Blu-Ray Home Cinema System?

If one is interessted in buying a home cinema speaker system including a Blu-Ray player & wireless rear speakers with a budget of around CHF1000; what would those with some knowledge of such things recommend?

Hi Lou,

Me too. Been looking for at least a year with around the same budget to no avail. I really like the usability of ONKYO gear but they don't do satellite speakers and I don't want the cable salad.

Samsung, Sony and Co. do a couple of units that match your requirements. I've seen a few offers at ehawk. But be aware that the Samsung stuff is normally wireless ready. That means you often have to buy expensive add-ons to get the wireless features.

Take a look at ehawk. Also, digitec has a few good offers on at the moment. Just select "wireless" on the selection screen.

All these units have monsterous speaker columns yet I'd like something less obvious, perhaps smaller speakers that you can "hide" or don't take up too much space.

If you're successful, please let me know. I'm still looking.

Cheers

Harry

Hi Harry,

I have been looking at eHawk, so far I have been leaning towards Sony if only because we have a Bravia and like you say they have systems that meet the requirements but I just read a not so good review of them so got all confused (again). This is what I was thinking about : http://www.ehawk.ch/product_info.php?products_id=23906 Any thoughts on that model. Thanks for the heads up on the expensive add-ons, I did nto realise that.

Cheers,

Lou

http://www.powerch.com/advanced_sear...6500&x=32&y=11

Is the one I'd go for, more features than you can shake a stick at, and this guy had it delivered in 4 days when places like Media Markt couldn't even order it, and for 200 chuffs less than the non-wireles version they had. I'm really pleased with it, sound & vision quality is superb, set up was easy, but remember to ask for the wireless module. Even with that, small extra it's still much more bang for buck than anything else.

Thanks Papa Goose for the tip.

Bare in mind. When I last looked, the remote unit can cost around $200 bucks when you buy from the same shop. But you can source this seperately. I've seen them advertised for $80. Just make sure you order the right module.

Also, I use the following website to check out purchase decisions beforehand:

http://www.testfreaks.co.uk/

or for the samsung.

http://www.testfreaks.co.uk/home-cin...sung-ht-c6500/

Experts and users review seperately. I find it quite informative.

Cheers,

Harry

There's plenty listed on Digitec.ch. The Onkyo HT-S5305 http://www.digitec.ch/ProdukteDetail...Artikel=186768 is under budget at 699CHF and gets great reviews on Amazon UK... and its' bigger brother the Onkyo HT-S630 http://www.digitec.ch/ProdukteDetail...Artikel=186761 is also a good system and comes in just under budget at 900CHF.

I would forget the wireless aspect... it's really not much effort to put speaker wire around and hide it neatly, and the sound quality will be better. Wireless technology still has restrictions and limits the sound quality bandwidth that it can handle.

Just to make sure you are getting the best price, be sure to look at http://www.toppreise.ch/

It is a website that compares all of the on-line shops.

Hi, if you are buying a Blueray and all and realy are into home theathre and movies please bear in mind these two things.

Firstly blueray movies cost more than dvds. So in the end if you are only going to buy dvds then maybe this is the time to swtich the blueray to a dvd player.

Secondly if you are looking for sound quality and are going to spend money for it then I suggest you forgo the wwireless part. Wirless to date cannot deliver the same sound and quality as wired speakers.

So if you are looking for that extra umph than go wired all along.

Personally, I am leaning towards the soundbar systems. Example of one is from philips at

http://www.philips.at/c/soundbar-sys...ONSUMER%3Dtrue

I heard the philips unit in action at a friend of mine. It was very very surprising - enough so that I was willing to forego running cables all across the room(s). These can be set up (programmed so to speak) to match the type of rooms you have (e.g. room dimensions, doors, spaces, windows and their locations). Once programmed, they automatically adjust the speakers to compensate for room layout.

There are a few manufacturers now making these units. Philips is one of a few.

These models come with and without blue-ray player. I prefer one without the player, and purchase a code-free multi-media blue-ray player as a separate unit (I have dvds with various region codes).

These units can also do away with the amp and many other boxen that are part of a traditional home audio system. Once mouted on the wall, under the flat screen, it looks much kewler, less cables and clutter of traditional boxen that make up a home audio system.

If you shop around, you should be able to get pretty good deals now and likely to be around you price range.

HTH.

Toppreise is always my first port of call when buying electronic items. Good tip!

We already have a mix of DVD & Blu-Ray movies, at the moment we use the PS3 to play the Blu-Ray ones, thought if I am buying this may as well get the proper player as the PS3 invloves a lot of faffing about.

The way the room is it will be really difficult to hide wires to the rear speakers & with the kids jumping around with the Wii I don't want to run the risk of them tripping on the wire & pulling a speaker down, the speaker might get damaged . Neither of us are real audiophiles so as long as the sound is decent and does not distort if played loudly it will be fine.

Okay in that case go for wireless. I suggest you look at the JBL wireless module to play with any speakers that you buy. By using a seperate amplification unit for wirless you will not be confined to buying a system which comes wirelss and which are not too many.

Take a look here http://reviews.cnet.com/speakers-spe...-32331402.html

Thanks PG, I had a good look at them but I really need big floor standing speakers for the rear as there in nowhere to put little ones.

How about hanging the rears on the wall...... think about it. Big floor speakers will be a wastage of space and power. Besides I am sure you must know this but the surround or rear speakers come into play with movies only and not with normal music. And even then most of the time their job is to remain silent. So spending big on them is a no no. In a home theatre enviroment the most important and the most used speaker is the center.

There are no walls to hang them on so that is not an option either, it really has to be floor speakers. It it be used really only for movies and not to listen to music. As long as the whole system comes in on or under budget I will be happy.

The wireless module for the one I have was CHF168, so not too bad.

http://www.powerch.com/advanced_sear...11r0&x=17&y=11 is a bit of a beasty and the wireless module is included at CHF 750.

That is my current favourite! It has the best reviews I have seen for any system in my budget. Thanks.

Reviews aren't great http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-C67...DateDescending

Personally I wouldn't spend close to 1000 chuffs on a Samsung speaker system. They are known for their video quality, not their audio.

Samsung 9950W is in media Markt, was blown away by it. Best looking and packed full of everything I need. Wireless rear speakers and iPod dock, 7.1, big power, crisp sound, blu ray, 3d ready sound and vision.

Buying it this week, 2K....

There are decent reviews elswhere. So if you don't recommend Samsung what do you recommend? The choice is not so great for what I need & my budget.