need advice in setting up a AV system

[vinvk]

Hi

I've recently bought a 3bhk flat in Marathahalli, Bangalore(total 1346 sq ft, living room 15' 2" X 12' 10". floor plan attached herewith.

I need to buy a TV and a good music setup. all including under 2lakhs.
I'm an absolute novice in AV technicalities. Requesting your suggestions on how to about it...which products to buy.

My requirements are as below.

I'm not sure what size TV I should go for. can someone suggest based on the living room dimensions? I dont want to spend a lot on TV as it is an idiot box.
I would probably use it to watch youtube videos or listening to Vh1. I dont need the best TV but something that is upto date with current days technology will do.
If it comes with good inbuilt sound , that would be great.

Coming to the AV setup, I would be using it primarily for Music. I dont worry about movies...regular tv (above) is good for me. The sources are either my laptop or my phone. 120kbps Mp3 format files. no high resolution files here.

I need quality sound, something that I can listen to all day. something that is not strainful on the ears and at the same time highly enjoyable.

I'm not sure about in room packages like Sonos..do they sound as good as standalone AV setups?

So, to sum it up, I need advice on what products to buy , that serves the above purpose.

Thanks & Regards
Vinod

 

[vinvk]

forgot to mention in the original post:

I do not play music from CD/DVD. So I don't need a cd player in the setup.
Currently I listen to the music either from my laptop/mobile which is connected via bluetooth to a Bose sound link mini. I also listen to Spotify in same way (through a proxy..as it is not available in India).

Regards
Vinod

 

[grunthos]

Hi

I've recently bought a 3bhk flat in Marathahalli, Bangalore(total 1346 sq ft, living room 15' 2" X 12' 10". floor plan attached herewith.

Coming to the AV setup, I would be using it primarily for Music. I dont worry about movies...regular tv (above) is good for me. The sources are either my laptop or my phone. 120kbps Mp3 format files. no high resolution files here.

I need quality sound, something that I can listen to all day. something that is not strainful on the ears and at the same time highly enjoyable.

Congratulations on your apartment first

And it is good that you are clear in your head about what you want from your music setup.

However, I do have to mention that if you invest in a good sounding speaker setup, the shortcomings of 128kbps files will be exposed - and sometimes you will not get good sound from your setup. You might even think your 'setup' is at fault
Using 320 kbps mp3 usually solves the problem

Anyway, for your setup, you have a healthy budget.
I am not that knowledgeable about TVs, but I have my 2 cents for speaker setup

For music, a stereo setup is always recommended. Because for the same money, a stereo setup will ALWAYS sound better than a 5.1 system
If you do decide to go the stereo way, you have two options

1) You can go with a traditional stereo amplifier - CA Azur 351A/551A, Marantz PM6004, Rotel RA-10 etc along with two bookshelves or floorstanders
Along with that you can buy a bluetooth receiver to work with your phone. Streaming services like Pandora will be a little difficult, unless you stream via your phone

2) Second option is to go with new age digital receiver/amplifiers
- Marantz CR510
- Cambridge Audio Minx Xi
- NAD D3020

They all have amplifiers in them, but slightly lower power output (60/40/30W resp), which means you cant run floorstanders with them. But they will be able to drive bookshelves. And there are a lot of good quality bookshelves around

But they are have wifi, are Airplay compatible, play over home wifi network (UPnP), streaming services (Pandora, Spotify), play back via USB (NAD cant), bluetooth aptX (Marantz doesnt) and still sound awesome

And they all take in digital inputs, so you can take audio out from your TV via SPDIF cable into the amplifier and get sound via the speakers

The Marantz is cheaper one in India, though NAD D3020 is cheaper in USD
CA Minx Xi is much more expensive than the other two

If you decide to go for bookshelf speakers, you have a lot of options
Expensive
- PSB Image B6
- KEF LS50
- Quad 11/12L
- Dali Ikon 2
- Dali Mentor Minuet
- Paradigm Mini Monitor

More reasonable price
- Q Acoustics Q2020
- Wharfedale Diamond 10.2
- Tannoy Mercury V1i
- Dali Zensor 3
and many many more

 

[vinvk]

@grunthos

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. I do have a few more queries. I've never listened to a AV setup before and I'm yet to audition any. As I start taking demos I guess I'll get more clarity.

