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Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
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5.1.4 HT options help (New? Used? Budget allocation?)
Hello all! I've been lurking on your forums for the past couple of weeks trying to distill all the great information you're all bringing to the table; very much a newbie but have also always appreciated great sound. I've decided to reach out and ask for opinions/advice on my HT setup options.
I've just inherited a Epson 5020UB projector with a 9' screen and have it setup in a ~12'x12' room in the basement. Not top notch I know but damn the free price is right!! I could see an upgrade in the next few years though.
To celebrate my latest good fortune I thought I'd setup a 5.1.4 HT system (80%HT use 20%music use est.). After using the google and mining these forums I've decided on a Denon AVR-X3600H. 9.2 channels with 11 processing leaves me room for upgrades in my future while meeting my current goals.
Now this brings me to me speaker choices dilemma. I'm leaning towards used to max out my value for my money. Speaker budget is $1,500 excluding receiver and ceiling speakers. Unfortunately I live 2hrs away from the nearest major center up in northern Canada; so I'm going to make a trip out of it, but that also means normal audio sampling/testing just is not logistically viable. Here are some of my thoughts from the options available right now:
-Assume excellent shape for all-
Klipsh full 5.1: RS42BII X2 bookshelves, RC52BII center, RF62BII X2 floor towers, KSW10 subwoofer. Easy one stop shop, forum opinion is they can be bright and harsh to some, but also detailed and revealing (polarized opnions), subwoofer does not have great reviews. Asking price 1,500 in excellent shape, likely could get them for 1,250.
PSB Alpha full 5.1: T1's, C1, matching bookshelves, and PSB subseries 1. The sub doesn't seem very impressive so may have to upgrade that. Asking price $800
Or build around value towers?
Energy RC-70 floor towers: Alot of really great reviews for these speakers. Tend to be more neutral / less fatiguing and really excels with acoustic material. Might be tough to match center channel; there is a Energy center speaker ecc-1r for sale for $40.00 but I'm concerned that they may not tonally match and would hate to go through the effort only to be distracted by something like that. Asking price $275.00. This leaves lots of room for the rest of the setup. Polk, Paradigm, Kef C1 bookshelves for ~200 and blow the rest of the budget on a subwoofer (s).
JBL E-60 with EC-25 center $320
Paradigm monitor 7v4 with cc170v4 $600
Or build around higher quality more expensive towers and ignore center channel matching?
Kef IQ9's $800
Dali Ikon 7 $900.00
Paradigm Monitor 7V6 $600
Paradigm Monitor 7V5 $500
Mission M66i $550
Klipsh RF20 $630
-I'm sorry for the novel! I'm interested to hear some opinions though.