Thoughts/advice on my planned 5.1 HT system (1 Viewer)

[Sally-san]

So I've done a lot of research on home theatre components and I'm looking for advice on if the following system is a decent buy, It's within my budget and i don't plan on going beyond 5.1.

AVR: Yamaha RX-V4A 5.2
Front Floorstanding: Monitor Audio Monitor 300
Center: Monitor Audio Monitor C150
Rear bookshelf: Monitor Audio Monitor 100
Sub: Monitor Audio MRW10 Subwoofer

Will the AVR have enough power? Is the sub punchy enough? Are the Monitor Audio Monitor 300s worth it over the Monitor Audio Monitor 200s? Any thoughts would be great.

 

[JohnRice]

Where are you located, as in, what country? It makes a big difference in suggested equipment.

If I'm understanding you correctly, each of those 300s is 3x the cost of the receiver. That's not a good distribution of budget. That speaker deserves better electronics.

 

[theJman]

What are the dimensions of your room (HWD)? The total volume of space factors in, as does whether it's closed or open to other areas. A single 10" sealed subwoofer won't really provide much when watches movies, if you're after "punchy" bass it likely won't suffice.

 

[Wardog555]

I wouldn't touch that receiver personally as it won't have Dolby atmos support.

But for simple broadcast TV and eliminating the possibility of atmos ever in the future

It will work.

You don't need the same brand subwoofer at all. One brand to look at is SVS and you can start with the pb 1000 pro model unless you need larger output for a larger room etc.

 

[Sally-san]

Where are you located, as in, what country? It makes a big difference in suggested equipment.

If I'm understanding you correctly, each of those 300s is 3x the cost of the receiver. That's not a good distribution of budget. That speaker deserves better electronics.

Hi so, I'm located in South Africa. I'm looking to buy the monitor audio speakers locally and then maybe import the AVR from bhphotovideo.com when its on special. Since the AVRs are mad expensive here.

When i went to an audio shop the sales guys said if you have good enough speakers you can tell the difference between a low-end and mid-range AVR but on the home theatre subreddit i got shouted down for trying to calculate if the AVR has enough power for the speakers i want and they told me to just get the AVR that supports the channels i want to support in the future.

 

[Sally-san]

What are the dimensions of your room (HWD)? The total volume of space factors in, as does whether it's closed or open to other areas. A single 10" sealed subwoofer won't really provide much when watches movies, if you're after "punchy" bass it likely won't suffice.

So that's hard to answer i currently live in a place than has an open tv room/kitchen/dining room. Next year we are moving to another place that is an even bigger tv room/kitchen/dining room and we don't plan on living there long but chances are if we buy a house it will be a tv room/kitchen/dining room setup (my wife likes the idea of open entertainment spaces).
So i cant really plan for a certain room since we haven't really settled.

But you are saying the 10" sub won't be enough would 2 subs help since I'm looking at a 5.2 AVR or would you go bigger?

 

[Sally-san]

I wouldn't touch that receiver personally as it won't have Dolby atmos support.

But for simple broadcast TV and eliminating the possibility of atmos ever in the future

It will work.

You don't need the same brand subwoofer at all. One brand to look at is SVS and you can start with the pb 1000 pro model unless you need larger output for a larger room etc.

So in terms of Dolby atmos. I decided to not make a requirement for myself for 2 reasons the first is just that it seemed like it would be a mission to make sure all my content supports especially since my content consumption is split evenly between movies/series/anime/gaming/music, and since only really movies have atmos audio i thought let me just focus on making sure i have a solid 5.1 system that will sound great with anything i throw at it.

Secondly, I put haven't actually had the pleasure of listening to an atmos setup vs a standard setup so I'm hoping that ill have a bit of "ignorance is bliss" hoping i won't crave it if i don't know how good it is.
As for the sub recommendation, I've looked at a few reviews as people are quite impressed, it's a bit out of my budget (import tax is crazy here in South Africa) but I'm definitely going to see if i can get 1.

 

[Al.Anderson]

The Yamaha has outputs for presence speakers, which is basically the same as Atmos if you place the presence speakers in the Atmos location. (Meaning the Yamaha will decode the Atmos channels, pg-43: https://usa.yamaha.com/files/downlo...5/web_AV19-0070_RX-A4A_ug_UCRABGLFP_En_F0.pdf)

I also think the Yamaha will have more than enough power since the Monitors are 8 ohm speakers.

 

[JohnRice]

The Yamaha has outputs for presence speakers, which is basically the same as Atmos if you place the presence speakers in the Atmos location. (Meaning the Yamaha will decode the Atmos channels, pg-43: https://usa.yamaha.com/files/downlo...5/web_AV19-0070_RX-A4A_ug_UCRABGLFP_En_F0.pdf)

I also think the Yamaha will have more than enough power since the Monitors are 8 ohm speakers.