1) First one about source. I listen to music in two ways. One is my collection of Mp3 stored on my phone/laptop. These are mostly 128kbps and I couldn't help it as they are all free downloads from net. I do have 320kbps files but they will be less in number.
The other way is streaming services like Spotify or even youtube for that matter.
Spotify sounds great because they remaster old tracks and the collection is good quality.
Basically I'm a casual listener who wants good quality output from easily available/free of cost files. I'll never buy a music CD for the sake of quality. I'll just download from net. Having said that, I'm willing to invest in equipment that could help in this matter. For example, since the source is going to be my laptop/phone do I need to buy DAC or something? Or is it part of stereo amp?

2) Does stereo setup sound better than 5.1? I read everywhere that it does. But when I was in college, me and my friends used to have entry level creative computer speaker setups and I remember 5.1 sounding better than 2.1.
Is it a different case here because we have amps and other stuff?

3)I want to go stereo way. Should I go for a stereo receiver or stereo amplifier? Is the difference only the capability to tune AM/FM or do we have any other pros&cons with these two? Does the music sound same in both cases.
The significance of AM/FM has come down due advent of internet radio and other streaming services. But it may be a handy feature to have (just in case)

4) coming to the speakers, My living room is 15X12 ft. For this area which is better? Floor stand or bookshelf?
I've just started the research and Pioneer sp-fs52 seems good. Have to check on the Bookshelves yet.
And how about a Subwoofer, do I need a Subwoofer too?

Thanks again

 

[grunthos]

1) First one about source. I listen to music in two ways. One is my collection of Mp3 stored on my phone/laptop. These are mostly 128kbps and I couldn't help it as they are all free downloads from net. I do have 320kbps files but they will be less in number.
The other way is streaming services like Spotify or even youtube for that matter.
Spotify sounds great because they remaster old tracks and the collection is good quality.
Basically I'm a casual listener who wants good quality output from easily available/free of cost files. I'll never buy a music CD for the sake of quality. I'll just download from net. Having said that, I'm willing to invest in equipment that could help in this matter. For example, since the source is going to be my laptop/phone do I need to buy DAC or something? Or is it part of stereo amp?

2) Does stereo setup sound better than 5.1? I read everywhere that it does. But when I was in college, me and my friends used to have entry level creative computer speaker setups and I remember 5.1 sounding better than 2.1.
Is it a different case here because we have amps and other stuff?

3)I want to go stereo way. Should I go for a stereo receiver or stereo amplifier? Is the difference only the capability to tune AM/FM or do we have any other pros&cons with these two? Does the music sound same in both cases.
The significance of AM/FM has come down due advent of internet radio and other streaming services. But it may be a handy feature to have (just in case)

4) coming to the speakers, My living room is 15X12 ft. For this area which is better? Floor stand or bookshelf?
I've just started the research and Pioneer sp-fs52 seems good. Have to check on the Bookshelves yet.
And how about a Subwoofer, do I need a Subwoofer too?

Thanks again

1) I believe most of us started our MP3 journey with 128 kbps because that was the standard 10 years ago - higher rate MP3s just werent popular enough. B6ut over time, I have upgraded mine as much as possible, and I still have 128 kbps files of more difficult-to-find music
So dont worry about that. And as you say, Spotify as a source is quite good quality

I guess you know what a DAC is - it simply converts digital information in that MP3 file into electrical signals representing sound. Any playback device - your laptop, phone, ipod etc everything has an inbuilt DAC. Just that they arent as good quality as more expensive dedicated DACs

I'd say since you are more casual listener, you dont need to think about DACs now. If sometime later you warm up to this hobby, you can add it anytime you want

2) Almost all music produced is two channel i.e. left and right. Only movies have sound recorded in 5.1 channel (sometime 7.1). So when your source had information only of two channels, why do you need 5 speakers ?
5.1 is principally for movies
The AV receiver can synthetically split up the 2 channel sound into 5.1 using processing such as Dolby Pro Logic etc, but that is not how the musician encoded it when it was produced.
(there are very few 5.1 audio recordings produced. In India, Yash Raj has released a couple of their movie soundtracks in 5.1, but they are a real rarity)

And yes, these hifi setups are a little bit more complicated than the Creative computer speakers. If only life was such plug and play ...
But they produce much better sound than what you got out of the little boxes.

