AV Receiver and 5.1 SS?

[Marc Berry]

Morning all,

i was recently thinking about getting a surround sound set up but then was coming across recommendations to get an AV receiver. i havent got a clue as the furthest i have gone is a soundbar and subwoofer. so…

1) how would the setup go? i have numerous devices including sky q and ps4 pro with a PSVR headset. any thoughts and recommendations definitely welcome.

2) do i need a receiver? if not, would it improve things much over just having 5.1 SS?

3) any specific recommendations on a budget? richer sounds and amazon have the yamaha rxv381 for £170. is that a good one? what 5.1 speaker set?

4) when it would be all hooked up, how would things turn on, switch over etc? i cant quite picture it as i have never been involved with these 2 pieces of tech.

cheers guys, marc

[Ed P]

Never bothered mate, but your question encouraged me to look at them.  Having looked at this link, I think I’d choose one that is built to be compatible with all your other kit, or you will just be generating an evil rats nest of wires!

[RSB]

Just bought one of these a couple of weeks back. Have all sorts plugged into it and sounds great. Got it for £25 from cash converters. Not that this help 🙂

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[The Duke]

My cheap philips all in one dvd /surround sound died this week. So I need a new solution. I’m just going to replace it with something  similar, and retro fit whatever the new connectors to my old ss speakers.

So this thread is well timed for me. I’ll like search ss on Amazon and by whichever is among the cheapest 5.1 set ups. I hardly go in my lounge so I don’t really care.

 

[blacklion1725]

I upgraded mine recently…..if you have a Richer Sounds near you I’d recommend popping in, telling them what you want to to and see what they say. Consensus seems to be that if you are a music nut get a dedicated stereo amp, but if you are less obsessive a good AV receiver can really enhance TV viewing and do a decent job with music too.

My current unit is a Denon AVRX2300 which is now depressingly £60 cheaper than when I got it a few months ago. This type of device really is aimed at modern living. It is a 7.2 (or 5.1) surround unit, can play spotify (premium), internet radio and has 8 HDMI inputs.

There are lots of others and this is probably overkill for many. One feature I like is the auto-setup using a microphone, you tell it which speakers you have/don’t have and where you all sit  it does the rest for you. I decided to leave out the subwoofer and don’t miss it at all (have decent front, rear and centre speakers).

It really is worth thinking about all the things you want it to do or may in the future, and as I say get some advice. I personally wouldn’t want to be without it now, really does enhance viewing, plays music well and is also an HDMI switch.

[JayCeeDee]

You might not need a receiver, but what I’ve found in the past was, if you need multiple connections, you’re far better off with a receiver. Some of the all-in-one 5.1 systems are a bit limited with connections.

If you’re looking to plug them all in and leave it set up, I would go the receiver route.

 

If possible, I try to look at the manuals for a piece of equipment I’m looking to get. This gives you details of all the connections it has, what’s required to switch between them ( instructions on remote control or equipment switches ). The Richer Sounds site has the manual for that Yamaha.

[The Duke]

That looks a right bit of kit BL, but way overkill for me. Usually I like overkill, I have wifi light bulbs and all kinds of shite I don’t need. But as the lounge isn’t my domain. I don’t really care.

I just want a way for the wife to hear the tv. for my od film to sound half decent. And of course the kids need ss for Minecraft ?

 

[RSB]

Just got a pair of these today from cash converters for rear speakers for £23.75. Not put through there paces yet. These are to go with the amp/reciever I linked to above.

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Marc Berry]

thanks all

as soon as funds allow (when i get the missus to agree it would be a good idea ; ) ) i will get the av receiver. poss the rxv381 or even 581.

any advice regarding set up, usage of the system i.e what needs to be turned on, switched over etc when using different devices, etc?

thanks, marc

[Marc Berry]

i’ve now also been directed to the yamaha rxv481 as a decent ‘inbetween’. any thoughts?

speakers wise i am leaning towards either the yamaha nsp40 or the denon sys-5.1. both on amazon uk. both approx £150. again, any thoughts appreciated

marc

[Tippon]

I found this guide to placing speakers a little while back:

https://www.howtogeek.com/137896/how-to-place-your-speakers-to-maximize-your-home-theater-experience/

[Marc Berry]

Tippon wrote:

I found this guide to placing speakers a little while back: https://www.howtogeek.com/137896/how-to-place-your-speakers-to-maximize-your-home-theater-experience/

cheers tippon. an interesting read. i’ll keep that to hand ready.

any specific 5.1 speaker recommendations you’ve come across?

