What 5.1 speaker package?

[Gingerbread Man]

What 5.1 speaker setup to match my Onkyo 607 amp?

I'm thinking of spending £300 and have seen so far;

Kef Eggs (2005.1?)

HARMAN KARDON HKTS11

And recomendations please, happy to go second hand.

[bogie]

for £300 then Kef eggs ...maybe Q Acoustics S/H ...or maybe S/H Kef Eggs higher up the range

check the classifieds on www.avforums.com - usually plenty on there...or ebay

[pmanson]

I've got an Onkyo 605 and a set of Jamo A102s which were around the £200 mark.

The speakers are well made,s ound good and are quite discreet.

I'm considering trying to get hold of a couple more to make my set up 7.1...

Edited by pmanson on Thursday 14th January 10:18

[Gingerbread Man]

I'm looking at the small satellite speakers due to not having much room for bigger floor standers/ bookshelves speakers.

I tell a lie, I could at the front but not at the rear.

[pmanson]

These are the Jamos:



I've got the rears tucked up here:



I've changed the angle of these to point down now. (The bracket allows you to move the speaker left/right)

[Gingerbread Man]

Looking more and more tonight.

I planned on spending £300 on the amp and £300 on the speaker package.

I liked the look of the Onkyo 607 due to good reviews and also the HDMI upscaling. I can't hide the cables so having just one HDMI cable running up the wall would be best for me.

Tonight I've spotted the Denon AVR1910 for sale second hand. If I could get it for £300, would it be a better buy than the Onkyo?



Speaker wise, I'm now finding myself looking at some Mordaunt Short Avants.......

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Thursday 14th January 23:06

[Thudd]

Don't forget to cost in cables.

[custardkid]

The second room function on the onkyo is very useful

I would recomend getting floor standers for the front, then you don't need a sub and IMHO you get a fuller sound. Get a decent centre speaker as lots of voice comes from there.

The rears don't need to do much so don't worry about gettin any thing too posh
custard

[Agoogy]

This is my choice (similar budget) in a few weeks....or I may just take a printout to Richer Sounds and save on postage too....leaves plenty for good cable..

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.c...

http://robertwhyteltd.co.uk/sony-strdh800-strdh800...

[Gingerbread Man]

custardkid said:

The second room function on the onkyo is very useful

I would recomend getting floor standers for the front, then you don't need a sub and IMHO you get a fuller sound. Get a decent centre speaker as lots of voice comes from there.

The rears don't need to do much so don't worry about gettin any thing too posh
custard

I've room for floorstanders at the front. For the back, it's not the case of price, more size of the speaker compared to a small satellite.

Will all front floorstanders cope with the subs job, or only good ones?

[dave_s13]

A mate of mine recently got these


http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.c...

They aren't bad at all, the sub is bloody huge though! The kit comes with cables but it's not very fancy stuff, I made sure he got some proper thicker gauge stuff for the front/centre.



A massive improvement over the 28" CRT!

But, if it were me I wold spend £300 on just fronts and a centre. Add rears later on.

I've got old Mordaunt Short MS20i Pearls as my fronts and MS10i's as my rears. They sounds fantastic. Much better than the Onkyo package above. Oh and the MS10's were off ebay and cost 35 quid, much cheapness.

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 15th January 12:47

[tuffer]

I have KEF Eggs and they are great, the Yamaha amp is for sale at £100 if anyone wants it (collect).

[Plotloss]

pmanson said:

I've changed the angle of these to point down now. (The bracket allows you to move the speaker left/right)

Why?

Surround channel output should be difficult to locate and complimentary to the front effects.

Because of the way we've evolved we hear where we look so sound that comes from behind is tiring and distracting.

Hence why surround speakers shouldn't point at you.

They should also be on the side walls facing each other rather than on the rear wall facing forward.

Where you have them at the moment is the right place for surround backs if you go to a 7.1 array but you'd ideally want dipole surrounds to do that.

[dave_s13]

Plotloss said:

pmanson said:

I've changed the angle of these to point down now. (The bracket allows you to move the speaker left/right)

Because of the way we've evolved we hear where we look so sound that comes from behind is tiring and distracting.

Is that why my wife chelping away in the kitchen (behind the lounge) makes me want to smash her face in then?

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 15th January 13:01

[pmanson]

Plotloss said:

pmanson said:

I've changed the angle of these to point down now. (The bracket allows you to move the speaker left/right)

Why?

Surround channel output should be difficult to locate and complimentary to the front effects.

Because of the way we've evolved we hear where we look so sound that comes from behind is tiring and distracting.

Hence why surround speakers shouldn't point at you.

They should also be on the side walls facing each other rather than on the rear wall facing forward.

Where you have them at the moment is the right place for surround backs if you go to a 7.1 array but you'd ideally want dipole surrounds to do that.

They're still not firing straight down (more like a 45 degree angle) and looking towards each other rather than at the TV.

I'll have to take a picture so you can see what i mean (it's a bit of a compromise due to the space).

[custardkid]

Gingerbread Man said:

custardkid said:

stuff

Will all front floorstanders cope with the subs job, or only good ones?

no expert, but this is my experience:
room is 16ft x 12ft with tv on the long wall
onkyo 507 amp
eltax symphony 8 floor standers (12yrs old!)
£50 richer sounds tannoy centre speaker
gale mini monitors at the rear

Eltaxs give great depth & punch, the opening sequence in quantum of Solis is ace!
Wish I'd bought a better centre as it always feels a bit weak & thin.
Rears fine, some KEF eggs would be more discrete.

Added a Q10 sub from super Fi, adds tiny bit more rumble, but if I was doing it again I wouldn't bother

custard

[Gingerbread Man]

custardkid said:

Gingerbread Man said:

custardkid said:

stuff

Will all front floorstanders cope with the subs job, or only good ones?

no expert, but this is my experience:
room is 16ft x 12ft with tv on the long wall
onkyo 507 amp
eltax symphony 8 floor standers (12yrs old!)
£50 richer sounds tannoy centre speaker
gale mini monitors at the rear

Eltaxs give great depth & punch, the opening sequence in quantum of Solis is ace!
Wish I'd bought a better centre as it always feels a bit weak & thin.
Rears fine, some KEF eggs would be more discrete.

Added a Q10 sub from super Fi, adds tiny bit more rumble, but if I was doing it again I wouldn't bother

custard

I thought the bigger more powerful speakers up front would drown out the rears and much tweaking needs to be done to balance it?

[custardkid]

Dunno, I just used the auto tune function with the suppied mic. It sends pulses from each of the speakers to balance them.

What you get from the floor standers is fuller sound over a wider range. A bit like a young wine vs an aged wine, same content but fuller flavour in the old wine.
Or like listening to music on a phone speaker, vs a hifi, same content but completely different

if you go to a bigger richer stores they have listening rooms, ask to try before you buy