Thoughts on Setting Up New HT Room...

[Masse1369]

Hello,

My wife and I just purchased a new house and we have a bonus room that I have been given the go ahead to use as a media room. The room is 19x13 with the back wall having a cutout roughly 6.5 feet by 2 feet where we are going to put the components and a small fridge. So the effective floor area is roughly 13x17 with 9 foot ceilings. This room will only be used for TV and movies. It has carpet and two windows that will be blacked out, located on the wall where the TV is.

The system will be used 100% for HT/HDTV.

Budget: $3,500 for Speakers, Receiver and Subwoofer.

I could do 5.1 or 7.1, kind of thought about doing an Atmos setup but have decided against it. I'm going to have to have it wired anyway. WAF is not important. I kind of like the idea of towers because we think they look better but am in no way opposed to bookshelf speakers.

Right now I have a living room setup consisting of Pioneer AJ towers, center and bookshelf surrounds with an older 2000 series Denon AVR and a small 8" Velodyne sub. My previous setup was the Axiom Audio Epic Grand Master setup with QS8 surrounds and an HSU sub.

Interests:

The Focal/Denon X4100 deal at A4L seems pretty decent from a value perspective and they look nice. Couple that with an HSU or similar sub.

Ascend 340 x5 with possibly a pair of subs or maybe just one sub. The room isn't that big but have always wanted to try 2 subs.

HSU Speaker package and sub.

Thoughts?

 

[shadyJ]

You can't go wrong between Ascend, Focal, and Hsu +Denon AVR-X4100. You are on the right track I would say. I think the EMP Impression speakers are also worth taking a look at in the price range. The new 15"s from Hsu will annihilate you, amazing subs. You might think about dual sub to take full advantage of the Audyssey SubEQ onboard the Denon. It can independently calibrate two subwoofers, a very nice feature to have.

 

[Ty Wayne]

Hello,

My wife and I just purchased a new house and we have a bonus room that I have been given the go ahead to use as a media room. The room is 19x13 with the back wall having a cutout roughly 6.5 feet by 2 feet where we are going to put the components and a small fridge. So the effective floor area is roughly 13x17 with 9 foot ceilings. This room will only be used for TV and movies. It has carpet and two windows that will be blacked out, located on the wall where the TV is.

The system will be used 100% for HT/HDTV.

Budget: $3,500 for Speakers, Receiver and Subwoofer.

I could do 5.1 or 7.1, kind of thought about doing an Atmos setup but have decided against it. I'm going to have to have it wired anyway. WAF is not important. I kind of like the idea of towers because we think they look better but am in no way opposed to bookshelf speakers.

Right now I have a living room setup consisting of Pioneer AJ towers, center and bookshelf surrounds with an older 2000 series Denon AVR and a small 8" Velodyne sub. My previous setup was the Axiom Audio Epic Grand Master setup with QS8 surrounds and an HSU sub.

Interests:

The Focal/Denon X4100 deal at A4L seems pretty decent from a value perspective and they look nice. Couple that with an HSU or similar sub.

Ascend 340 x5 with possibly a pair of subs or maybe just one sub. The room isn't that big but have always wanted to try 2 subs.

HSU Speaker package and sub.

Thoughts?

Sounds cool! I've been looking at the Denon X4100W and am thinking about getting it. Its not HDCP 2.2 compatible though. Not sure if you care, but thought I might mention it.

 

[Masse1369]

Well that is disappointing. Thanks for the info. I would like that as I am planning on getting a new TV when the Vizio R-Series comes out, at least as an option to look at...

OK so how about this...

Pick up another pair of Pioneer AJ bookshelf speakers $130 and run a 7.2 setup with (2) SVSound SB-1000 $1000 and pickup a Marantz SR-6010 $1400. Or just run a 5.2 setup. Thoughts?

 

[Ty Wayne]

Yeah, it is disappointing about the denon 4100. As others have noted, and I'm sure you are aware, there are ways around the problem. But I don't want to have to run extra HDMI's for audio and video both. I want one cable from console, to AVR, to TV.

I'm not sure about (unfamiliar) the SVS SB 1000's, but I have heard good things about the Rythmik LV12R's. They are "on sale" (?) for $569 a piece.

 

[rojo]

I'm likewise skeptical of the SVS SB 1000's. You'll get better output from a ported sub. A pair of RBH I-12's would walk all over those sealed SVS subs I'm certain. So would the Rythmik subs, but they'd be a bit over a grand for a pair.

Also, the Andrew Jones Pioneers are rear-ported. I hope you didn't intend to wall mount them. If you're looking for surrounds, the Fluance XLBP would be a very decent, inexpensive choice.

