Hello. I am new here. I am setting up a new system in my basement. It’s on a cement slab and porcelain tile on top of that. Maybe an area rug but not under any speakers. I’m going to have an 85” TV and listen to music and watch movies equally. My all in budget is $15k including the TV which is $5300. So the rest can be for all the audio. Because the floor is so solid I was going to do a paid of Def Techs 9080s and a 9060 center. And two in ceiling speakers in the rear. Any suggestions for a good Yamaha or Marantz receiver? I don’t want spend more than $2000 on one. Must have Atmos. I was maybe maybe thinking of doing the top of the line Mythos towers but I heard the cheaper ones and thought they sounded terrible. I listen to a lot of different types of music from rap to Yanni and musical clarity is important to me. Bass is obviously important to me since I’m worried I’m going to lose a lot of it with my solid floor. Thoughts and recommendations please!!
Congrats...with your $9700 remaining budget.
IMO, the next most important $ spent will be the LCR speakers...with such a large TV, the room has to be fairly large I would probably spend in the 3 to $5k range, leaning towards the higher end...if the seating is 10' or > from the speakers, the CC needs to be fairly substantial.
AVR...unless you just wanted one, I wouldn't pay the premium for a Marantz AVR...I'd most likely get a Denon, (3400 or 4400) and use the savings to beef up the amp with an external.
Subs...this will make or break your HT space...allocate roughly $1800-2000 here and you'll end up with 2 very good subs...for a multi-seat HT space, aside from pure spl, it's much easier to achieve uniform bass throughout the space with two units vs one.
General notes...I've had a dedicated HT in my basement before and consulting with a current build for a friend...don't skimp on the audio, especially the subs. Next, the majority of content out there from Netflix, etc is all in 5.1...Atmos is on the rise, 7.1 is fine if you have the space, but going all in with an 11 surround speaker layout (slightly exaggerating) will probably have you constantly searching for content to show off your really great home theater system....I would wire for 7.2.4 if you can, but start out with 5.2.4, done right, it can be really good. As you see content growing for 7.1 discrete you're ready to expand.