Speaker installation thoughts….

[jimbouk]

Reaching the end of a selfbuild,… time to install some av However the phrase end of a selfbuild neatly equates to no money left

Have a decent size twin height room, 28 feet long, x 18 feet wide and 18 feet tall.



Already have speaker cable installed in the top of each corner, but now need to choose some speakers and brackets. Not looking at audiophile, just some half decent speakers, but completely confused by what I should get, will be general music and linked to av projector for movies.

I’ve actually got a third wired point



So I will swap the feed from the amp to different pairs depending upon how the room is being used,

Have already realised I can’t buy speakers in threes so anticipate buying two pairs.

Oh and they need to be predominately white.

Thinking something like Mission LX2…. How best to mount?

Will probably be powered by Yamaha R-S202D, not purchased yet.

Advice appreciated.

[V8covin]

Avforums would be a good place to ask

[Tony1963]

And a budget is of overriding importance

[jimbouk]

£200 to £250 a pair

[Tony1963]

jimbouk said:

£200 to £250 a pair

eBay, gumtree, car boots etc

[jimbouk]

Nope, have recently purchased a pair of mission 73s speakers for this room, in ‘excellent condition’ via ebay, both speaker cones ripped, apparently according to the vendor this is not a problem as the speakers have covers….

Edited by jimbouk on Monday 30th August 18:10

[Tony1963]

Getting a refund?

[jimbouk]

Will do eventually….

[TorqueDirty]

Are you not going for the full surround sound setup?

Seems like a missed opportunity and you can get a decent AV amp for not a great deal of money these days I think.

As for speakers - years ago I bought a second hand set of KEF Eggs and they are bloody fantastic for the money. Two front, two rears, a centre and a sub for about £200 if I recall.

Two of them are wired up in my gym these days to a Cambridge Audio amp but I used to use the full set for an attic chill out room for watching movies and they really did punch above their weight.

Same as these I think.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133862870334?hash=item1...

[jimbouk]

Not going down the surround sound setup at present. It’s a holiday home, want to keep relatively simple and easy for non techies to use, also needs to survive multiple children and dogs…

[tonyg58]

Try Ebay/elsewhere for used B+W LM1s.
The foot can be used as a wall bracket and you can get them in a white.
They're not a bad speaker for casual listening and are quite neat (won't go very loud in a room that size though).
Silver pair on Ebay just now

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174882476555?hash=item2...

Make sure they are working properly as i don't think you will be able to get spares for thenm now.

[Andeh1]

Mordant short alumni have been a cracking setup for the nearly a decade for me! Loads on ebay.

Failing that, get down to your local richer sounds store!

[NorthDave]

To be honest it's a strange approach and a strange brief. I'd have probably gone down the ceiling speaker route in your scenario - speakers on brackets in the corners always look like an after thought.

In your circumstance though I'd probably look for something like Kef eggs on eBay or if you want new then go to Richer Sounds and see what they have?

[Mars]

Have a look at Scandyna speakers at podspeakers.com

You'll need a subwoofer with the smaller ones.

[thebraketester]

Personally I think anything along the lines of "bookshelf speaker" will look like a dogs dinner in there.

I would be looking at the most discreet options available. First ones that pop to mind are the Bose acoustimass range in white.

[Lucid_AV]

jimbouk said:

Have a decent size twin height room, 28 feet long, x 18 feet wide and 18 feet tall.

Already have speaker cable installed in the top of each corner, but now need to choose some speakers and brackets. Not looking at audiophile, just some half decent speakers, but completely confused by what I should get, will be general music and linked to av projector for movies.

With a cavernous space to fill, and with such large areas of hard reflective surfaces - the glass, the walls, the ceiling and the floor - plus the location of the speaker points high up in the corners, you're probably right to abandon the idea of any audiophile aspirations. Even if you put a dedicated stereo system in there with some floorstanders in a conventional layout, the liveliness of the room would make it hard work to listen to because of trying to separate the direct and reflected sounds.

