Help With New Set Up

[pluckem]

I am looking for help with a new HT set up. Recently moved into a new home and need to furnish and set up the basement.

Old 6.1 set-up was bought 7 years ago and I am wondering if I should keep the old speakers or if I would notice any improvement by going a different route. New system will have ~60" HDTV wall mounted flat screen.

Room is 11.5' x 15' rectangular. TV on 1 15' wall, couch (thinking sectional) on the other. Entrance on 1 side of 11.5' wall, sliding patio door on the other. Not the ideal set-up but its all I got to work with.

I will be purchasing the TV, Blue-ray player, and new AVR. Usage will mainly be movies, sports, general TV.

I was hoping to use my old speakers, however one issue I have with them is they are big. Each of the 6 speakers must be 6"x30" and the room is relatively small.

I like researching new technology and I know a fair share about the video aspect of HT's, however I have never had to much knowledge of speakers.

Is Yamaha known for a quality speaker?
If I would buy new speakers I would like them to be smaller to take up less wall or floor space.
I guess I just dont know how my 7 year old speakers stack up to what is out there now.

Let me know your thoughts and how you would proceed with speaker set-up given the room I have to work with. Thanks for any help.


Old 6.1 system: Yamaha's YHT-F1500 - 6.1 Ch Home Theater in a Box system

Info from Website:

Voice Matched Speaker System Package (NS-AP9500)
2 Main Speakers with Stands, 3 Surround Speakers, 1 Center Channel Speaker Optional Tabletop Speaker Stands Available

* 3-Way Acoustic Suspension Magnetically Shielded Speakers
* Quad 4" High Compliance Woofers
* 3/4" Dome Tweeter
* 100Hz to 40kHz Frequency Range
* Magnetically Shielded Speakers

Each 3-way speaker in the NS-AP9500 ensemble uses a sealed, acoustic-suspension design with Quad 4-inch high-compliance pulp-cone woofers and a .75-inch soft-dome tweeter.

TYPE: 3 Way Acoustic Suspension, magnetically shielded

DRIVER COMPLEMENT: 4” High Compliance Cone and Rubber Surround x 4
3/4" soft dome tweeter

INPUT POWER: 120 watts music power

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 100Hz-40kHz

SENSITIVITY: 83dB/2.83v/1m

IMPEDANCE: 6 Ohms

DIMENSIONS: (H x W x D) 23 7/8” x 7 3/8” x 4”

WEIGHT: 7.9 lbs/ea


Powered Subwoofer (YST-SW030)

* High Power 130W Advanced YST Subwoofer
* QD Bass Technology
* 8" Driver
* Frequency Response: 28Hz to 200Hz

 

[pluckem]

Ill add some more information. The new home is a town home so we do share a wall with the neighbors, however there is a bathroom and bedroom in between the HT room and the shared wall.

Since the shopping list is already long I was thinking about different ways to use some of the speakers I have now and incorporate some new speakers to improve or upgrade the system. This way I could keep the budget down but still buy quality components.

I usually buy high quality so I dont ever feel the need to upgrade in the future. However I still pay attention to value and dont feel the need to double the price when you are only improving the performance 10%.

Thanks for reading and any future help.

 

[shadyJ]

It's hard to say if a sound system upgrade will be worth it for you, since everyone perceives these sort of things differently. It's also hard to make a recommendation for you, since you haven't specified how much you are willing to spend.

I will say you can make a dramatic improvement on the subwoofer, for just a few hundred dollars, for that I would be looking at the BIC Acoustech PL200 or Hsu research STF2. If you are willing spend a couple hundred more than that, check out the Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Plus, Hsu Reseach VTF2, or SVS PB12 NSD; the sub you have now will be hilariously outclassed by those.

As for value speakers, the consensus around here is the Behringer 2030p's perform way above their price point, do a forum search on here to see what I mean or just make a post asking about it. Another well regarded, inexpensive speaker is the Infinity Primus series, specifically the P362 towers or p162 bookshelf speakers. I have those and they aren't joking, those are absolutely knockout speakers for the money. I think either one of those will be a big step up from the Yamaha's.

 

[pluckem]

Thanks for the reply. This is the kind of reply I was looking for.
Just something to get me thinking in the right direction. Since the main use of this HT will be for movies, I like the suggestion for a new sub and $200 is doable there.

Since the new set-up will require the couch to be placed against the back wall do you see any advantage with going with anything above a 5.1 system? If I went with a center back it would have to be placed on the wall and probably angled slightly down.

Or maybe I could go 7.1 with the 2 side surrounds facing seating and 2 back surrounds but since those back surrounds will only be a foot or so from the listener I dont know if this will be ideal. I dont know, I guess I have some researching to do.

I am thinking, to start, I will replace the sub and either the center, fronts, or surrounds. knowing the other speakers will be the Yamaha's listed above, what would you recommend would be the best route? For a HT system with an emphasis on movies what is considered the most important speaker/s?

 

[shadyJ]

Thanks for the reply. This is the kind of reply I was looking for.
Just something to get me thinking in the right direction. Since the main use of this HT will be for movies, I like the suggestion for a new sub and $200 is doable there.

Since the new set-up will require the couch to be placed against the back wall do you see any advantage with going with anything above a 5.1 system? If I went with a center back it would have to be placed on the wall and probably angled slightly down.

When you are seated against a wall, 5.1 becomes awkward. Reflection off of the wall can really make the rear channels sound ugly. If you really want those rear channels, you should put something on the wall that will dampen the acoustics. Anything fabricy or foamy will work, look into room treatments for sound. Personally, I would just skip the rear speakers, they are by far the least important channels of sound in home theater. Most movies rarely put them to any kind of use anyway.

Or maybe I could go 7.1 with the 2 side surrounds facing seating and 2 back surrounds but since those back surrounds will only be a foot or so from the listener I dont know if this will be ideal. I dont know, I guess I have some researching to do.

I wouldn't go for 7.1 in your position, that would be very awkward. The only real advantages of 7.1 are in larger rooms where you are seated squarely in the middle of the room- and even then, it's debatable.

I am thinking, to start, I will replace the sub and either the center, fronts, or surrounds. knowing the other speakers will be the Yamaha's listed above, what would you recommend would be the best route? For a HT system with an emphasis on movies what is considered the most important speaker/s?

I would replace the entire front stage (left/center/right speakers) at the same time. There is no point in not doing that, because they should all be matching speakers anyway. After that, do the sub. If you want the best bang for your buck with subwoofers, you need to buy internet direct brands (unless you can build them yourself). Any store bought subwoofer will be a relatively poor value compared to the performance of internet direct brands, such as Hsu Research, Outlaw Audio, and Elemental Designs. Like I said previously, if you are on a tight budget, check out the BIC Acoustech PL-200. You can get that for less than 300- just do some searching to find out how.