5.1.2 buying advice

trooperer

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I'm looking for some advice on the planned 5.1.2 setup I am trying to assemble.

It's going to be used roughly 50% for movies, 25% gaming, 25% music. It's a relatively small room (3.5 x 5m, screen being on the centre of the 5m wall, with watching/listening distance of 3m from front speakers / screen). So far I've already installed 2x Monitor Audio C265 in ceiling and would like like to explore MA Silver 6G series as I really liked MA Bronze in the past and with the whole company in general (especially how they treat their customers which deserves a story of its own).

So I was thinking
2x Silver 6G 100 for fronts
2x Silver 6G 50 for rear
Silver 6G C150 centre
Denon AVC-X3700H (again, was really happy with Denon in the past, and would like to stay with them)

Ideally I'd take C350 for the centre, but the cabinet where I plan to put it has 21cm clearing which does not cut it :/

Still didn't decide which subwoofer to go for. Was thinking perhaps SVS SB1000. Any suggestions?

Does all of this makes sense in general? Trying to stay within this budget, would you do things differently? I have zero experience building surround setups so badly in need of advice.

Thank you!
 
If you are going to use them for music, is the reason of the 100 at the front end a budget choice or is it that they floorstands will not fit in the room? Musically the much larger 300 are a World away from the 100's for musical ability. With the exception of height, the dimensions of the 300 is a little narrower than the 100's, but has an identical depth meaning that once you place the 100's on stands they will take up more space to

The differences from the C150 when using the 100 will be less balanced to the 300's to as the midrange driver is lot larger giving a slightly different characteristics to the way they sound together. The Denon will be able to iron most of this out, but not all with the 100's and should be able to give you a balanced front end with the 300's even though they are much larger speakers

Musically the 3700 isn't the best, but as its only 25% of your usage, I feel this will be fine unless you are super critical to the sound stage as Denon's are very good for surround sound, but are a little below compared to some of the completion when it comes to musical focused sound stages. If you are super fussy about the sound stage, then look towards the Marantz equivalent which will give you almost all of the same features whilst delivering better musical presence

For the woofer, I'd change to the SB2000 over the PB1000, but that's because I prefer a sealed woofer. Having said that, the PB1000 does go a little lower

If you do decide to run down the system you have selected, you will still have an extremely capable system which many people would be super happy to own as its a well put together partnership
 
Thanks for the great response Shane!

Yeah, the main reason for bookshelf speakers is placement - we have floor to ceiling shelves and would like to avoid obscuring them with floor standing speakers.

I didn't know that about Denon 3700, but that is good to know. It does sound like it then fits my intended use well, as the primary purpose here would be having a bit more impressive surround. I definitely wouldn't consider myself an audiophile with a sophisticated ear, but I do appreciate well balanced sound, and often find myself enjoying a wide variety of musical genres from Pink Floyd to DnB.

That being said, I will be moving from 8-year old 2.0 Bronze 300 setup, so I hope that it will feel like an upgrade in all 3 cases (movies, games, music).
 
Please can you you take a photo of the front of the room, the reason behind this is placing a speakers like the 100's within a box like area will make them sound much more boxy and will in fact be a bad thing for any type audio reproduction. So a photo should give everyone an idea of what you are dealing with and will then everyone will be better suited to helping you bring your system to life.

As for an improvement, the 100's are certainly a step up sonically and will bring much more finesse and detail than you are experiencing today. The other side of why it's important to make sure you do not box them in to much is if it does create a boxy sound, then you will find that all the gains you are making will be lost due to poor placement conditions
 
The 100s would go left and right of the screen (left one roughly where the Lego box is at the moment)

There's around ~41cm of height clearance, and ~35cm depth inside these two shelves, so that would give them 3-4 cm top clearance and 1-2cm back clearance (although I'm not sure they need back clearance really as they can also be wall mounted).

I'm guessing I should also leave them some room to the left and right (i.e not to stack books directly onto their sides)?



262570709_1968049066707575_2260460054339834181_n.jpg
 
So my concern here is that 100's are rear ported and that will/could cause unwanted booming which may cancel out some of those frequency improvements you are upgrading to

Keeping with Monitor Audio's, I'm wondering if the Apex 10 and 40's at the frontend may work better in this situation. For one they are front ported meaning you won't have the same issue, they are also a little smaller, but are still a highly capable speaker for both music and cinema as their size doesn't do them justice. You could also drop down to the 50's which may sound odd, but as they are smaller, you will have more air to the rear and surround (although not by much). Experimenting with the bungs may also be something you might want to try if the booming becomes difficult. You could also add a some acoustics panelling to the rear of each speaker if booming becomes a real problem which should suppress it to a far better degree than the bungs

The one saving grace is that the side are open and this should allow for a little benefits compared to being within a more boxy construction
 
I'm looking for some advice on the planned 5.1.2 setup I am trying to assemble.

It's going to be used roughly 50% for movies, 25% gaming, 25% music. It's a relatively small room (3.5 x 5m, screen being on the centre of the 5m wall, with watching/listening distance of 3m from front speakers / screen). So far I've already installed 2x Monitor Audio C265 in ceiling and would like like to explore MA Silver 6G series as I really liked MA Bronze in the past and with the whole company in general (especially how they treat their customers which deserves a story of its own).

So I was thinking
2x Silver 6G 100 for fronts
2x Silver 6G 50 for rear
Silver 6G C150 centre
Denon AVC-X3700H (again, was really happy with Denon in the past, and would like to stay with them)

Ideally I'd take C350 for the centre, but the cabinet where I plan to put it has 21cm clearing which does not cut it :/

Still didn't decide which subwoofer to go for. Was thinking perhaps SVS SB1000. Any suggestions?

Does all of this makes sense in general? Trying to stay within this budget, would you do things differently? I have zero experience building surround setups so badly in need of advice.

Thank you!
Are you limited to certain size with the sub? You planning to place it in the front of your cabinet unit either side?

SVS SB1000 Pro costs 639£ and i believe small discount is possible from forum advertisers. However if you crave more impact/rumble for blockbuster movies then there is better options cheaper at 420£, however the cabinet would be larger 480x380x500mm (WxHxD).
 

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