Glenn Richards wrote:
Alex Butcher wrote:

After years of putting up with a gradually-dying twelve year old Aiwa
midi system, I'm thinking about picking up my first basic seperates
system. I've been reading around, and I plan to buy from Richer,
because most of the HiFi shops in Bristol tend to start rather
significantly further up the foodchain.


Right, just looking at the Richer web site now. Bought a lot of kit
there over the years (the Bristol branch in particular), and I still use
them quite a lot.

Same here, though only bits and pieces until now. I'm happy that Richer
are a no-nonsense vendor a good few steps up from the likes of
Currys/Dixons/Comet et al.

possibly a MythTV HTPC I'm thinking of building.

Until I read this part I was thinking of Cambridge Azur stuff, which
really is rather good.

Was that the 540A Amp/540Cv2 CD/MS902i speaker bundle for 400? Or some
other combination of components?

However, if you're thinking of home theatre, I'd
seriously consider going for an AV receiver right off the bat.

Damn. That's the decision I've been wrestling with almost from the
outset. I thought I'd had it settled, on the basis that I already have a
Samsung all-in-one HT system that does 5.1, dts and Prologic II well
enough for my needs. It also has a digital input that I can use for any
future HTPC. HT isn't really /that/ important to me (I feel that
surround sound is largely only being used by showy "effects movies" of
which I'm increasingly tiring, some impressive live music DVDs
notwithstanding), but a HTPC that can record DVB-T audio/video to HDD,
burn to CD/DVD, act as a fixed mp3/ogg jukebox, copy CDs etc. would be
useful to me, and more flexible, modular, functional and cost-effective
than dedicated units.

The Yamaha DSP-AX757 (£400) is really rather awesome. I have the older
DSP-AX620, which for the money (cost me £299 reduced from £399 about 4
years ago) was incredible. There's really nothing to match Yamaha for AV
under the £500 mark, and even music replay is pretty good for an AV
receiver.

Yes, I was looking at the next model down in Yamaha's range - the
RX-V657 for 300 notes. Or maybe, something at the bottom of the range
(e.g. RX-V357) with a plan to upgrade when the 757 is at the same
pricepoint.

Partner this up with a Toshiba SD-350 for £80 and you've got one
cracking system. The Toshiba has HDMI (so if you have or plan to buy a
flat panel display that'll come in handy), and plays all the usual, MP3
discs, and also does DivX. Only thing it doesn't appear to do is
DVD-Audio (my previous player was an SD-530, which does DVD-A).

I'm still watching TV and DVDs on a 4:3 ex-rental CRT, and I have no
plans to upgrade it unless it dies (and it's gone eight years since I
bought it now). The content just isn't significantly valuable to me to
justify the expense of HDTV, and it's looking like the early adopters
will only be penalised. Increasing energy costs might make me look more
closely at some kind of LCD, but it'll be a while before that's a
significant factor.

You'll find with most AV receivers that a DVD player makes a perfectly
good CD transport, provided you use the DAC in the AV amp.

Yes, that was precisely my thinking.

Use a co-ax rather than optical cable if possible, don't worry about
spending vast
sums of money on a co-ax digital cable though. Just go down to Maplin
and get a metre or so of MIL-spec 75ohm co-ax (about £1.50/metre at the
last count) and a couple of gold plated phono plugs and make your own up.

I used to make my own cables up, but these days, I just buy
cheap-but-serviceable ready-made cables - especially for fiddly
connectors like SCARTs. Maplin have a 75ohm ready-made co-ax cable for
5GBP which was what I had in mind - cheaper than optical, and saves two
domain conversions (i.e. electrical-optical and back again).

If you want to move a bit further upmarket, cross over Whiteladies Road
from Richer Sounds, turn right, walk about 20 yards up the hill and
you'll find Sevenoaks Hi-Fi. From here, I would recommend without
hesitation:

Arcam AVR-250 AV receiver £1,000
Arcam DV-79 DVD/CD player £1,000

Now you're into a different league.

I don't doubt it! No, based on my usage patterns, I can't really justify
to myself spending that much on HE gear. Each to his or her own, though.
After all, folks who compulsively upgrade mean that good gear gets
obsoleted quickly and sold in Richer for modest sums to us mortals! :-)

This is the system I have, and it
blows the old Yamaha 620 into oblivion. The Yamaha receiver at the
£1,000 mark does sound a little more involving with movies, and again
does a pretty good job of music - but to quote What Hi-Fi, that would
always be qualified with the words "for an AV receiver".

Yes, finding the point at which a DVD (used as transport only) plus a
decent AV receiver is better value than a CD into a regular amp is an
interesting exercise. A chap in Audio Excellence offered the rule of
thumb that if the CD player is less than 200GBP, a DVD player into a
200GBP AV receiver will probably sound better. What say you?

[snip]

Using Audio Innovations Silver bi-wire cable for front speakers, currently
105-strand OFC for the surrounds (identical to Richer's Gale XL-105 but
bought on a 100m roll from CPC for £20!) which I'll be replacing with
the silver cable once I get the system properly set up in the new place.

Contrary to what some people on this group will tell you, it's worth
spending a few quid on decent speaker cables (and interconnects for
analogue). Nothing completely over-the-top, the Audio Innovations silver
is damned good though.

I'm pretty happy with the idea that using thick cables for speakers is a
good idea, given the current drawn. I got Richer to throw in a few
metres of Gale XL189 when I bought the Gale Monitors a few years back.
These days, I'd probably go with some XS84F/XS85G 12A speaker cable now.

Conversely, let's just say that I'm rather more skeptical about the
benefits of fancy interconnects (assuming no audible mains hum, etc) and
leave it at that. Maybe I might pick up one to test with. :-)

Best Regards,
Alex.