My receiver speaker plan (1 Viewer)

[Todd smith]

Well I have been researching this stuff for 3 weeks straight and think I just about have a plan together. My room is 15.5 x 11.5. I will have a 32 inch tv on one end (have not decided yet, looking at wega fs with 16/9 option), Denon avr3802, 6 jbl s38's for front, side, and rear surrounds, s-center and 25-31pci. I will have either 2 small chairs or one small couch with 5.5 feet of space behind them for rear speaker space. Still need to find a good dvd/cd player. So what do you guys think of all this. Is this room good size for all this?

My second thought would be the h/k 520 (or 3802) and 4jbl s38's, etc. I am thinking this only if room is to small for 7.1 setup. This will be my first HT so I dont know if the first option is overkill. What do you experienced folks think?

 

[Camp]

I'd say go 5.1 and use the money you save (from not going 7.1) into buying better speakers.

 

[Todd smith]

Thanks for the reply! Have you heard the jbl s38's? For $300.00/pair I dont think I can do much better. I thought they even sounded better than the infinity and def tec towers I heard. (1000.00/pair)

 

[Saurav]

Go over to the speaker forum, I think there's a discussion going on right now about JBL's S-series. The S-38's are excellent speakers, IMO. I've heard them only in Best Buy, and I thought they were better than the much more expensive JBL floorstanders. In the $300 range, you might want to look at Paradigm Mini Monitors, and something from PSB and NHT - the sound might be more or less to your liking, depending on your taste.

 

[Saurav]

Let me append my previous comments with the statement that I've listened to JBL speakers in Best Buy, but I've owned the Paradigm Mini Monitors for almost a year. So you know which one I think is better

 

[John Garcia]

I also have Mini Monitors. I listened to the S26s not S38s, calibrated, analog stereo CDP, Yamaha 995, and I was quite impressed with them. I told the person who's system I was demoing, that I probably would still have chosen the Minis though. The S26 has very flat, smooth midrange - excellent in this price range. There was something about the tweeters though. They sounded very accurate, and clear, but not "lively" to me. I don't know how to describe it, but they were just a bit too laid back for my taste. This could be related to the fact that I am used to my Minis, or it could have been influenced by the receiver, but I am still happy with the Minis.

 

[Todd smith]

Thanks for all the replys. Thanks for the review links. I just went to audioreview.com and all these speakers have received excelent reviews. I need to go and listen to the paradigms. It was interesting reading through the reference studio 20 reviews (not mini monitor) and see one guy who did a comparison with the s38 and ref studio 20's. He played them in the same room, same receiver, same music and movie scenes. His opinion (very subjective I know) was that they were very close and the advantages and disadvantages between the two were very slight. He did say s38 for sure had better base, imaging and dynamics. The 20's had slightly better treble and clarity. He claimed they were both excelent speakers though. Interesting that a speaker that costs almost half the price could compare and even best in some areas to the studio 20's. Also went to the bookshelf speaker review section and their were 114 s38 reviews with a 4.78 average. That is a very consistent rating. But like I said they all got good reviews and this is subjective. It doesnt sound like you could go wrong with either the s38 or stud monitor 20's (or mini monitor if on a tighter budget)