I need some advice and ideas for building a 5.1 system from what I already have. Sorry for the long winded description, but I wanted to paint the best picture of my room as possible and get your suggestions.
Here is where we are right now:
Rcvr = HK AVR-525
Front Speakers = 1 pair of 3-way speakers each with one ribbon tweeter, one 5.5" mid, and a Peavey Lo Max 15" woofer. They run flat down to about 35 Hz after re-porting my cabinets correctly. They are pretty big with an internal volume of 6.5 feet each.
The boxes are my design and seem to serve well for stereo, but we would like to add two speakers in the ceiling above and to either side of our sofa for the side/rear channels, some form of a center channel, and a sub to extend the bass down further than 35 Hz.
The problem with my house is that there is limited room on the floor (read that as none), so we put the two stereo cabinets up on a large 2' deep shelf 8' above the floor. I really needed a forklift to get them there!
Between the two cabinets is a pull-down screen for the projector, so any center speaker either needs to go above the screen or perhaps on the floor below the screen. The sub probably needs to also go above the screen between the stereo cabinets due to limitations of space.
Lastly, we need to put the "rear" speakers in the ceiling, which slopes down to 8' high above the sofa.
The HT room joins an open kitchen. So the room size is about 15' by 30+' with half dedicated to the HT. This means the HT room has three walls and the sofa is against one of the long walls and the projector screen opposite the sofa.
I know this is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but this is what we have to work with, so I am asking for help and ideas on how to make this work best. My budget is $1,000 or less, but I am flexible if I need to be.
My first questions are:
1. What is a good recommended ceiling speaker for the two speakers above the sofa?
2. I would like to build my own sub to compliment the two 15" woofers in my stereo cabinet. What would be a good efficient driver to use?
3. What would be a good recommendation for building a center speaker? Should I get another set of the same ribbon tweeter and 5.5" mid and a smaller woofer?
4. What other questions should I be asking?
Thanks in advance,
Loren
