Time for a rethink

[Anastasius]

As I mentioned in another thread, things they are a-changing and looks as if we'll be on the move to a new abode. The property doesn't have a TV aerial but a discretely hidden satellite dish. It's the sort of property that you wouldn't really want to stick a TV aerial up on. But all our PVRs etc are Freeview - ie need a digital TV signal. I might be able to get a signal sticking an aerial up inside the loft but won't know until I get there. Even then there is the question of getting the cable down discreetly.

Our current TV is a 32" plasma screen and still (touch wood) going strong after 20+ years. Would that modern TVs had the same longevity - I suspect not. Ideally this would be our last upgrade and see us out. So looking around I'm tempted to go large. We both like watching films and a chunky 65" set would do the job admirably. Also one of the new Ultra HDR ones suits us. I know that the available Blu-Ray's that are in this format are limited but I think that will probably change over time. I could download 4k films from Netflix - if they had any decent films in 4K, that is. Certainly there is little there to interest us at the moment and I doubt that that will change. Plus new PVRs.

Soundwise we had (well, still have) a 5.1 sound system of equal vintage to the TV. Over the years I have kept it running by cannibalising secondhand units bought off eBay but the DVD player went terminal and so we watch using an external player and listen in stereo. The films that we watch hardly ever had any benefit using 5.1. So I'm thinking that a sound bar or sound base will suffice.

Be nice to upgrade the iMacs as we'd have a bit of spare cash. Keep the new ones for as long as we can. A 27" with fusion drive for him and a neat MacBook Air for her. We've had our stuff since 2007 and 2009 and so have had our money's worth. But technology moves on.

All thoughts welcome.

[french frank]

a chunky 65" set would do the job admirably.

Sorry that's not much of a thought

[richardfinegold]

Sound bars suck. I think that you will find after two decades of a 5.1 setup you will really miss iit. And some premium sound bars now cost more than a decent surround sound set up.
For music, sound bars are really inadequate.
You may want to consider going the opposite route. If you don't find your current 5.1 immersive enough, try an Atmos or similar configuration. If space is a consideration, use in ceiling or in wall speakers for surrounds and height. You will get the effect you are seeking without your dwelling looking like an A-V store.
If all of the above is a non starter, just stick to a 3.1 with good full range speakers that can do deep bass and a proper center channel, or dispense with the sub if the front speakers do deep bass

[Anastasius]

Thanks for the input, Richard. Do you have any recommendations ?

[richardfinegold]

The recommendations would depend upon whichever set up you think is best.
For size of video monitor, there are formulas to use depending upon where your seating position will be to determine the optimal size of the monitor. The AV mags repeat them here at least once a year and they are also in Robert Harley's Guide To Home Theater books.
If you decide you want to do a 5.1.2 system, which would be your present system with 2 Atmos ceiling speakers added, the first question is do you want to preserve all of your present speakers, or would you be looking to replace those as well? Or do you just want new in wall surrounds?
The next question is what is your budget? Then do you want a professional installer or do you want to tackle this yourself?
The latest generations of AVRs from Onyko, Pioneer, Denon, and Marantz are wallet friendly and Atmos capable, as well as being able to play 4 K. They vary somewhat in their music streaming capabilities so be aware if this important. For ceiling and/or in wall speakers, Paradigm, Martin Logan, and PSB all make excellent, inexpensive and easy to install speakers that ought to be available in the U.K.

[umslopogaas]

Martin Logan speakers are available in the UK from Audio Destination in Tiverton, Devon. I have a second hand pair and they are excellent. Dont hesitate, contact them on

01884 243584

[Dave2002]

There are amazing TVs now available. Either the expensive sort - 4k etc., which may be £600-£2k depending on model, or some of the cheaper ones from around £300 - which value for money seem very good. I was staggered at what I just saw this afternoon in Sainsbury's in the range £300-£500. To be honest I couldn't always tell that the cheaper ones were actually lower in quality than some of the more expensive models - even what I assume to be a Sainsbury's own brand model Celsus - seemed good for the price.

For higher end models go to a store like John Lewis, and do a comparison.

Our own TV is now about 8 years old. When we bought it I think it was around £800, and everyone thought 42" sceens were huge. At the time it stood out in Tescos as having (IMO) the best picture, though it's not perfect. Most modern TVs do better, even the cheap ones.

My neighbours have just remodelled their house - new to them. They gutted the interior, and now the rather large TV is above a gas fake log fire, with the surround speakers in the ceiling, as Richard suggests. This does seem a very neat way to get that set up. The only concern I'd have about having a wall mounted screen is that I don't think we'd enjoy looking up from a seated position. It might work for the neighbours as they have gone open plan, and possibly spend a lot of time in the kitchen area, so standing up, or on high stools.

Re computers - what do you want them for? Is high(ish) performance a requirement - e.g for video editing. If so, then I'd suggest a 27 inch iMac absolutely maxed out. That probably means having at least 16 Gbytes of memory, but it's possible to go higher. I'd recommend an i7 processor model, and if you go for the Fusion drive then probably the 3 Gbyte model is the one to have. There is one company which sells really high end iMacs with both Windows and Mac OS X software ready to go - but they are over £3k each. A regular model will still cost over £2k I think.

