Help with HT set up

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Long and short of it: got 'suckered' into buying a terrible brand of speakers about 5 years ago for a 5.1 set up in my HT room. Subwoofer blew up about a week ago, not worth fixing. Which leads me here. I'm looking to start replacing all of the speakers in my theatre room, starting with the blown subwoofer. With that in mind, here are my room dimensions, budget etc:

Rectangular room approximately 18.5 ' x 10.5' x 7.5 ' = 1450 cubic ft +/-
Front Row of seating is approximately 9' from the front tower speaker placement
Rear Row of seating is approximately 14' from the front tower speaker placement
Rear Row of seating is 16" higher than the front row via risers I built
Door is at the rear of the room on the right hand side (if facing the screen)
110" screen
Ceiling mounted Epson Projector is (basically) right above the 2nd row of seating
Prewired speaker wiring is at the back of the room
Yamaha RX-A2040 receiver

Right now, I've got the two front towers on either side of the screen. Center channel centered under the screen. Two bookshelves mounted in the corners on the wall behind the last row of seating. There was no prewired place for the subwoofer, so I had it on the floor behind the last row of seating.

As far as my budget goes, I'm looking at 10~20k Canadian, spread out over the next 1~2 years. Ideally I'd like to stay closer to the 10k mark, but going up to the 20k mark wouldn't break the budget (my wife would have something else to say though lol).

As for what I'm looking for, I'm not hung up on any particular brand. I've been doing a lot of research over the past week or so, and there are a plethora of great options out there. Obviously, I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. I'd like to get a 7.2.4 system in there, but the .4 is the sticking point, as I'm not sure how practical it is to get 4 ceiling speakers installed. I was thinking some bipole/dipole speakers hung on the side walls might be the better option.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read all of that. Any and all thoughts, comments, and advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

}Fear_Inoculum{

 

[mazersteven]

Premier 800F

4-driver, 3-way bass reflex floorstanding

www.paradigm.com

Premier 600C

6-driver, 3-way passive radiator bass reflex center channel*Stand not included

www.paradigm.com

Premier 200B

2-driver, 2-way bass reflex bookshelf*Stand not included

www.paradigm.com

Duals

PB-2000 Pro Subwoofer | SVS

The PB-2000 Pro subwoofer features legendary SVS technology for immersive home theater experiences.

www.svsound.com

Just need inceilings

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Premier 800F

4-driver, 3-way bass reflex floorstanding

www.paradigm.com

Premier 600C

6-driver, 3-way passive radiator bass reflex center channel*Stand not included

www.paradigm.com

Premier 200B

2-driver, 2-way bass reflex bookshelf*Stand not included

www.paradigm.com

Duals

PB-2000 Pro Subwoofer | SVS

The PB-2000 Pro subwoofer features legendary SVS technology for immersive home theater experiences.

www.svsound.com

Just need inceilings

I've actually been looking at the Paradigm Prestige Series over the last few days. Looking at:

Prestige 95F (Front Towers)
Prestige 55C (Center)
Prestige 2000 SW (Subwoofer)
Prestige 25S (Rear Surround. Not sure if it's a bipole/dipole?)
Prestige 15B (Bookshelf)

Think that would run me about 21k with tax, which is slightly above my max budget of 20k.

It seems to be quite the bump up in price, but I'm not sure if the extra money is worth the corresponding increase in performance? Also, the 25S might be overkill if I'm getting the 15B as well. Or vice versa. And then there is the fact that this set up will be used as strictly a HT set up about 99.9% of the time. Due to where the theatre room is in my house (downstairs, in the front, under the garage slab) it's impractical to use to for music in the rest of the house (3 floors, about 3k sq ft +/-).

Also, I was comparing the SVS PB-2000 Pro to the Monoprice Monolith 12 THX Select subwoofer. Going off of the review I saw on this site.

 

[shadyJ]

One thing you can do to greatly increase sound quality for back row listeners is to use an acoustically transparent screen and then use a center speaker that isn't set so low. An acoustically transparent screen will allow you to use identical front stage speakers, and also raise the center speaker to a height where it won't be occluded by the front row seating.

I like the idea of Paradigm Premier speakers. The Paradigm Defiance subs are also good, but I would just be looking at the X12 and X15 from that series. Also look at the SVS PB-3000 subwoofer. Whatever sub you get, plan to get two of them if possible.

