Redoing my media room, what speakers should I consider?

[solomr2]

I'm re-equipping my media room. Magnolia peeved me to the point where I've decided to take back my receiver and speakers that I purchased there back in March. I've been waiting nearly 7 months for them to replace my receiver and every month I get a different story, so I've given up.

I currently have the room equipped with a Denon 4306 receiver and Definitive technology Mythos 1s up front, Mythos 3 front center, Mythos Gem surrounds, and a Supercube 2 sub.

My receiver choice is almost already made, I'd like to get the Onkyo 875 or 905. The 905 has HD Radio included, but since I subscribe to XM for my car I was thinking the 875 with the optional XM module would be fine. I'm still thinking through that though.

The room dimensions are 13 x 13, so I don't really need huge, powerful speakers, but I'm a sucker for towers and I just can't see how I would ever settle for smaller speakers.

My musical preference is guitar blues, jazz, acoustic easy listening, classic rock. The room is also used as a home theater, so movie watching and gaming are also important to me.

I'm quite pleased with the setup currently, but since I'm having to return this stuff to Magnolia, I might as well see if I can improve upon it a bit.

One option is to upgrade the fronts to Mythos Super Towers, then I can eliminate the Supercube. I'm also tempted to do something a bit bigger for surrounds, maybe the Mythos 4 towers.

My budget is about $3000 for the speakers. What else should I consider?

 

[Davemcc]

If it means anything to you, the 905 also includes mosquito noise and block artifact reduction on it's Reon-VX video processing. This is good to have for broadcast sources and is quite expensive to get in an outboard processor. It also has a torroidal power supply and is 4 ohm stable to drive whichever speaker you choose.

 

[Adam]

There are plenty of opinions around here in regards to which speakers are the best for some type of music or which ones are the best bang for the buck. However, you'll also get plenty of people saying that speaker preference is very personal, and that it is extremely important to audition speakers yourself. The optimal place to do the auditioning is in your own home. So, I'd say that you're best off trying out speakers that you can audition with little to no financial risk. For example, buying speakers from stores that don't charge a restocking fee or from internet stores that don't charge (or don't charge much) for shipping.

One place that I recommend is Aperion Audio. They get good reviews, and I like them. However, a big reason that I recommend them is that they have a 30-day no-risk trial period. If you don't like them, you just ship them back and you pay nothing - they pay for shipping both ways. With your budget, you could get quite a system from them.

 

[3db]

Take a peak PSBs Image T65s series or their new G1 towers

I'm re-equipping my media room. Magnolia peeved me to the point where I've decided to take back my receiver and speakers that I purchased there back in March. I've been waiting nearly 7 months for them to replace my receiver and every month I get a different story, so I've given up.

I currently have the room equipped with a Denon 4306 receiver and Definitive technology Mythos 1s up front, Mythos 3 front center, Mythos Gem surrounds, and a Supercube 2 sub.

My receiver choice is almost already made, I'd like to get the Onkyo 875 or 905. The 905 has HD Radio included, but since I subscribe to XM for my car I was thinking the 875 with the optional XM module would be fine. I'm still thinking through that though.

The room dimensions are 13 x 13, so I don't really need huge, powerful speakers, but I'm a sucker for towers and I just can't see how I would ever settle for smaller speakers.

My musical preference is guitar blues, jazz, acoustic easy listening, classic rock. The room is also used as a home theater, so movie watching and gaming are also important to me.

I'm quite pleased with the setup currently, but since I'm having to return this stuff to Magnolia, I might as well see if I can improve upon it a bit.

One option is to upgrade the fronts to Mythos Super Towers, then I can eliminate the Supercube. I'm also tempted to do something a bit bigger for surrounds, maybe the Mythos 4 towers.

My budget is about $3000 for the speakers. What else should I consider?

You will still need a sub for those. HomeTheater did a review on the G1 series and were very impressed with them. Maybe, you'll find a dealer who will let you audition them at your house for a few days.

 

[rnatalli]

There's quite a bit to consider for $3k. You need to get out and audition as many speakers as you can. Some good brands to look at are Paradigm, B&W, PSB, Mordaunt-Short, Axiom, Ascend, RBH, Monitor Audio, Magnepan, Energy, and av123. That's just a few out of a very large pool of possibilities. For a sub, I'd take a look at the HSU and SVS offerings.

 

[solomr2]

Thank you all for all the responses.

To be clear, I will be auditioning the speakers before I buy them. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can audition them all in my home, but I will go to the outlets at a minimum and check them out with source material I bring with me to audition.

But I was really just trying to narrow down (or maybe expand) my list of possibilities. There are a lot of different brands out there, and so little time.

Davemcc - please confirm if the features you are referring to are exclusive to the 905, or are they also included in the 875? Actually, I'm having trouble finding either of these receivers in stock anywhere except some of obscure online sources.

Adam - thanks, I'll take a look at Aperion.

3db - I thought the SuperTowers have a built-in supercube sub. Are you saying you still need to have a separate outboard sub with them? Why?

Thanks again.

 

[zumbo]

B&W 600 series.
Towers are not needed for the rear.
Trust me.
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=2374
Find a dealer:
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=1426

 

[Davemcc]

Davemcc - please confirm if the features you are referring to are exclusive to the 905, or are they also included in the 875? Actually, I'm having trouble finding either of these receivers in stock anywhere except some of obscure online sources.

I downloaded the user manuals to try and confirm this, but the MNR and BAR are not mentioned in the manuals at all. This is referred to on the Onkyo 905 product page here: http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Receiver&m=TX-NR905&p=i
but it does not appear on the equivalent page of the 875. I guess the only way to be 100% sure one way or the other would be to contact Onkyo directly.

 

[3db]

What I meant was

Thank you all for all the responses.


3db - I thought the SuperTowers have a built-in supercube sub. Are you saying you still need to have a separate outboard sub with them? Why?

Thanks again.

Sorry, I was referring to the point that if you purchased eoither Image series or G series from PSB, you will require a sub for HT purposes. They are good for music but not strong enough in bass for HT.

 

[solomr2]

One place that I recommend is Aperion Audio. They get good reviews, and I like them. However, a big reason that I recommend them is that they have a 30-day no-risk trial period. If you don't like them, you just ship them back and you pay nothing - they pay for shipping both ways. With your budget, you could get quite a system from them.

I reviewed Aperion and the Axiom last night over internet. I read multiple reviews on various magazine sites and on Audioholics. They both seem impressive, but I'm concerned their size is a bit overbearing for my small 13 by 13 room. Not so much from an SPL standpoint, but from a size and placement perspective. The neat thing about the Def Techs, and one of hte key reasons I went with them in the first place, is they are relatively small (narrow) towers and the surrounds fit on the back wall. But both the Aperion and Axiom towers are huge compared to the def techs, and even their bookshelf / surround units are somewhat bulky by comparison.

I don't really fancy going to satellites or to bookshelf size speakers. The paradigm seem like they are similarly sized to the def techs. Are there others that are in a similar size/format to the def tech or the paradigms?