As I'm intending to multi-kill quite a few birds with one stone, I decided to create a thread in GENERAL.
To start with - I just got Wharfedale EVO 4.2 speakers as a gift. I haven't had any sound system prior, so this now means that I need the rest of the soundsystem pieces as well as extensive advice.
Region: UK and EU (can purchase in both regions conveniently).
The use case: music/TV/movies. Music is BY FAR the biggest priority.
Connectivity wise there will be 3 main sources of sound and that's TV, laptop and phone (by AUX is perfectly fine). TV and laptop will be the sound sources for 90% of the time.
What kind of music?
I'd say the distribution will be 40% electronic genres with instrumental/vocal inclusions (e.g. house, liquid DnB), 40% surgical electronic genres (e.g. techno, old school dubstep, breakbeat, minimal), 20% instrumental/vocal (e.g. classical rock, pop, old school hip hop, RnB).
What sound do I prefer?
I don't have much of soundsystem listening experience, but I'd say tight, punchy and deep bass is the foundation for my preference of sound and music. I also hate ear-splitting brightness, harsh treble. I know this is a newb-ish type of preference and I'm ready to stray away from it to some extent, but this is how I have to define it at the moment.
The budget for amp + subwoofer + speaker stands is £1000 (€1200/$1350), but I could bump it up by 10-15% if it's really worth it.
- The room. Here's the layout of the room in which the system will reside, it's size is ~26 sq. meters (~280 sq. feet). I know it's probably far from ideal with the big window, glass door, no barrier to stairs and one of the speakers almost unavoidably going to have to stand in a corner, but I want to make the most out of the worst. Will putting the speakers simply at the sides of TV on standing mounts work? Are there any tips to adapt it for better acoustic performance (apart from the obvious acoustic foam installation, which I do plan to do to some extent)?
- The amp. I'm eyeing Marantz PM6007 hard. It's available in the UK for ~£400, has very good reviews, great price, no unnecessary gimmicks, enough digital input ports for my use case, a sub output and it's downside of only 45W per channel should still be more than enough for the smallish room of mine. I've read that it may sound a bit bright, but I think it doesn't outweigh the positives. Do you agree or are there some other amps I should consider to pair with my Wharfedales? Also, IOTAVX SA3 seems to be an interesting option with a discount available for £400 as well. What do you think of it vs Marantz?
- The sub. I haven't fully decided if I need sealed or ported sub more and I hope you can help here as there are quite a few options. Reviews and my budget brought me to these subs so far: Q Acoustics Q B12 (£400), Polk HTS 12 (£420), Klipsch r-120sw (£450), Monolith 10in THX (£500). I am also considering more expensive options such as SVS SB-1000 Pro (£640), but I need to be sold on increasing my budget and spending over half of it on sub alone. Lastly, RSL Speedwoofer 10S is mentioned in recommendation lists often and AFAIK they deliver to anywhere in the world (although based in US), but unfortunately are out of stock at the moment, although I'm not in a rush and could wait for restock+delivery if it's overwhelmingly the best choice here (it would probably cost me ~£500 after all the customs taxes and shipping to UK).
- Speaker stands. Wharfedale's own stands for their EVO 4 series is £200. I see a lot of people use Bowers & Wilkins STAV 24 S2 stands for their EVO 4's and they do cost only half of Wharfedale's price (£100). Is the difference noticeable? What parameter of a stand should I check to make sure that it's compatible with my speakers?
Thank you in advance for answers.
