Upgrade Dilemma - Setup Question First (1 Viewer)

[PeteyG]

I haven't posted in a long time here at the forum, but I need to upgrade my speakers and could use some advice, and I knew that this was the place to come.

As we all are well aware of the WAF, I think there's a new one that should be BFF (Baby Friendly Factor) I have a 9 month old son at home that is starting to crawl all over the place and will be walking before I know it. My current front speaker set-up is not conducive to his development as I have Paradigm Mini-Monitors sitting on speaker stands that are just waiting to fall over with even the slightest touch.

So time to upgrade, I have a few speakers in mind, but first I wanted opinions on a slight dilemma I have. My current set-up is in a thick hardwood entertainment unit that is 8.5 feet long on a 13.5 foot wall (sectional couch facing that unit, rear speakers on the wall behind the couch). The Mini-Monitors are on stands next to each side of the wall unit toed-in.

I have approximately 2.5 feet of space on the wall next to each side of the entertainment unit that I can mount speakers onto and again toe-in (obviously the safest solution and ideal when I scrap the wall unit for a plasma/dlp/lcd/projector one day). My question is will I lose sound quality b/c of the wall unit? The wall unit is about 1.5 feet deep, so I'm concerned that the sides of the unit may block some of the sound from the speakers, as well as the fact that I might have to move the speakers out a bit further than an ideal set-up. This is my dilemma. I can always go with floorstanding speakers, which is an option, and will probably give me better sound, but still not 100% safe (and won't rank high on WAF meter).

If the description of the room is a bit confusing, I apologize - I can take pictures tonight of what it looks like.

I am open to any and all suggestions on both the best set-up route to go, and possible speaker choices.

Thanks in advance for the advice!!

Pete

 

[SethH]

I'll throw out another potential option for you . . . but it would not involve upgrading, so it may not be appealing

There are several people around here who have built their own speaker stands and filled the bases with buckshot and/or sand. I think some have said that they've ended up weighing about 60-70 pounds. Doing something similar would make it very unlikely that they would topple until you son gets much larger.

 

[PeteyG]

Good idea, but takes the fun out of upgrading!! Actually, I've been thinking of upgrading for some time, and this is now the catalyst to do it.