Novice Audio Setup Help for Large Room

[ashaas]

Greetings, oh great and wizened audiophiles,

I am but a lowly uneducated audio novice and I am trying to set up a home theater in my converted 2-car garage. The room is 24' wide, 23' deep, and 8' floor to ceiling with the primary seating 15' from the screen wall.

I will not be playing video games, listening to music, or watching TV shows. The audio setup will be for dedicated family "Movie Nights" only.

I'm desperately trying to ride the razor's edge between a budget and quality system - a system that won't break the bank, but will provide a rich, deep movie-theater experience (at least to my novice ears).

After a bit of superficial online research I THINK I've found something that will fit the bill, but since I don't really know what the heck I'm doing I've come to get your blessing. Here's my setup:

Receiver: Onkyo TX-NR828
Center: Klipsch RC-62 II Reference Series
Fronts: Klipsch RF-82 II Reference Series Floorstanding Loudspeaker
Surrounds: Klipsch RS-62 II Reference Series Surround Speaker
Rears: Klipsch RS-62 II Reference Series Surround Speaker
Sub: Klipsch R-115SW 800W Powered 15" Subwoofer (with plans to add a second sub someday)

Will this be enough to fill my big room? Is there anywhere I can cut corners? For example, can I replace the expensive RS-62 surrounds with RS-41 speakers? What if I only downgraded the rears?

I beseech you. Help me, oh masters of sound, you're my only hope.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer,

-Ash

P.S. I can't afford to get all this stuff at once, so if you could only get a pair at a time, what order would you buy the stuff in - receiver, center, fronts, sub, surrounds, rears? Thank you.

 

[shadyJ]

First of all, I would steer clear of Onkyo due to reliability issues. Go with Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon, or Marantz instead.

Secondly, if you get a good sub, you won't need tower speakers like the RF-82. A bookshelf speaker like the RB-81 would do just as well since the subwoofer will be taking over the bass range. Tower speakers have no real advantage in a system with properly setups subwoofers. In this instance I would substitute RB-81s for the RF-82s.

Third, those surrounds are a bad choice in a 7 channel surround system. They are bipole designs, and are meant to present an ambiguous, ambient sound. But with discreet surround channels, you will want a more precise soundstage than a blurry mess. Get some bookshelf speakers instead of bipole surrounds speakers. I would be looking at the RB-51 bookshelf speakers. They will cost less and sound better.

Second, steer clear of Klipsch subs. Klipsch makes decent speakers but generally poor subwoofers. For the same money you can get a much better sub from Hsu Research, Rythmik Audio, or Reaction Audio. Those will blow the Klipsch away. For the best sound, I would recommend getting two subs. Multiple subs systems have some real advantage beyond just getting louder over single sub systems.

Also, the order in which I would buy things is as follows:
1. AVR, front left and right speakers.
2. subwoofer #1
3. center speaker
4. subwoofer #2
5. Surround speaker pair #1
6. Surround speaker pair #2

 

[ashaas]

Thank you for your detailed, well-thought-out reply. I posted this same question on a few other forums and your comment was the most helpful by far.

I'm usually going to watch movies with a group of people - some on an elevated couch and a couple chairs in front of that on ground level. Would I still want bookshelf surrounds (as opposed to dipoles/bipoles) in that situation, since I want the ideal listening area to be somewhat dispersed, and not just focused on the center couch viewer?

Thanks again.

 

[ski2xblack]

If you're desperately trying to ride the razor's edge between budget and quality, consider DIY. The value proposition is excellent.

Example: These would outperform the Klipsch speakers you mention, and wildly so at that, for less.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Welcome

Those speakers are very sensitive so not much power is needed to sound loud. So, it will fill, or should very nicely.

You say the room is a converted garage. How much conversion is there? Acoustics of the room is important.

 

[ashaas]

Thanks, everybody, for all the help and advice.