Beginner Setup Advice

[melodymaker]

Hi everyone, what a great forum.

I'm looking to improve my home listening experience, streaming video and audio through Netflix/HBO and Spotify. I have a laptop and projector and normally just play music through my phone. We currently have a bose Bluetooth speaker. The room is 3.5m x 8m (although we would have the speaker setup /cinema side in just half the room, i.e. 3.5 x 4) and use the full room for parties (where we pump the music pretty loud).

I've been looking at various home theatre setups and don't know whether to go for the following types of setups:

1. a complete AV home theatre setup (e.g. Dali spektor 2 cinema setup 5 speaker plus sub with denon avr x2700)
2. A regular amp and better speakers, e.g focal chora 806, and build from there, we don't need an AV because we just plug the projector into the laptop, and Bluetooth the sound to amp?
3. Start of smaller but with a better AV and better speakers and add more later

I appreciate this is basic stuff and my questions might be confused so thanks for any tips/guidance/links to similar threads... Many thanks

 

[Gasp3621]

How much you can spend right away?

Is the projector at the one end of your room so the 3,5m wall and if so how much space there is either side for speakers? Does the screen drop very low too, i`m trying to imagine how low you would have to place center channel? If you can post pictures that could help getting better idea.

I would lean number 3. so decent av-receiver, good pair of speakers and quality subwoofer. That would be 2.1 system to start with or 2.0 depending of your budget.

Example as you live in Spain:

Denon AVC-X3700H

Amplificador AV de 9.2 canales 8K con audio 3D, Heos Integrado, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Amazon Music, Qobuz, Internet Radio.

www.supersonido.es

FOCAL CHORA 806

Chora 806 es el altavoz de estantería de 2 vías de la línea Chora. Con la nueva tecnología de cono Slatefiber, proporciona un sonido preciso y dinámico.

www.supersonido.es

SVS PB-1000

Subwoofer de 300W controlado por DSP (procesador de señal digital) con woofer de 10''

www.supersonido.es

Or if size restricted then the sealed variant (SB), however this isn´t as "fun" with movies. There is no requirement to match sub and speakers from same brand. I would want you to buy woofer from company that specializes in to those. SVS is now selling these soon to be discontinued models cheaper. SVS is US based company one of the most known. Best support/service in business, 5year amp warranties etc.

SVS SB-1000

Subwoofer de 300W controlado por DSP (procesador de señal digital) con woofer de 12'', compacto y cerrado. Grave SVS impresionantemente grave y limpio en un discreto cubo de 33 cm.

www.supersonido.es

 

[Joe Fernand]

In your room/room layout you could go 2.0 (or 2.1) using a stereo amp - preferably with a digital input plus the ability to rely the audio to keep it in sync with the video.

You could start with a 2.0 (or 2.1) system using an AVR with the option to add in additional loudspeakers if you feel you need them/budget allows.

Ideally you want to use a wired digital or analogue audio out of the Laptop to your Amp rather than Bluetooth.

Open plan/Asymmetric room layouts require a bit of extra work and planning on speaker layout and placement as the output from the speakers bounces around within the whole room not just the defined seating area.

Joe