The LX-2 are thoroughly decent speakers - particularly for the money - but I think any bookshelf-sized speaker is going to have a real challenge getting some bass in to the space because of the sheer volume of the room. You'll tweak the bass control of the amp which will help a little when listening at lower volumes. But when you want a bit more volume then the extra bass boost will become lumpy and intrusive. That'll be the speaker bass driver working too hard, so you'll end up increasing the volume to compensate, but then run in to the issue of putting too much treble energy in to the space.

Although I'm no fan of Bose domestic speakers, their idea of a sub/sat system is on the right lines for you and your space. (Just to be clear, I wouldn't choose Bose for lots of reasons, not least the leaden one-note bass; and the gaping hole in midrange delivery; and the listener fatigue. But a sub/sat system of another brand, or a mix-n-match system is a sensible choice.) Let's deal with the main speakers though first.

For something less obtrusive than conventional boxes but without blowing the budget either in new or used, have a look at Q Acoustics Q7000 and the KEF 'Eggs' KHT 2001 / 2001.5 / HTS3001 / HTS3001SE / HTS3005.

Can I also make a suggestion on colour? Have a think about silver. It's not black, and it'll hide the dust better than white. As a bonus, there are lots of KEF Eggs available in silver.

Later model Eggs have (IMO) a little more energy in their presentation, and I think they're a better choice that the early models such as 2001 and 2001.5 They're also more sensitive than the Q Acoustics (88dB vs 84dB) and a higher impedance (8 Ohm vs 6 Ohm) and both these aspects make them an easier load for an amp to drive.

Regarding a sub, a small one is a waste of time. There are some very good small subs around; the BK Gemini II is roughly a 1ft cube and has a 10" driver, but it and similar subs only have the power to pressurise a smaller room. Trying to run any underpowered sub in what amounts to a double height large living room will result in the sub running out of puff and the driver banging off the end stops.

BK's larger ported subs have the power to make a better match for the room size. Have a look at the BK Monolith for the best price/performance ratio in either new or used in its class.

BK subs can be driven from a parallel connection with the main speakers from any stereo amp. This means that the amp doesn't need a dedicated subwoofer out connection on an RCA phono. There's trick too to avoid the sub adding any load on to the amp. It runs at very high impedance. This means it draws virtually no current from the amp, so the amp doesn't see it in the same way as a speaker load.

Edited by Lucid_AV on Tuesday 31st August 12:35

[VEX]

If they are going up high then ideally you should angle them down a little, playing into the listening space rather than across the top of it.

So for neatness you could use a set of SVS Elevations, in white, angled downwards.

And you can get them singularly

V.

(Sorry Big Al)

Edited by Big Al. on Thursday 2nd September 12:56

Edited by VEX on Thursday 2nd September 15:58

[JEA1K]

I would personally go form over function here. Sticking a pair of standard cabinet speakers up there would just look horrendous ... but you'll need something pretty decent to create an acceptable level of performance. The above suggestions of shapely speakers would be a better option ... maybe a used pair of Gallo A'Diva SE's hung from the corners?



Don't take this the wrong way but if you have run out of budget for AV, its not really that important, so why don't you just go for a freestanding Sonos Play type of set up? Portable so can be moved around when you're away on a holiday home. Speakers + Amp is always going to be £1k min ... possibly better things you can do with that money!

[Sporky]

Cornered Audio are worth a look, but in my experience will need a sub (and don't use theirs, it's awful).

My office has a pair of C5s and an SVS SB1000 Pro, but you might want a bigger sub if you want lots of bass.

From the photo though I'd bet that some acoustic treatment will be needed to make anything sound particularly good.

[NorthDave]

Lucid_AV said:

Great advice

Edited by Lucid_AV on Tuesday 31st August 12:35

This is a great post by the way Lucid. Bravo!

Edited by NorthDave on Thursday 2nd September 18:19