home theater advice

[jcparks]

Ok so I'm sure you guys have had this a million times, but lets make it a million and 1...

In the next year I will be purchasing a new home theater. I'm going to try to keep my budget under $3000. Budgeting 500 for the receiver that leaves about 2500 for 5.1 speakers.
My living room is about 13.5' x 25' but the home theater will occupy 13.5 by about 15 or so feet, distance from couch to tv.
The speakers that I purchase will likely have to last me the next 30 years and, to the wife happy, they have to be look good.
I auditioned the Definitive Tech BP8060. They created an awesome sound stage, and I love the idea of built in subs. They totally passed the wife test as well, she liked them alot. They did however strike me as a bit bottom heavy. However it could have been because the sales man dialed the bass all the way up.
I'm going to test drive the Goldenear Triton 3 next week, again love the idea of the built in sub.
The NHT absolute system caught my eye while surfing today.
Other then that, I'm looking for more suggestions.
So if you guys could throw some ideas and opinions out there for me. I have to do a lot of listening and shopping to do, but I dont want to take this lightly as I plan on having this set of speakers for, well forever.
Oh they will probably be used 70/30 movies/music, and I mainly listen to classic rock/alternative, modern pop, and hiphop music styles. My wife has the sameish musical tastes, with some crazy early 2000's techno thrown in.
Thanks in advanced for the help..
-Chris

 

[tmurnin]

Are you locked in to towers or open to bookshelves? If you are wiling to look at bookshelves, I would take a serious look at the Ascend Sierra-1's or the Aperion Verus Grands with either matching center. Then get the Ascend 200's or the Aperion Intimus 4BP for surrounds and pick up two VTF-2 subs from HSU. Either should match your budget and sound great. I'm personally partial to the Aperions - if for nothing other than their customer service policies -but there are plenty of folks who love the Sierras as well. From my standpoint, a great pair of bookshelves matched to a good subwoofer is a better value than towers. Plenty of people disagree and love their towers, so you have to decide what is right for you sonically and aesthetically first.

 

[ImcLoud]

I like bookshelfs vs towers for HT.

If your purchase isnt for a while, a lot can change in ht and fast, so, Im not saying your early efforts aren't good, just that new stuff comes out sales end and sales start all the time... Sales, Demos, ID, and closeouts will give you a lot for your money...

If you are going for looks and quality,
How about the Focals Accessories4less: High End Audio at Low End Prices!
Music direct has a matching set of bookshelfs for surrounds for $450 so even if you get the triples, the center and the bookshelfs you will only be around $1700, but i would get the double and for surrounds a pair of fluance bipoles for $120 that would put you around $1200 leaving you enough for a ULS-15 Subwoofer or https://www.svsound.com/subwoofers/sealed-box/sb13-ultra#.UmJk1FCURD0 both of which have a lot of output and are wife friendly, vs some of the other monsters that are out there... If you can get away with dual subs, dont mind satin lack another option would be the vtf2's, you can get 2 of them and that would be a lot of output, but they aren't easy on the eye {I own 2}....

But obviously these sales are gone soon and may not be realistic, for a avr look into a refurbished Denon and just pick the one in your price rane with the features you want...

 

[jcparks]

Thanks guys. I really like aperions website, the 30 day in home audition is awesome, and it looks like there are a few places in San Jose for me to listen to the focals. Thanks for those suggestions guys. To answer the question, im totally not opposed to bookshelves at all, I've just read many a publication that said towers were stronger musically. I also think the right towers can be very attractive.

 

[jcparks]

Oh hey totally forgot to introduce myself...
Hey guys I'm new to the board. My name is Chris I'm early/mid 30s and I live in sunny California, Monterey county. I've been intrigued by audio since a young age but Ive never really been in a place where I could purchase something nice for myself. I finally bought my first house last year, I just got my wife on board, and the nice speakers are in my near future.
A little about my current set up.
I have a set of book shelf JBL Venue series, Monitors that I purchased off Ebay from Harmon/Kardon direct for around 45 dollars. I am using a Mirage AVS 100's for the center and surround speakers that I picked up at a pawn shop for 30 dollars, and I have an infinity ps210w sub, again H/K ebay store under 150. My receiver is a Harmon/Kardon AVR145, its old, no HDMI, and for some reason the center channel amp has stopped working... it needs to go, yesterday.
Upstairs on my PC I have a old set of Energy Take 5 speakers with an Energy XL:S8 sub that I picked up at a swap meet for 35 dollars for the set. I only have 2 channels running through a little Lepai amplifier right now, but I will be doing more treasure hunting for a 5 channel amp solution for them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I like towers, but they take the budget away from subs & AVR.

