I've got a relatively nice 5.1 system for TV / movies in my living room that I'm happy with, for that purpose. But I'm becoming quite interested in the 5.1 remixes of some of my favorite albums that have been coming out lately (Rush, King Crimson) and while they sound OK on the system I have now, it's not ideal.
What I'd like to do is build a separate 5.1 system, focused specifically on music, in my office.
I've already got the computer and music storage/playback details worked out, and know roughly what sort of receiver to get, but where I need help the most is speakers and room design.
My office is roughly 22' x 18' and my desk is kind of near the back. Really, I don't need it to sound awesome everywhere in the room, just basically at my desk is where I'd like it to sound awesome. There is about 6.5' of space behind my desk for rears to go, and plenty of room in front for fronts.
Let me give some hints about what is awesome to me:
(1) One thing I've been doing is playing individual tracks of a 5.1 remixed song through headphones and listening to individual instruments. It's fascinating. One thing I noticed is that the subwoofer channel (4) almost always has incredible audio content on it that doesn't make it through a subwoofer. For example, on most of the 5.1 Rush remixes, you can hear the full audio spectrum of Geddy's bass in complete isolation from all the other instruments. Simply piping that through a subwoofer that only plays the bottom 120hz seems like a waste to me. I'd much rather have full range on that track, but I also want good bass too, of course. Does this mean buying a good subwoofer and also a regular speaker and routing channel 4 to both of them?
(2) I'd really like to be able to hear each individual channel clearly and be able to easily tell which direction it came from (within the limits of the audio I'm playing, of course).
(3) For music in my office right now, I have a pair of M-Audio BX5 powered studio monitors. They're pretty good if turned up really loud, but I'd like a significant improvement over their audio quality.
(4) I want the system to also be excellent at playing stereo music, not just 5.1. I don't care, at all, about playing movies on this system.
(5) The absolute best audio experience I ever had was when I had these same M-Audio BX5 powered studio monitors in a basement apartment in Montreal. Brick walls, kind of under ground. Cranked up really loud, it was the most moving thing ever. I'd like to somehow recreate this or exceed this experience, but with full 5.1, and in my upstairs 22x18 office in my house in San Diego, which has normal sheetrock walls. So if you think I need to do room treatments too, please let me know.
As I still need to buy a receiver, I'd like to keep the budget for the speakers under $1000 if at all possible. I can go higher if it's really necessary but $1000 is the most I'm hoping to spend on the speakers. Also, if you have any suggestions along the lines of a receiver particularly suited at 5.1 music and using computers as an audio source, I'd love to hear about it. I'll probably just get a relatively high end Pioneer receiver, as the one I have now for my living room 5.1 setup (VSX-1121) does pretty much everything I need.
The easiest place for me to put these speakers would be on the desks surrounding my main desk. Is that too high off the ground for tower speakers to work well, should I go with bookshelf speakers instead?
In conclusion, which speakers do you think I should buy? Thanks!
What I'd like to do is build a separate 5.1 system, focused specifically on music, in my office.
I've already got the computer and music storage/playback details worked out, and know roughly what sort of receiver to get, but where I need help the most is speakers and room design.
My office is roughly 22' x 18' and my desk is kind of near the back. Really, I don't need it to sound awesome everywhere in the room, just basically at my desk is where I'd like it to sound awesome. There is about 6.5' of space behind my desk for rears to go, and plenty of room in front for fronts.
Let me give some hints about what is awesome to me:
(1) One thing I've been doing is playing individual tracks of a 5.1 remixed song through headphones and listening to individual instruments. It's fascinating. One thing I noticed is that the subwoofer channel (4) almost always has incredible audio content on it that doesn't make it through a subwoofer. For example, on most of the 5.1 Rush remixes, you can hear the full audio spectrum of Geddy's bass in complete isolation from all the other instruments. Simply piping that through a subwoofer that only plays the bottom 120hz seems like a waste to me. I'd much rather have full range on that track, but I also want good bass too, of course. Does this mean buying a good subwoofer and also a regular speaker and routing channel 4 to both of them?
(2) I'd really like to be able to hear each individual channel clearly and be able to easily tell which direction it came from (within the limits of the audio I'm playing, of course).
(3) For music in my office right now, I have a pair of M-Audio BX5 powered studio monitors. They're pretty good if turned up really loud, but I'd like a significant improvement over their audio quality.
(4) I want the system to also be excellent at playing stereo music, not just 5.1. I don't care, at all, about playing movies on this system.
(5) The absolute best audio experience I ever had was when I had these same M-Audio BX5 powered studio monitors in a basement apartment in Montreal. Brick walls, kind of under ground. Cranked up really loud, it was the most moving thing ever. I'd like to somehow recreate this or exceed this experience, but with full 5.1, and in my upstairs 22x18 office in my house in San Diego, which has normal sheetrock walls. So if you think I need to do room treatments too, please let me know.
As I still need to buy a receiver, I'd like to keep the budget for the speakers under $1000 if at all possible. I can go higher if it's really necessary but $1000 is the most I'm hoping to spend on the speakers. Also, if you have any suggestions along the lines of a receiver particularly suited at 5.1 music and using computers as an audio source, I'd love to hear about it. I'll probably just get a relatively high end Pioneer receiver, as the one I have now for my living room 5.1 setup (VSX-1121) does pretty much everything I need.
The easiest place for me to put these speakers would be on the desks surrounding my main desk. Is that too high off the ground for tower speakers to work well, should I go with bookshelf speakers instead?
In conclusion, which speakers do you think I should buy? Thanks!
