cheap surround system
Posted by: Phil Sparks on 21 July 2008
Guys
My main interest is audio, but I do enjoy the big picture experience so we've had a Sony HS10 projector for about 5 years. I use a PC to run it using powerstrip to scale the output to the panel size of the projector. The picture stll seems really good.
I used to think that as long as the stereo was good then I couldn't be bothered with all the extra cables and speakers of a full surround system. At the moment I just feed the PC stereo output into my main Naim rig, the speakers (active Kans) are directly under the screen.
However a couple of times recently I've watched films round at a friends place who has a Yamaha £150 amp and spent about £70 on 5 tiny speakers and a sub, so in total about as much as I've spent on A5 speaker cable! To be honest the sound is much better than mine, and in particular the dialogue is much more intelligble. I'm sure that most of the problem is the crappy sound card in my PC, however I've been wondering whether I should spend a little to at least make the most of my main system.
Two provisos - (i) I really can't justify more than a few hundred quid and (ii) my wife already hates the huge pile of Naim boxes cluttering our nice Victorian lounge so whatever option I look at has to be small ... very small.
My thoughts at the moment. (i) buy a surround amp thing for a few hundred quid - Yamaha and Onkyo seem to get OK reviews on some of the sites and there are models for £200 - £300. Feed the optical output from the PC into this. I've looked for just a surround processor as I have two spare Naits which I could use to provide the power but can't find anything remotely cheap enough (ii) buy 4 of those Monitor Audio R45s little speakers, they're around £70 each, about 10cm cubes, come in nice wood finishes and seem to get more positive reviews than any of the other tiny speakers - also they come from a proper HiFi company, which is always comforting.
Now the first question is how wide do my L & R speakers have to be? At the moment my Kans are at the bottom corners of the screen, so about 6 feet wide - I can't really move them as they're on Sound Org wall stands. Assuming that the AV amp has pre-outs so I can run an output through my main Naim rig (82, 2x250s, active Kans) I could either put two of the R45s next to each other in the middle of the screen to act as a centre speaker. Alternatively I could use the kans as the centre channel and put the R45s further left and right (positioning would be a bit compromised here as they'd be squeezed into corners etc.). The 2nd pair of R45s would do rear channel duties. Of course I know I'll be asble to try out the options but if anyone has any thoughts they'd be gratefully received.
2nd Question - does all this sound remotely sensible? As I said my mate's £200 system sounded more impressive than mine, I'd hope to get something better but there's no way I can stretch to AV2/NSat levels.
3rd Question - big bass has never been a priority (hence active Kans) and initially I'll try without a sub. However if this all worked well and I wanted just a bit more 'oomph' are there any recommendations for a cheap but not awful sub. Again small and a couple of hundred quid level not thousands.
cheers
Phil
My main interest is audio, but I do enjoy the big picture experience so we've had a Sony HS10 projector for about 5 years. I use a PC to run it using powerstrip to scale the output to the panel size of the projector. The picture stll seems really good.
I used to think that as long as the stereo was good then I couldn't be bothered with all the extra cables and speakers of a full surround system. At the moment I just feed the PC stereo output into my main Naim rig, the speakers (active Kans) are directly under the screen.
However a couple of times recently I've watched films round at a friends place who has a Yamaha £150 amp and spent about £70 on 5 tiny speakers and a sub, so in total about as much as I've spent on A5 speaker cable! To be honest the sound is much better than mine, and in particular the dialogue is much more intelligble. I'm sure that most of the problem is the crappy sound card in my PC, however I've been wondering whether I should spend a little to at least make the most of my main system.
Two provisos - (i) I really can't justify more than a few hundred quid and (ii) my wife already hates the huge pile of Naim boxes cluttering our nice Victorian lounge so whatever option I look at has to be small ... very small.
My thoughts at the moment. (i) buy a surround amp thing for a few hundred quid - Yamaha and Onkyo seem to get OK reviews on some of the sites and there are models for £200 - £300. Feed the optical output from the PC into this. I've looked for just a surround processor as I have two spare Naits which I could use to provide the power but can't find anything remotely cheap enough (ii) buy 4 of those Monitor Audio R45s little speakers, they're around £70 each, about 10cm cubes, come in nice wood finishes and seem to get more positive reviews than any of the other tiny speakers - also they come from a proper HiFi company, which is always comforting.
Now the first question is how wide do my L & R speakers have to be? At the moment my Kans are at the bottom corners of the screen, so about 6 feet wide - I can't really move them as they're on Sound Org wall stands. Assuming that the AV amp has pre-outs so I can run an output through my main Naim rig (82, 2x250s, active Kans) I could either put two of the R45s next to each other in the middle of the screen to act as a centre speaker. Alternatively I could use the kans as the centre channel and put the R45s further left and right (positioning would be a bit compromised here as they'd be squeezed into corners etc.). The 2nd pair of R45s would do rear channel duties. Of course I know I'll be asble to try out the options but if anyone has any thoughts they'd be gratefully received.
2nd Question - does all this sound remotely sensible? As I said my mate's £200 system sounded more impressive than mine, I'd hope to get something better but there's no way I can stretch to AV2/NSat levels.
3rd Question - big bass has never been a priority (hence active Kans) and initially I'll try without a sub. However if this all worked well and I wanted just a bit more 'oomph' are there any recommendations for a cheap but not awful sub. Again small and a couple of hundred quid level not thousands.
cheers
Phil
Phil;
I wish you a fun trip into the world of multichannel AV. What I would do is get a budget DVD player plus center speaker (something from yamaha or jamo) and the cheapest Onkyo receiver you can find. All of that shouldn't cost you more than 250-300 Pounds. That will create a very reasonable home theater for you. Whenever you can pay more money you can buy matching rear surrounds. These are normally small in size and can be placed on top of a coffee table. Adding a subwoofer is something that you might consider later and again I suggest that you buy from the same line and model of speakers that you bought your center and surrounds from. Good luck and have fun
I wish you a fun trip into the world of multichannel AV. What I would do is get a budget DVD player plus center speaker (something from yamaha or jamo) and the cheapest Onkyo receiver you can find. All of that shouldn't cost you more than 250-300 Pounds. That will create a very reasonable home theater for you. Whenever you can pay more money you can buy matching rear surrounds. These are normally small in size and can be placed on top of a coffee table. Adding a subwoofer is something that you might consider later and again I suggest that you buy from the same line and model of speakers that you bought your center and surrounds from. Good luck and have fun