RileyJ
Novice Member
I am considering buying my first surround sound system and I wanted to ask for help & thoughts here.
Goals:
Living in London our living room is strangely shaped: the wall with the TV has an angle of about 15deg, one of the walls is half opened towards the kitchen and the ceiling is half normal height and half double height. Also the layout of the room does not really allow us to put speakers on ear height as it would obstruct walking. So overall the space is rather strangely shaped and constrained.
Our use-cases are about 50% movies, 30% music and 20% gaming. Budget is about £2-4k.
Current solution:
The best option I came up with so far is to get 5 Kef LS50 Metas and the Denon AVC-X3700H as the AVR. The front LR and surround speakers will have to be mounted on the wall and angled slightly down while the centre speaker should have a pretty much perfect location. What I like about this setup:
1) The Uni-Q drivers seem to have a pretty decent off-axis behavior so the setup should make a decent sound in a larger area and should not have a strongly localized sweet spot.
2) The metas have a fairly uncolored and transparent sound.
3) The metamaterial should be decent at absorbing the back reflections so might be better at being mounted relatively close to the wall - probably about 20cm.
4) Although metas are rated at 8Ω they are more like 3.5Ω in reality according to KEF's whitepaper and people's measurements. The Denon seems to be one of the few AVRs rated to work at least down to 4Ω so it seemed like a reasonable choice.
5) We really like the design of the LS50s.
Cons/Issues:
1) Locations of speakers will not be optimal but there just isn't that much that we can do about it.
2) Metas seem to be really hard to drive. The AVR's amplifier’s quality is probably not good enough to make the metas shine. Based on the reviews there is no clear trend in which amps work well with them and I can't find people trying this specific combo.
Alternatives considered:
1) Quad S-2: They are cheaper and their sound might be a bit cleaner and better separated. The ribbon tweeter makes the vertical off-axis response deliberately weaker which is normally awesome, but in our case it would just make it harder/impossible to align everything well.
2) B&W 706: They are a bit more expensive and maybe a bit clearer. However I don't think I am fond of the sound and don't like the style so overall seems like a worse option.
3) Focal Aria 906: Much clearer vocals, but otherwise seems a bit more mudded. Since I listen to a lot of non-vocals music it also doesn't seem like a good option.
4) Kef Q350: Way cheaper, not as clear, not as pretty.
5) Wait until the lockdown eases and actually listen to speakers in stores rather than read reviews and listen to sound samples.
Future upgrade options:
1) Add an amp for the front LR stereo for music. X3700H has pre-amp outputs so in the future it should be straightforward to add an amplifier.
2) Add sub. I am not big on bass and LS50s in general seem to have a decent bass response. I would give it a try without a sub at first but I expect it to follow soon.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to summarize my thinking. Do you have any advice? Are there some options I am missing? Is my room doomed anyway and should I just save the money?
Thanks for any advice
Goals:
Living in London our living room is strangely shaped: the wall with the TV has an angle of about 15deg, one of the walls is half opened towards the kitchen and the ceiling is half normal height and half double height. Also the layout of the room does not really allow us to put speakers on ear height as it would obstruct walking. So overall the space is rather strangely shaped and constrained.
Our use-cases are about 50% movies, 30% music and 20% gaming. Budget is about £2-4k.
Current solution:
The best option I came up with so far is to get 5 Kef LS50 Metas and the Denon AVC-X3700H as the AVR. The front LR and surround speakers will have to be mounted on the wall and angled slightly down while the centre speaker should have a pretty much perfect location. What I like about this setup:
1) The Uni-Q drivers seem to have a pretty decent off-axis behavior so the setup should make a decent sound in a larger area and should not have a strongly localized sweet spot.
2) The metas have a fairly uncolored and transparent sound.
3) The metamaterial should be decent at absorbing the back reflections so might be better at being mounted relatively close to the wall - probably about 20cm.
4) Although metas are rated at 8Ω they are more like 3.5Ω in reality according to KEF's whitepaper and people's measurements. The Denon seems to be one of the few AVRs rated to work at least down to 4Ω so it seemed like a reasonable choice.
5) We really like the design of the LS50s.
Cons/Issues:
1) Locations of speakers will not be optimal but there just isn't that much that we can do about it.
2) Metas seem to be really hard to drive. The AVR's amplifier’s quality is probably not good enough to make the metas shine. Based on the reviews there is no clear trend in which amps work well with them and I can't find people trying this specific combo.
Alternatives considered:
1) Quad S-2: They are cheaper and their sound might be a bit cleaner and better separated. The ribbon tweeter makes the vertical off-axis response deliberately weaker which is normally awesome, but in our case it would just make it harder/impossible to align everything well.
2) B&W 706: They are a bit more expensive and maybe a bit clearer. However I don't think I am fond of the sound and don't like the style so overall seems like a worse option.
3) Focal Aria 906: Much clearer vocals, but otherwise seems a bit more mudded. Since I listen to a lot of non-vocals music it also doesn't seem like a good option.
4) Kef Q350: Way cheaper, not as clear, not as pretty.
5) Wait until the lockdown eases and actually listen to speakers in stores rather than read reviews and listen to sound samples.
Future upgrade options:
1) Add an amp for the front LR stereo for music. X3700H has pre-amp outputs so in the future it should be straightforward to add an amplifier.
2) Add sub. I am not big on bass and LS50s in general seem to have a decent bass response. I would give it a try without a sub at first but I expect it to follow soon.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to summarize my thinking. Do you have any advice? Are there some options I am missing? Is my room doomed anyway and should I just save the money?
Thanks for any advice