That's a different receiver. The RX-V4A is 5.2 only and has no Atmos or ambience capability. The RX-A4A is 7.2 and significantly more expensive. Bad model numbers by Yamaha.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I'd go for a Denon SVR 760H if you want Atmos.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

It's probably a good idea to go w/ an AVR that at least handles/decodes Atmos well and provides pre-outs to use external amp(s) should you ever change your mind and do Atmos -- pre-outs can be good to have even if you don't ever do Atmos, particularly since you're going for very nice speakers (at those prices) and will have very sizable (open) space, eg. I've actually always used them for my non-Atmos setups w/ similarly good-or-better speakers.

AVRs that don't provide such are generally lower-end and might not be quite as powerful (w/ good quality) as you'd want/need... even if you don't end up using the pre-outs w/ external amp(s).

Afterall, especially if you're gonna have to go thru the trouble of importing the AVR from elsewhere, I should think you don't want to err on the side of possibly skimping a bit too much (and then find you'd need/want to get something better before long).

Once you have a pretty good AVR w/ pre-outs (that aren't somehow too limiting in possible configs), it'll be (relatively) easy to add external amp(s) if you later find the need...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

RE: subwoofer, given your open living space situation, yeah, I'd think you should consider as much/big quality subwoofer as you can probably afford both in terms of $ and size.

That 10" Monitor Audio sub won't likely do even if you get 2 of them -- and it isn't even inexpensive at all for a 10" sub that only comes w/ what seems like a very meager 100W of power.

For that price, you might be able to get a likely far far better, open box SVS SB3000 if/whenever they're available on sale in SVS's outlet... although I don't know how that would work for shipping to South Africa. And a brand new SVS SB3000 normally costs $1.1K (here in the USA anyway) -- and if you want and go for dual SB3000, you'd save $100 if bought together.

I'd probably consider at least the SB3000 or better to go w/ those Monitor Audio speakers -- and you could always add the 2nd sub later, if you feel the need. The SB3000, being a sealed sub, would probably suit your wife better than a larger ported one like the PB3000 or even PB2000 (besides being likely better than ported for audio fidelity) -- yes, ported can generally extend deeper w/ greater quantity in sub-bass, but that comes w/ certain quality compromises to get the extra depth and quantity (and generally costs more while being bigger/bulkier/heftier).

_Man_

 

[daddyora]

Where are you located, as in, what country? It makes a big difference in suggested equipment.

If I'm understanding you correctly, each of those 300s is 3x the cost of the receiver. That's not a good distribution of budget. That speaker deserves better electronics.

I have 5.1.2 system driven by Yam rxa660 avr. Several comments: 1) you'll be fine if you're limited on how loud you play 2) for HT, bookshelf would be fine for fronts 3) 5.1.2 doesn't add much over 5.1 4) you can always add 2nd sub later

 

[Sally-san]

Hi all, thanks for all the replies I really appreciate it. Based on the feedback. I'll be sticking with the main 5.0 speakers i initially put forward. For the subwoofer, I'm changing it to the SVS PB-1000 Pro, it's way more expensive but based on the reviews I've seen it's worth saving up a bit more for. Lastly for the AVR, i haven't decided on the brand but I'm going to look for something with a bit more power and Atmos support.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've asked this question on a few forums and I've received the most helpful and detailed responses from you guys, this is a great community you guys have here.

 

[John Dirk]

Hi all, thanks for all the replies I really appreciate it. Based on the feedback. I'll be sticking with the main 5.0 speakers i initially put forward. For the subwoofer, I'm changing it to the SVS PB-1000 Pro, it's way more expensive but based on the reviews I've seen it's worth saving up a bit more for. Lastly for the AVR, i haven't decided on the brand but I'm going to look for something with a bit more power and Atmos support.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've asked this question on a few forums and I've received the most helpful and detailed responses from you guys, this is a great community you guys have here.

Let me just say, many people come to this forum "looking for advice" and then argue with the members who are trying to help them because they don't like what they're hearing. It's refreshing to read a thread where the person asking for advice actually heeds it.

I wish you the very best with your plans.

 

[JohnRice]

Let me just say, many people come to this forum "looking for advice" and then argue with the members who are trying to help them because they don't like what they're hearing. It's refreshing to read a thread where the person asking for advice actually heeds it.

I wish you the very best with your plans.

That is so right. It seems that lately in particular, "questions" aren't questions at all.

 

[Wardog555]

Great to hear of what you decided. I have a svs pb 1000 pro myself and it's excellent.