I'm not sure about the MacBook Air. "We" (various family people) have two of those - both very good - both with SSDs. I understand that the latest MacBook Pros are now very similar in terms of lightness and thinness but are more powerful re computer power. I still find that my own MBP (dated from 2013) overheats causing the fans to come on under some circumstances - often if software kicks Adobe Flash into operation. This can be a real pain, particularly with audio applications, such as Qobuz Player. I don't know how Mac Minis compare for that kind of application - I could check it out, but it would require a bit of effort on my part.

I know that some people recommend Mac Minis to use as a media server, for both video and audio. If money isn't a great concern, that might be a good choice, but then you might still need another MBA in your household as a laptop.

Also, do try iPad Pros - the big ones. They are brilliant for some applications, and useless for others. Useless for programming, or any really serious computer work, but very good for watching video, or for using as controllers, for example foor a video or audio system.

I'm guessing that my suggested computer kit represents a budget outlay of around £5k. On the other hand, I think things will continue to get better, so it might make more sense to go for slightly less high end iMacs etc. - I'd still recommend the iPad Pro - but even a base model iMac and a base model Air or MBP can outperform most computers from 5 or 6 years back, and the total spend could then be about £3k. You might find that the money saved would be useful in a few more years, as eventually there will be better machines, and the money saved now could be used for newer kit when that happens.

One other last thought - but not necessarily one which everyone will want to try. Some people like the idea of having RAID based file systems on a network for serving out audio and video material. I think that around £500-600 might be reasonable to spend on such a system - perhaps a Drobo or a Synology unit - maybe one with 4 to 6 hot swappable drives. However, most of the RAID units are based on 3.5 inch drives, and I suspect that even though that is what current systems are based on, that the future will move towards SSDs, and possibly smaller ones. Even 2.5 inch SSDs may turn out to be on the large side in the future - so this is very speculative. It's only a thought - not perhaps one which I'd think of as essential by any means. My own experience of NAS systems has not been very good, so this is just something to consider, not necessarily adopt.

[Anastasius]

Thanks for all the input. Regarding the sound system, I'll need to listen to some sound bases or sound bars, I think. Certainly they won't be used for music listening although if I can persuade my wife then I might set up my Spendor's as the two L and R speakers and settle for stereo. Wall mounted speakers are out of the question...it's a period property with solid walls. And we can't use the existing speakers as they are 3 ohm and last time I looked there weren't many systems that were happy feeding that impedance.

No requirement for video editing but I do fancy a fusion drive of some description.

The MacBook Air is my wife's chosen machine as she likes the styling and CPU power is of little import to her. She hates using iPads For me I can see the potential merit of a cheapie Huawei from Three but that's about it. I've posted before about the time I got an iPad to take on a holiday to act as an interface for backing up photos to the cloud and other general web type things. I bought a secondhand one in January and did the necessary Proof-of-Concept. Come May when we were due to go, I had to hunt high and low for the iPad and finally found ti buried beneath a pile of papers. I'd not used it since January.

No requirement for file-servers of any description.

[Dave2002]

I'm surprised that the speakers you have are nominally 3 ohms. I thought most were nominally either 4 or 8 ohms, though if one looks at the actual impedance for speakers it does usually vary under load conditions.

http://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/58/~/4-ohm-speakers-with-a%2Fv-receivers-or-power-amps

https://www.avforums.com/threads/4-o...lifier.410649/ Some diverse views here, but not all by experts.

You could look for some older second hand amplifiers, which might be better matched, or there might be people who know about new ones, or even could make you one which would drive your speakers.

[richardfinegold]

I think that your first priority is to decide if this is going to be used for music and movies, or just movies. The demands of video are different from the demands of audio, imo

[Anastasius]

I'm surprised that the speakers you have are nominally 3 ohms. I thought most were nominally either 4 or 8 ohms, though if one looks at the actual impedance for speakers it does usually vary under load conditions.

http://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/58/~/4-ohm-speakers-with-a%2Fv-receivers-or-power-amps

https://www.avforums.com/threads/4-o...lifier.410649/ Some diverse views here, but not all by experts.

You could look for some older second hand amplifiers, which might be better matched, or there might be people who know about new ones, or even could make you one which would drive your speakers.

They were part of a Sony DAV-S880 which is a digital amplifier. I'm sure that there are people who can make an amplifier to match and I'd go that trouble if they were top-of-the-range but they're not although the sound they produce isn't that bad. I may well keep the system simply as the sound source provided I can get the sound out of the TV...I need to check what connections there are.

Richard...I agree and the answer is movies.

I see that the audio out is defined as "

Hybrid with Headphone Output" whatever that means.

[Dave2002]

Are we to assume single room, or should we consider multi room requirements?

[Dave2002]

I see that the audio out is defined as "

Hybrid with Headphone Output" whatever that means.

Could that be an Apple style headphone out, doubling up with optical out?

[Anastasius]

Could that be an Apple style headphone out, doubling up with optical out?

It's on a Sony TV set.

Single room. KISS is my watchword !

[vinteuil]

KISS is my watchword !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.I.S.S._(Keep_It_Sexy_%26_Simple)

... and why not?