Home Theater Speaker recommendation (1 Viewer)

[KaushikC]

Hi All:

I am planning to upgrade my home theater and want to start with the speakers. Your suggestions and advice regarding the speakers would be greatly appreciated.

The family room doubles as the home theater and the dimension of this room is 13'x19'x10' (WxLxH). The room is open at the back to the breakfast nook (9' length) and the kitchen (15'length). I am interested in 5.1 system and my budget for speakers is $2000-$2500. I am open to either floorstanding or bookshelf speaker whichever is better for the hometheater experience. Here are some of my concerns:
1. Surround speakers can only be placed behind me.
2. Need to get the full movie impact at a normal listening volume (wife dislikes turning the volume up )

I have read some excellent reviews on Axiom, Paradigm (speakers), and Hsu-research (subwoofer) but do not know whether they would be a good choice for my room.

Currently I have a very old Onkyo receiver with Dolby pro-logic to drive the speakers, but will upgrade that too once I decide on the speakers.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Ben_Caoile]

Normal listening volume for some may be reference volume for others. You should be able to get some pretty good speakers for that budget. I like my JBL Studio series, but I haven't compared them to anything but Polks. Those JBL's are a bit brighter than the Polks and they're under your budget, but are getting really hard to find these days. Listen to what other members have to offer as I have not auditioned anything else after my experience with my JBL's.

 

[MikeLi]

I will throw in my 2 cents but I am biased as after owning 3 other brands I wound up keeping and loving these.
Rockets from av123.com.. They have some great package deals right now. Their center channel is a 10, no more up and down on the volume control between dialog and action sceens. I had NHT and Atlantic Tecs before. I also have an SVS PB12Ultra and its a gem. My second SVS sub and I would never think of a different brand to have.

 

[Marty M]

I have been a happy Paradigm owner for many years. I would suggest you look at the Monitor series. There are a couple of bookshelf and floorstanding speakers in this series that should fit your budget nicely.

 

[Jacob C]

Check out ascend too.

 

[KaushikC]

Mike:

I looked at the Rockets from av123.com. Speakers look great, but is there a way to audition them ? Also you own the SVS sub, so is your suggetion to get only the speakers from av123 and sub from SVS ? By the way for surround will the dipole speakers work from avs123.com. since the speakers will be placed behind me.

Thanks
Kaushik

 

[Nhan_H]

Not to answer for Mike, but...

AV123/SVS/Ascend are all internet-direct speakers/subs. They are NOT sold in stores. If you're not in the Denver area, the best way to audition these is to post at the AV123 site to request a demo from an owner that is in/close to where you are.

Mike loves his rockets and svs. I find that a rocket UFW10 subwoofer works well for my similarly-sized living room (it's also opened on 3 sides). However, I'll be upgrading to the UFW12 pretty soon (unfortunately, it's not out yet, and I'm way in the back of the pre-order line). This beast would give me what I need for that size of a room. I, too, own some Rocket speakers (550s/200/250s)

The Rocket RS300 would be an excellent choice for rear or side surrounds. I use the 250s for surrounds, but had a chance to hook up the 300s once. I kinda like them more for movies.

SVS carries an extensive line of subs that would probably suit your budget more at this point. They are excellent subs, as are the HSUs.

 

[MikeLi]

KaushikC, Nhan was a good post. I am almost all HT so I tend to like to feel the bass as well as hear it is why I went with SVS. In fact this is my second SVS over the last few years. Finally got an Ultra 12 in oak to match everything. That with the 550's would make a killer HT machine hard to match in many areas. Also the 300's are also killer. I have mine on the sides but know a lot of folks that have put them on the back and love them. I did have towers in the back for 2 years with some big NHT's until I found out about Rocket. I went back to Dipoles and have been very happy ever since. I love that dipole sound for movies. For music, some like them or just play the music up front if they are distracting. Again I get enough music during the day at my job so almost all is HT or some DVD concerts which the 300's seem to do very good at. Good luck. Don't forget that bigfoot center (200) as well. The best center I have ever had and some I have spent twice the amount of money on...

 

[KaushikC]

I checked the specification of the rocket 550 and 200. The 550 have 6Ù impedance and the center speaker 200 has 4Ù impedance. These will need specific pre-amps to drive them. My plan was to get a used Denon AVR 3805 and then later upgrade to separates. but I checked to find that Denon only has 8Ù impedance for center speakers. This might be a problem, right ?

Guys those who are the proud owners of rockets, what separates or receivers are you using to drive it...?

Thanks
Kaushik

 

[Nhan_H]

There should NOT be a problem with the 3805. I believe Mike is currently using the 3803 and I have a yamaha RX-V2200 (comparable to Denon's 28xx series). It does a very fine job. I also had my rockets hooked up to a Panasonic SA-XR50 (which is known to have trouble driving some 4-ohm speakers), and it handled the rockets very well. I had them blasting near reference level during "Hell Boy". Reference level is just way too loud for me.

I'm upgrading to the Emotiva Ultra Lites (separates) that AV123 is coming out with in the near future. For under $1000, it's the first of its kind. I've heard the beta units twice now in very large rooms, and it can drive the speakers to very loud levels. Latest news is that it will be available for first shipment in November (hopefully, I'll get mine then). The next 125 units will be shipped the following month, and then hundreds will follow suit. This is assuming that beta testing goes as planned. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles as the Denon (or similar receivers), but sound quality is what it'll excel in.

http://www.av123.com/products_produc...s&product=30.1

Here's a couple of pics:

 

[MikeLi]

KaushikC... you won't have a problem driving these speakers at all. I have had a Denon 3803 doing my Rocket 750's, 200 and a pair of 300's. I never get to 0 on my receiver without it being way to loud. Even though they are a different Ohm load most receiver will handle it just fine...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

HTD level 3's?

 

[yulin]

good.

 

[MikeLi]

Removed...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Removed

 

[MikeLi]

Garrett.. I owe you a big apology and I am truly sorry. I did not read or see the first line of your post and again am truly sorry. I will go back and see if I can delete my post. Sorry again.
MikeL

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Apology accepted. No blood, no foul.

 

[MikeLi]

Thanks Bud!... Too early in the morning and not paying enough attention I guess....
Thanks again
Mike

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Actually, I'd tread lightly with these speakers. The build quality is superb for what you get. But, the ribbon tweeters are very anemic sounding. The new level threes were way too warm for my blood. Sadly, I had to return them within 30 days.

 

[Chris Quinn]

I heard the previous generation HTD before the ribbon tweeter. They needed tons of good clean power to reach their potential.