Help: choosing speakers and your opinion on my other choices (1 Viewer)

[lakaloko]

Hello all,

I am new here so I apologize if I am doing anything wrong.

I am in the planning phase of my Home Theater setup with projector and would like to hear your opinion on the choices I have made so far and get some help filling the gap for the missing items, I have not bought anything yet, and I will probably wait a couple of months hunting for deals.

My considerations:

• Location: Germany
• Current setup is a simple (old) 32" TV, no speakers or anything. Any upgrade will be a big upgrade
• Setup will be in living room. I am getting blackout curtains to block most natural light when used during the day, but most of its use will be during night.
• I am planning for a 16:9 120" screen, but will wait until getting the projector to have a better idea of the size
• Setup is mostly for watching movies and TV series, I also play occasional games (Nintendo switch) but not competetive of course
• Living room is roughly 20m2 (5x4)
• I am not an expert in image and audio quality, probably wont notice the difference between medium/high quality sound.
• Budget for speakers (without high speakers) should be around 1000€, if I can save some money would be better
• Living in apartment with neighbors, so I don't expect to have very loud speakers, just clear and nice sound
• AVR listed below is to have flexibility in case I want to upgrade later on
• Priorities shown below are the order to purchase the items. Not sure how much time will lapse between priorities.

Here is my checklist to keep track of the expected expenses and what is needed for the setup:

Prio	Item	Model	Qty	Price	Shipping	Total Price
1​	Projector	BenQ 2710	1​	1.699,00 €​	0,00 €​	1.699,00 €​
1​	120" Screen	Esmart MIRALE Gray	1​	399,99 €​	44,99 €​	444,98 €​
2​	AVR	Onkyo NR7100 or Denon AVC-X3800H	1​	999,00 €​	0,00 €​	999,00 €​
2​	Subwoofer		1​			0,00 €​
2​	Central Speaker		1​			0,00 €​
2​	Front Speaker		2​			0,00 €​
2​	Rear Speaker		2​			0,00 €​
3​	High Speaker		4​			0,00 €​
2​	Rear speaker stand		2​			0,00 €​
2​	HDMI 2.1 Cable		3​			0,00 €​
1​	Long HDMI 2.1 Cable		1​			0,00 €​
2​	Speaker cable					0,00 €​
2​	Subwoofer cable		1​			0,00 €​
2​	Media	NVIDIA Shield Pro	1​	217,99 €​	0,00 €​	217,99 €​
3​	Universal remote		1​			0,00 €​
	Total​					3.360,97 €

 

[JohnRice]

I'm not certain what you can get in Germany, but my standard recommendation in your price is the ELAC Debut v2, or maybe the lower end Wharfedale EVO like the 4.1. ELAC is a German company, but the Debuts are from the USA division, so again, not sure if they are available locally to you. I also would go with one better sub than two cheapy ones.

Don't spend a bunch on cables. Speaker cables just need to be good 14 or 12 ga oxygen free copper. Same with hdmi,m though with the long one you probably want to go with an optical cable. That still shouldn't be very expensive.

 

[lakaloko]

I'm not certain what you can get in Germany, but my standard recommendation in your price is the ELAC Debut v2, or maybe the lower end Wharfedale EVO like the 4.1. ELAC is a German company, but the Debuts are from the USA division, so again, not sure if they are available locally to you. I also would go with one better sub than two cheapy ones.

Don't spend a bunch on cables. Speaker cables just need to be good 14 or 12 ga oxygen free copper. Same with hdmi,m though with the long one you probably want to go with an optical cable. That still shouldn't be very expensive.

Thank you!
For the long cable indeed I was planning to get an optical one. This would be used between the projector and AVR, I’m not sure the total distance but should not be too long actually.

For the ELAC, I can see debut B6.2 for 300 (the pair) and debut B5.2 for 240 (also the pair). Is that the normal price?

 

[JohnRice]

Thank you!
For the long cable indeed I was planning to get an optical one. This would be used between the projector and AVR, I’m not sure the total distance but should not be too long actually.

For the ELAC, I can see debut B6.2 for 300 (the pair) and debut B5.2 for 240 (also the pair). Is that the normal price?

I think that sounds like the regular price. They do have frequent sales.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hi, Alberto.

Welcome to HTF.

IF your budget is on the tighter side (or simply could use some more managing), I'd say spend less on the screen. And you probably don't need a gray screen anyway, if you're going to have reasonably light-controlled room -- if you can at all, probably much better to keep the surrounding area w/in a couple meters (or more) of the screen darker w/ non-reflective surface (and in more neutral color). Lots of people even just make their own screen using fairly inexpensive, but still quite/similarly good, material... though that does require one to be a bit more handy (yet not too much so) to do well. Still, no idea what might actually be feasible where you are for something like that (whether DIY or not).

For speakers, many at this level might recommend something from the ELAC Debut 2.0 or UniFi 2.0 line of speakers plus an SVS subwoofer (perhaps SB-2000, if not SB-3000), but not sure how easily you can get those. IF you can get the ELACs, see if you can qualify for their frequently recurring sales that often cut pricing by 15-25% over here in the USA. SVS also often run sales that might cut pricing by upto 10% or so, but again, not sure for sales to customers in Germany.