For the surround speakers, if you can mount them in the ceiling/wall corner, that should be a pretty good compromise. Look at the SVS Elevation speakers for that, or similarly designed speakers.

 

[shadyJ]

I've actually been looking at the Paradigm Prestige Series over the last few days. Looking at:

Prestige 95F (Front Towers)
Prestige 55C (Center)
Prestige 2000 SW (Subwoofer)
Prestige 25S (Rear Surround. Not sure if it's a bipole/dipole?)
Prestige 15B (Bookshelf)

Think that would run me about 21k with tax, which is slightly above my max budget of 20k.

It seems to be quite the bump up in price, but I'm not sure if the extra money is worth the corresponding increase in performance? Also, the 25S might be overkill if I'm getting the 15B as well. Or vice versa. And then there is the fact that this set up will be used as strictly a HT set up about 99.9% of the time. Due to where the theatre room is in my house (downstairs, in the front, under the garage slab) it's impractical to use to for music in the rest of the house (3 floors, about 3k sq ft +/-).

Also, I was comparing the SVS PB-2000 Pro to the Monoprice Monolith 12 THX Select subwoofer. Going off of the review I saw on this site.

I think that the Premier series is better than the Prestige series, despite the price difference, to be honest. The Prestige series looks nice but the frequency response is a mess. The acoustic performance of the Premiers is very good, much better than the Prestige.

I would use bookshelf speakers for all bed surrounds, so just use bookshelf speakers for the side surrounds and rear surrounds. Stay away from dipole or bipole surrounds.

The Monoprice subs are great as are the SVS subs. For those 12"s, you will want at least two subs.

 

[mazersteven]

I also think when you factor in the Diminished Returns doubling the price you not getting double the sound quality. The sound quality goes up but in my opinion with the dimensions of your room you're not gaining that much for a home theater system. Now if you were looking for a 2-channel audio system for music I would look at it differently just my opinion. I like what Shady said the Defiance Subs are really nice too. I was also going to recommend the pb3000 also. The 2000's would perform great. The 3000's would Kill it.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

I think that the Premier series is better than the Prestige series, despite the price difference, to be honest. The Prestige series looks nice but the frequency response is a mess. The acoustic performance of the Premiers is very good, much better than the Prestige.

I would use bookshelf speakers for all bed surrounds, so just use bookshelf speakers for the side surrounds and rear surrounds. Stay away from dipole or bipole surrounds.

The Monoprice subs are great as are the SVS subs. For those 12"s, you will want at least two subs.

That's exactly the type of advice I'm looking for. Thanks.

A question about mixing different types of speaker manufacturers: from what I've been reading, it's not ideal. But that doesn't seem to extend to the subwoofer? So, if I'm going with a 7.2.4 set up, my 7 and 4 should all be the same manufacturer, but my 2 (woofers) it won't matter?

Thanks once again.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

I also think when you factor in the Diminished Returns doubling the price you not getting double the sound quality. The sound quality goes up but in my opinion with the dimensions of your room you're not gaining that much for a home theater system. Now if you were looking for a 2-channel audio system for music I would look at it differently just my opinion. I like what Shady said the Defiance Subs are really nice too. I was also going to recommend the pb3000 also. The 2000's would perform great. The 3000's would Kill it.

Excellent. Thanks. I kind of figured that would be the answer. And If I don't need to spend the (large) amount of extra money, then I won't. And my wife will be much happier too, so it's a win/win all around.

 

[mazersteven]

That's exactly the type of advice I'm looking for. Thanks.

A question about mixing different types of speaker manufacturers: from what I've been reading, it's not ideal. But that doesn't seem to extend to the subwoofer? So, if I'm going with a 7.2.4 set up, my 7 and 4 should all be the same manufacturer, but my 2 (woofers) it won't matter?

Thanks once again.

Subwoofers don't have to be from the same manufacturer.
Your front three L/C/R definitely have to be a match in my opinion. Your surrounds aren't as critical but in my opinion to keep a seamless home theater experience I like to have the surrounds in the same family and series as your mains.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Subwoofers don't have to be from the same manufacturer.
Your front three L/C/R definitely have to be a match in my opinion. Your surrounds aren't as critical but in my opinion to keep a seamless home theater experience I like to have the surrounds in the same family and series as your mains.

