New home audio 7.1 setup (1 Viewer)

[ChizzlerCB]

Hey Guys.... first post on these forms....and would like to share my home theater setup. I am new to the high end sound setup, but just recently did over my basement and put some money into my audio system and now want to learn and make sure I am getting the most out of my new equipment. So what I have/had is a Epson projector that I got over a year ago and love it ! It is 1080p and refresh rate is awesome and quality is amazing! Have it at about 160" on a wall which I painted using flat white paint and is ceiling mounted. Eventually I will upgrade to a 4k but will wait til 4k projectors come down. I just finished doing 2 months of renos in a basement by added a subfloor (Dricore styrafoam/playwood panels) and raising my drop cieling using a new product called ceiling max (only did one side of the cieling). Opened the wall I have my regular TV on to hide wires and add plugs. The tv I have is a thin 1080p led samsung TV which I have mounted like a picture frame. This will be my next upgrade, as I want to upgrade it to 4k except having a hard time finding another tv that thin without breaking the bank. So on to the audio...

What I bought...
Sony STRDN1080 165-Watt 7.2 Channel Atmos Network AV Receiver
Polk Audio T600 Stand up speakers
Polk Subwoofer PSW125

What I alreadyt had
5 Energy take Classic speakers giving me 7 speakers and 1 sub.

Got everything connected and enjoying, have not tested Atmos yet but am excited to.

Looking for suggestions on what I should use as my go-to media player.... I have a regular PS4 but running into a couple issues. Took me a bit to enable all speakers and only see an option for 5.1, however sound is coming from all speakers. All of my movies are 1080p version which are like 2-3gb .MKV on my NAS drive. My samsung smart tv's steam most of these movies but now I want to stream these to my projector with best audio I can have. It appears that the PS4 can not play all these files or well, in some cases can only read the video but not audio. I plan to upgrade to the pro eventually but doubt that will fix it as software would be same. If you have any recommended settings for ps4, even gaming let me know. Also should I stick with HDMI or go optical for ps4?

If my ps4 cant give me the best audio for playing movies from my NAS, what should I get ? I have a mini windows PC.... would that be best with VLC player? FYI reason I download is because our internet is only 7mb download... so streaming isnt the best.... Netflix works good though but not many newer movies. I use my ps4 for netflix.

Any help would be greatly apprecaited.... I will share pics of my setup soon. I know there are flaws IE couch to back wall but overall I think I did a pretty good job with this room.

Thanks Everyone!!!!!

 

[JohnRice]

I have a few basic suggestions, and you're probably not going to like them.

I doubt the Energy speakers will be a good match with the Polks, especially in the center. I'd sell the Energys and get a matching Polk center, or one of the Polk Monitor centers speakers, along with two pair of Polk Monitor 30s or 35s for surrounds, or the matching version in the Polk T line, depending on the budget. If you look around, like the Polk eBay store, you can get those 30s for a song.

I'd also return the Polk sub. Polk makes substandard subs, and buy a BIC F-12 or one of the similar priced Dayton subs, like the Sub-1500 or the Sub-1200. Any of those is a significant improvement over the Polk.

As far as files, I'm pretty sure discussing torrent downloads isn't permitted on HTF.

 

[ChizzlerCB]

Thank you for the reply John.... negative or positive I truely appreciate, trust me. I have omitted the part about torrents, we can bypass that.... if someone has a suggestion for .mkv files, as im sure some people do rip blu rays, would be appreciated or suggestions on the legal way to do it, as although im not rich (alot of this was put on CC lol) I do prefer to do it the proper way and have no issues with putting the money into doing it that way.

As for your suggestion John... I got this gear at Best Buy and did bring up the question, which buddy said it would be fine :/ and I am confident you are correct in upgrading my Energy speakers and taking back my Sub, however having a hard time understanding what benifit it would make, particularly the sub. Maybe it would be complicated to explain, however as mentioned before, here to learn and I will def consider these suggestions.... just want to understand why before taking action. Upgrading the speakers shouldnt be an issue, the sub I threw out the box of course, but it is within the 30 days still.

Thanks John!

 

[JohnRice]

I am confident you are correct in upgrading my Energy speakers and taking back my Sub, however having a hard time understanding what benifit it would make, particularly the sub.

Regarding the Energy speakers, all the speakers (except the sub) should be tone matched, for ideal surround integration. The Polks and Energys aren't going to integrate together as well as you should strive for. You might be able to sell the Energys for close to what the Polks I suggested will cost.

Regarding the sub. Polk. Subs. Suck. For the same money, any of the ones I suggested will put the one you have to shame.

 

[JohnRice]

Oh yeah, I use an Oppo Blu-Ray player for .mkv files. They're pricey, but with the new 203 out, you might be able to find a nice deal on a used 103, which is what I have.

 

[DaveF]

MKVs on a NAS running Plex Server can be played by pretty much any current streaming box running the Plex client.

 

[ChizzlerCB]

Ok, thank you John and Thank you Dave.... I like the Plex idea... will look into that before purchasing Oppo

 

[JohnRice]

I don't know what the situation is for an Oppo playing remote files. There might be a way to have it both ways. I just connect an HD with mkv files on it to the Oppo with USB.