2.1 or 3.1 system recommendation

Patni

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I currently have an oldish TX-NR414 receiver and am looking to get some half way decent speakers. The intended use is exclusively for films. Room is rectangular, 18 x 10 feet with hard floor. I dont want to go full 5.1 at the moment. My budget is around £900, out of which £400 will be spent on a sub woofer, most likely some form of BK Elec as they seem to be the best bang for the buck right now. What would you recommend for the L/C/R speakers? I can go used or even just L/R with option to buy a center speaker in the future. I dont want floor standers as I dont think I would get quality in the £500 budget. Some recommendations I have seen here are:

Monitor Audio Bronze?
QAcoustics 3090?
Wharfedale Evo 4.1?

Thanks in advance
 
Do you have speaker stands (60cm)? If not there is some basic ones for about 60£/pair.

The now discontinued B&W 606 (matte black) is on sale 449£, it was 379£ while ago but this is probably last store to have them so the price is raised but i think you could ask better deal. The new S2 versions costs 599£ so if you would get them ~400£ it could be worth a consideration. They seem to be on the brighter side tonally which may be prefered with movies, also the larger 606 model should have decent bass weight and depth.

Focal Chora and Kef Q350 would be at 500£ mark if you already have stands.


Dali Oberon 3 is popular choice too.


There is too many options if you start to look. Richer Sounds and hifi shops should be open so if you could visit / book demo time comparing 2-4 different speakers you would be wiser. Otherwise you just have to read reviews and owners thoughts which goes like X person loves them while X person founds them bright or something.. It`s risky to buy blind as we don´t know which type of sound you like best. If you need to squeeze speaker stands for the 500£ budget then i would try to haggle good deal from the 606s.

Fisual Dynami Duo should be ideal for larger standmount speakers. Black satin/gloss and white gloss/satin. Please don´t put them on some low narrow av-unit. Small price to pay to get them optimal height and then you can find the sweet spot width wise and toe in.



BK P12-300SB is right at the 410£ mark. However if you could save 100£ extra for one month you would get the better PR version which has more grunt below 30hz for action/scifi/horror movies. The passive driver acts kinda as a port. It uses otherwise same cabinet, amp and active driver.

Another "movie oriented" option would be the discontinued SVS PB1000. If you are looking the most impact/rumble then look no further. One of the most sold 500$ HT woofer.
 
Many thanks @Gasp3621 for the detailed response. Certainly food for thought, I had not considered the Focal and B&W as yet.

What is your opinion of the QAcoustics series?
 
Many thanks @Gasp3621 for the detailed response. Certainly food for thought, I had not considered the Focal and B&W as yet.

What is your opinion of the QAcoustics series?

Haven`t heard the latest serie, had the 2000i long time ago. It seems quite safe choice, but then again when comparing side by side to few other brands it might not be most exciting. People have different tastes so it would be important to go listen. Example with the B&Ws you could just listen the S2 version cause it will be close enough to S1 .

The 806 model was part of the Chora system reviewed here:

And for the B&W 606 was used here:

Finally the S2 version below, but the take away message "The Bowers & Wilkins 600 S2 Anniversary Edition benefits from a few minor sonic tweaks, but based on memory it sounds largely the same as the previous generation. "
 

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