Small speakers & HC upgrade project

[Coolhand]

Right. I'm going for an upgrade. I've currently got a toshSD2109 DVD player connected to a Tosh prologic WS telly. The time has come for DD/DTS (and maybe more if I can afford it)

I figure I'll need a receiver and some speakers (mainly a centre, left, right and an active sub; I'll keep the rears from the telly)
Budget is tight so I'm looking for decent performance at a decent price.

So far I've been looking at the Marantz Sr4200 receiver. Is this the best performer at this price range (~£250-300) or should I be looking at others? Are there any cheaper receivers that perform just as well or better? I take it I won't find anything that does 6.1 or SACD or any of that good stuff for that sort of money.

As for Speakers, I was thinking the KEF 80C and 60S. Not sure about the sub yet. I'm open to any recommendations. I'm looking at a budget of around 300-400 for the speakers all in.

Any help you can give will, as usual, be much appreciated.
And if anyone's particularly helpful I might send them my R2 copy of Pitch Black which I watched at the weekend and hated!

:D

[jon smith]

The Marantz does look very good for the price and I certainly would get that with a £300 budget. You could get the 5200 (with 6.1) for about £350 if you look around.

As for the KEFs, I would get the Q95 as the centre, is better than the 80. Also look at the 85s as surround speakers - both are currently going cheap at www.superfi.co.uk (there's a thread in the bargain forum discussing them).

Good luck

[Coolhand]

As an aside - the Mrs isn't too keen on BIG speakers so I might have trouble getting them past her.
Anyone have any experience with the smaller speaker sets?

I'm looking at the following:

Yamaha NSP220
Sony SAVE225/325/525
Pioneer SV50K/70K

Has anyone got any of these speakers?
I'd like to know how they perform.

[jon smith]

Have you thought of the Mission FS2 flat speakers, opinion is a little split.

I just bought some from www.qed-uk.com at a very reasonable price (£412, but I think they may have gone back up to around £500 now). Prob the most discrete speakers and sub you'll ever see though, at a decent price.

[Coolhand]

Here's another question to throw into the (already confusing) mix.
I quite like the look of the Mission M72s, and they might sneak past the Mrs too, cos they're not full height floorstanders.

The question is - do I really need a sub with a set of these, and if I do which one? All the subs I can find on the net are about 300-400 notes which seems a bit steep.
The Mission site seems to suggest they're going to release a sub to match the 72's but it doesn't say when.
Anyone have a clue?

[jon smith]

the Mission M72 pack goes on qed for about £260 (very cheap_. I almost bought it myself. Richer Sounds do some decent subs for about £150 (Paradigm and Mordaunt Short particularly). The new Mordaunt Short AV pack, reviewed in this months what hi fi (£500) looks alright too for the price.

[Coolhand]

Thanks for the advice.
This home cinema stuff is tricky!
:D