Any Hi-Fi / AV experts in here?

Deicist

Just a quick question really, a friend of mine is looking to sell his Home cinema setup and has offered it to me for Around £300. It consists of:

Yamaha RX-359 5.1 receiver
2 x Q acoustic 1050 Floorstanding Front speakers
2 x yamaha rear satellites (not sure of model)
Q Acoustic 1010 centre
MJ Acoustic pro 50 Sub.

He's also throwing in a Panasonic PTAE-100 projector, however the VGA / component board on that is damaged so the only input available is composite... so no HD. Anyway, that's more a bonus than part of the deal.

So, knowing very little about these sorts of things, does this sound like a fair deal?

I'll mostly be playing music through it, but occasional films / TV as well.

Djeet

Assuming he hasn't abused them I think it's fair for what it is, which is decent speakers and sub (excepting the Yamaha surrounds) and an OK 5.1 (non-HDMI) receiver.

For the same money you can probably get a Home Theatre in a Box (HTiB) which may get you 6.1/7.1 and would have all the video switching capability of the RX-V359 but includes HDMI, hi-def audio decoding (for movies), possibly upconversion of analog signals to HDMI and other video-centric features. Drawback of HTiB is the receiver may have limited inputs and they may be packaged with marginal speakers/sub.

If the primary use is music appreciation I'd probably go with your friend's setup over an HTiB; actually I'd probably hunt around for a stereo receiver and pair of speakers, both circa 70's or earlier. If it was primarily to supplement/facilitate video appreciation I'd probably do HTiB or assemble a system around a more fully-featured receiver.

I'm assuming £300 is about $500 and that you have time to shop around, on Internet or IRL.



Edit: Also, I am not a hifi expert: just a guy giving an opinion. :P

Zoolander

That sounds like a great value for a nice home cinema setup. A real home cinema setup and an HTIB setup are not comparable, in my opinion. The sound you get out of your friend's system is going to be much much better.

Those look like great front speakers, good centre and OK sub. These components are what 80% of the sound is going to come through, so you are set for a while. The receiver is good also. Don't bother with 7.1 just yet. As I have come to learn, 95% of the time the extra 2 speakers do absolutely nothing. It will take time for new films to start using them more, and by the time 7.1 becomes important, you can upgrade to a 7.1 receiver. That's the beauty of a real home theatre setup, you can upgrade components as you please.

Basically, go with your friend's system and upgrade as you get the money, you will get a lot more for your money.

Deicist

Hey, thanks for the input...

The other option I have is to buy his system without the sub for £200. I was under the impression that it's a pretty good sub, but as both have you have referred to it as 'ok' would I be better off dropping that and buying another sub somewhere down the road?

Djeet

Actually I think the sub is pretty solid. Not sure if you could do better for £100. For that price new (here in the US) you often have to source it from a manufacturer that isn't predominantly a speaker maker. If it's mainly music you're after you can probably drop the sub; though that depends upon your music preference. You'd want to have a sub in any HT situation though.

And when buying used speakers you're going to want to inspect the surrounds.

Deicist

Just wanted to say thanks for the help, I managed to talk the guy down another 50 quid, so got the whole lot for £250... which I'm very happy with.

Cheers!