Which surround sound system?

[The_G_Man]

Ok guys, first off I am putting my hands up, to knowing sod all about all things audio related. So you will probably need to explain things very clearly/easily for me

I am looking to buy a decent surround system for gaming and movie playback using the 360 and PS3. My budget is around £300.

So basic questions are..

1. Can anyone recommend a good sytem?
2. What do I need to buy?
3. How easy is it to install?
4. Is my budget big enough?
5. My tv is the samsung le40m86bdx if you need this information.


Thanks

[Womble9]

On your budget you can afford quite a nice little set up if you buy carefully. These Tannoy speakers are nice sounding (I use them in both my front room and my Games room) and are now available for silly cheap money (they come complete with speaker cable and are a doddle to set up) here:

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=TANN-FX5.1-SIL

You'll also need and amp to power them and something like this Yamaha one will go nicely with the Tannoys and still leave you with enough money to buy a couple of Optical cables to connect your 360 / PS3 to the amp (cheapo ones off ebay are just as good as expensive ones)

http://www.richersounds.com/showbigproductpicture.php?cda=showbigproductpicture&pid=YAMA-RXV359&fname=303276-1.jpg

If you've any more questions then feel free to ask .

[The_G_Man]

On your budget you can afford quite a nice little set up if you buy carefully. These Tannoy speakers are nice sounding (I use them in both my front room and my Games room) and are now available for silly cheap money (they come complete with speaker cable and are a doddle to set up) here:

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=TANN-FX5.1-SIL

You'll also need and amp to power them and something like this Yamaha one will go nicely with the Tannoys and still leave you with enough money to buy a couple of Optical cables to connect your 360 / PS3 to the amp (cheapo ones off ebay are just as good as expensive ones)

http://www.richersounds.com/showbigproductpicture.php?cda=showbigproductpicture&pid=YAMA-RXV359&fname=303276-1.jpg

If you've any more questions then feel free to ask .

Thanks mate. I am way out of my depth

I have an optical out on my tv
I have an optical out on PS3
I also have optical out on my 360

So, my shopping list should consist of

Speaker set( stand ones preferably)
AV receiver
Optical cables

Anything else?

How would I connect them together? The back end of that Av receiver just makes my eyes bleed

I really don't have a clue it seems...

[Womble9]

How would I connect them together? The back end of that Av receiver just makes my eyes bleed

I really don't have a clue it seems...

Don't worry it really is quite simple (if I can understand it........!!) .

Take an optical cable and connect one end of it to your 360 (optical out) the other end goes into the amp (optical in). The amp has two optical inputs so you can use another optical cable to connect the PS3 in the same way. Using optical will allow the amp to accept a 5.1 signal (which both your 360 and PS3 can be set to deliver) which the amp then decodes to send the appropriate sound to the appropriate speaker. Does that make sense to you?.

[The_G_Man]

Don't worry it really is quite simple (if I can understand it........!!) .

Take an optical cable and connect one end of it to your 360 (optical out) the other end goes into the amp (optical in). The amp has two optical inputs so you can use another optical cable to connect the PS3 in the same way. Using optical will allow the amp to accept a 5.1 signal (which both your 360 and PS3 can be set to deliver) which the amp then decodes to send the appropriate sound to the appropriate speaker. Does that make sense to you?.

Thanks! Sounds simple enough, but what are the rest of the connection on the back of the amp for? It seems crazy that I will only use the 2 optical connections.

[Baseley09]

Thanks! Sounds simple enough, but what are the rest of the connection on the back of the amp for? It seems crazy that I will only use the 2 optical connections.

Looks like theres 3 component video in sets, and one out. So you could say connect 360, Wii & DVD to the amp via component video, then send it all down one set of cables to theTV like....same for the yellow composite video in sockets there.