The living room where this new home theater speaker system will be installed is approximately 625 square feet. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling are hardwood (with the exception of the one wall where the tv will be mounted, which is sheet rock). The ceilings are about 10 feet high and access to the living room is open concept to the dining room.
I already have hearing loss from work, so I generally have to turn the sound up high just to be able to understand what people are saying on TV or in movies. I keep the Onkyo speakers/AV system mentioned in
my first thread turned up between 68-78 so I can hear everything. I've actually even had the Marantz shut off automatically before because I've had the system turned up too high during movies (apparently could not handle the power ouput).
I'd like to find the best for the money at around the $5,000 (give or take $1000) price range for the living room, but this needs to include all the speakers, subwoofer(s) and the AV Receiver. Does everyone agree the Kali system recommended by shadyJ would be the best bet for this room size and budget range? I do like the look of those paradigm speakers.
There are some caveats to the Kali system. Yes, it is unbeatable as far as sound quality for the money goes, but they are intended for studio monitoring really, so they put all the money into parts that matter for sound quality, and so they aren't very pretty. Also, you need to accommodate one for a center speaker, and most 'entertainment shelf systems' only have space for small, horizontal center speakers (most of those 'entertainment shelf systems' are so incredibly bad).
Also keep in mind that they are powered speakers, so they each need to reach a power source as well as a signal source. If I remember right, the cables that came with them are about 6 feet long. You can buy longer power cables for them that have three-prong grounded plugs.
You will want to wire them up with balanced connections, and I recommend XLR to XLR cables to hook them up with the Outlaw processor. XLR cables are a bit more expensive than unbalanced signal cables.
Another caveat is that they do have a low-level noise that is audible if you are close to the speaker. This is a consequence of the way the signal chain is handled to give them such a wide dynamic range. This isn't a big deal if you aren't seated close to the speaker, like less than a couple meters, but if these things are going to be near you, and you are bothered by a slight background noise, I would recommend the PreSonus Eris E8 XT as an alternative. Then again, you say you have hearing loss, and I think the nature of the background noise is such that those with high-frequency hearing loss, which is by far the most common kind of hearing loss, would not be able to hear the noise floor of the Kali speakers.
If you can deal with those caveats, then you can have a speaker that is far more linear and has a much wider dynamic range than any passive speaker at its price range, and it also spares you the expense of having to buy separate amplification. Likewise, the Hsu subs are pretty much unbeatable for raw performance for the dollar. The VTF15h mk2 is the one to get with the Outlaw processor because it can also handle XLR inputs. The Outlaw Model 976 processor is a crazy good deal because it uses XLR outputs and can be endlessly fine-tuned by the user if desired. While the Kali speakers can accommodate unbalanced inputs, you are really going to want to use the XLR inputs on them for best performance. A lot of unbalanced connections are just too noisy for studio gear, especially speakers as sensitive as the Kalis.
The PreSonus Eris E8 XT speakers are bit more expensive, but they do look nicer, in my opinion, and their sound quality is on par with the Kali LP-8 speakers. I don't think they can get quite as loud as the Kalis, but they can get pretty loud.
