My current home theater speakers are nothing special, some old Polk M70 II towers. They're probably regarded as garbage by most people around here, but they've been pumping good audio for movies for us for over 10 years without any fancy amps off AVRs, they're about 90db sensitivity. I don't consider home theater to be a "critical listening" experience, mostly the big loud fun of a theater, so big speakers and some subs to bang out the fun without being crazy expensive. I run 4x 12" subs because I got them on heavy discounts (Polk PSW505's and BIC F12's). My other speakers for theater are an assortment, I have 4x M50's as extra towers as well as several pairs of M40's and M30's that I can use for surrounds, rears, heights, atmos, etc. I got a ton of these 10 years ago when Newegg was basically having a close out sale on them and they've been in constant use for a decade and have held up great despite being "trash." I generally don't care about all the extra stuff beyond 5.1 and 7.1 with respect to surround because all my content is AC3 5.1 or stereo. All DVD and streaming basically. I don't have blurrays or anything more. I'll continue to use a TV as it's just better contrast and simpler for us for gaming and movies with the kids and big TVs are affordable. Not quite ready for a projector.
My stereo setup is more for critical listening and I'm using a pair of Dennis Murphy crossovers in my Philharmonics with a integrated amp and tube based DAC. I have this in a separate space and this is strictly for my general music listening and for watching things privately in its own space with my workstation.
Anyhow, we are in a small home at the moment on lots of property out in the country side of Florida and soon to put a larger home on this property (we didn't have kids when we first moved here). So if we're going up to a larger home, I'm going to make sure I get a dedicated room for theater and games and so will close off and finish a two car garage to become a 2nd great room that will be closed off and dedicated to big home audio. I won't be changing out the speakers at this time, they're working and sound great for movies, as again, it's not critical listening, it's about the loud booms and larger than life experience and these M70 II towers are sensitive and get loud easy. It got me thinking more about center channels because with more space, I have the option to expand seating.
So yea the idea being how much more seating can I manage. I'll ideally want a sofa for front seating and will throw some bean bag types for the kids to move around with. But I may opt for a 2nd row on a raised platform for when the inlaws or a friend or parent is over and we want to watch something loud and things go rumble and boom.
But because its theater, I've just been thinking more about that center channel. My current tower does fine and will probably do ok for this new room. But it had me thinking about a bigger center. And of course when you go looking around, you mostly find these tiny little horizontal things being called a center in a series, expensive ones even, and I know enough to know that most of those designs are fairly not ideal and having lobbing issues (which is why I have a vertical tower as a center). But I don't know about some of the bigger, higher end massive centers, hence this thread.
If and when I change up my front stage, my current targets are 1099's or some PSA MTM-210-M's. Most probably the PSA's because its hard to get parts for a 1099 setup. My goal is to keep things sensitive so I can run things from mid-tier or high-tier AVR and avoid needing separates and just have a hot cooking room in Florida and fight my AC. And I was going to add two Marty Subs from GSG but they're not producing flat packs at the moment, so I will likely go with HSU Reseach subs (VTF3 MK5's x 2).
Very best,
