Simple advice needed - Amplifiers

[Wrightie]

Hi everybody, I'm in England..........

The setup I have at the moment is:

Thomson Scenium DPL 2000 (5.1) AV Amp with the Thomson DTH 7000E DVD HD Recorder. I have a Sky Box plugged into it for satallite programmes. I have at present B & W 703's as the front pair & I'm working on getting B & W 705's as the rear with the HTM7 as the centre. The sub I'm going for is the ASW750 (Yep, B & W). I have a 36" TV.

The "Home Theatre" room it's in is 26ft by 20ft, with the front speakers central on either side of a 12 foot fireplace (Well, it will be once I put the wooden floor in-new build). All the AV stuff & the rest of the electrics will be in an alcove to the left of the fireplace (See pic). I have hard wired the rooms for speaker connections, each connection allowing for biwiring.

I also have the Musiq IS multi zone system to run the dining room & kitchen stereo speakers (Yep, you guessed it, B & W CCM65's).

The thing is, I'm very inexperienced with home theatre stuff & would like to make the most of the advice this forum may give, which in turn may help others. I had no intentions of having a home cinema but it has just evolved into the beginnings of one.

I would like to get advice on the best for the money amp, pre amp, dvd player, CD player. My budget is:

DVD - £500-£1000
CD - £500-£1000
Amp - £1000-£1500
AV amp, if new one required (£2000)
Screen (TFT, LCD, Plasma, Projector) Any advice welcome

So, I have a "Few" questions:

Audio Questions:

1. I would like to birewire all the speakers (All five of them). I'm aware from reading other threads that you can just put 2 wires in each output but is there an amp out there for reasonable money (£1000-£1500) that can wire each connection?

2. I don't know the square route of jack about amps, pre-amps (What is a pre amp?) & would like to know if it's possible to connect a power amp to the AV Amp which can control all the speakers & the Sub in the home theatre? Will it give the same surround sound control?

3. I like to listen to music & DVD cinema with equal enthusiasm so would like to have a "Balanced system, so positioning of speakers is of interest as I like to listen to music on all speakers, not just stereo.

Video Questions:

1. Plasma - LCD - Projector. Which one?? I like the looks of the pioneer plasma, but which is best? Plasma, LCD or projector.

2. Wireless video. Does it work, how easy is it to set up etc. I would like to watch the news in the morning on a small screen in the breakfast room without having to cause a blackout in Springfield.............

Any other advice would be very welcome. Any wiring diagrams or suggestions & any other info I can't think of cos I don't really know what to ask.

it would be great to build a good home cinema based on this forum as it's helped me before with speakers (Yep, I'll let you guess what forum that was).

Thanks for taking the time to read this & I look forward to all useful help.

Regards

Wrightie

[Andrew Pratt]

DVD - £500-£1000
CD - £500-£1000
Amp - £1000-£1500
AV amp, if new one required (£2000)
Screen (TFT, LCD, Plasma, Projector) Any advice welcome

Nice healthy budget...but IMO you're allocating to much to the DVD player. Take some of that budget and move it to the screen.

So, I have a "Few" questions:

Audio Questions:

1. I would like to birewire all the speakers (All five of them). I'm aware from reading other threads that you can just put 2 wires in each output but is there an amp out there for reasonable money (£1000-£1500) that can wire each connection?

Bi-Wire simply means that each speaker has two speaker cables running from the power amp to the speaker with one cable connecting to the tweeter and the other to the woofer(s). There's a lot of debate on if is has any benefit at all and if money is tight spend it where it counts not on extra wire. Bi-amping on the other hand is similar to bi-wire in that it also uses two speaker wires but this time there are two or more amp's for each speaker. This setup can be either passive or active depending on where the crossover is placed (before or after the amps). Again passive bi-amping can be benefitial but not always and often not for the cost of more amps...esp when starting to build a system.

2. I don't know the square route of jack about amps, pre-amps (What is a pre amp?) & would like to know if it's possible to connect a power amp to the AV Amp which can control all the speakers & the Sub in the home theatre? Will it give the same surround sound control?

Think of a system as being made up of a number of devices that each do a specific job. There's a surround decoder, a volume control, a switch for the inputs, a radio tuner and an amplifier. Now in a AV receiver all these are integrated into one box. A true pre amp is just a volume control with at least one set up inputs. Most pre amps today are AV pre pro's in that they'll also do the surround decoding, AV switching, often have video converstion capabilites and usually have some sort of onboard radio tuner.

3. I like to listen to music & DVD cinema with equal enthusiasm so would like to have a "Balanced system, so positioning of speakers is of interest as I like to listen to music on all speakers, not just stereo.

I'd strongly suggest you take a look on the Dolby.com site and view their speaker configuration diagrams as a base for installing your 5, 6 or 7 speakers. The subwoofer's placement is more a factor of the room its placed in as the longer wavelenghts are highly affected by the room's dimensions then the other more directional speakers.

Video Questions:

1. Plasma - LCD - Projector. Which one?? I like the looks of the pioneer plasma, but which is best? Plasma, LCD or projector.

IMO optimally you'd want a projector for movies, sports and the occasional event and some sort of other display for daytime TV etc. You can use the projector for daily use but bulb life is an issue and most TV doesn't look good blown up that large.

2. Wireless video. Does it work, how easy is it to set up etc. I would like to watch the news in the morning on a small screen in the breakfast room without having to cause a blackout in Springfield.............

I can be done but its far easier to run cable if at all possible.

[aud19]

I agree with Andrew, if you have (or can have the ability to) adequate light control in the room, a projector (3-panel LCD or 1-chip DLP) is the way to go. Then add a smaller direct view or say 40" RPTV unit for daytime/standard definition viewing. CRT will give you the best price/picture quality but LCD/DLP etc based sets will offer higher light output sacrificing black level and cost.

Avoid wireless video if you can, try to run the wire(s), it's worth it

Whether you upgrade your reciever to an amp and pre-amp processor is up to you. I do agree you may be budgeting a bit high for the DVD player. If I may suggest though, you could get a good DVD player and a Benchmark DAC1 upsampling DAC which would take care of your DVD's and CD's. Just make sure you get a DVD player that has both optical and coax digital outs. (One to connect to your pre/pro, the other to the DAC for upsampling of your CD's)

[Snap]

:agree: take some of the loot off the DVD player and place it in other spots!