How much should you invest in a audio system?

Skinfull

You know the rule for buying a lock for your bike, that the lock should cost no less than 25% of the cost of the bike...Is there a similar rule for Audio systems?

I spent ~900€ on my TV, got it on sale and should be about 1300€

So I'm wondering what budget I should put on my sound system, 25%? 50%? More?

SUB-QUESTION:
I used rtings.com for tv research while trying to decide what to buy, is there a similar one for sound systems?

BigEejit

Skinfull wrote: »

SUB-QUESTION:
I used rtings.com for tv research while trying to decide what to buy, is there a similar one for sound systems?

Go and listen to what stuff sounds like. This may be hard to do, but if you want good sound you should do it.

Picture quality is a lot less subjective than sound quality. I think that a system that sounds great to one person may sound really crap to another but both would acknowledge that one TV's picture is sharper or darker than another's.

Whatever you do, do not base your decision on WhatHIfi's website. Yes, they sometimes get it right but it seems to me that whichever company advertises with them gets a great review.

I'd recommend getting a mini hifi with decent speakers. I have a denon dm37 with wharfedale speakers that sounds really good (to me and the family, an audiophile would probably vomit because it did not cost enough)

coylemj

BigEejit wrote: »

Whatever you do, do not base your decision on WhatHIfi's website. Yes, they sometimes get it right but it seems to me that whichever company advertises with them gets a great review.

+ 1,000,000 They have 1,655 reviews of HDMI cables, all of which perform exactly the same function in exactly the same way - transferring ones and zeros from box A to box B. Reason: the cable manufacturers advertise with them.

Sample (review of Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI):

We gave our sample a selection of testing scenes and it responded with a will, showing a fluid grasp of motion, minimum picture noise and a fine capability with detail.

Images are sharp and stable, while this HDMI also offers good sonic ability, with a tonally integrated sound that has the ability to kick tight and hard when required, and yet pull back and display great insight.

Head to head with our award winning Wireworld Chroma 6, the Cinnamon pretty much holds its own, although it lacks some of the dynamic suppleness of its close rival, and the colour palette may be too rich for some.


What a complete load of utter b0ll0cks!

BigEejit

I know this was not an "expensive HDMI cable manufacturer bashing" thread but its surprising how many times I've had to point people at this site and sites like it over the years:
http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/still-more-reasons-why-all-hdmi-cable-are-the-same/
Particularly this bit:

There is no such thing as a 'HDMI 1.4 cable'
A "1.4" cable is a big misconception, and stems from truly terrible monikers from HDMI Licensing. There are two aspects to HDMI: the cable and the connection. The cable is dumb, just passing along whatever data you give it. The connection is where all the features are. There was a big push when 3D came out that you needed HDMI 1.4 to do 3D. This is true, but "1.4" is a connection spec, not a cable spec. Any high-speed HDMI cable can transmit 3D.

akaSol

Skinfull wrote: »

You know the rule for buying a lock for your bike, that the lock should cost no less than 25% of the cost of the bike...Is there a similar rule for Audio systems?

I spent ~900€ on my TV, got it on sale and should be about 1300€

So I'm wondering what budget I should put on my sound system, 25%? 50%? More?

SUB-QUESTION:
I used rtings.com for tv research while trying to decide what to buy, is there a similar one for sound systems?

My TV cost just under a third of my surround sound set-up - At the time €1,300 for the TV.
With my AV amp , three pairs of floor-standers , sub and centre around the €3,500 mark
For me the picture was the best available at the price (on the TV) while my surround sound took nearly two years to complete and hone.

Scary when you look at it but my surround will out last my TV

>Sol

coylemj

BigEejit wrote: »

I know this was not an "expensive HDMI cable manufacturer bashing" thread ....

Agreed, I steered it in that direction when I saw the OP's original question ..

Skinfull wrote: »

You know the rule for buying a lock for your bike, that the lock should cost no less than 25% of the cost of the bike...Is there a similar rule for Audio systems?

Which reminded me of advice I saw on an Irish electrical retailer's website (since removed) which recommended that you should spend 15% of the price of your brand new TV on a HDMI cable!

Though it doesn't mean that a slick salesman on the day won't attempt to sell you this 2m cable for €99.99 ....

http://www.harveynorman.ie/tvs-headphones/tv-and-audio-accessories/tv-cables/monster-hdmi-cable-140466.html

Slaphead07

Which reminded me of advice I saw on an Irish electrical retailer's website (since removed) which recommended that you should spend 15% of the price of your brand new TV on a HDMI cable!

There is a maxim in hifi that you should spend 10 - 15% of your budget on cables but that certainly doesn't apply to HDMI. Let me just say right now I'm not getting into a debate about this!

The Ritz

Folks,

Mod Comment:

Ready agreement on the nature of HDMI cables all around, can we leave it there ? A bit early in the New Year for this to drift into the bane of all home entertainment fora, a "Cable Thread" :-)

Mod Hat off.


As far as the original question goes, I don't think there's any relevance between the cost of your TV and how much you should spend on your sound system. I'd be more interested in what size/shape room you have, is it very family oriented, can you take advantage of a full size 5:1 (or more) system in terms of accomodating speakers, do you have neighbours (no point in having a trouser-flapping 7:2 system if you can't take advanage of it), are you trying to upgrade an existing system and what is your overall budget for it ?

This kind of information will allow you to shop usefully online or ask a trusted retailer to recommend a system for you.


Cheers,

Ritz.

Skinfull

The Ritz wrote: »

Folks,

As far as the original question goes, I don't think there's any relevance between the cost of your TV and how much you should spend on your sound system. I'd be more interested in what size/shape room you have, is it very family oriented, can you take advantage of a full size 5:1 (or more) system in terms of accomodating speakers, do you have neighbours (no point in having a trouser-flapping 7:2 system if you can't take advanage of it), are you trying to upgrade an existing system and what is your overall budget for it ?

This kind of information will allow you to shop usefully online or ask a trusted retailer to recommend a system for you.


Cheers,

Ritz.

The room is a bog standard apartment living room / kitchen afair (roughly L shaped) and though I have neighbours none of my connecting walls are in my living room as I live on the end of the row so all my walls are "external" walls.

I currently have a 5.1 Onkyo system but my requirements have outgrown this (need more HDMI connectivity and an additional Optical in). As for budget I don't really have any constraints where this is concerned but I'm still interested in getting value for money!

So far I've narrowed it down to two Yamaha system both of which are around the €400 mark but it begs the question...are my onkyo speaker packages ok with a yamaha receiver or should I replace them too?

And new subquestion...one of the systems I've picked turned out to be discontinued Should I be avoiding this or is it a non issue?

akaSol

Skinfull wrote: »

The room is a bog standard apartment living room / kitchen afair (roughly L shaped) and though I have neighbours none of my connecting walls are in my living room as I live on the end of the row so all my walls are "external" walls.

I currently have a 5.1 Onkyo system but my requirements have outgrown this (need more HDMI connectivity and an additional Optical in). As for budget I don't really have any constraints where this is concerned but I'm still interested in getting value for money!

So far I've narrowed it down to two Yamaha system both of which are around the €400 mark but it begs the question...are my onkyo speaker packages ok with a yamaha receiver or should I replace them too?

And new subquestion...one of the systems I've picked turned out to be discontinued Should I be avoiding this or is it a non issue?

Don't worry about a discontinued Amp, often manufacturers drop models this time of year to bring in a spring range. The usual differences between the out going and in coming models is one extra feature ( Spotify client etc ) or adding a hdmi at the loss of an analogue input.
Just not to far back down the line though.

>Sol