Need help with HTS for 12' X 14' X 10' media room

[66COUP]

I know, y'all are probably already tired of reading about people needing suggestions for a HTS, but I am really stumped.

We moved into a house last year that has a small media room with 10' vaulted ceilings and have been looking for a HTS that is small in size but still sounds good. I currently have the Yamaha HTR-5840BL and would like to run a basic 5.1 system, nothing fancy and under $1K for speakers and sub. With such a small space, speaker size is our main concern. We definitely dont have room to go with anything larger than a 12" sub. The speakers must be black - wife factor.

Everyone has suggested the Athena Micra 6, but Best Buy here no longer carries the black ones. I have also read good things about the HSU ventriloquist system, but I would like to hear them. We have gone to Best Buy, Circuit City, Tweeter, and Ultimate Electronics to test different brands out and listen to see which HTS we think sounds the best.

Ok, no offense, but Bose speakers have to be some of the worst sounding ones we heard. And the price is just ridiculous. The infinity, jbl, klh, and sony speakers are ok but just not good enough. The only ones that truly met our satisfaction are (in no particular order):

1. Polk RM6900 - almost too crisp of highs, sales rep said black not available
2. Klipsch Quintet with 10" sub - seems to have weak center channel, nice sub
3. KEF KHT 20052 - Sounded good, but looked really cheap
4. Athena Micra 6 - sound great, funky looking, but not available in black

What else am I missing? I have gotten to the point where I will just listen to what someone else suggests, this is too hard of a decision....

Really need something small/compact, that will fill a 12' X 14' X 10' room, under $1000 with sub, and in black. Am I asking for too much or being too picky?

TIA

 

[66COUP]

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[jimmit]

Given your budget, I'd go with:

mains - Paradigm Atoms $199/pr
Center - CC-170 $199
surrounds - ADP-170 $479/pr
sub - PDR-8 $319

See this link..

Buy all at once, negotiate well and probably get 10 - 15% off. That would put you at just a bit over a grand. These speakers are a little larger than "cube" speakers, but will sound soooooo much better.

 

[66COUP]

Ahh, thats what I am talking about. I completely forgot about Paradigm. I will take a look at some today after work. Thanks again.

 

[Takeereasy]

I'll do what I can for you here. First off on such a tight budget the Athena is really hard to beat, so here's a link to a reputable online store that is selling them in black for $300.00. Micra 6 Here's a system that may compete well (I liked it better in fact and it used to have an MSRP of $1500 but you can get it at this link for $600) Velodyne Deco System , and a great review can be found on this site review , but again not in black. Damn that WAF! (My slave driver, errr... I mean girlfriend acually puts stuffed animals, potted plants, and and pictures on top of my speakers) If you look around at the review of the Velodyne system you can also find a review of an RBH system that retails for $1099 that the review staff here really liked, I've never heard it but the people who run this site are the most unbiased reviewers I've seen yet so I'm sure you wont be dissapointed. Look at local paradigm dealers for a cinema series or even entry level perfomance series in your price range. If you can get them for the right price, then I'd suggest a pair of discontinued titans, a pair of atoms, and a cc170 center. Those and a PDR 10" will set you back about a grand on a good shopping day and make you very happy.

My number one suggestion is the following. It is the exact same system that I have, except for the sub which is better than mine, and It will kick the crap out of everthing else I listed so far. Best of all it comes in black, so you can have the love of your life put away the cat-o nine tails. I have priced it out for you all on clearance at $1056 US from the reatailers. Image 2Bs an Image 8C center and a HSU STF-2. I don't think you can do much better for the price, but to take this down to well under a grand switch out the HSU sub for the velodyne sub I mention below. It's not as nice as the HSU but you can swap it out at a later date (and probably even make money selling it). These speakers are fair sized bookshelves. I feel that they represent your best value because you won't need to upgrade them anytime soon if ever.

One thing to note, the speakers in the Micra system are pretty great for the price but the sub sucks the big one IMO. Pick up a different sub. I'm going to suggest this one Velodyne 10" because it is only $129.00. Can you do better for a 10" sub? Hell yes. For $129.00? Probably not without building your own. Sell the Micra sub on Ebay for $50.00. You can have the micra system and the improved sub for $429.00. Thats pretty cool.

Good luck with your purchase, hope this helps a bit.

 

[Takeereasy]

Darn yous Jimmit! Ya beat my post while I was typing. I really am kidding. I think your suggestion is great, it just looks like I'm repeating you.

 

[66COUP]

Thanks again!

 

[calgarianperson]

looking at a previous reccomendation im just wondering why you would spend 500 bucks on paradigm surrounds and only 200 on mains... aren't mains much more important and therefore the speaker you want the best of?

 

[anamorphic96]

Must agree with above post. Ditch the ADP 170's and put the Atoms in the rear and get some Titans up front and save 200 bucks. Or get a bigger sub with the money you save.

 

[jimmit]

I only suggested the ADP-170's because those are the surround speakers recommended by Paradigm to go with the Atoms. The suggestions by calgarianperson and anamorphic96 are very sound (no pun intended). Actually, there are any number of ways to go. One could move the Atoms to the rear and get larger Performance line speakers up front. One could go with Atoms all arround. One could actually go a little more slowly and end up with a better system -- get the Mini Monitors and the CC-370 up front and save up for the others speakers. There's no one way to do it.