Sorry in advance for the long post.
So I'm helping a wealthy friend in Manhattan put together his home theater system. The budget is way higher than mine... he didn't flinch at $5k for the fronts. He has a very tough space though. Loft style apartment with a HT area that is probably 20'w x 30'l x 12'h and the couches will stay on the opposite side versus the display (so ~25ft viewing and listening distance). He's got a 70" SXRD already. One side is all windows and the other side is almost completely open to the rest of the apartment. He wants to treat the room minimally (you don't pay for a wall of windows in Manhattan only to cover them in heavy drapes)... I may be able to convince him to panel the ceiling and back wall, and put in an area rug.
He is a classically trained pianist, but listens to a lot more hip-hop these days (RJD2 was his auditioning disc) and has not spent ANY time in front of real hi-fi. My suspicion is he will care more about fidelity for music than movies, but will definitely use the system for both. We did our first auditioning yesterday, and I found out that the most important thing to him will be a FULL sound. At least at first. He didn't care about the difference in midrange and highs until we were able to pressurize the room and really feel the sound, and we walked away disappointed from some very nice McIntosh and Sonus Faber towers that I suspect he would love if we had just augmented them with a sub. And that was in a smaller, closed listening room.
After talking with the good folks at AV123, I'm thinking the Focus Line Sources will be perfect for his budget and the space... less floor and ceiling reflections, less sound decay over the distance. He's willing to wait the 2 months until the LS6s come out (and maybe wait for the LS9s), but I'm not sure what to do about the rest of the system. The closest thing to a matched center (Ref 200) doesn't have a delivery date yet. And the center will have to work HARD during movies to get that sound across the room. I'm also thinking he'll need at least one, maybe two, subs even with those LS6s. Is the Rocket UFW-12 a good match or should be look elsewhere (SVS, Velodyne?)?
The other side of me says that especially since this is his first foray into good equipment, he won't need/appreciate the difference between mid and hi-fi, and we just need to find a him a very good (rather than amazing) system that can play LOUD. In which case, I'd go with Rocket 850s, 200 center, 250/300 surrounds, and dual UFW-12 subs and healthy amount of power (Emotiva IPS-1 or Rotel RMB-1095), but need to know in advance that they can get the sound across the room and really fill it up. Obviously I'd consider other companies... another friend in SF has some DefTechs that had no problem completely filling the room during a viewing of Kill Bill, but I think this untreated room will go crazy with their bipolar design.
Thoughts? We're auditioning some more on Thursday (including some Dali MegaLines), but I don't think any listening room will match his conditions.
