Energy take classic with Better Sub or micro (placement Question as well)

[goldorak]

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum and posted one question before about getting a receiver which until now i am convinced to get a pioneer elite sc-05.

Now for the speakers i have my eye on two possibilities (after making a good research and taking my space options in my living room and budget into consideration):
option 1: the energy take classic 5 pack with two possible subwoofers which are the s10.3 or the ESW-V8 (if you can advise which is better it would be good because i am somehow limited by the weight as i am taking it back by plane to my country?.

option 2: The energy take micro 5.1 since they have smaller size and more powerfull sattelites as i have heard.


Now my room is around 16x15 feet and 10 feet high ceiling, this is the room that should be covered by the surround sound, but it is not an enclosed room, i.e. it has one full open side to a wider area that is double the size i am talking about, but the sounds seems to be pretty contained inside the area i mentioned above without loosing its energy to the open area.

I will position the rear sattelites directly on the wall behind my ears and at somehow ear level due to aesthetics concerns (i.e. on a line 20 cm parallelto where i am sitting but on the sides of my ears, dont worry a 1.5 meter far from each ear ).

i am concerned with the following two main things in regards of choosing amongst the above options:

One: if i get the energy take classic, the sattellites are somehow a little large to put on brackets on the wall, so most probably i will have to flush mount them on the wall behind me and thus cannot direct them towards my ear or middle of the listening area, they will be pointing in the same direction as my head towards the 40 inch HDTV.
two: if i get the energy take micro, i would be able to put them with brackets and direct them with an angle towards the listening area, they are of higher power then the classic, but the woofer is less powerfull then the ones i am thinking of with the energy take classic.

Sorry for the long description, but which option should i go with? (if it may help, i like watching blue rays and DVDs more then listening to music (I still like music from time to time), and i might not always be able to listen to full power of the speakers due to the neighbors especially that i watch movies at night.

Your opinions and suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

[m_vanmeter]

first off, what do you mean by the micro's are "more powerful" ? They may be able to handle more raw power, but for speakers that small I doubt even with more amplifier power they are "more powerful". They are passive devices, driven by power from the receiver or amplifier.

Your room is 2,400 cubic feet of volume, and open on the sides as well....I fear you are heading in the wrong direction seeking "smaller" speakers. That is a lot of volume to fill, and attempt to create a soundfield in, with a set of small drivers. In the case of the RC-Micro speakers, they only have a 2 1/2" woofer (if you can even call a speaker that small a woofer ???). The Take Classic satellites have only a 3" woofer/mid. The danger is in you larger volume room, the speakers become point sources of sound, independent of each other and a 5.1 dolby digital soundfield is never really created.

 

[goldorak]

some update, so how to proceed?

Thank you m_vanmeter for the reply. your words made me think things over, but i need to say that my room is open from one side only to the larger space (I tried to draw it here but the drawing didnt work)

so the living room is somehow closed within 3 walls and part of a wall on the 4th side. I have rechecked the real size of the room as i was approximating and it is (4x3.5) in meter so (13.2x11.55) feet, the ceiling is 3 meter high, so around 9.9 feet, so it is in fact 1509 cubic feet if we want to be more accurate (at first i was approximating since i didnt take into account what you have just said). but still it is open to a wider area from this one partial side.

and what i meant by the micros being more powerfull is that they can take 150 watts instead of 100 for the classic as i understood from the specs (I could be wrong), but could i go with any of these for my room since i have updated the dimensions as per above? is it ok to flush mount the classic with the wall?

I was using a very modest 5.1 surround with my htpc which is the mercury Ht5800 (20 watt satellites and 50 watt woofer), loud sound but not that quality, cheap speakers though, they gave loud voice but i felt i need something little more professional. it was ok, but of course far from what we are speaking of here. The room aestetics seemed to conserve the sound, most of my friends (normal people not audioholics) would say the sound was pretty loud and asked me to lower the sound.

What would you advise me to do specially that i feel that the energy take classic or micro speakers seem to fit the budget and size? should i go with the classics and a large subwoofer such as the s10.3 or ESW-v8, they are 200 watts rms subwoofers, isnt that enough?

would appreciate your comment and suggestions.

 

[m_vanmeter]

the 10" subwoofer would be your best bet. As far as Take Classic vs. RC-Micro I'm afraid that will be your call. I can't imagine there is much difference between the two other than the RC series is a step up from the Take series, price wise at least. If you are working with a local dealer, perhaps he will allow you to try each to determine which works best in your room environment.

As you have found out, loud sound does not equal good sound. When you are pushing your receiver and your speakers to their limit trying to fill a room, the resulting sound is not good.

 

[talljonny]

So what's the conclusion ?

so which subwoofer is better, the Take Classics ESW-8HG or RC Micro's ESW-C8, based on performance and specifications ?