Change in setup -- room arrangement advice? (difficult room shape)

[lowmagnet]

I'm looking for a bit of help. I currently have:

Harman/Kardon AVR 110
Bose Acoustimass series 10 mk II
LG DU-42PX12x (720p plasma)

And I'm looking at Genelec monitors (the studio models, which are functionally identical to the ones they're selling to the HT market under different numbers) and possibly a new pre/processor to take advantage of balanced connections to the monitors. Probably Outlaw 990, given its balanced outputs.

I have a few problems however.

First, I have a pretty open floor-plan. my living room is 14x18x9 which then rises to a 6 foot vault rise, for a total of 3780 cu. ft. My dining room is to the side, and it's about 12x10x7, adding 840 sq ft. I live in a condo, so I'm not so concerned with big bass, so this could be a good thing. The room without furniture has a rug and the vault in the ceiling plus the extra dining room space make the area pretty quiet in the clap test.

The question I have here is related to room size. Since I'm in a condo, will I be able to control bass by having a subwoofer of a lower SPL?

The second is arranging the room in a more useful way. I have 3 pictures:

Original layout
Note: red thing is the couch, yellow is TV stand with TV, blue cubes are speakers (not rotated to their actual position, but point made I hope). Block on the left is the lower 'dining room' area (not being used as such currently) and the lower end of the vault is to the right on the diagram.

Option 1
Facing a broad tall wall in the opposite direction. Sliding glass door to right, open area to left. I used to have a projection on this wall. Catches sun often.

Option 2
Re-purposing the space to use the 'dining' room as viewing end of the set-up, couch under the vault and surrounds behind. Enough dead area exists behind the listening area, and this design would hopefully reduce the vault's effect by putting most of the sound in another smaller room. I could possibly get away with a smaller system here.

The only down-side of option 2 is it leaves the living room pretty empty. I could put the dining stuff in there but it would mean installing more lighting (easily done, of course)

Would it hurt to have the 8030A kit instead of the 8020A kit here since they could provide more output later if I move to a single-family dwelling? Also, both run everything through the sub on both of those for bass summing. Is this entirely necessary when running a pre-amp with bass management?

There is a HT-geared set up based on the 8020A (called HT-6020) that includes a different sub, but it seems to take only LFE in. I'd like to enjoy my system with music, and I'm concerned that if I'm not summing bass or managing it in the pre-amp that I'll be missing something with my music. Is this the case?

Sorry this is so long, but I really will try and respond to any response I get on this thread. (I've got it set to instantly email me) Thanks for reading it!

 

[bpape]

I personally like the original layout the best. It gives you the best seating options for good sound as well as giving you good symmetry left to right up front. To me, option 1 is a no-go and option 2 will not be as good as the original.

To control the bottom end, you'll simply have to tone down the sub when you do the calibration - condos are tough.

If you're looking at moving to a single family space later on, I think you'd be wise to get the 8030.

Bryan

 

[lowmagnet]

Thanks for the response. The bboard didn't email me however, so I didn't see it until now.

I pretty much feel the same about the set-up. I think I'm going to go this way:

Setup 1 (same as current) with:

8030A LSE Triple Play set to start it off. Source Benchmark DAC1 attached to my Mac Mini.

Later on a 3rd 8030A for my center, two 8020As for surrounds, and an Outlaw 990 to pre-pro it.

 

[bpape]

Nice source with the Benchmark DAC and the Mac.

Bryan

 

[Pwner_2130]

Go with option 2. The fact that the speakers are closer will enhance your surround effect and its nice to kind of hide away your system in a nice little area like in Option 2

 

[lowmagnet]

I heard the Genelec 8020A equivalent (6020A HT speakers) and they were perfectly clear driven by one of those silly audiophile CD players and even sillier transparent cables. So yeah I like the clarity of the Genelec sound. But room-filling may not be possible from such a small speaker at the 600/channel price point. If anyone has other experience, let me know.

So now I'm also looking at Mackie 624, 626 and 824 as the powered monitors. They may be a bit overpowering and deep though. Again, condo.

Guy at the store asked if I wanted to 'audition' (Like they're stage performers. I like the monosyllabic 'try' just fine, thanks.) Transparent brand ICs at home... I told him that I don't use interconnects in my current listening setup (USB/DAC1/Headphones) so I'd have no place to plug them. Never-mind that I didn't mention they couldn't possibly improve the Bose set-up. Lipstick, meet paper pig.

Yeah, position two is also nice. Every bit as asymmetric as position one. darned open floor plans. Next place may have to be custom built.