Looking for a bit of Advice

ec18

Hi Richer Sounds, 

Looking for a bit of advice for a movie room I'm putting in the house. I have a 55" led tv for the room but looking at some audio options. I'm not sure between going for surround sound or soundbar. Whats the advantages/disadvantages of both?

And what kinda prices am I looking at to pay for a decent one?

Thanks, 

EC

Richersounds.ie: John

EC,

apologies for the delay - not sure how the guys missed your post!

OK - good query and the first bit is easy - if you can possibly fit it then an AV receiver and separate speakers will pretty much ALWAYS outperform a soundbar - we do a little Yamaha 5.1 AV Receiver with a speaker pack included called the YHT1810 which is just £299 / €349 and I would expect it to sound better than most soundbars up to circa £700 / €850 ish.

...Soundbars and sound bases do have a place though and are ideal if you are stuck for space as they generally tuck under the TV and look far neater than an AVR and associated cables and speakers - another really valid argument for soundbars and soundbases is the simplicity - generally all you need to do is connect an optical cable between your TV and the Bar and you are away - they are really simple to operate and the sound will just follow whats on screen rather than having to keep changing inputs etc - and finally, you can really radically improve the sound of pretty much ANY TV by spending way less than even the £299 that the YHT1810 costs - for instance the JBL Boost which is really compact and sounds great and is now reduced to  just £149 / €169!:
http://www.whathifi.com/jbl/boost-tv/review

So..getting back to your query! I would say that proper AV receiver and speaker packages start with the Yamaha YHT1810 at the £299 / €349 price point:
http://euro.richersounds.ie/p-200708-yht1810.aspx

...and the prices go up from there - however if you can spend approx £600 you will start to get pretty serious sound - ie with the Denon AVRX2300 and the matching  Denon SYS2020 5.1 speaker package.

In soundbar terms there are a few exceptional products, the Q Acoustics M4 is truly brilliant and is just £329 ( and a particularly mad €325 euro at the moment! )

http://www.whathifi.com/q-acoustics/media-4/review

Next up the new Monitor Audio ASB10 is really slick and a great match for super slim large screen TV but it also has the Monitor Audio signature sound quality and the option of a wireless subwoofer - finally if you want a soundbar that can really defy your expectations I can highly recommend the Yamaha YSP5600 - its one of the most jaw dropping audio products I've heard in the last 10 years - its seriously expensive and quite a large piece of kit but its the best sounding soundbar I have ever heard by a factor of about 100! its a proper Atmos enabled bar and how it makes the sound come from behind and especially above me I honestly have no idea - but it really is E X C E P T I O N A L ! - if you come up to visit us - its one of our fave demos, purely to see customers checking out that we haven't wired ceiling and rear speakers directly into the unit! 
 

Ok so if you wanted to give us your preference and a rough budget we are happy to make more specific recommendations - just drop us a line and we will do our very best to help out!

Thanks again,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

ec18

Hi John, 

Thanks for all the info, my budget was probably in the 250-300 range and it'll be used with a LG 55UH60 tv. Space isn't a huge concern as it's for a TV/Movie room rather than a living room. 

EC

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

ec18 wrote: »

Hi John, 

Thanks for all the info, my budget was probably in the 250-300 range and it'll be used with a LG 55UH60 tv. Space isn't a huge concern as it's for a TV/Movie room rather than a living room. 

EC

Hi EC18.

If you did not want to go for the Yamaha YHT1810 system mentioned above then the next in line would be the Denon AVRX520BT priced at £199
http://www.richersounds.ie/p-201463-avrx520bt.aspx
and pair it with the Denon SYS2020 speaker pack which is priced at £149.00.
http://www.richersounds.ie/p-202313-deno-sys2020-blk.aspx
Making a Total of £348.00 or 419.99 Euro

The Yamaha is the cheapest solution for going for a separate A/V system.

Again on the soundbar the M4 above at the 325 Euro price is a cracking deal.

Let m know what you think or if anything else has caught your eye drop me a post.

ec18

Hi Kenny, 

Thanks for the extra information after having another think about it I think the simplicity of the sounds bar is the way I'd like to go. If possible I'd like to keep it below the 300 mark with separate sub woofer. That might be a bit ambitious but thats kinda what I'm aiming for atm. 
EC

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

ec18 wrote: »

Hi Kenny, 

Thanks for the extra information after having another think about it I think the simplicity of the sounds bar is the way I'd like to go. If possible I'd like to keep it below the 300 mark with separate sub woofer. That might be a bit ambitious but thats kinda what I'm aiming for atm. 
EC

Hey EC18.

There are only the two at the moment that may suit that have a sub and come in within your budget.

Orbitsound M9LX priced at 249.99 Euro
http://euro.richersounds.ie/p-200821-m9lx.aspx?swapstore=1

JBL SB150 priced at 254.93 Euro
http://euro.richersounds.ie/p-202055-sb150.aspx

Let me know if either of these might suit.

ec18

any recommendation out of those two?

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

ec18 wrote: »

any recommendation out of those two?

Hey EC18.

The Orbitsound is compact and still sound very good with the JBl being the larger of the two.

The subwoofer on the JBL is wireless whereas the Orbitsound connects with a cable.

The JBl includes cable to connect it to your sources the Orbitsound does not.

It terms of sound performance both would sound very close to each other.