New Home rethinking my rig

Eric2XU

Eric2XU

Audiophyte
First post so please be gentle. It also won't help that I am currently an owner of Bose Acoustimass 5.1 Speakers (dual cubes). On a brighter note my amp is a Marantz SR5010 which I think is pretty good.

Just to sent a benchmark, I think my current setup is "pretty good". Movies sound great, TV is better than most, bass for non-music is pretty good. Music does suffer a bit but not increabilty. Mostly I am not a fan of the bass reproduction or the music filling the room but there are plenty of days I lay down on the couch, turn up the music and for the most part am pretty pleased.

That all said, I am building a new home and had it prewired for 7.1 plus an extra 4 speakers (2 to the back kitchen and 2 to the outdoor patio).

The extra 4 speakers for kitchen and patio I am going to take RCA out to another amp. I dont personally care too much about the audio quality of these, they will just be used to extend the main zone from time to time when we have parties. My first thought is power them from a spare pioneer elite I had before the Marantz and output to something like this:

smile.amazon.com/Theater-Solutions-TS6DV-Selector-Controls/dp/B00K2GAZI4

Any recommendations on something there I can control the volume of 4 speaker outputs that is around 100$ or less?

Ok with that out the way, more importantly, new speakers. I was about to order two more bose cubes when I realized I the amp doesn't have hookups for them so if I went the cheap way I would have to run two sets of bose cubes directly off the amp which I doubt would work well. So now I am thinking, time for a minor upgrade. Only working off of reviews on Amazon I found these:

smile.amazon.com/Onkyo-SKS-HT540-Channel-Theater-Speaker/dp/B000GU78Z4 (Onkyo SKS-HT540 7.1)

But that's just me googling. What do you recommend in the same price range? I dont mind buying used stuff off ebay ether.

What is a good inceiling speaker and can they be as good as a smaller form factor speaker mounted?
What is a good on wall speaker for my front left and right?
What is a good center channel?
What is a good bass tube?

Any advice would be great. Thank you wise ones!
 
Eric2XU

Eric2XU

Audiophyte
So I was hoping for a speaker selector that also had volume control per speaker. Any thoughts to a good one?

The room is 16ftx18ftx9ft but the 16 (front to back) is open in the back to the kitchen area which is another 12x18 roughly. Heres a photo:

2018-06-24_6-31-49.jpg

Budget, its flexible but at 250 for the Onkyo SKS HT540 I would want to know just how much better it can get for more money. Everything I read said they are unbeatable at that price range. I guess my question would be whats the best in the next two price ranges I suppose.

I dont mind installing smaller speakers on mounts in the ceiling if it means better sound but if they did have in ceiling speakers what were awesome my wife would be happier.

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to any advise anyone can provide.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
So I was hoping for a speaker selector that also had volume control per speaker. Any thoughts to a good one?

The room is 16ftx18ftx9ft but the 16 (front to back) is open in the back to the kitchen area which is another 12x18 roughly. Heres a photo:

View attachment 24692

Budget, its flexible but at 250 for the Onkyo SKS HT540 I would want to know just how much better it can get for more money. Everything I read said they are unbeatable at that price range. I guess my question would be whats the best in the next two price ranges I suppose.

I dont mind installing smaller speakers on mounts in the ceiling if it means better sound but if they did have in ceiling speakers what were awesome my wife would be happier.

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to any advise anyone can provide.
A speaker selector with VC is gonna be about $50 more. Cheap selectors dont offer any real protection circuits.

The onkyo package maybe great in that price range, but typically that's a unrealistic price range for good gear. One thing for sure will be that the sub in that system wont hold up well in your large room. If your not budgeting more than that, its probably a good option, however I recommend you go listen to speakers to get an idea what's out there. The ones I linked are not in stores so your going recommendations, but they are from here so you can trust them.

If you can up your budget it would benefit you greatly.
 
Eric2XU

Eric2XU

Audiophyte
Figured as much. What do I need to set my budget at? Is 500 enough, do I need to go north of 1k? The basic benchmark I am trying to achieve is equal or slightly better then the Bose system I had which I would think is a low bar cpnsideeing how people bash them.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
Figured as much. What do I need to set my budget at? Is 500 enough, do I need to go north of 1k? The basic benchmark I am trying to achieve is equal or slightly better then the Bose system I had which I would think is a low bar cpnsideeing how people bash them.
Between 6 and 1k would be a great start. The ones I linked plus this sub
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-2mk5.html
Would be a great system for movies or music. The speakers play like the cost 3x more than they are.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
You can use in ceiling speakers like the 6" version of the one you originally linked for the surrounds and get away with it fwiw.
 

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