Newish to AV. 7k budget for audio. Dedicated theater room. I love good advice.

[Soundwave]

Hello all!

I am an Engineer by trade in the Rapid Prototyping Industry (3D Printing) so the concepts of Electricity are not lost upon me, so don't be afraid to be technical.

I have recently purchased a home with a dedicated theater room (the house is being built).

The theater room is 20ft x 16ft with 8 or 10 ft ceilings. It is rectangular. I have opted to have a riser installed in the back. Wiring is being done by a company called ranger, I do not know the gauge or wiring type as of yet. They are running a "smurf tube" to the position of the projector for easy wire runs. The receiver, amps and outlets will be run to the back of the room to keep the blinky lights out of view during movie watching.

I am considering going with a 7.1 set up with height speakers. I was looking at doing two towers up front for L/R with an additional two towers at the rear for back surrounds. The side channels will probably be on wall. I was looking at the Axiom Epic 80, the Aperion Grand for a complete system....or....A pair of Pendragons up front and back with other speakers ( I don't know what ) doing the side and height channels. My wife would probably prefer in wall, but......so long as the system rocks, I don't think she will mind either way.


My receiver is currently an Onkyo NR 509. I am considering replacing this with a yamaha 3020, 3010 or 2020. My current speakers are Jamo s426 (Not great, but not terrible) and I am considering using the 426 towers for rear surround....Not totally sure on that though...they sound alrightish, but don't have much oomph.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[shadyJ]

$7k? I would be looking at JTR for speakers and subs. Also Seaton Sound and Funk Audio for subs. A $7k JTR system could get you to genuine THX Reference level, and Axiom or Aperion system has no chance of doing that although they do look prettier. For JTRs, you will want a receiver that can drive 4 ohm speakers- the Yamaha 3000s can drive 4 ohm speakers so you are good there. The Jamos probably wouldn't make for terrible surround speakers, but you will want to find a way to elevate them, you will want them above the listening position and aimed downward at the listeners' ears. Probably a bit awkward to do with towers, so I would just sell them and get some easy to mount bookshelf speakers with some punch, check out some Klipsch RB-61s, RB-51s, and Hsu HB-1 mk2s. Mount them with some good mounts like these Videosecu mounts or these AM40 Pinpoint mounts. You would want to do that with the height channels as well as surrounds.

By the way, you might want to keep your equipment in a cabinet, if only to keep equipment lights from lessening the contrast of your projected picture.

 

[Soundwave]

Wow JTR looks nice. The video of the Triple 8's outside is insane. Will those overpower a room, and how well do they handle higher freq. sound without a tweeter? Or would i need a different center?

 

[shadyJ]

Wow JTR looks nice. The video of the Triple 8's outside is insane. Will those overpower a room, and how well do they handle higher freq. sound without a tweeter? Or would i need a different center?

Lol, they are using coaxial drivers, that means a tweeter is mounted in the middle of the central midwoofer. This is a great war of getting smooth off-axis frequency response, so it isn't all about just getting loud, it's about hitting peaks with no compression, having extremely low distortion at any SPL, having a wide listening area, and having crisp, clear sound at any volume level. And they won't overpower your room, unless of course you turn the volume waaay up. For a JTR front stage, all speakers would be the same, including the center.

 

[Soundwave]

Sorry, lol....I'm pretty much a neophyte of speaker design. I understand what you are saying with off axis freq response, and if Coaxial drivers make that happen then AWESOME!

So 3 triple 8's up front with a growler? Any recommendations for sides, height and rear, or are those of less concern?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

$7K for AVR, speakers, & subs for a 16' x 20' room?

Do the speakers need to have grilles? Because the KEF LS50 ($750 each) are excellent speakers, but they don't have grilles.

 

[shadyJ]

Three triple 8s up front with a Growler would be an incredible system, we are talking competitive with almost any commercial cinema. You ought to know what you are getting yourself into though, here is a thread discussing JTR products. I would also shoot Jeff at JTR an email, or call him up, and discuss what you want to achieve and what he can do for you. Sides, heights, and surrounds won't be as big of a deal, with a JTR system you would ideally get some slanted 8s as surrounds to go with Triple 8s, but those are awfully expensive for surrounds, I think you could easily get away with some Klipsch or Hsu bookshelf speakers as surrounds for a JTR system.

 

[Soundwave]

Acudef....that is incredible. My wife would kill me though. lol.

 

[adk highlander]

Welcome to the forum Soundwave. JTR make's some very nice speakers and should be on your list of options. If possible you should take a look around where you live and see what dealers are around so you can go in and demo speakers. You need to find what you like and not what one of us either own or lust after. There are a few JTR owners here and many over on AVS. I am quite sure if you find another owner near you they will offer to have you over for a listen. One of our members here RMK has owned several versions of JTR's and went to them after owning Revel speakers: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/pros-joes-systems-gallery/36461-new-ht-room.html

With all your gear at the back of the room you are going to want some kind of decent RF remote control setup. I've spent a good amount of time and money doing a decent control system which has saved major headache's in my marriage because it works every time.

 

[Soundwave]

I'm starting to waffle a bit on my decisions in room wiring. The room is a rectangle with entry at the rear. I told the guys doing the pre wire that I was going to use towers in the rear and would run the cabling under the carpet to a rack in the back right corner (the door is a double on the rear left side). After giving it some thought...I'm thinking I need to go with in ceiling rears, as not to clutter up the back of the room...and possibly just leave the receiver etc. up front.

Anyway, I will absolutely attempt an audition of some speakers around here if I can find a good dealer. Magnolia likes to push the B and W stuff, which seems shrill to me... Maybe star power in Dallas will have something good.

My aim is to have something that will afford me the ability to hear things in movies I did not before, have my house shake with bass when something explodes and enjoy old music like it's new again. Whatever gets me there....

I have a logitech harmony touch tablet remote at the moment. It's okay....The setup for it is irritating, and it seems to work when it wants to. I was thinking about running a galaxy tab with the yamaha app to control the receiver via wifi.

Thank you all very much for the advice thus far. I have never heard of JTR, and your HT pics are definitely giving me ideas.