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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:I’m looking at putting in a theater setup in a spare room and I don’t have much experience with sound systems. I’d like to go for a 5.1 or 7.1 setup but I’m not keen on running a bunch of speaker wire through the ceiling/walls. Are there any good options out there at the moment for wireless or Bluetooth surround sound? Is syncing audio with video an issue there? What's your budget?
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Jul 26, 2023 19:00
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:I’m looking at putting in a theater setup in a spare room and I don’t have much experience with sound systems. I’d like to go for a 5.1 or 7.1 setup but I’m not keen on running a bunch of speaker wire through the ceiling/walls. Are there any good options out there at the moment for wireless or Bluetooth surround sound? Is syncing audio with video an issue there? As far as I'm aware there's no great options in this front. It is a problem that can theoretically be solved, I mean 2.4ghz headphones work pretty great so it's not impossible. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing on the market worth getting unless you're spending $$$ . One problem is that whatever speakers you're using wirelessly need to have their own separate amplification and still maintain sync with the front speakers. The audio/visual delay can be adjusted and is usually automatically handled when you set up your receiver and speakers during the room correction. Most of the integrated systems I've seen tend to use tiny satellite speakers paired with a soundbar and are quite expensive for what you're getting. Plus, all those small speakers still need to be connected to a power cord regardless, so it's not like it's going to be cord-free even if you get one of these setups. You don't need to run wire through the wall or ceiling, you just need a cable concealer that runs along your baseboard and ceiling. You don't even need to nail them into the wall necessarily. Your money will go much farther with wired speakers with hidden wires and a receiver.
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Jul 26, 2023 19:51
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KozmoNaut posted:Wharfedale Diamond 220 can probably be found on sale for less than $200/pair, and they're generally quite well reviewed. Mederlock posted:The thing with speakers is as long as the tweeters/surrounds/cones are in good shape, they're good for decades. So something that retailed for $1000+ 15 years ago will be selling for that $200-$300 price range these days. I dunno. Of course it's not mandatory but you get the most juice out of the squeeze. Ok Comboomer posted:I like these a whole lot for $199, lightly backordered, shipping 2-3 weeks from now. ($250 on Amazon if you need them right now) KillHour posted:If you don't want to go dumpster diving, you can definitely get a more than decent pair of passive bookshelves for $200 on sale. Obviously, you'll get the best bang for your buck if you can find them used, but I wouldn't say it's mandatory. Thank you all so much. I ended up looking at the Wharfedale and the JBLs with her, and she decided to go with the Wharfedales. Were it for me, I'd dumpster dive or look for something used, but she was in a rush and explicitly did not want to take time to shop around.
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Jul 26, 2023 20:10
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Thank you all so much. I ended up looking at the Wharfedale and the JBLs with her, and she decided to go with the Wharfedales. Were it for me, I'd dumpster dive or look for something used, but she was in a rush and explicitly did not want to take time to shop around. She made a good choice! They test quite well, especially for the price. Seems like they'll sound best with the grilles removed, if you trust Amir's tests (I do).
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Jul 26, 2023 21:30
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Ok Comboomer posted:If it’s “medium spare room” sized I don’t think the extra two channels of 7.1 are worth it over a basic 5.1 or 5.2. The room is decently large but yeah I’m thinking 5.1, maybe 5.2 is the way to go. Fozzy The Bear posted:What's your budget? The room is basically unfurnished at this point so a hefty chunk of change will be going toward seating and a 4K projector if I go that route. I’m still in the early planning and budgeting stages. I don’t want to cheap out on sound or anything but I’m not an audiophile by any means. I mainly want the speakers to be reliable and not sound like farts. Mederlock posted:As far as I'm aware there's no great options in this front. It is a problem that can theoretically be solved, I mean 2.4ghz headphones work pretty great so it's not impossible. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing on the market worth getting unless you're spending $$$ . One problem is that whatever speakers you're using wirelessly need to have their own separate amplification and still maintain sync with the front speakers. The audio/visual delay can be adjusted and is usually automatically handled when you set up your receiver and speakers during the room correction. This is a good point. I’ll probably stick with wired and just suck it up and do cable management. Thanks for the responses!
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Jul 26, 2023 22:21
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:The room is decently large but yeah I’m thinking 5.1, maybe 5.2 is the way to go.  Another option to consider is 5.2.2, basically adding two Atmos height channel speakers. The "proper" way is using ceiling-mount speakers, but that does run into the cutting into ceilings problem. But even just running speakers mounted near the ceiling on the back wall, or using an upwards-angled "Atmos-Enabled Speaker" module that sits on your front speakers can do a pretty good job. Like I had an extra pair of satellite speakers lying around from a mess of used speakers I got from my $Rich uncle, so instead of buying some angled speaker I just did this  . (Pardon the cluttered and crowded situation, we've outgrown our accommodations pretty badly  )On Atmos content it actually works quite convincingly, even my wife noticed a difference after I MacGyver'd this up. Just had to set those speakers to the "Atmos-Enabled" mode in the receiver settings.