3) Stereo amplifiers essentially take a relatively low power audio signal from your player's output (cd/dvd player, ipod, phone etc) and jack up the power without introducing any distortion, so that they can drive hifi speakers

Stereo receivers are nothing but stereo amplifiers with better connectivity options. AM/FM, as you pointed out, is old school now. Newer units like Onkyo 8050 offer internet radios via LAN port. Quite a few premium amplifiers come with inbuilt higher quality DACs too - so you can output a digital signal from your computer or an ipod and the receiver does the digital to analog connection (CA Azur 551A & Yamaha AS 501 are other options)
But I think they arent still connected enough

Which is why I gave you my initial shortlist of 3 new age stereo receivers - NAD D3020, CA Minx XI and Marantz CR510 - which are digital focused. They can take any form of digital input - over UPnP, Apple Airplay, Bluetooth etc and give you clean power output for speakers

4) You have a decent sized room, but where would be the seating position i.e. how far from TV will be sofa etc? Your room cant take floorstanders as well as bookshelves
If you go with floorstanders, they will sound more substantial, as they have bigger drivers. But floorstanders are power hungry - meaning traditional stereo amplifiers, since all the three digital models are down on power. Which means you have to do some extra equipment to manage bluetooth, spotify etc

Of you can consider bookshelves + subwoofer option. All the 3 digital amps I chose have subwoofer out ,so you can connect a subwoofer. IHowever,f you go for full range bookshelves like say Monitor Audio BR2, for music alone, you wouldnt find the need for subwoofers

The AJ 5.1 speakers have gotten great reviews everywhere
You can definitely consider them. You'd need a AVR with them, unless you are only taking two floorstanders, not whole 5.1 setup.

 

[Joshsibi]

Hi friend,
Your room is so small and a home theater setup of sony or samsung made is sufficient for your need. Don't hesitate to buy expensive imported AV equipments.

 

[vinvk]

Hi friend,
Your room is so small and a home theater setup of sony or samsung made is sufficient for your need. Don't hesitate to buy expensive imported AV equipments.

@Joshsibi
Thanks for the reply.
I think I didn't put the title correctly. What I'm interested in is a stereo setup that I will use only for music and probably connect TV sometimes if I'm listening to Vh1 or other music channels. For watching movies I'm content with what ever sound the TV throws out.

Unfortunately, the room couldn't be any bigger than that. I hope it is ok for the stereo setup. If not I'll look out for something else.

I've already started some research based on the replies from @grunthos
Demos should start soon

 

[Kumar123]

@Vinvk -
Hi, Just saw this thread when checking out for stereo set up. I am planning to buy one and i stay in Bangalore. My req, too is similar as yours. What did you get finally. Please share your experience. Your guidance would help us greatly.

 

[Fiftyfifty]

@Vinvk -
Hi, Just saw this thread when checking out for stereo set up. I am planning to buy one and i stay in Bangalore. My req, too is similar as yours. What did you get finally. Please share your experience. Your guidance would help us greatly.

My suggestions, based on products I have personally used in the past:
Audio Engine A5+ powered bookshelf speakers - Rs. 63K on Amazon
Cambridge Dacmagic Plus DAC - Rs 25K
A good Bluetooth receiver - Rs. 5K
Chromecast Audio - Rs.3K
FiiO X3 or X5 Digital Music Player - Rs.20K
Any 40 inch LED TV - Rs. 25K

Total Cost Rs.140-150K. You'll have a fairly professional AV system. The Audioengine speakers are powered, they sound amazing and you won't need an amp. The Cambridge Dac will let you experience what a good DAC can do with your digital media. The FiiO DAP will free your phone from having to store your music files at home. You can think of buying a DVD/ Bluray player with an optical or coaxial out to your DAC + connect via HDMI to your TV, thus enjoy CDs and DVDs with a small investment (3K for a DVD player).

Hope this helps.