Hey guys, gonna be building my home theater in my basement. Just wondering what kinda speakers would fill a room that's roughly 30' x 30' in size? Need recommendations for surrounds, center speaker, floor standings, and a sub. Thanks in advance.

Also, what kinda floor standing and center speakers would work well for a behind the screen set-up?

Thanks again.

Blake,
Im going to tell you what I used to tell all my clients. Speakers are VERY subjective to individual people. Even though a speaker may have great specs and look like a million dollars, it can still play harsh, tire your ears or have lousy image quality. Everybodies ears are different. Some folks like a lot of bass, others are soundstage people, others want flat response across the board.
If you are going to invest in a serious system, then you need to start doing your homework on speakers. The best way to do this is to go out on a Sunday ( lowest sales day = time to talk and listen) and sample some speakers. Get a good idea of what you want and what suits YOU best. and follow the three rules...

1. Dont buy the first ones you like. there are always more.
2. Salespeople will do anything to get you to buy. They might even lie to you. Thats why they are called sales people and not "helpful people who want to see you happy". Commision based sales does wierd things to people.
3. Always listen three times ( at least ) to your intended speakers on three DIFFERENT recievers, then the one that most closely matches your own.

If you let anyone else do the work for you, dont be surprised if you dont get what you want.

Now...what brands appeal to you right off the top?

SJ


Sorry if this sounds "snarky" in any way, but the choice of speakers is a make or break deal for home theater. Its as personal as buying underwear. But if you take the time and shop it out, you can find the right ones for you. Just dont give in to peer pressure and buy "the rockinest speakers on the planet". Get the ones for you that you truly ENJOY listening to.

I have had my speakers for 18 years now. Rebuilt the woofers twice and replaced two tweeters. I love these speakers and even though I keep up on the "drechnology" of the new ones, these kick their behinds from one end of the state to the other.

Simply put....Dont buy them unless you are in love with them.

Excellent advice sj. I don't want anyone to choose my speakers for me nor would let anyone. I just wanted some good suggestions of speakers that can fill a large room. I have always had a sweet spot for Klipsch speakers, the clearity of them is just superb, if there are any imperfections in the source they are playing from they will pick it up. That's how detailed they are. I personally think the best route for me is DIY though, you can build a much better speaker for a lower cost then with major brand names, seeing as you aren't paying for all the overhead that comes with mainstream speakers.

Right now I've got my eye on some Dayton and Goldwood drivers for the floorstandings, surrounds and center speakers. With the floorstandings I'm gonna go with three 8" bass drivers, one 4" midrange, and one 1" dome tweeter for each. For the surrounds I'm gonna go with two 4" midranges and a 1" dome tweeter for each (It'll be 7.2). The center will have four 4" midrange drivers and two 1" dome tweeters. And I'm gonna use two MTX THUNDER5500 15" subs with a 15" passive radiator on the back of each one. The frequency range on these babies is 19-150 Hz. And for the receiver I'll use the Onkyo 7.1 TX-SR703S THX Select2.

Pretty excited, this is gonna be one hell of a home theater project. Shortly after I finish my 15" projector I'm gonna build a 17" HD projector and give the 15 incher to my parents.

Im in the same boat as Blake.
I didnt know you were a seasoned audio snob SJ,
excellent.

What do you think about the classic Bose 901's paired with more modern components? Im seriously considering getting a pair. I really like the vintage high-end bose stuff.
Im not as familiar with there new stuff besides the wave technology.

I had to drop the Bose name to get your take on there products SJ, given your experience.
Recently I visited the factory in MA. It was pretty cool! There pretty dedicated to quality sound reproduction.
I actually got paid 100$ cash to hang out at Bose and play with there toys, and give feedback.
Some days are better then others.

Oh boy,

A Bose question

The best way to stir up audiophiles

Truly. But I will answer this one in the most diplomatic way I can. At one time Bose was top of the heap, or so they thought. Now they are little more than a company that has gone from making speakers to making ad campaigns. Anything you can get from Bose these days that isnt A class is not worth it. But some folks really enjoy the bose lines and thats okay too.
I dont like Bose because at some point they lost the love of a good driver and switched to love for money.

The first time I met Henry Kloss ( yes, I have shaken the man's hand! ) I knew what drove him and what made him tick. He just loves good sound. so.....

goto www.hifi.com

Take a look at his legacy and despair...

