# Help with speaker for 5.1 HT



## sid369 (May 14, 2013)

Hi all,

New to the forum and will be new to HT as well. I currently live in an apartment and have HTIB.

Will be going to a house soon and want to set up a 5.1 in the family room.

I have attached the layout of the room as I don't know how to insert the image here. The size of the room is 22X19 and 9 foot ceiling. one side of the room open to the kitchen, foyer etc.

I don't like laidback sound, I like forward and clean sound that will be able to fill the room nicely.
I have a pioneer sc-1522k receiver that I will use with the speakers.

So far I have listened to

new focal -716v
paradigm - monitor 7
def tech- 8040
B&W CM9
Kef Q700
martin Logan monitor 40
Polk TSI300 


I liked the 716v but felt the center was lacking.
I really liked the CM9 (out of budget) and when the guy switched from the martin logan to the cm9 I felt that the cm9 have a wide soundstage and sounded much clearer.

Did not care for the others except polk tsi300 which I guess was set up properly and I listened to them against the klipsch f series and the pioneer and felt like that they sounded very forward and clear, even the matching center sounded good.


Any suggestion to steer me in the right direction. Also, wife liked both the polk and the focal sound.


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

Glad you could join us, sid369!

Wow, you have laid ears on a lot of really great speakers. I would recommend listening to the B&W 600 series, it sounds a lot like the CM.

I've heard speakers that were very laid back when first heard, once I got them home they sounded quite different. Any chance the dealer(s) would let you audition at the new home, even a stereo pair at least?


Image posting info can be found here.
http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...tachments-system-without-minimum-5-posts.html


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Well, you can't go wrong with what you like. Sounds like you both like the same speakers so the decision should be fairly easy  I think you're already headed in the right direction. Only suggestion would be to play around a bit with your speaker placement. Generally speaking, most speakers like a little bit of room and will sound better if not in the corners. I like at least 18" away from back walls especially with a rear ported speaker like the Polk TSi300 and at least 24" from side walls.


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## sid369 (May 14, 2013)

Well, I am really having a hard time finding the correct location. 

The marking in the layout that I have posted is the location of where I am thinking of the pre-wiring. I want to know if those good locations so that I have some flexibility in terms of moving the speakers if I have to due to furniture placement or even moving the tv over the fireplace.


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

I think those are good locations for pre-wiring. You may want to consider a third wire for the center channel on the back wall and the fireplace as that would give you the flexibility to set up just about any way you would like.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

I will agree with tesseract that you should listen to the 600 series as it also has a metal dome. Other manufactures that have metal domes that you may like if you have the ability to listen to them are as an example:

Canton
Energy CF series
Monitor Audio

I will also agree that corner loading a speaker isn't the best idea unless you are running klipschorn's. I would prewire the rears to the right height and width so that you don't see wires running up the walls but for the others I would use the "under the baseboard" method that way if the wife whines about wires on the floor after the right positioning is determined they can be tucked in as much as possible. 

Your sub "may" sound better in another location. Again if wiring is an aesthetics problem you can look at a wireless model 

Where will your equipment rack be? Under the TV? Will the TV be wall mounted or on a stand? If on a stand keep in mind your center channel, you don't want it sitting on the floor, if it will be on glass you'll want some way to decouple it.

Have fun with you're new HT


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## LensShift (May 17, 2013)

The only word of advice I go by is, use all the same speakers. Don't use a "center channel". If you use the same model/make speaker for all channels you will give you a uniform, "true" matched sound. Just listen and decide for yourself.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

Get the best sub you can afford lddude:


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## sid369 (May 14, 2013)

trying to decide between 
focal 716v - $850
B&W 683 - $1200
Paradigm Monitor 9 - $1000 and monitor 11 - $1200

or go cheap with infinity primus p363 - $250


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

Have you listened to all 4? If so, how do you compare them?


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