Setup from scratch.

[Droogne]

Hey

I was never a real audiophile, just because I never had the means or knowledge to get me the correct equipment.. And now I still only have the first one. After some extensive searching I bought me a ATH-WS1100i headphone, and now I am looking to buy a real speaker setup.

At this moment I am rocking a mash of 2x6ohm (both in same channel port) and 2x8ohm (through a selector without impediance protection) in the 2 speaker connections and 2x6ohm speakers in the subwoofer connection. The amp I'm using is a 2.1 Lepy 168s (68W for the 2 sub channels combined, and 40W per speaker channel) and needles to say this results in a pretty weird sound (not all speakers are equallly loud, lot of distortion etc).

Now I am looking to buy me a much better setup that will both be low budget (1000-1250euro) and long lasting. The "requirements" I have are these: I need a good pair of bookshelf speakers for on my desk which I will combine with 2 subwoofers (one positioned on the far end of the desk, and one diagonaly across on the other side of the room) and a center speaker, the tricky part is that I also want to have a surround system consisting of 4 extra speakers which should be toggled of when not needed. The plan I currently have is this:

1) Bookshelf speakers: 2x Q Acoustics 3010
2) Center Speaker: Q Acoustics 3090
2) Subwoofers: 1x Warfedale Diamond 150W and 1x ?? (probably another wharfe if first is decent)
3) Speaker Selecter: monoprice 8-channel speaker selecter with 5-ohm impediance protection and 2 inputs

and here is where I am not sure what to pick:

4) For the 4 extra speakers: (all 8 speakers are in my possesion so I can pick freely between them)
2x6ohm 60W speakers (Kenwood) and 2x6ohm 40W speakers (LG)
OR
4x8ohm speakers (not sure what wattage)
5) The amp/receiver: was thinking about a 5.1 receiver but didnt now how much power I would require. (edit: or would it be a better idea to get a realy powerfull 2 channel amp to drive the speaker selecter with all 7 speakers connected to it, if so which one would you recommend?)

How I would use the setup: connect 3 of the channels to the center and bookshelf speakers. The other 2 would go to the speaker selecter. I would split the subwoofer output to connect them both. I would also have 2 ways of listening:

1) I only use the subwoofers and bookshelf+center speakers (with all the speaker selecters off)
2) I want to use ALL speakers (for surround sound when having a party). When using it like this it wouldnt be necessary to have them all working at a immense sound level as the room is not really big. What I do want is that they have a similar sound level as the speakers directly connected to the amp.

What are your thoughts? What is absolutely unrealistic/impossible in this kind of setup, do you like my speaker/subwoofer picks, and what amp would best meet my needs?

THANKS

 

[rojo]

Yeah, you lost me at LG and Kenwood. Where are you located?

 

[Droogne]

Belgium. Why?

 

[Droogne]

And the lgs and kenwoods are speakers I am gonna be replacing in the future, but will still be using till I actually do that.

 

[lovinthehd]

Might want to check out how sensitivity of a speaker counts more than what "wattage" rating that it has been labeled with when it comes to determining appropriate amp power. All a real audiophile is is one who is enthusiastic about high fidelity sound reproduction....it's a very overused word implying some sort of skill set.

 

[Droogne]

Might want to check out how sensitivity of a speaker counts more than what "wattage" rating that it has been labeled with when it comes to determining appropriate amp power. All a real audiophile is is one who is enthusiastic about high fidelity sound reproduction....it's a very overused word implying some sort of skill set.

I know it is not that import, but yeah Im a noob.. I just do not now the speaker sensitivity of most of the speakers I already have.. The new ones are: 86 for the 3010's and 89db for the center speaker. Hope you can help me a little more. Any advice on any question is welcome! Thanks

 

[TheWarrior]

A speaker selector will not serve a purpose when using a preamp/processor/receiver, and is also partly to blame for the 'weird' sounds you are hearing in your current configuration.

You are next door to ScanSpeak and SEAS, so getting good equipment from brands we've never heard of, should be no problem for you!

With your interest in one system to last a long time, just be sure to buy a quality preamp/receiver! I personally do not have interest in ATMOS/DTS:X so I would shop for discontinued models from my preferred brands: Denon, Marantz, Yamaha.

 

[rojo]

Belgium. Why?

Well, if you were in France I'd say listen to Focal. If you were in Sweden I'd say listen to XTZ. If you were in the UK I'd say listen to KEF. If you were in Italy I might recommend that you listen to SVS subwoofers. I didn't mean anything accusatory by asking. I apologize if I was too assertive.

Anyway, Good sound comes from good speakers. That's where the bulk of your money should go. Rather than spreading your budget thin to get 7 mediocre speakers, you'd be better off devoting more money to the front 3. Your Q Acoustics choice looks promising from the couple of subjective reviews I've read, but I'm having trouble finding any measurements of them anywhere. They look small, and I'm concerned that you might have to set your subwoofer channel's low pass filter at an undesirably high frequency to blend with them. Are the KEF Q300 and Q200C (or used Q9C) available at a reasonable price in Belgium?

For the subwoofer, check with BK Electronics in the UK and see what it would cost to ship one of their ported Monolith subs to Belgium. One of those would outperform two of the Wharfedales I think. You'll definitely get far better infrasonic extension (sub-bass below 20Hz).

I'm really not clear on the speaker selector thing. What do you hope to gain by using a speaker selector? Are you planning to have speakers in different rooms, and to use the selector to choose which room makes noise? If so, you'd be better off looking for an AV receiver with a Zone 2, and planning to re-use one of your Lepai amps to power the second room. Either that, or a pair of JBL LSR305 powered monitors would be a nice choice for a Zone 2.

 

[lovinthehd]

I know it is not that import, but yeah Im a noob.. I just do not now the speaker sensitivity of most of the speakers I already have.. The new ones are: 86 for the 3010's and 89db for the center speaker. Hope you can help me a little more. Any advice on any question is welcome! Thanks

A little research goes a long ways. Try this article from Crown http://www.crownaudio.com/how-much-amplifier-power. You can also use an spl calculator, Crown has one on their site, or this somewhat different one. Good info here as well http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-efficiency.htm