But above all, be true to your ears. Love them! Would you wear rose colored sunglasses? Why listen to rose colored speakers? Take your time and listen and let your ears tell you when they are having a good time. Sound is so subjective that it makes no sense to listen to Audio Snobs expound the virtues of their ultimate speaker, because your ears are DIFFERENT than theirs.
Once you start that road, you might as well just become a fanboy and buy the best "Chrome Laced Titanium Array Speakers" you can.

In the end, if your ears dont like it, you just bought yourself 30,000 dollars of nice wood and carbon.

Buy speakers for yourself, for your pleasure, not for status and not for any other reason than you like the way they sound. Dont be a sheep.

Its baaaaddddd for you.

SJ

BTW Blake, most speaker systems arent designed for that type of space unless they have very high ceilings. Consider reducing your sound circle or you are going to get the very unsatisfying sound of an arena entrance tunnel.

I think this article should lay that question to rest. As they say, "If it has no highs, and it has no lows, it must be a bose".

And I love the acronym for BOSE "Buy Other Sound Equipment".

Sorry SJ, I do agree with you for the most part. But Bose is just one company I can't recommend to anyone.

Heh heh, thanks SJ.
For the info and the link.

Im no sheep, I LOVE the way the old 901's sound. But Im a jazz/classical musician/ film composer at heart and at work ... and I think those speakers sound very true, yet slightly larger then life when it comes to acoustic music. Like you said SJ, its all about those drivers (and the way they placed them to mimic soundstage or orchestral layout)

But If I wanted to get a bit krunk, and perhaps bump some hip-hop, or watch a flick with copious explosions in dolby digital.... they probly wouldnt be the way to go right?. I suspected what you suggested about most of there stuff these days. Seems like the new stuff is totally run of the mill.
The shear (ha ha sheep) number of models they have is a tell-tale sign of ca-ca.
BTW, Thats really neat you met Kloss SJ.

The Bose company were on to somthing in their hey-day. But the designs worked because they had a formula based on how music is heard. Obviously speakers need to do alot more then music in a nice home theater these days.

Oh common blake, thats foul dude.
Like SJ said, some people want flat response.
In a perfect world, every sound engineer who masters the audio would have done a perfect job every time, and you wouldnt need alot of the bells and whistles when it comes to response.
Thats why most professional studio monitors are flat response.

But it all comes back to what SJ has been saying.
Its about YOUR ears.

But that said, having flat response and a dope EQ makes you in controll of the sound. Another reason I PERSONALY dig the old 901's with the EQ that go's along with them. But again, thats mostly for music with one or more acoustic instruments.

SJ, I was asking your opinion of how 901's would function as front speakers in a surround set-up. As I said, I have only listened to music on them, and for that I love em.

As far as the Klipchs (spelling check pls) goes I find they sound pretty good. I dont have any 10,000 dollar systems to compare to but I have Paradigm mini monitors in my room and they blow me away. I demoed them for about 2 hours at a local shop (they were great about it) with different music (even death metal heh) and for what I listen to they were the best. Just throwing another name out there. Back to klipch. In out main tv room (not my personal ht heaven) we have Klipch towers and they fill the space pretty nicely. The room is about 20 x 27 or so and the couches are a full 15 feet from tv. Sound is full all around.

Again though, try before u buy. My dad got all caught up with these Orb speakers at a local shop and thought they sounded great but I think they sound like trash (and they cost like 3 grand). He still likes um, but I think hes just saving his ego. One peice of good advice is if you like a set that they are demoing in a sound room, see if they will drag them into the main store or at least a different enviroment. This will ensure u like the speakers and not the setup.

I've always been a fan of Henry Kloss, he was a real person that you actually could meet at his store in Cambridge... at least back in the day when that was one of the only stores...

At the moment I use a pair of M80 Bookshelf speakers for the fronts (monitor type speakers), Newton MC300 for center, MC300IW (in-wall) for rear (also secondary "mains" by use of a speaker selector switch), What was called simply "The Surround" (back in '95) used for surround channel, and my pride and joy, the "Powered Subwoofer"... ya know, back when they simply had one model... ok, two, powered subwoofer and slave subwoofer. ... except for it's austeer look, it is by far one of the best subs i've ever listened too... too bad they don't sell it anymore...

anyway, that's my take... great sound at a reasonable price... at least IMHO... with you being from washington, not sure if they have a soundworks outlet near you to listen... they do have an excellent return policy if your so inclined to buy on-line, listen at home, and return if not satisfied (minus shipping ??)... I buy only "factory refurb's" and on their eBay store... cheaper prices and most of the time the stuff that shows up is brand new, and not factory refurb anyways...

cheers
gs

Yep. first time I met Henry, I turned into a raving fanboy. Took me a few minutes to get my composure back . He was great about it. If you are so inclined, Cambridge Sound works has the best return policy I have seen. If I was actually going to buy another pair of speakers, it would probably be from these folks.



