Room redecoration, now or never to invest in some AV equipment?!

davenewt

On a limited budget (think having to buy light fittings over and above home cinema equipment... need I say more!) but what might my options be for...

1) AV receiver (preferably with network capability as I may run some Cat5 before getting the new floor down)

2) Decent cinema sound system which doesn't require separate speakers - i.e. one of those soundbar thingies? Due to layout of the room (TV will be in a corner and sofa positioning is already determined - don't ask!) I can't figure out a good place to stick surround speakers, so would it be best to go with a soundbar type setup? I'm not a mega surround-sound junkie but something better than the TV's inbuilt speakers would be great.

(Ash - have already sent an email separately to you re. a tv wall bracket, but thought I might ask here for options on the above too, see what I might be tempted by!)

Finally, any advice on what cabling I should definitely consider putting in now, before it's too late? Am going to wall-mount the TV and put some ducting in the wall big enough to accommodate cables that would need to connect to the TV, but what about running stuff under the floor... if not using surround sound speakers, is it just Cat5 I might need to future-proof things, given all AV equipment will be in the same corner as the TV, most likely?

Worried I might be overlooking something

Cheers,
Dave.

Richersounds.ie: Dave

Hi Dave.

The Yamaha YHTS401 would be the best option that I could currently offer by way of a surround sound, sound bar. This is currently £479.95 and does have HDMI inputs and one out put to the TV.

It also has optical and coaxial connections so the cabling would depend on your sources.

You cannot use an A/V receiver along with this as the receiver will only work with speakers connected to it so if you are trying to avoid this then the sound bar is the only way to go.

This will not work for ethernet so if you want the network connection then you may need to go for a receiver and just a pair of speakers and a subwoofer which would be wired.

So the question is : Do you want to have surround sound without wires or would you prefer to have a few wired speakers, with no surround sound and have the networking functions ?

Unfortunately I don't know of a way to get both.

ATB


Dave

davenewt

Thanks Dave, I think I'll look into AV receivers and a pair of wired speakers + sub... cheers for the reply!