Towers + dual subs would be nice, but that would push your budget.

Gotta have separate subs.

If you can get a Denon 3312 or 3313 for ~ $500 from places like Electronics Expo on the phone, etc., that would be good. I highly recommend Audyssey XT DEQ for this price range (XT32 would be $1K).

The built-in subs will not perform as well as separate subs. If space is a concern (real estate for both speakers + subs), you can place 2 bookshelf on wood stands atop the 2 subs, which will be like 2 towers, except the bass will be better.

Here is a pic of my KEF bookshelf on stands atop my RBH subs & the TAD bookshelf atop Funk subs:

 

[Scumfrog]

Def techs, to me are great for movies and wonderful for multi-channel audio. Pink Floyd, Dark Side Of The Moon sounds wonderful! If you are going to use them for extensive stereo listening, the bi-polar sound may not be for you. However, you may enjoy the big, almost colossal sweet spot. The powered towers are very effective in the low end of the audio spectrum. Golden Ear Tritons are very nice as well and designed by Sandy Gross, the founder of Def-Tech. I demoed a pair of book shelf speaks with a tube integrated amp. Impressive! I may buy them for my audio-stereo-listening. Another brand that I like is Kirksaeter. Not very well known-or very well marketed-they have very tight bass and nice balance through the mid and highs. You can enjoy music and movies w/o a sub and still be very satisfied. I have two pairs of the Prisma towers and a center.They are fed by an NAD 758 receiver-under rated in their power btw-and fill my large family room with enjoyable sound. When I listen to music, I turn off the sub and truly enjoy the music. The other brands that have been mentioned are fine choices as well. PSB, NHT and the others are great. You can't make a bad choice.
Good listening,
Scumfrog

 

[Jim Hawkins]

Def techs, to me are great for movies and wonderful for multi-channel audio. Pink Floyd, Dark Side Of The Moon sounds wonderful! If you are going to use them for extensive stereo listening, the bi-polar sound may not be for you. However, you may enjoy the big, almost colossal sweet spot. The powered towers are very effective in the low end of the audio spectrum. Golden Ear Tritons are very nice as well and designed by Sandy Gross, the founder of Def-Tech. I demoed a pair of book shelf speaks with a tube integrated amp. Impressive! I may buy them for my audio-stereo-listening. Another brand that I like is Kirksaeter. Not very well known-or very well marketed-they have very tight bass and nice balance through the mid and highs. You can enjoy music and movies w/o a sub and still be very satisfied. I have two pairs of the Prisma towers and a center.They are fed by an NAD 758 receiver-under rated in their power btw-and fill my large family room with enjoyable sound. When I listen to music, I turn off the sub and truly enjoy the music. The other brands that have been mentioned are fine choices as well. PSB, NHT and the others are great. You can't make a bad choice.
Good listening,
Scumfrog

I agree with this mostly. I have only been into the audio hobby for a few years. I started out doing it for movies and then have really focused on music in the last two years. I scheduled an appointment at the local Hi Fi shop to listen to some Magnepan 1.7's. When I first started listening to them I thought "wow, that is quite a bit of slam for a non cone driver speaker". My friend and I listened to them for about 20 minutes and we both agreed that they sounded good but a little funny. Not what we expected. I got up and went to look at the back side of them to size up how they would fit in my office and found that we had been listening to B&W CM8's the entire time. We both laughed for a bit. We then asked sales guy to switch to the right speakers and he sheepishly changed them over. We listened to them for about another 20 minutes and I realized that I like them but not loved them. Before I walked in the store if you had asked me what speakers I planned on getting next I would have said Magnepan 1.7's. Now I realized that for my purposes I need something that has more flexibility and not so touchy. I like the feel of those CM8's. Not that I plan on buying them but it helped me to realize what I want and what will work for my purposes.

 

[Scumfrog]

Interesting story. i guess the moral to the story is that your ears don't lie. Let us know what you end up getting.
Good listening
Scumfrog

 

[jcparks]

Well the wife got a kitchen aide standmixer and a 300 dollar set of Calphalon pots and pans for Christmas so the speakers go on hold for a bit... I auditioned the Goldenear Triton 2 today, awesome sound stage, and very warm, but I think I am looking for a brighter sound, Also listened to some Paradigm Mini monitors with a paradigm sub which I liked them more then the Goldenears, but over all I still prefer the def tech 8060s. The search continues...