 

[Masse1369]

I agree they look much better on paper.

Let's change this up because I think I'm going to hold off for a while to purchase a TV. Let's put the money towards speakers and a subwoofer(s).

I reached out to Ascend for suggestions.

I am thinking:

(5) 340
(3) 340 and (2) 170 on stands
(3) 340 and (4) 200 wall mounted

and asked if they would do something like a single F15HP or dual LV12R for the sub...

Thoughts?

 

[Ty Wayne]

I cant imagine having 5 340's, but if that's what you want.....

Honestly, in my 5.1 setup, my two 170's are perfectly fine for surrounds. In fact, they are probably too good simply for surrounds. Almost seems like a waste of good speakers. Only time they get any use is if I run 5 channel stereo, and I don't do that hardly ever. I wouldn't dump a bunch of money into surrounds if I were you. But that's your decision. I'd put the extra money into either better L, R, C, or into subs. But again, that's just me.

 

[Masse1369]

I most likely wouldn't go that route. I have decided to build a dedicated room and by that I mean installing a projector with a screen. Something like this:

Going to have some grey carpet put in, paint the walls a dark color, starry night paint on the ceiling and maybe some old classic movie posters on the walls. Going to have the front wall with the windows covered with the screen and built ins like in the picture, all done in black. Pretty simple. Ideally I would like to have three towers upfront but I have no idea how much those screens cost where the sounds can go through them. Worst case scenario I just have to use a traditional center channel speaker.

The problem I thought I was going to have was seating as the room is only 13 feet wide. But the wife thought we could do an L or U shaped sectional and grab one of those large soft ottomans with some trays for drinks and what not and also putting our feet up and relaxing. After measuring sectionals last night we will be able to make it work. Then maybe have some bean bag chairs in the storage closet on the other side of the room for extra seating if need be. I'm in Raleigh and have many furniture distributors/wholesalers around me so we will be able to come in at a lower cost than most people would be able to.

I'm probably going to wait to do this until a better projector comes out so I can do 4K at a lower cost but I'm going to try and look at that Sony 40ES 1080P projector and see if that is good enough. In these kind of situations I need to focus on what the room gives me and what I can actually accomplish. I can always upgrade the projector down the road.

On to the audio...

Thinking more and more about it I'm probably leaning towards something like the Ascend 340x3 and 200x4 and 2 subs up front. I think I'm going to have to wall mount the surrounds because of space and aesthetics. I'm going to probably have to put one of the surrounds in the cutout in the back of the room over the bar. I don't think I will be able to do dipole type of speakers because it might reflect weird against the wall in the cutout. I don't know how that would work when you tune everything.

As far as the subs go, I don't really know what I like. In this kind of setup, it makes sense to me to either go with 2 front ported or sealed subs. I'm thinking 2 HSU VTF3 MK5s would be pretty sweet or possibly even 2 HSU ULS15 MK2. Going the Rythmik route might get too expensive for the performance.

Any recommendations?

 

[shadyJ]

The Sony HW40ES is a very highly regarded projector for the cost, I think you are on the right track there. Same with the Ascend speakers and Hsu subs. It is good to see you are looking into controlling the ambient light conditions. As for the screen, do you have room behind the screen for an acoustically transparent screen? Based on that factor, look into that type of screen. If you haven't already, you will want to reference this calculator to determine the screen you want, and also how to set up the projector. I would try to get a 1.0 gain screen, so a screen size of 120" at the largest with that projector to have a healthy amount of fL. If you want to do 3D, you will want a smaller screen size and perhaps a screen with a higher gain. One more thing, I would go with the VTF3 mk5s over the ULS-15 mk2s. The ULS-mk2s are a concession to size at the expense of deep bass. However they can do extremely deep bass better than the VTF3s, but you would need a whole lot of them for that to be audible. Here is a graph comparing their respective CEA-2010 measurements:

 

[Ty Wayne]

Well that is disappointing. Thanks for the info. I would like that as I am planning on getting a new TV when the Vizio R-Series comes out, at least as an option to look at...

OK so how about this...

Pick up another pair of Pioneer AJ bookshelf speakers $130 and run a 7.2 setup with (2) SVSound SB-1000 $1000 and pickup a Marantz SR-6010 $1400. Or just run a 5.2 setup. Thoughts?

Regarding the problem with the non compliant HDCP 2.2 Denon X4100W, I was pointed to this device over on the AVSforums:


http://www.hdfury.com/shop/splitters/integral-4k60-444-600mhz/

Seems like it might be a solution people could be interested in if they own non compliant 2.2 avr's, so I thought I'd pass it along. Take it for what its worth. I'm not promoting the device because I know little about it.