[Tippon]

I’ve never looked. I found a 5.1 PC speaker set for £25 about 15 years ago, and a DVD player with built in surround at about the same time, and was given my current set.

[JayCeeDee]

There’s an interesting discussion developed on AV Forum about receivers HERE that I saw from an email drop today. Very long topic I see, haven’t worked my way through it yet.?

[Marc Berry]

right, i think i have now got approx £500 for AV receiver and speakers. (not inc the cable and connections)

someone on the av forum suggested paying double or even treble that spent on the receiver for the speakers. so with my budget (which i dont think is TOO small) that would mean only spending between £165 and £120 approx for a receiver which is surely too low.

i was thinking of the opposite. spending high (ish) on the receiver, about £350 for the yamaha rxv681 and about £150 for the speakers such as either the yamaha nsp40 or denon sys2020. at least then i will still hear a huge improvement over my £100 soundbar and i can then upgrade the speakers at a later date while the receiver will be fine for quite a while.

any thoughts?

[blacklion1725]

I would go high on the receiver personally – the speakers can be upgraded incrementally, the receiver is a single “hit”. AVForums is a great resource, but a lot of the posters are real fanatics and spend crazy amounts (often) on equipment.

What a lot of people do i(me included) is for example when you upgrade your front speakers, the old fronts then become the rear surrounds.

I’d also suggest that your budget is absolutely ripe for a decent 2nd hand set of speakers (maybe even the receiver too) – eBay prime candidate as usual….upgraders and early adopters often list whole 5.1 and 7.2 sets for very good prices. A lot of modern AV receivers can cope with varying speaker impedance (often 4 to 8 ohm range) but it is worth checking before you buy that your combination is compatible. My Denon is currently supporting Q-Acoustics front speakers, and Gale rears and centre (no subwoofer), all plays along very nicely. There are also some decent in-budget systems for example here.

By the way I had a listen to the Denon speakers (2020) when I bought my receiver – very nice – optimised for TV viewing though – if you are after a hybrid solution for music too then I would look at compact bookshelf speakers, at least for front right and left. If its is TV only the Denon set sounded great. A lot of people will advise you to match the speaker brand with the receiver brand, I suppose there is some sense in that, so maybe a consideration once you are 100% set on the receiver.

[Marc Berry]

I bought the yamaha rxv681 and canton movie 75 speakers.

Any suggestions or advice?

[JayCeeDee]

Marc Berry wrote:

I bought the yamaha rxv681 and canton movie 75 speakers. Any suggestions or advice?

 

Wire it up…..plug them in…………… sit back and enjoy!!!?

[blacklion1725]

Just being nosey – but what did you pay – guessing you went a bit over budget!

Set up is a personal thing, I’d leave plenty of slack in the speaker cable (get decent but not silly-expensive cable) until you are happy where the speakers will end up – especially the subwoofer.

Worth reading the blurb with the speakers on positioning (distance from wall behind etc), and you might need to shell out on stands as well if you are not wall-mounting. As I mentioned I have dropped the subwoofer from my setup, but I used one on my old system and found even after the auto-calibration the level was still too high, so my advice would be to run the calibration with the mic, and then tweak the speaker levels manually until you are happy. Definitely have the subwoofer on spikes, it will sound better and also annoy the rest of the house and your neighbours less!

Regards cabling in general, worth giving this some real thought and buying the right length HDMI cables and interconnects, makes it much easier to keep it all tidy looking. Worth getting an ethernet cable to it if you can instead of wifi. Maybe just me but always feel more comfortable streaming over cables if it is an option.

Lastly this things are heavy, and they need decent ventilation, so avoid tight fitting spaces and give it plenty of breathing space above and to the sides.

Otherwise, as said – enjoy it, looks like a top set up, and let us know once you have had a play.

[Marc Berry]

i paid approx £380 for the yamaha rxv681, £275 i think for the canton movie 75, approx £33 for the speaker cable.

decent bit over budget but i didnt get much pushback from the wife so went for it.

it sounds good but i’m a bit confused about all the different surround sounds. although it mentioned all the methods of SS it COULD use, i thought it was pretty automatic and simply matched the source material???

it is connected via ethernet which i agee gives me confidence over wifi.

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