# PS3 surround sound



## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

I am looking to purchase a surround sound system to work mainly with my PS3 system (if has second connection to link up with my xbox to it would be a plus but not to bothered if it can't).

I was wondering what set up people have and what they would recommend. 

As for price sub £200 - not wanting to spend too much.


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

most of the surround sound setups below that price tag are the ones with dvd players built in.its been ages since i seen an all in one without the built in dvd player (thats not to say you cant get them by the way) but i would be looking at richer sounds mate,or possibly amazon.if you plan on running the ps3 and 360 through the sound system then you will need an optical splitter.this allows you to have two optical devices going into th eone socket,as there are few around withtwo optical inputs.

www.richersounds.co.uk

£120
http://www.richersounds.com/product/1-box-home-cinema-systems/lg/ht304su/lg-ht304su

Samsung HT-C450N 5.1 ch - 500W Home Theatre System: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

£100
Panasonic SC-PT90EB-K 5.1 Channel DVD Home Cinema: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks silverback I appreciate that. I never knew you could get a splitter so will properly buy one guess can pick them up relatively cheap on eBay. 

Is there anything I should look out for eg watt output? I know from being a guitarist though that the higher the watt doesn't mean loud, you can get a 20 watt amp that is louder than a 40 watt amp etc


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

lpoolck said:


> Thanks silverback I appreciate that. I never knew you could get a splitter so will properly buy one guess can pick them up relatively cheap on eBay.
> 
> Is there anything I should look out for eg watt output? I know from being a guitarist though that the higher the watt doesn't mean loud, you can get a 20 watt amp that is louder than a 40 watt amp etc


to be honest they all quote WELL above what there capable of :lol: i mean some of them are quoting 100w per channel and you what be lucky if it was 10 true w.no offence,but for that budget dont expect to much from the sub and you will be happily surprised.these systems are great for simple,hassle free home cinema.and a shed load less wires to hide than a dedicated home cinema.


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

silverback said:


> to be honest they all quote WELL above what there capable of :lol: i mean some of them are quoting 100w per channel and you what be lucky if it was 10 true w.no offence,but for that budget dont expect to much from the sub and you will be happily surprised.these systems are great for simple,hassle free home cinema.and a shed load less wires to hide than a dedicated home cinema.


Yeah I am not expecting my ear drums to pop, I have a pyramat gaming chair and the sub in there its basically the level I am going for, just would like the surround sound effect for better gaming experience.


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

lpoolck said:


> Yeah I am not expecting my ear drums to pop, I have a pyramat gaming chair and the sub in there its basically the level I am going for, just would like the surround sound effect for better gaming experience.


you wont be dissapointed with any of those then mate.google the model numbers and get some reviews read mate :thumb:


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

If you're using a gaming chair, can I suggest you consider a pair of surround sound gaming headphones?

This package comes in at £179.99 and the entire gaming experience is much improved - the mix amp is an excellent piece of kit as it combines the game chat and sound together into the headphones.

http://www.astrogaming.co.uk/wireless-systems/a30-wireless-systems

If you want to spend less, there's a wired mixamp to consider as well. The experience you get from this will be better for gaming than any one box home cinema solution.

If you do want to get the system - then it just seems a shame to me to spend that money when for not very much more you can get something many, many times better. Richersounds have already been mentioned and a basic package of receiver and speakers can be had for just over £200.

This (as just one example) http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/yamaha/rxv367/yama-rxv367-*** has HDMI pass through - so assuming you have an HDMI out on your XBox you can pass both that and the PS3 through it. If your XBox is a little older - it also has 2 optical inputs (plus coax if you have a Sky+ box).

That amp is also 3D compatible, meaning it can decode the latest digital sound formats now appreading on Blu-Rays and the like. I know you'll have to add a speaker set to it - but with good brands like Pioneer at this price it's not much above your budget for the two...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/pioneer/shs100/pion-shs100


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks Dan, the headphones look very interesting indeed, like the idea of getting chat through it as well!

My Xbox does have the HDMI, good idea of buying a receiver instead of buying a system I suppose as wont end up with a DVD player I would not use and use. What things would you look out for in a receiver? I only have a sky box, shame as most of the movies I watch are from anytime.


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

I think I can safely say I've got better at FPS since buying my headphones (I have the A40s - one step up from the above but priced at £250 with the wireless mixamp, main difference is the size and bass output). The reason I went with Astros over anything else is that like you I have both a PS3 and an Xbox - these work extremely well with both (although I have had to use a switch to get both connected to it at once).

I have a soft spot for Yamaha amps - I've always had good results from them, I've just stuck that one into Google for some reviews, and they seem very positive for the price. Reading carefully though - it doesn't have the newest versions of Dolby and DTS (the '3D' versions if you like) the '3D ready' part comes from the fact that the HDMI pass through can cope with 3D signals.

That being said - it can't do multi channel audio on the HDMI (a shame, but to be expected for this price) meaning that you'd be relying on the 4 digital inputs - 2 coax, two optical. The opticals have the games consoles covered and your sky box may have a coax (check for an orange phono plug on the back of it), in which case you have the option to have all three of them running into it.