Joshuspawn. I think these were fantastic speakers, but if I remember right, their drivers werent designed for digital dynamics. I was thinking last night that you might be able to use the mids and tweets for soundstage and then couple them with a more modern subwoofer. For the age of those speakers, Im not sure I would use them as fronts. But it is a testament to how much people love these speakers that they still stock speaker and spider rebuild kits for these models.
Personally, I wouldnt use these for surround. Since the speakers are designed to expand the soundstage, and most DTS and Dolby soundtracks depend on single point imaging from their speakers, it might give the movie an "artificial airiness". It will sound good for a bit, but soon become tiresome, as your ears constantly try to differentiate the locations under the influence of two sound expansion technologies.
Just my 2 cents. Your mileage may vary.
SamuraiJack

Anybody remember Radian Research speakers?

*chews on tobacco* That one's too old for me to remember ol tiimer.

Cool, thanks SJ, thats where I was confused, with the whole digital dynamic thing.
There's a Cambridge Soundworks outlet right around the corner from me in Watertown MA. I have been meaning to give them a looksy.

I have a nice old set of KLH speakers from back in the day, that were also born in Cambridge MA. Those go with a kewl KLH tuntable with a bulit-in amp. Still going strong!

You guys hijacked my thread! :angry:


P.S. I was totally wrong about the size of the room guys! I was simply estimating (which I'm apparently terrible at ). I just measured it and It's actually 22 x 23 feet long exactly. Sorry for the confusion.


Oh btw, you guys wouldn't know a place that might sell copper colored drivers would you? Something similar to what Klipsch uses in their reference series...

Just like these

Sorry Blake!
I will shut my big yapper now

okay,.. here's a little advice, ...the depreciation on speakers is somewhere from 40 - 60 % , .. so if you take your time and shop wisely (knowing what you want / need is important) , there are some good bargains to be had on the used market.

craigslist, ebay, audiogon, ad forums on several audio discussion sites and not least, the local papers are good places to look.

I have a very large room and went with Definitive Technologies 7002 tower speaker, center channel, sides, and rear (7.1).

The towers and sides are bipolar to give a really big spread out sound field. The music/sound really envelops the room rather than eminating straight at you from the speakers.

The def tech towers also have each their own powered subs.

I compared them directly to Klipsch towers. Klipsch have excellent sound but are in your face straight on. Great for music but not as good for home theater.

The best is to try several side by side and let your ears tell you what is best.

I redid my sound on my HT. I have these all the way around my room now.
(Peavey PR10. 400 watts RMS @ 8 ohms.)

And this subwoofer.
(Nady 18" subwoofer - 300 watts RMS @8 ohms)


They are all $150 apeice. You can't beat the price for the power handling. And they sound VERY good. You'd be surprised the freq range the PR10's put out.

Of course, you need to supply them with power too. I use 2 carvin DCM1204 amps (4 x 200 watts @ 8ohms)


Nice thing about the PR10's, is they are pole mountable. You can get wall mount poles pretty cheap for them too. Plus, they make your sound system "look" totally uber.
People come into my den and go "WOAH! You've got a freakin concert PA system in here!"

What is your sound budget?

Do what I did. build you own.

http://www.wadsnet.com/~dtenney/dayton_8MTM.htm for the living room. I copied these from that site. I live the Maxell ad.

I built a set of towers and matching center from a DefTech buyout.

I think I spend about $400 total for all 5.


regardless, Deftech's are excellent. I can not think of anything bad about them.

I know a guy who installs projection and sound equipment for major theatre chains (AMC, Cinemark). While the amplifiers and processors for theatres are specialized, he routinely installs JBL speakers. At his house, he has a Harmon Kardon A/V receiver (and JBL speakers). HK owns JBL and has an ebay store. They often run close-out deals.

Do yourself a favor, blake, and don't overlook the internet direct brands. In particular, check out Ascend Acoustics. Amazing customer service, great community of owners, and most important of all -- fantastic sound. They aren't big on the bling, and you will need to pair them with a quality sub, but I flat out defy anyone to name a company that beats their price-to-performance ratio.

I'd be happy to audition for anybody in the Hartford area.

p.s. they have a 30-day in-home trial period, but you do need to cover return shipping.