Just noticed John replied about the ELACs as well... and definitely concur about his take on cables as well. Not sure in Germany, but here in the USA, something like $0.5-1/foot or $1.5-3/meter (plus whatever inexpensive termination like decent banana plugs) for speaker cabling from Monoprice or similar should do. IF you want something a bit better (w/out going crazy) and already very well-terminated for you, I guess maybe $2-4/foot or $6-12/meter might be the most to spend to play it safer for an excellent setup w/out going into crazy audiophile territory (where people are also spending far more on everything else), haha -- for this latter, you might check out Blue Jeans Cable, a sponsor for this site, which many here and elsewhere have used for our setups, to see if they would ship to you (at reasonable shipping cost), but there may be comparable small business providers nearer to you as well. Blue Jeans also sell other kinds of cabling, if you want, but probably no real reason to buy any digital cables (at their somewhat moderate premium) from them -- definitely should just stick w/ cheaper options for digital cabling.

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

Thank you!
For the long cable indeed I was planning to get an optical one. This would be used between the projector and AVR, I’m not sure the total distance but should not be too long actually.

Longer than 2m I'd suggest an active hdmi cable. Once you get to 5m you should start considering optical, and once you get to 7-8m I'd definitely go optical.

 

[lakaloko]

Thank you @JohnRice and @ManW_TheUncool for your input. I will keep an eye on deals for ELAC speakers and SB-2000 sub (SB-3000 price seems too high at 1500+).

Regarding the AVR, any opinions on Onkyo NR7100 or Denon AVC-X3800H? These are both at 990 right now in my area. Are these ok for my setup or should I change them?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I'd probably go for the Denon over Onkyo if both appear to meet all your requirements. Onkyo has gone downhill over the past decade and probably was a tad below Denon for quality, probably particularly reliability, all along anyway.

Having said that, I don't actually use AVR myself -- I'd much rather go w/ separates, ie. prepro (or even AVR as prepro in the past when my budget was tighter and that was a real option) + separate amp(s).

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Having said that, I don't actually use AVR myself -- I'd much rather go w/ separates, ie. prepro (or even AVR as prepro in the past when my budget was tighter and that was a real option) + separate amp(s).

To clarify, I'm not suggesting you go w/ separates or even add external amp (for say the front LCR channels) since you need to keep sound levels lower in your situation anyway.

Maybe someday if/when you can actually play loud enough to matter, then you might well consider adding an external amp for the front LCRs.

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

Agreeing with @ManW_TheUncool . Denon is just the more stable company at the moment. That makes it the better long term option.

 

[lakaloko]

Agreeing with @ManW_TheUncool . Denon is just the more stable company at the moment. That makes it the better long term option.

I just noticed that the ELAC speakers have an RMS of 120w with 6 ohms impedance, while the AVR provides 105 watts per channel into 8 ohms (20-20,000 Hz) at 0.08% THD, with 2 channels driven.

Is this an issue? Should I get speakers with lower RMS, or AVR with higher power? not sure if I can get a 120w AVR with my budget

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

No, that should be no problem at all for those (and any other comparably decent-to-good) AVRs.

Also, typically, the RMS power rating on speakers are pretty meaningless -- you can generally, completely ignore them. For power ratings on speakers, the efficiency and impedance would generally matter most... though even then, efficiency probably won't matter much in your case since you won't be playing at louder levels -- for reference, 86-88db at 1 watt at 1 meter would be considered fairly avg. For impedance, it likely won't matter unless the speakers are rated 4 ohms or less -- and even then, the Denon AVR should likely still do just fine, especially at lower playback volumes, unless the speaker design definitely presents a tougher-than-usual load at <=4 ohms, which definitely won't be the case w/ the vast majority of fairly conventional designs like those ELACs.

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Just wondering if I could get some advice from audiophiles and experienced people on here.

I've been looking for a pair of speakers for my laptop so I can broadcast music off of it without being physically attached to the laptop since at the moment i'm using headphones, so I can't really move away or get up.

I'm pretty picky with my headphones. I listen to metal/metalcore and recently electronic/dubstep.. so bass amongs other things are important. Most of the headphones I tried at bestbuy and futureshop(im canadian) just don't deliver enough bass for me to enjoy a good metal song. Most just sound plasticky.... until i found a pair of Sennheisers(cx300ii) for roughly $100+, the one with enhanced bass. To me, it just sounds great- the bass sounds amazing, the metal songs just sound so good. I'm sure there are better ones out there but at least there are a bit better than what your average joe gets... (apple headphones are horrible lol)

I was wondering if you could recommend speakers of reasonable size(preferably portable) that deliver similar or better quality than my Sennheiser ear plugs -- and if you listen to the same genre as me, which speakers did you find to be the best for said genre.
Also, I should mention that I cannot spent $500 or more on a pair of speakers.... since i'm a student and barely get by paying my tuition lol

Are you using a receiver/amp to drive the (passive/traditional) speakers or do you actually need active/powered speakers (that might even need to be Airplay/etc and/or Bluetooth-capable?) or the like?

If you just need passive/traditional speakers on a very tight budget (perhaps w/ a bit of bass bump), you could check out the inexpensive Monoprice Encore T5s a few of us mentioned in other similar threads before... and then, when you're ready and can afford the upgrade, maybe add something like an SVS SB1000 or similar to improve the bass some more (and also allow your receiver/amp to better focus on powering the T5s w/out being taxed by power-hungry bass)...

IF the T5s don't quite satisfy, then go for a pair of ELAC Debut 2s -- do make sure to wait for one of their frequently recurring sales (that knock 15-25% off the MSRP)...

IF you need powered speakers, then I don't know...

_Man_