http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...archtype=genre

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...s/Product.html

7.1 receiver with 2 or 3 pairs of the floor standers, a central speaker and a subwoofer?

If I was to hook the lot up to the av reciever then it'd all work ok?

Its just that the speakers I'm used to are those in an integrated dvd system which are essentially bookshelf speakers on stands (tallboys) and I don't want to splash the cash and have the wrong gear

or Would I just be better off getting the Sony HT-SF1300? If so does the dvd player have to stay plugged in as a sort of amp/av receiver or can i remove it and stick the ps3 in as the sole machine?

Have a look at the SF1300 manual on the Sony web site. It's not difficult to find and it'll tell you what you need to know (and the rest of us already suspect ) about the SF1300.

The separates looks like a better option but I'm a bit concerned about those big Sony floor-standers.

Just from the point of view of cost of manufacture - there's a lot of mdf and speaker units in there for just over £100. Now either that means Sony are making a huge loss or they're really really cheap to make. If that's the case then what is the quality like and will they have any s/h value?

If it were me then I wouldn't consider trying to run 2 or 3 pairs of budget floor standers in full range mode from a budget amp. It's asking too much of the amps PSU. So if they're going to be run as small then why bother with cheap floor-standers at all when half the drivers won't be used? Surely some decent bookshelf/stand-mount speakers are a better choice. If you were really smart then you could pick up some s/h speakers of much better quality for the same cost as the new Sony's.