Moving to 4.0 or 5.0 or 7.0 from 2.0

[Lindsayt]

As I said in my first post, I have power amps to spare.
And if I ever wanted another one I'm confident I could get something good enough for under £100.

There's this type of McClaren for £350 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tag-McLaren-t ... SwCGVX7RKs
Would that be out of date or would it be OK?

[slinger]

Googled the Mclaren...

The only real deficiencies are in video switching and decoding of the new HD audio formats, but this can be got round with multiple connections to the TV for video, and a Blu-ray player with onboard HD decoding, connected in multichannel analogue to the TAG processor.

Source

...and that was written in 2009. I believe it was launched in 1999. No HDMI either. I'd say it was a lovely piece of kit in its time but well past it's sell-by now. Google it yourself though, you may find things to recommend it.

[Lindsayt]

Slinger, that majes sense. Seems like AV systems have moved on a lot in 17 years, whereas most apsects of hi-fi haven't.
I suppose it's the new AV formats that make that McClaren redundant.

So, is that £199 Denon A7100 worth getting - or should I hold out for something else?

[slinger]

I'm not really the person you need advising you. All I can say with certainty about the Denon is it's 9 years old, it has outdated HDMI specs, and your speaker connections are (because it's "professional" I assume) all XLR.
As I've said, my system was built on a budget and was based around the Yamaha amp so separate decoders never entered my thinking and are not something I know much about, let alone have the competency to recommend. All I can do is point out some flaws based on a 10 minute Google.

[Lindsayt]

...A bit of Googling shows that Dolby Atmos is the latest thing. I would seem to be a good candidate for this as I could stick a pair of speakers on top of Ikea Expedits.
I am wary of new fads like this - that may or may not take-off.
I've already seen most the blu-rays that have Atmos recordings.

[Lindsayt]

Thanks to the very good advice I've been given in this thread (thanks guys), I am now looking at a different solution to my opening post.
I'm now looking at a Dolby Atmos receiver. For some reason Atmos pre-amps / processors are stupildly expensive. You'd think one of the big brands would offer one for £1000 or less, by taking the power amp gubbins out of one of their receivers. But no, Atmos pre-amps are more expensive than their receiver equivalents with the cheapest I've come across being the Marantz 7702 at £1600.
That seems to indicate either cheap shit power amp sections in the receivers or rip-off pricing of the pre-amps

Looks like I'll have to up my budget to £600 to £1150...

I wont' be buying a Pioneer. I hate class D.

That leaves Marantz,Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo. With Marantz 7010 the front runner at the moment, followed by a Denon 4200 followed by a Yamaha 3050.

[slinger]

Having read up a bit on Dolby Atmos, do you, or will you ever actually need it? Are you planning on having 2 or 4 (or 64) speakers on the ceiling and along your walls etc. in addition to your 5.1 or 7.1 setup? It seems to add a significant amount to the price for something you might never actually use. It seems, also, that you either need purpose built Atmos speakers or Atmos-enabled speaker modules to connect your own existing speakers. Then, of course, you need Blu-rays that are actually released in Atmos format...about 30 in total so far. this year.

It's too new a format for me. I know it was first 'announced' back in 2012, but the take-up seems to have been pretty slow and the choices are still too limited.

[Lindsayt]

We have a Lovefilm subscription. We tend to borrow most of the mainstream Hollywood blu rays as they come out.

I'd intend starting with: EV Sentries front left and right. Linn Saras rear. Probably a Sansui SP5500 as a centre speaker, maybe a Linn Isobarik. Heybrook HB1's high up half way down the room. All speakers I've got lying around the house. In terms of hi-fi speakers, most of these are mediocre. In AV terms, this is a good set of speakers. Way better than the usual set of hamster coffins.

[slinger]

There's quite a good article here... http://blog.dolby.com/2015/02/upgrade-h ... lby-atmos/ which seems to indicate that you will either need new speakers, or add-on, upward firing modules for every 'normal' speaker you use. At first glance it looks like that'll set you back at least £120/£130 per pair of speakers. So even though you're saving money by using up all of your spare speakers you're still giong to need the add-on Atmos units for them.

[jammy395]

Use a soundbar - Job done.