Time for another attempt to pin down some HT speaker recommendations.
This has always promised to be the most difficult component of the realization of my parents' new home theater room, because opinion has been unavoidably divided, as one might expect when there is literally no way to adequately showcase or detail the quality of speakers through any possible net-based resource, unlike with pretty much every other component of a home theater room.
Many people like to suggest that one simply go out and listen to what's out there and choose based on that. That is a reasonable suggestion, as far as it goes. I will take it under assumption that my small city is going to actually have resellers who stock and indeed show off some of the tremendous variety of speaker options available these days. (Probably not, but it's a different concern.)
The purpose of this post is to nail down some solid recommendations for brand, and, more particularly, model, based on the particular needs I have to look into fulfilling. It's one thing to know that, say, "Paradigm" is mentioned a few times when people ask, but another thing entirely to actually know which of their speaker sets (or combinations of their offerings) are the most appropriate; they can't all be the same, after all.
Here are the specifics of what I will be needing:
1) Home theater room measuring approx 13 by 16 feet, will be needing 7.1 channel speaker setup. Current plan is to have all speakers except subwoofer mounted on walls (including front-left / front-right), though there may be flexibility on the front speakers (they could potentially be floor-standing). In-wall was considered and rejected due to acoustic limitations. Room will be used primarily for movie watching, but there will likely be moments when music is played instead (e.g. the new 5.1 Beatles album).
1b) The area just outside of the HT room, in what amounts to the hallway leading to said room (but which is nonetheless about nine or ten feet wide), is currently planned to enable further (more casual) seating. It is planned that this area will have two further wall-mounted speakers which will likely reproduce the audio from the front-left / front-right, or whatever counts as a reasonable mixdown of the surround audio.
2) My parents also want a more rudimentary 5.1 surround setup for the master bedroom. This will not be a primary viewing area; the TV will probably not exceed 27 inches. But at the same time, the point is to avoid ending up buying "Bob's speakers".
It is difficult to really pinpoint what sort of budget we are aiming at, so if anyone can tack on estimations of street or reseller prices for whatever they recommend (assuming the knowledge is handy), that would be most appreciated. For what it's worth, the speakers in the primary room are meant to be of rather decent quality, without pursuing that last 5% that raises the price by 10x. I will undertake to make calls to resellers around town to see whether or not they carry / showcase any of the makes and models people recommend.
If I need to provide more information, please chime away. Thanks.
This has always promised to be the most difficult component of the realization of my parents' new home theater room, because opinion has been unavoidably divided, as one might expect when there is literally no way to adequately showcase or detail the quality of speakers through any possible net-based resource, unlike with pretty much every other component of a home theater room.
Many people like to suggest that one simply go out and listen to what's out there and choose based on that. That is a reasonable suggestion, as far as it goes. I will take it under assumption that my small city is going to actually have resellers who stock and indeed show off some of the tremendous variety of speaker options available these days. (Probably not, but it's a different concern.)
The purpose of this post is to nail down some solid recommendations for brand, and, more particularly, model, based on the particular needs I have to look into fulfilling. It's one thing to know that, say, "Paradigm" is mentioned a few times when people ask, but another thing entirely to actually know which of their speaker sets (or combinations of their offerings) are the most appropriate; they can't all be the same, after all.
Here are the specifics of what I will be needing:
1) Home theater room measuring approx 13 by 16 feet, will be needing 7.1 channel speaker setup. Current plan is to have all speakers except subwoofer mounted on walls (including front-left / front-right), though there may be flexibility on the front speakers (they could potentially be floor-standing). In-wall was considered and rejected due to acoustic limitations. Room will be used primarily for movie watching, but there will likely be moments when music is played instead (e.g. the new 5.1 Beatles album).
1b) The area just outside of the HT room, in what amounts to the hallway leading to said room (but which is nonetheless about nine or ten feet wide), is currently planned to enable further (more casual) seating. It is planned that this area will have two further wall-mounted speakers which will likely reproduce the audio from the front-left / front-right, or whatever counts as a reasonable mixdown of the surround audio.
2) My parents also want a more rudimentary 5.1 surround setup for the master bedroom. This will not be a primary viewing area; the TV will probably not exceed 27 inches. But at the same time, the point is to avoid ending up buying "Bob's speakers".
It is difficult to really pinpoint what sort of budget we are aiming at, so if anyone can tack on estimations of street or reseller prices for whatever they recommend (assuming the knowledge is handy), that would be most appreciated. For what it's worth, the speakers in the primary room are meant to be of rather decent quality, without pursuing that last 5% that raises the price by 10x. I will undertake to make calls to resellers around town to see whether or not they carry / showcase any of the makes and models people recommend.
If I need to provide more information, please chime away. Thanks.
