Haha another nooby question from me. Right so I've got my big shiny new HD tv, I know I'll be getting a PS3, only thing I'm not certain on is the surround sound system I'll be getting.

Seeing as I'll be getting a PS3 I don't need a DVD Surround Sound, as my PS3 will handle all of that. So I'm just looking at the speaker set. My budget is £200 absolute tops, though I'd prefer to spend around £150 if possible, and it needs to have optical input so I can get it working with the PS3. I've been looking so far at Logitech stuff, in particular the Z-5400, and Z-5500, they both seem to do all the things I need and generally have good reviews, but reading a professional review of the Z-5500 it said that although it can be used for home cinema, its more suited to desktop use and that it gets a little lost in bigger rooms (and my bedroom pretty big, about 13x11), so considering that it pushes the top of my budget I'm a little wary of spending that much if its not going to be totally suited to my uses.

So any advice or recommendations would be appreciated.

edit > By the way I'm looking to go for a 5.1 system.

This message was edited by Sphinx on Feb 21 2008.

As far as sound quality is concerned, Onkyo is a great buy and I'd also recommend anything from Kenwood, Pioneer, or Sony. Unfortunately I'm in the US so I'm not sure on the availability of some of these items in the UK, but I'll post a link to what I believe is the best system for its price.

Onkyo HT-SR800

You can get it for ~$400 USD which is about the peak of your price range. It is, however, a 7.1 system but you can always choose to use 5.1 instead.

I've been doing a lot more looking around and am probably not gonna go with the logitech after all. I've been looking at various Sony and Onkyo speaker sets and receivers and am at a bit of a loss right now. I simply cannot believe how much we are getting raped in the UK pricewise. For example the Sony HDDW790 costs $140 in the US, but here it costs a whopping £175! Thats the equivalent of 350 freaking dollars, how can that work?! Its not just that model either, it seems almost all the ones I've been looking at are far far cheaper in the US. Don't know if its work seeing if its possible to buy one online in the states and get it shipped.

There's a legitimate chance it's cheaper if they're really charging 175 pounds for a system that'd only 140 USD stateside. Have you tried some of the eBay sellers? I know some businesses run through eBay and they'll typically ship worldwide.

Well after a lot of research and agonising over my budget my initial £200 limit has been long forgotten and I've now reserved an amp and speakers to pick up later today that come in at £340 Its a killer deal though, I'm saving £60 off the speakers and a crap load off the amp aswell.

The amp I'm getting is the Yamaha DSPAX761 (though if all goes well I'm getting it for £200 in store). For speakers I'm getting Tannoy EFX5.1s. Can't wait to get it all set up and working, will be able to run the PS3 through the amp via HDMI to get the best audio and video quality possible. Its meant to be a great amp and for the money its amazing.

I picked up the Yamaha RX-V463 for $299 earlier this week. Took me about 2 hours yesterday to set the thing up.

Yamaha makes a really nice amp. Though considering you're only going 5.1 I wonder why you're putting out the extra money for a 7.1 reciever? Mine does almost every thing yours does except 7.1 audio. Which considering the size of my room I didn't need 7.1 anyway.

On the other hand if we were ridiculusly wealthy we could go for the RX-Z11. Though what you would need 11 speakers for is beyond me.

Basically I wanted to buy something that I won't need replacing for a long time, thats why I stretched my initial budget. I'll most probably get a couple of extra speakers for the 7.1 sound at some point in the future anyway so its nice to have the option to do so later on. And it was such an amazing deal on the 761 that I couldn't resist. Though admittedly it is also something of an oversight on my part

Just got home from the store and my arms are killing me from lugging it about in London back to the station. Now time to try and start getting set up (though unfortunately I'm an HDMI cable short so there's only so much I can do today).

11.2 sound?! Thats insane, but 11 speakers is really just quite obnoxious. Some of the set ups I've seen on other forums are ridiculous. My set up is fairly modest compared to how much money some people spend.

Oh believe me I can imagine. I kind of freaked when i realized I had spent $750 on this ste up. And while I did get a pretty decent system for all that I still know if I had wanted to or had the money to I could have spent a great deal more. I could really spend far more than that on just the sub. And way WAY more on the receiver.

I know the feeling, when I got home and unpacked all the stuff I was quite overwhelmed - I couldn't quite believe how big everything was, having it all laid out in front of me was pretty daunting, and it was quite horrifying to think I'd just spent that much money.

Unfortunately I've not set up properly yet, just wired in the front speakers, I'm waiting on a couple of new HDMI cables (the one I have already is way too short), and a subwoofer cable. Then once they arrive I'll get the rears connected, though negotiating the cables all around the room isn's something I'm looking forward to. Though once its set up and working it'll be fantastic - I can't wait to watch The Lord of the Rings upscaled and with booming surround sound.

The rear speakers are certainly interesting.I had to run the cables around the right hand side of the room to keep them out of the way. So I have a 42' cable connecting the left speaker to the reciever. If I had run it straight across the room it would have been about 12'.

Just make sure when you get it all setup that you run te optimizer mic to get the best sound. And also make sure you get it on the right settings. I don't know about yours but mine has like 20 different settings depending on what you're listening to, it gets as specific as seperate settings for jazz and rock and at least 3 different movie settings.

I'll have to run both my rear speaker wires around the entire room behind my wardrobe and under my bed. Thats the biggest reason that it'll be difficult - the sheer volume of furniture I have in the way >_<

Mine has tons of settings aswell, so I'll need to try and fine tune the sound, a lot of people say the centre comes out a bit quiet so I'll need to look out for that. I definately need to use the mic to calibrate aswell as until I get a new chair I'm sitting in a fairly akward corner which will probably inhibit the sound performance a bit.