Yeah, that's what I was figuring. With that being said, I think I'll take your advice about the Paradigm Premiere Series speakers and get the 800F x2, 600C and 200B x4 (?) for the fronts, centre and surround. Now I have to decide on which subwoofers to get.

 

[shadyJ]

That's exactly the type of advice I'm looking for. Thanks.

A question about mixing different types of speaker manufacturers: from what I've been reading, it's not ideal. But that doesn't seem to extend to the subwoofer? So, if I'm going with a 7.2.4 set up, my 7 and 4 should all be the same manufacturer, but my 2 (woofers) it won't matter?

Thanks once again.

You will want your front stage speakers to match, tonally at least. The surrounds don't really matter as much. You just don't want a wild tonal mismatch with the fronts. The good news is that the Paradigm Premiers have a neutral tonality, so anything that aims for a flattish response will be a good match. So don't spend a lot on bookshelf speaker surrounds.

For bookshelf speaker surrounds, I would be looking at some Ascend CBM-170s as a less expensive alternative to the Paradigm Premier bookshelf speakers. I think some NHT C1s would also work well. I think KEF Q150s would also be good too.

As Mazer said, it doesn't matter at all for subs to match.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

You will want your front stage speakers to match, tonally at least. The surrounds don't really matter as much. You just don't want a wild tonal mismatch with the fronts. The good news is that the Paradigm Premiers have a neutral tonality, so anything that aims for a flattish response will be a good match. So don't spend a lot on bookshelf speaker surrounds.

For bookshelf speaker surrounds, I would be looking at some Ascend CBM-170s as a less expensive alternative to the Paradigm Premier bookshelf speakers. I think some NHT C1s would also work well. I think KEF Q150s would also be good too.

As Mazer said, it doesn't matter at all for subs to match.

The KEF Q-150s are actually more expensive here, than the Paradigm 200Bs ------> Amazon.ca has the KEF for 615$, the local Visions Electronics has them for 698$. Compared to the Paradigms for 599$. Too bad I didn't pick them up last week, as Visions had the 150s on sale for 348$ until last Thursday. I was in there on Wednesday and almost bought them too.

I'll take a look at the other 2 you mentioned as well.

 

[mazersteven]

Don't make things difficult just ask your dealer for a little discount and rock on

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

@shadyJ

Just looked up the NHT C1, and they're about the same cost as the Paradigm 200B, about 565$ for a pair on Amazon.ca

The Ascend aren't even available on Amazon.ca and shipping, plus duty = nightmare to Canada. Too bad really, as even with the 22% exchange rate they'd be very economical for a pair @ only 363$ Canadian pesos.

 

[mazersteven]

Ascend ships direct

Shipping

Domestic Orders: Domestic orders are generally shipped within 2-3 business days of order placement, provided all units are in stock. These orders are shipped by UPS ground and will take from 2-5 business days for delivery depending on your place of residence. For accurate transit times, please...

www.ascendacoustics.com

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Ascend ships direct

Shipping

Domestic Orders: Domestic orders are generally shipped within 2-3 business days of order placement, provided all units are in stock. These orders are shipped by UPS ground and will take from 2-5 business days for delivery depending on your place of residence. For accurate transit times, please...

www.ascendacoustics.com

I'll send them an email to see what they say. The shipping and duty might be a crazy amount. I tried to do an online calculation for it, but the duty calculators I found wouldn't let me add speakers as an option. TVs and other electronics had 0$ duty on them though.

 

[shadyJ]

@shadyJ

Just looked up the NHT C1, and they're about the same cost as the Paradigm 200B, about 565$ for a pair on Amazon.ca

The Ascend aren't even available on Amazon.ca and shipping, plus duty = nightmare to Canada. Too bad really, as even with the 22% exchange rate they'd be very economical for a pair @ only 363$ Canadian pesos.

Maybe also check out JBL Studio 530s or JBL A130s for some good inexpensive bookshelf speakers. They cost less than the Premier bookshelf in the US, maybe they also cost less in Canada.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Maybe also check out JBL Studio 530s or JBL A130s for some good inexpensive bookshelf speakers. They cost less than the Premier bookshelf in the US, maybe they also cost less in Canada.

Seems I was way off. The Paradigm are 599$ each, while most of the other speakers I was looking at were priced per pair. Substantially different prices.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

All’s I know is that screen name is masterpiece.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

All’s I know is that screen name is masterpiece.

I'm going to assume that's a compliment, and say thank you !