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Jul 26, 2023 22:57
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:This is a good point. I’ll probably stick with wired and just suck it up and do cable management. Also look into "flat speaker cable" https://www.amazon.com/FRANKEVER-Ad...90421018&sr=8-3 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=42157
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Jul 27, 2023 02:24
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:The room is decently large but yeah I’m thinking 5.1, maybe 5.2 is the way to go. Buying fewer speakers means more money to spend on bigger/better individual speakers where it really counts (your fronts)
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Jul 27, 2023 02:27
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:I’m still in the early planning and budgeting stages. I don’t want to cheap out on sound or anything but I’m not an audiophile by any means. I mainly want the speakers to be reliable and not sound like farts. We can make pretty specific recommendations once you have a budget in mind, but it's worth giving you some expectations. You should be ready to spend $1k USD minimum for a new 5.1 set up that's not a HTIAB - though you can definitely spend less with used gear. Spending 2-3k gets you a lot more and is definitely worth it if you have the budget. Spending as much as 5k will provide noticeable improvements and should have you looking at a larger setup than 5.1. Ok Comboomer posted:Buying fewer speakers means more money to spend on bigger/better individual speakers where it really counts (your fronts) If you do have some budget constraints, it's definitely worth considering a staged set of upgrades so you don't end up with a receiver or speaker that is a dead end. There's lots of strategies to prevent this that will provide a nice audio experience now without forcing you to spend too much right off the bat. You can buy a full 5.1 for $1-2k, but you'll likely be locked into a lower end receiver, sub, and center that won't have any place in an upgraded system. As Ok Comboomer mentioned, $1-2k spent on a fully featured receiver and larger and higher quality L&R fronts (2.0) is going to sound great (esp for music) and be a perfect platform to upgrade. If you want more of a HT specific experience you can also spend $1-2k on a fully featured receiver, solid sub, and 4 decent bookshelfs (4.1) to get surround and lower, punchier bass right off the bat, and then you can save as much as you want for your dream L&R fronts w/matching center and move the bookshelfs to 7ch surround duty. aparmenideanmonad fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jul 27, 2023 |
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Jul 27, 2023 06:01
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aparmenideanmonad posted:As Ok Comboomer mentioned, $1-2k spent on a fully featured receiver and larger and higher quality L&R fronts (2.0) is going to sound great (esp for music) and be a perfect platform to upgrade. If you want more of a HT specific experience you can also spend $1-2k on a fully featured receiver, solid sub, and 4 decent bookshelfs (4.1) to get surround and lower, punchier bass right off the bat, and then you can save as much as you want for your dream L&R fronts w/matching center and move the bookshelfs to 7ch surround duty. IMO, the secret to “cinematic” home audio lies more in having big, meaty fronts with lots of easy dynamic range and bass/midbass than it does in surround sound (subwoofers are also obviously very important for this). People get hung up on surround sound, but a 2.1 setup with Big Powerful Speakers will always sound more “theatrical” than a 5.1/7.1/9.2/etc with tiny or much less capacious speakers.
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Jul 27, 2023 11:50
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Sounds insane but I'll throw it out for married goons making compromises. We just moved and are buying new furniture for the house. Wife didn't want to have wires or visible speakers so we ended up going with Lovesac - they actually partnered with Harman Kardon and make a 5.1 surround hidden speaker system that is within the couch pieces and uses the whole frame to resonate (there's a soundbar for center channel). Subwoofer is under you in the couch so you get a decent rumble and when you load up the app you tell it how you configured the couch, what fabrics you chose, etc. so it adjusts everything to come through cleanly. I thought it would be way more of a compromise on my end but I am honestly loving the soundstage and quality. Since the speakers are so close to you in the couch, you can get the intended effect without being really noisy for the rest of the house / your neighbors - I tend to keep it on 40% volume in movie mode. As a bonus it'll charge your phone through the armrests (but it's hidden and sometimes takes a few tries to get the right spot). So yes, I just did a firmware update on my couch...
Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Jul 27, 2023 |
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Jul 27, 2023 14:15
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e: nevermind, i'm dumb, it's just part of the tweeter.
KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jul 28, 2023 |
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Jul 27, 2023 17:27
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Ok Comboomer posted:IMO, the secret to “cinematic” home audio lies more in having big, meaty fronts with lots of easy dynamic range and bass/midbass than it does in surround sound (subwoofers are also obviously very important for this). We are in complete agreement, I've just had little luck convincing HT focused people into initial setups that don't include surround channels. Trying to mitigate bad decisions.
