AV Receiver with 2.1 speaker setup (for now)

[shinobivs]

I'm looking into buying a budget priced AV receiver and 2.1 speakers for now and possibly upgrading to 5.1 at a later date.

I'm currently running my sound either straight from the tv speakers (which is terrible) or via an old stereo. The AV receiver needs to have a minimum of 4 HDMI inputs.

My budget is around the £300 mark. I'm fairly new to all this so any help and advice would be great.

[kalniel]

Is that the budget for the receiver, or for everything?

[shinobivs]

Well, if I'm honest I was hoping everything. Now I come to think of it I'll be lucky to get a decent AV receiver with that sort of money.

I don't mind making do with basic speakers and upgrading over time.

[jimbouk]

Plenty of cheap (sub £200) AV receivers on Richer Sounds to chose from. If your TV has optical out then the budget way of doing it would be running the sounds through that into a standalone speaker set that has optical in (2.1 option, over-budget 5.1 option) - probably a false economy in the long run though.

[shinobivs]

There are a few I've looked at on the Richersounds site, some decent receivers (from what I can see) for under £200.

My TV has optical out but I'm not to keen on the standalone speaker approach.

This seems good value for money - Pioneer VSX527

Any suggestions for speakers?

[DanceswithUnix]

There are a few I've looked at on the Richersounds site, some decent receivers (from what I can see) for under £200.

My TV has optical out but I'm not to keen on the standalone speaker approach.

This seems good value for money - Pioneer VSX527

Any suggestions for speakers?

I think that is the model that I have (can't remember and am at the office atm so can't go look). Nice amp, does what I want certainly. Bought mine last summer for I think a bit over £200, so that sounds about right.

Note that I am running mine as a 4.0 setup atm. I have some quite large front speakers, so a subwoofer would have to cost hundreds to make any improvement so I just haven't bothered. I run floor standing Mission speakers for the fronts (second hand, had them for years), and a pair of old Mordaunt Short MS10 bookshelf speakers for the rears.

The amp works around the missing speakers, calibrates itself with a small microphone, and mixes the signals where it can for best effect.

Do you have any speakers you can use?

My only shock was the cost of speaker cable (I bought from Maplin) to wire up the rears, I would probably have been better off going to Wickes and buying 2 core mains lighting cable.

Edit to add: I notice that Richer Sounds have some floor standing Mission speakers on offer for £150. Combined with that amp that blows your budget, but should give a superb sounding stereo setup. If you can get to a Richer Sounds branch I would try and phone them up and arrange a demo preferably with that amp and those fronts.

They sell bookshelf speakers starting at about £20 if you can stretch a little extra. http://www.richersounds.com/product/...tibo-edge-mini They might be awful of course, but as rears it probably isn't that important and certainly better than the cheap packages you get from places like PC world.

[shinobivs]

I've been extremely busy and not been able to give this project my full attention.

I've decided to give everything a re-think and think the best approach would be to buy the AVR first (budget of £200 max) and use some basic speakers I have in the house for now (as suggested by DanceswithUnix). It shouldn't be to long to save up the extra for speakers and then look at the options then. Possibly the next pay day.

I came across this Harman Kardon AVR-171 on the RicherSounds site for £200. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with this receiver? Seems to have some very good reviews but then again there are other reviews that slate it. I was drawn to this as the spec of Bluetooth, Airplay, Internet Radio seems impressive with the price.

Thanks in advance.

[fma965]

I'm looking to buy this when i have the money - http://www.richersounds.com/product/.../sony-strdn840 - it seems really good for the price.

[azrael-]

I'm looking to buy this when i have the money - http://www.richersounds.com/product/.../sony-strdn840 - it seems really good for the price.

I was just going to suggest this. It's only a small step down from the Sony STR-DN1040, which has been hailed as one of the best AV receivers of 2013. Question is, will 100 quid get you any sort of decent (2.1) speaker set? I would have said ""I doubt it", but this Pioneer set doesn't look all too shabby.

[r_j_k_p]

I just bought this and can highly recommend it. Volume dial never goes beyond a quarter/third of its maximum.

http://www.denon.co.uk/uk/product/pa...uctid=pma520ae