvious distortion at loud volumes - but as I live in a flat with oldish neighbours the girlfriend doesn`t really let me push it that much.

For my money it has one obvious advantage over the Yamaha VS10 (someone please correct me if they think I`m wrong) - it is more upgradeable. With the 215 all speakers plug directly into the amp, so you can easily upgrade any/all of them. With the VS10 I believe the centre and surrounds plug into the sub rather than the amp leading to a less flexible upgrade path. To be fair though, I have not listened to to VS10 so it may well sound better.

The only drawback I have with it is that on discs without a particularly good DD mix the sound can be a bit flat and thin. However on discs with good DD mixes (or DTS) it sounds cracking. I believe this issue may be ameliorated by upgrading some or all of the speakers - has anyone got an opinion on this?

Just one other word of advice - you need to connect your dvd to it with a digital optical cable (toslink) - it has no coaxial digital input.

is the toslink that you refer to the same thing that you connect to a miny disk player to record ? and where can I get one from ?

Yes, try http://www.beyondhifi.net - they have a Ross one on special offer at £5 odd delivered (comes with adapters for minidisc too!)

i tried the webb address and it says it does not exist can you give it again