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Jul 28, 2023 01:20
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I had a 6.1 setup with bookshelf speakers all around for a long time, replaced the fronts with some old Klipsch floorstanders I got for cheap from my buddy who runs a record store and that also sells old equipment and was like “poo poo what was I doing this whole time” You really gotta have towers up front if you can manage the space issue and it’s better to spend your money there than on anything else certainly (especially if you listen to a lot of music on the system as well)
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Jul 29, 2023 18:48
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I need to unbookmark this thread. If I keep reading it, I’m going to wind up checking craigslist every day and buying a pair of 30-year-old bookshelf speakers for $500.
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Jul 29, 2023 19:16
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nrook posted:I need to unbookmark this thread. If I keep reading it, I’m going to wind up checking craigslist every day and buying a pair of 30-year-old bookshelf speakers for $500. if you start a youtube channel then you can write all of those collector scum purchases off
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Jul 29, 2023 20:10
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how good (or bad) 30 year speakers are at bass extension per woofer inch
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Jul 29, 2023 21:33
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Palladium posted:how good (or bad) 30 year speakers are at bass extension per woofer inch There is no direct relation of woofer size and bass extension. The 5.5" woofers on my main speakers go down to 43hz +-3db, I've seen 10" woofers that only go to 70hz.
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Jul 30, 2023 03:22
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By far the greatest feature of having a Marantz PM7000N with HEOS is being able to put “Ring of Fire” on the living room stereo where my partner is knitting while I’m taking an incredibly spicy poo poo
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Aug 6, 2023 18:25
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I have 55" LG C2 and would like to buy a basic receiver + 2.0/2.1 bookshelf speaker/sub set. My budget is at most ~1800 USD but because I'm in Europe where things can be like 30-40% more expensive in general, the recommendations should probably be more like ~1400 USD so I can fit in there. My current living room is too small and awkwardly shaped to be able to do 5.1 which I would go for otherwise, but we are most likely going to be moving so especially the receiver should be something modern that at least supports stuff like Atmos and AirPlay, I think (feel free to shout at me for being dumb).
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Aug 11, 2023 14:24
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Some Elac Debuts for 2.0 and a Denon S760 probably?
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Aug 11, 2023 14:44
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lordfrikk posted:I have 55" LG C2 and would like to buy a basic receiver + 2.0/2.1 bookshelf speaker/sub set. My budget is at most ~1800 USD but because I'm in Europe where things can be like 30-40% more expensive in general, the recommendations should probably be more like ~1400 USD so I can fit in there. You would need 7 speakers to take advantage of Atmos, are you planning on adding more speakers in the next year or two? Just a rough ballpark, I personally would spend $1000 on the 2 speakers and $400 on the receiver. I recommend Ascend Sierra-1 bookshelf speakers. Truly amazing audio. https://ascendacoustics.com/collections/sierra-series-pairs/products/sierra-1 Fozzy The Bear fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 15:45
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Speaker brands you may be able to find a decent deal on in in Europe: Canton, Focal, Dali, Triangle, Dynaudio, Q Acoustics, Heco, ELAC. I have some 2018-era Cantons [equivalent of today's Townus series] and I love them to death. Don't worry about Atmos but I think most receivers support it now anyway. I'd agree with Fozzy the Bear to try to max out the speakers, although receivers are more expensive there so it may be more like 500/900. If you don't need high res switching like PS5/PC 4k high framerate gaming you could save a bit by getting a slightly older model and connecting those sources to the TV and using ARC [audio return channel] for the audio.
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Aug 11, 2023 16:14
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Thank you all! I have both a Playstation 5 and a PC with Nvidia 4090 so 4K/high refresh rate support is something to consider. Seems like the only brand easily available here is ELAC, so if ELAC is a decent value for the money, my best shot seems to be the ELAC Debuts plus their center channel speaker, plus the Denon S760 (which seems to cover everything I wanted plus so much more).
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Aug 11, 2023 16:56
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Are British speaker brands (Wharfedale, etc) worth looking at or are those mostly Brexited beyond recommendability at this moment?
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Aug 11, 2023 17:17
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Tannoy should be on your list, both used and new - maybe particularly used. Eyris, Sensys, Revolution, Fusion, Mercury are decent picks, particularly the dual concentric versions, and they are often very reasonably priced used.