The Scene functions on Yamaha amps are really nice - you create 'profiles' based on what you're doing (watching Sky, playing a game etc) and the amp assigns the relevant inputs to the scene and then you can choose a sound profile and other options to match - so you could have:

Sky - set to TV watching or movie watching, with a certain set of sound parameter

PS3 - set to gaming - with different parameters

XBox - again set to gaming, but using a different input - with another set of parameters

Music Listening - you could have another input set for your computer or the like for music listening, as soon as you hit the button, all the parameters change to match it.

And you'd only need to press one button each time to switch input - no messing about with inputs and other parameters.

If you start looking around for this kind of gear - you'll come across plenty of debate about the quality of cables you should buy. An HDMI cable can cost anything from 99p to £1000. My own feeling is that there is a lot of nonsense talked about cabling - at the end of the day if the source is digital (as is the case with HDMI, coaxial and optical) then so long as the cable isn't hugely long, you'll be hard pushed to tell a difference between the cheap and expensive cables. Speaker cable is a different matter - but only slightly.


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

I'm using Bose companion 3 , For the PC , Xbox360 and the PS3 , The sound is fantastic especially if you get some audio extensions so you can put the satelittes further away from the main unit , The volume controller is very nice as well , feels like an engineered piece of hardware


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Dan Gull said:


> Reading carefully though - it doesn't have the newest versions of Dolby and DTS (the '3D' versions if you like) the '3D ready' part comes from the fact that the HDMI pass through can cope with 3D signals.


Its okay about changing the channels manual, and not too fused about 3D as doubt I will be doing much 3D gaming!

Think I will properly go down the receiver path, might look for a second hand one also as will get more bang for me buck too! Good tip with the sky, it has an audio out optical.

Defintely have helped me massively thanks :thumb:


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

2.1 just doesn't quite give the same effect as 5.1 though. 

That's a fair chunk of money for a 2.1 speaker system, haven't heard it myself mind.


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

Hmmm, you're unlikely to get an amp with 3 optical inputs at this price bracket, so a switch could be in order. You can get these cheaply enough. I have this one mind, which I still question my sanity over regularly...

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/thor-hdc100-4-way-hdmi-switch.html


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Could I not just get an optical splitter as you stated before?


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

You need to be careful with the terms switch and splitter.

Splitter = device to take 1 signal and split it for multiple sources.

Such as this... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Optical-splitter-Toslink-socket-sockets/dp/B000BN6LIG

Switch = device to take a number of inputs and connect them to a single input.

Such as this...http://www.amazon.co.uk/HQ-Optical-TOSlink-Port-Switch/dp/B000QRI2EI/ref=pd_cp_ce_1

The two terms are frequently interchanged and used incorrectly. Even retailers get it wrong - and some claim that toslink is a completely bidirectional medium. This is not the case.

The problem with switches (which is what you'd need) is that they have a mechanical switching action - ie parts move to connect one source or another. These mechanisms can degrade over time and this likely to happen sooner rather than later the cheaper the switch is.

So to answer your questions (duh, sorry) - no, I wouldn't recommend getting a splitter, get a switch. How cheap is up to you.


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

Gah - looking at it - the first one isn't a splitter, it's an automatic switch (another badly labelled product). This could work in this situation - as you're unlikely to have the PS3 and XBox 360 on at the same time so the unit can do the switching for you. If you ever were to have them both on at once, it would probably show neither signal.


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Cheers again, well either or would work in my scenario as like you say I would only have one console on at the time, the first one looks better as its an automatic switch (so saves me getting up! ha) though I would need three ports (sky, xbox, PS3) but the amount I use the xbox I always could get up of my lazy backside and switch them! :lol:


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Think I have decided on this one, the only thing it lacks for me is the upscaling, however as I will be playing DVD's through my PS3 then this would not matter as the PS3 has an inbuilt upscaler...am I correct in saying this?


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## Dan Gull (Jul 24, 2009)

Good call - I almost bought the same unit a few months back.

I suddenly had a thought - forget the optical switch and get one of these...

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/Optical-to-Coaxial-Converter.html

I ran one of these for years when I had 2 optical/1 coax and three optical devices - worked a treat and keeps everything neat/on the remote.

Yes, the PS3 is an upscaling DVD player in its own right - the upscaling is nowhere near as good as a decent stand alone DVD/Blu-Ray player, but that's to be expected from a games console.

Edit - I really need to think twice before posting today! The HDMI pass through on this one supports multichannel, so you're all good to go with it alone. Run the two consoles into it HDMI hub, and hook the Sky box up to one of the opticals.


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

Dan Gull said:


> Good call - I almost bought the same unit a few months back.
> 
> I suddenly had a thought - forget the optical switch and get one of these...
> 
> ...


the problem with those though is it needs a power supply and that takes up another socket on the strip and more cables.


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## lpoolck (Jul 25, 2009)

Dan Gull said:


> Good call - I almost bought the same unit a few months back.
> 
> The HDMI pass through on this one supports multichannel, so you're all good to go with it alone. Run the two consoles into it HDMI hub, and hook the Sky box up to one of the opticals.


Well I have a slight preference to Sony also as I have a bravia TV so it comes with bravia sync which will hopefully help me set it up a bit easier being a noob and have always got along with sony products and never had one issue with them.

Will have to learn how to connect them all and how many additional HDMI cables I need! Already have a spaghetti junction back there already!!


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