OneMoreDave
Novice Member
First of all, please excuse the rather lengthy post... ;-)
I'm looking at putting together a sound system to go with my new TV. Having pretty much decided against a soundbar/soundbase, I now need to work out what sort of speaker setup I need.
I'm aware that home cinema setups normally involve subwoofers, but I live in a flat and don't want to annoy the neighbours. I'm not massively into action movies, so not too bothered about huge impact anyway, but I do want a reasonably full, atmospheric sound with clear dialogue.
At the moment I'm using an old, cheap Logitech sub/sat combination I normally use with my PC, which is an improvement on the built-in TV speakers, but there's not much in the way of lower midrange (so dialogue suffers) and even that small sub is turned right down and sitting on a foam cushion to isolate it from the floor.
So, I'm wondering whether instead of a sub, I could get away with slightly more full-range fronts - something like the Monitor Audio Radius R270 slim floorstanders with a Radius 200 centre, and possibly either Radius 45 or Radius 90 surrounds. I'm actually not totally convinced I want surrounds at all; previously I've found they tend to distract me rather than add to the experience, though that might just be down to poor quality/integration, as they were plastic sats that came free with my old Toshiba CRT. If I did have surrounds, they'd need to be about 45 degrees behind the sofa rather than to the sides, which I gather isn't ideal.
Would a 3.0 or 5.0 setup of that quality provide a decent movie experience without neighbour-annoying potential? My hi-fi uses TDL RTL3 floorstanders, and I've never had a complaint about those. Also, would a compact receiver such as the Yamaha RX-S601 be up to the job of driving/controlling the MAs? Are there other slim floorstanders (or bookshelf speakers with reasonable bass extension) I should look at?
Or, should I just save myself a load of cash, and go for a slightly better 2.1 option (e.g. Ruark MR1 with a "desktop" sub)?
I'm looking at putting together a sound system to go with my new TV. Having pretty much decided against a soundbar/soundbase, I now need to work out what sort of speaker setup I need.
I'm aware that home cinema setups normally involve subwoofers, but I live in a flat and don't want to annoy the neighbours. I'm not massively into action movies, so not too bothered about huge impact anyway, but I do want a reasonably full, atmospheric sound with clear dialogue.
At the moment I'm using an old, cheap Logitech sub/sat combination I normally use with my PC, which is an improvement on the built-in TV speakers, but there's not much in the way of lower midrange (so dialogue suffers) and even that small sub is turned right down and sitting on a foam cushion to isolate it from the floor.
So, I'm wondering whether instead of a sub, I could get away with slightly more full-range fronts - something like the Monitor Audio Radius R270 slim floorstanders with a Radius 200 centre, and possibly either Radius 45 or Radius 90 surrounds. I'm actually not totally convinced I want surrounds at all; previously I've found they tend to distract me rather than add to the experience, though that might just be down to poor quality/integration, as they were plastic sats that came free with my old Toshiba CRT. If I did have surrounds, they'd need to be about 45 degrees behind the sofa rather than to the sides, which I gather isn't ideal.
Would a 3.0 or 5.0 setup of that quality provide a decent movie experience without neighbour-annoying potential? My hi-fi uses TDL RTL3 floorstanders, and I've never had a complaint about those. Also, would a compact receiver such as the Yamaha RX-S601 be up to the job of driving/controlling the MAs? Are there other slim floorstanders (or bookshelf speakers with reasonable bass extension) I should look at?
Or, should I just save myself a load of cash, and go for a slightly better 2.1 option (e.g. Ruark MR1 with a "desktop" sub)?