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Aug 11, 2023 17:24
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Yeah, personally I'd buy almost anything used(being most careful with the Receiver )because the savings let you get more out of the same budget. Just like with cars, buying speakers brand new is for suckers with a lot of money. Check out the Audiosciencereview forum reviews for speakers you're looking at first and foremost, as well as here, before you buy them. One thing you'll want to look for in home theatre speakers is good dispersion, so that you don't need to be in a perfect sweet spot in the center of the room to get the best the speaker has to offer(ASR guys usually test this). You also want good bass performance from your main stereo speakers, which will let you crossover the subs lower so they can focus on really belting out the rumbly bits. Personally, my priority on spending on home theatre audio components follows this order Front L+R Speakers>>Subwoofer or Receiver>center channel>rear L+R>height speakers>second sub>extra side surrounds All the brands listed have great options available in your price point. Look for a more modern receiver that's been lightly used by some rich wank who upgrades every year, or refurbished by a reputable company.
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Aug 11, 2023 18:27
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Speaking of used speakers, what's the best way to test them? I was considering upgrading my old Pioneer SP-BS22s, and I live in a big city so there's a ton of stuff on Craigslist, but unless the seller has them hooked up to something I have no clue how I'd figure out if the speakers are in good shape or not. Should I just buy sight unseen, or hope the seller has them hooked up to something to test them? In theory I could lug my receiver over too; that'd be quite inconvenient and annoying but hardly impossible.
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Aug 12, 2023 16:43
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You can buy an inexpensive amp like the Fosi Audio TB10D or their new Fosi Audio V3 amplifier and plug it in and use a headphone to RCA cable from your phone to test it. They're really small and light and have a ton of power If you're somewhat handy, an even cheaper option would be to buy a cheap, old battery-powered boombox/radio from a thrift store for $10 or whatever, open it up, and disconnect the built in speakers and run a length of speaker wire out of the box for L+R and use that to test it. Even a 9 volt battery and some speaker lead can tell you if it works, it'll make a buzzing sound, but it won't tell you how it'll sound.
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Aug 12, 2023 17:09
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nrook posted:Speaking of used speakers, what's the best way to test them? I was considering upgrading my old Pioneer SP-BS22s, and I live in a big city so there's a ton of stuff on Craigslist, but unless the seller has them hooked up to something I have no clue how I'd figure out if the speakers are in good shape or not. Should I just buy sight unseen, or hope the seller has them hooked up to something to test them? In theory I could lug my receiver over too; that'd be quite inconvenient and annoying but hardly impossible. I always ask to test the items before I hand over the cash. When I bought my receiver through craigslist, I asked the guy to hook it up to speakers before I drove out there. I visually inspected it, played with the remote a bit, adjusted the volume. There still is some risk, but they are trying to sell it so they should be accommodating. If someone is being a jerk about letting you test before you buy, that would be a red flag not to buy it.
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Aug 12, 2023 19:39
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Yeah another thing you can do is get the seller to hook it up at home and take a video with it playing music, if you or they don't feel comfortable having you in their home.
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Aug 12, 2023 20:11
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lordfrikk posted:Thank you all! I have both a Playstation 5 and a PC with Nvidia 4090 so 4K/high refresh rate support is something to consider. Elac is good. Also decide if you want or can accommodate a subwoofer. Or if you want some towers instead of bookshelf speakers.
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Aug 12, 2023 23:57
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The debuts have floor standing models. In the US the smaller ones are not much more expensive than the bookshelf models.
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Aug 13, 2023 00:27
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I looked at the specs for two Elac speakers, are they all 6 ohms? That is kind of weird, most speakers are 8 ohms. Check to make sure the receiver can handle that.
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Aug 13, 2023 03:39
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The S760 has 6 and 4 ohm settings
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Aug 13, 2023 06:01
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That's not a problem unless you bought a particularly poo poo amplifier.
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Aug 13, 2023 08:13
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i would also love to live somewhere where i can actually pump more than 1W per channel lol
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Aug 13, 2023 10:59
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Palladium posted:i would also love to live somewhere where i can actually pump more than 1W per channel lol Probably the one joy I have from living in a house. Meanwhile my wife wants to move even further from the city where we can’t even see neighbors or passerby. I guess then I could maybe build the Jamaican style sound system I’ve always dreamed of complete with nautical speakers.
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Aug 13, 2023 14:50
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Dogen posted:Probably the one joy I have from living in a house. do it. move to the sticks and make noise
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Aug 13, 2023 17:07
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:Elac is good. Also decide if you want or can accommodate a subwoofer. Or if you want some towers instead of bookshelf speakers. I wish I could do floor standing ones. Currently the space is so limited that I’m not sure even the bookshelf ones will fit, unfortunately, but I don’t want to buy a soundbar because the one I tried didn’t sound particularly good to me, and I dislike that it’s so limited/specific use case.
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Aug 13, 2023 20:40
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