Silver or black?

This afternoon, whilst sitting comfortably moving on all my seedlings in the comfort of the living room with Mrs C doing labelling and with a bit of telly on in the background, there was a god almighty crack and my amplifier went off.

I have had a cursory look at it, and I am nigh on certain that one or more output transistors have failed (there are 13 of them!), as well as potentially unstable voltage from some of the smoothing caps - - however, I don't have access to suitable workshop tools (scope etc) to diagnose further, and lobbing parts at it to do the trial and error style fix is a complete non-starter on this thing (burning out goodness knows how many parts until finding the solution could cost literally hundreds).

At the moment, I have neither the time nor the inclination to do any more with it, so its going to get shoved in the loft until such times as I can be bothered with it. However, this unit takes sole responsibility for all of our HDMI switching as well as all audio for everything from TV through to music - so being without is just not tennis.

So, we have been looking at an easy, all in one solution - admittedly cheaper than I would normally look at for audio kit (I am a real picky blighter), however not exactly cheap either.

Opinions on these two would be appreciated Panasonic BTT560, or Panasonic BTT490 - we are leaning toward the silver BTT560 (not least because it is reasonably stylish and would fit in with our light carpets and decor), but are interested in opinions and experiences of both.

 

I do, but its one of the early ones and its not in the best of health if truth be told - been baulking at some discs for a while now. It might well be fine if I were to get my finger out and get the lid off it for a clean, but I am now looking at the lazy option.

The speakers that I have are also all but matched to the current amp - they are separates as such, but really designed to work hand in hand with the amp if you know what I mean?

Before we moved to the house before this one, I had a gorgeous Denon receiver mated to Bowers & Wilkins speakers all round, but it simply didn't fit in the last house so had to go, and I ended up with this Onkyo kit in its place. Its been fine until now, however space is even more limited in this new house, hence looking at the more compact all in one idea.

I have got a standard stereo amp etc which will eventually be set up at the other end of the room for proper music listening, but I need something that is capable of handling a couple of HDMI inputs (and switching them), iPod would be handy although not essential, and smart/network capability would be a bonus also - but the majority of its life will be providing sound for TV on a day-in, day-out basis as the speakers in our plasma panel are frankly rubbish.

 

Their entire range gets mostly good reviews - the black one appears to be last years model, the silver one is this years with improved speakers and a better amplifier.

Most of my life, I would have nothing but separates in the house, however the constraints of family life and smaller rooms are now beginning to take priority. In all fairness to all in ones though, they are pretty good nowadays - leagues ahead of where they used to be.

I installed one for a colleague a wee while ago - Panasonic too - and was really surprised at the sound quality and the sheer grunt that it had for a wee unit.

 

Depends on the decor of the room really. I'd go for the black one.

 

Thanks all - its not the TV that is being replaced, as it is fine - it is purely the audio system around it. Decor is light colours throughout (magnolia, or council cream as we used to call it, and white with light cream coloured carpets - I think this is part of Mrs C's reason for preferring the silver one).

I will have to get my mind made up shortly, as I could do with it to be delivered on Thursday when I have a day off.

 

Silver one being delivered on Thursday - thanks for the input all

 

All set up, working beautifully, and it looks tidy too - all in all, quite happy