Good & Cheap please

I have a Loewe TV. Lovely picture but dire sound. So I need a little amp and speakers to help clarity.

Being extremely unemployed with no governmental assistance what so ever (bastards) I am poor, poor, poor so money is a big problem. I have no more than £500 to spend on amp and speakers combined. So what can I get for my pennies, new or secondhand?

All it has to do is improve the diction of speach - it is not for music or sound effects.

Ta muchly

 

The ideal would be to get an used AV receiver with DPLII and front and center speakers also used, for instance KEF, a pair of Q1 + one Q9 or AE evo one + matching center...

Listening to TV without a center speaker is strange and distracting, you keep trying to relate the voices from the speakers to the figures on the screen...

A stereo setup would improve the sound for sure, maybe a little cheaper, although with all the new versions comming up, used AV is quite cheap too, just the extra speaker...

 

I know what you mean about Loewe dire sound,I have a pioneer 912 which is good,812 cheaper,but no microphone for set up,well equiped.To improve speech you need a good centre,kef EGGS look great but the centre is weak.

If you dont want all the bells and whistles on a A/V something like a old Creek 4040,sounds nice with two front speakers instead of a centre.

 

If you were on a real budget buy some Mission M51 from richers at £70 and a 1970's Pioneer amp for about £30 or so. You would have a brilliant stereo setup for £100. However if you have £500 (which is a lot of money) then you should be able to get an AV setup.

 

So do I really need AV? My TV room is only 10' x 8', so I sit no more six foot away from the telly? Silly question but not had a TV for 10 years and never followed developments.

 

No,not at all,just stereo will sound better,like I said and you found outr the loewe is poor on sound,they even have thier own speakers made by bose,great eh! just get a stereo amp and two front speakers.

 

I agree with the above, I don't think you need spend £500 on amp and spks for the tv, a creek amp, rotel 971, pioneer a400, nad 340, and some b/w's 601s or 2s, or missions would be perfect, circa £150 for the lot.

 

Tom what about one of the accoustic energy aegeo 2.1 or 5.1 setups, think they are £100 and about £350 new, they would be great for tv and wouldn't take up much space in your relatively small room. Friend has 2.1 on his computer, well built and very nice sound, good quality to.

Found 5.1 at superfi 300 ukp http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1314

and heres the 2.1 100ukp http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1312
AK

 

A pair of Spendor BCIIs and an integrated amp to drive them.

 

TV + amp + speakers are AV, regardless of how many channels...

I lived with TV connected to stereo for many years, now I have proper AV, thats why I know the center is very important for realism, forget surround as you dont have room for it...

The center speaker is the most important in you case too...

 

Cheapest solution is buy a single pair of interconnect.

Then rearrange TV between your loudspeakers and then connect the TV audio analogue output to your stereo amp. Unless you go extremely silly with the price of interconnect you should have lots of chance for the budget.

The sound improvement should be HUGE. It you are really sensitive you don't even need to call it a AV system. It is still a traditional stereo music system.

 

I dont think he has his stereo close to the TV, but you where very funny...

 

I have a look at your, Tom's homepage. You have a lovely stereo system. It would be a shame not to use that.

Actually I am trying very hard to be sarcastic like you lot. I never understand why some people have such a phobia with the concept of AV. I have always connect up the TV to the music system since having a proper stereo amp after discovering that the news is so much easier to follow this way. It was even before terms like AV or home theater became common usage.

 

Me too, I really dont understand some guys snobism regarding this matter...

 

Tom, if you don't mind a touch of diy, get thee some drivers from an old tube radio (in Germany, the Saba Greencones are extremely popular; look at ebay.de, a couple should cost you about 35 quid), mount them in an open baffle and get a good but cheap integrated (I have a QED 240 if you don't have anything floating around).

This set-up will sound MUCH, MUCH better and have MUCH, MUCH better clarity and diction than all those ditty speakers the industry is trying to flog. Should come in below 150 quid.

 

Why don't I use the Naim kit? Simple The TV is in a room well away from it. upstairs and around a corner. The TV isn't allowed in the living room and so has it's own room and hence the need for even more kit

No more obsessive hi-fi for me. I've reached Nirvana in that quarter. I don't havew a problem with AV per se but I don't want to go down the "spend money" route I've been on for the last twenty years and am not convinced it'll work in that room and at the budget. Convince me otherwise, that's why I asked.

 

Do you want to be convinced...

 

Of course I do. Tell me what will give me the best bang per buck with in budget.

 

tom,
visit your nearest richers and get yourself a 200 quid a/v amp and a 300 quid set of 5.1 speakers. it's not going to compete with the naim kit but it'll beat the inbuilt tv sound to hell and back and will be good for movies too.
you don;t say if you already have a dvd player?
cheers


julian

 

Already got an old Rotel DVD and Sony VCR. I sort of guessed at the budget it's not going to compete with a fully active/fully maxed mains Naim rig but hey, it's TV not music.

Now if I had the money, that would be a different matter, but this is costing a month's food (but those nice taxmen are paying)