Need help in Selecting Speakers for my Two Story Living Room. (1 Viewer)

[kumar]

Hi All,

Need some help in buying surround speakers.
Keeping my long term goal in mind - which is to build a good HT by putting in lots of $$$ - I want to go for a budget solution in building my current HT.

My budget for the speakers and sub-woofer is about $400 - $600.

I have a 18 X 18 living room with 2 story ceiling. Which means, my living room is open till the second floor(which will be another 18' I guess.

Now if I go in for a surround effect HT, will the tall ceiling affect the listening pleasure? What are the things I need to consider keeping the 2 floors in mind?

Also my thinking is, you experts can correct me, to go for a bookshelf speakers for Front L-R and Rear L-R and a decent center channel and subwoofer. What brand, models do you guys advice? The choice of bookshelves over stand alone was later I can use them in my other rooms. I don't mind mix and matching my speakers (like bookshelves with center channel, etc), as long as it does not compromise on quality.

Moreover, right now, I do not have a receiver. Though, I have budgeted to buy one, it might be bought few months after I buy my speakers. Till then I am thinking of connecting the speakers directly to my NS-755V DVD Player. Is that a good idea to live with for few months?

Pls. Advice.

Thanks
Kumar.

 

[kumar]

anybody help!!! :frowning:

 

[Jerome Grate]

Two story living room OUCH. That budget will probably get you speakers that will not fill the room as you want it to be filled. You have to worry about reverbing sound from all speakers from the open space. A higher budget may bring you closer to a group of speakers that may fill the room that much more but not much more. Try Audio Advisor. There's another sight that have really good quality speakers that may even fit the budget you have. Best I can tell you.

 

[kumar]

Thanks Jerome. I was indeed worried about the echo since my living room will be open till 18'.

When you say "room filling" speakers - do you mean more wattage and good floor standing speakers? I will definitely do some research in Audio ADvice too but can you list some of those good ones you think might solve my problem. Then, may be I can reprioritize on my budget accordingly and go for a good one now.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Nick L]

You are going to want to buy the reciever first. Maybe buy two nice main(front L&R) speakers at the same time and work on the others later. I would not think your dvd player has speaker outs and an amplifier built into it. It may have preouts for 6 channel direct sound. But you can't hook you speakers up to that. You could buy a Denon 1803 or similarly priced receiver and a set of stereo speakers for about your budget. Then later buy the other three speakers and the sub.

Nick L

 

[Jerome Grate]

I see you don't have a receiver, sorry I missed that. But what I said still holds true, I believe. You may very well need to increase your budget to at least try to compensate for the 18' ceiling. Some say the speakers make the system and some may say the receiver makes the system. Now I agree with Nick L, a good pair of stereo fronts can go a long way when building a good HT system. I was looking at Whaferdale's 8.4 diamond series, I think it's about 599.99 a pair. Dual woofers, floor standing with room for low bass extension. Give a look at audio advisor, and read up on the specs. They may do the trick, then maybe a Denon, Harman Kardon or Onkyo receiver priced around another 400 to 600 bucks. Now if you get the receiver first, and maybe you should, then you can certainly match the speakers close to the power handling of the receiver. Down the road when you become an expert like us then you can add some quality surround speakers and possibly some sound deadening panels that would compensate for the echo you'll be facing.

 

[FrantzM]

Kumar

Your room is large and your budget on the small side for good speakers able to fill that much volume. Even if you were to go on the used market. A good sub alone will probably eat your budget if it is to fill this big a room...

Going may be three times your budget can put you in a comfortable position. One poster has recommended to think about a good receiver. What is you total budget for Audio?
At three times your budget:
PSB Image 4T
PSB Image 8C
PSM Image 1B
I do not think many will disagree here on this forum about the choice for sub: SVS 25-31 PCs*

I have good experience with PSB. The collective on HTF believe in SVS. I will take that plunge soon...

Total about $1800, 2k if you add a parametric EQ such as the BFD which must be standard in any HT for proper enjoyment of movies.

Add a NAD receiver such as the T752 and you have anextremely goo sounding system plus a good DVD player.. Panasonic, etc and good cables..Maybe 3 K with good discount and a fair amount of haggling..

But this pushes your budget significantly... then again your room is not small so...

Frantz
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

 

[Douglas S.L]

Kumar:

I also have a 18'x18' living room. However the difference is, mine is a open floor plan with a loft above. I had my own sonic issues to deal with.

I have a long term goal too, but for now i've had to use what i already have speaker wise.

4 - Polk RT-3's small 2-way bookshelf
1 - Polk 245 CC
2 - AR SW-30 12" sealed sub's

Nothing to brag about, but i've been able to obtain decent sound for now. The key (as it always is) is speaker placement. Of course there are other issues too.

As for the budget hunting, i'll leave that to the other members.

Good Luck with your quest........

 

[James Edward]

Kumar- I will have a slightly different answert than those above.
A friend has the same height ceiling in approximately the same size room. It even opens to a kitchen/dinette.
He powers small floor standing B&W's(602?) and their bookshelf brothers with an Onkyo 575 receiver rated at 70 watts per channel. He uses a Velodyne CT-100 10" sub.

Here's the kicker- it sounds pretty good. It certainly plays loud enough, and because of his suspended wood floor, the bass works pretty well. I also suspect(experts please chime in) that the high ceiling virtually eliminates room mode/bass resonance issues. It actually annoys me sometimes that it sounds as good as it does. I have a 12x13x7 room on a cement slab, and though I can generate higher SPL's, his system has an openness due to his room that I cannot match. I do get the impression, however, that he is just about at the system's limits.

Frantz's PSB speaker suggestion is a good one. That really is a tight budget though, for speakers and a sub. You might want to consider a good receiver and a pair of smaller speakers that eventually will be used as your rears when you can afford more equipment. A little restraint will be in order till then... Even a stereo pair of good quality speakers connected to a good receiver will sound better than five crappy speakers and sub. Check out the Image line from PSB.

But to reiterate: the ceiling height may not be as big a problem as you think.

 

[kumar]

Wow! I was away for the weekend and could not read/reply to all your suggestions.

Thanks a lot to one and all. James I was talking with a friend of mine during the weekend and he mentioned about tall ceiling sometimes being an advantage.

But atleast after reading all your comments and suggestions, looks like I have to go in for a Receiver first. Then slowly workout the speakers.

I have started to read the postings on Receivers now.
I will defintely take a look at all the speaker suggetions too. Eventually, I don't mind spending anywhere between 2K - 5K in the HT system. But the upper limit can be accomplished only after a year or so. :frowning:

I have a Audio Advice Shop and a Now Audio Video shops near my home. I will drop in there too..