New setup Help!!!!!

[steveski83]

Good Evening all, Please be gentle its my first time posting!!!!!!

So ive Just brought a new LG G1 65" TV, So ive had to upgrade my old AV receiver because it did not support 4k (Yamaha RX-A810) Ive just bought a new Denon 2700H. Im currently running my original speakers and sub with the amp (Cambridge Minx 11,s 5.1) However we have always suffered with dialog being to quite. We have pretty much used the speakers on all channel doing away with the surround affect for this reason. So i though it was about time i upgraded to a new 5.1 setup getting bigger speakers for LCR so i can actually use the 5.1 setup as intended lol.


Im just after peoples recommendations/advice. Below is a list of everything to do with my living room size details etc.


Living room size is 12ft x 13ft
Rear speakers 5ft from sitting position L and R Must be wall mounted due to sofa
Front L and R 13 ft from seating position and must be Bookshelf or wall mounted unable to fit floor standing speakers
Center 13 ft from seating position
Sub 13ft from seating position under left front speaker.

95% TV watching 5% music listening

BUDGET £1500MAX

So ive been looking at Either the Q Acoustics 5.1 or Dali Oberon 1/3 setup. I just want to make sure that i don't waste my money on speakers and end up in the same position. The most important aspect is the vocal issue on movies when in surround mode. Id also like to get a bit more bass on the music side, it sounds a little tinny at the moment. Sorry for the long post and maybe slightly amateurish questions.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Joe Fernand]

Pics or a layout plan are alway better than a description.

Tiny cubes are alway tricky to get right and as you invariably simply screw them to the wall with no ability to tweak their position, whearas when working with floor standing speakers you can spend an age making small changes to the position to deliver the optimum performance.

In a 5.1 system you ideally have side surrounds - level with or just behind your seating position.

Joe

 

[Gasp3621]

Good Evening all, Please be gentle its my first time posting!!!!!!

So ive Just brought a new LG G1 65" TV, So ive had to upgrade my old AV receiver because it did not support 4k (Yamaha RX-A810) Ive just bought a new Denon 2700H. Im currently running my original speakers and sub with the amp (Cambridge Minx 11,s 5.1) However we have always suffered with dialog being to quite. We have pretty much used the speakers on all channel doing away with the surround affect for this reason. So i though it was about time i upgraded to a new 5.1 setup getting bigger speakers for LCR so i can actually use the 5.1 setup as intended lol.


Im just after peoples recommendations/advice. Below is a list of everything to do with my living room size details etc.


Living room size is 12ft x 13ft
Rear speakers 5ft from sitting position L and R Must be wall mounted due to sofa
Front L and R 13 ft from seating position and must be Bookshelf or wall mounted unable to fit floor standing speakers
Center 13 ft from seating position
Sub 13ft from seating position under left front speaker.

95% TV watching 5% music listening

BUDGET £1500MAX

So ive been looking at Either the Q Acoustics 5.1 or Dali Oberon 1/3 setup. I just want to make sure that i don't waste my money on speakers and end up in the same position. The most important aspect is the vocal issue on movies when in surround mode. Id also like to get a bit more bass on the music side, it sounds a little tinny at the moment. Sorry for the long post and maybe slightly amateurish questions.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Yes those Minxes can sound bit tinny and if you have 13ft listening distance to LCR then they are not the ideal speakers. It would be quite dramatic change to something like Oberon 3, Oberon Vokal and Oberon On-Wall assuming you would like the Dali sound. That goes both for music and movies. Subwoofer you should buy from company that specializes in to them, not anything by QA or Dali etc. We can give you few options later. You mentioned bookshelf or wall mounted mains. Do you have wide (2,0-2,5m) and ~50-60cm high av-unit where you would put front L/R at each end? You also mentioned the sub would go below mains so you do have the floorspace. Picture or two would help to visualize things better as Joe said.

 

[steveski83]

Yes those Minxes can sound bit tinny and if you have 13ft listening distance to LCR then they are not the ideal speakers. It would be quite dramatic change to something like Oberon 3, Oberon Vokal and Oberon On-Wall assuming you would like the Dali sound. That goes both for music and movies. Subwoofer you should buy from company that specializes in to them, not anything by QA or Dali etc. We can give you few options later. You mentioned bookshelf or wall mounted mains. Do you have wide (2,0-2,5m) and ~50-60cm high av-unit where you would put front L/R at each end? You also mentioned the sub would go below mains so you do have the floorspace. Picture or two would help to visualize things better as Joe said.

Thanks for reply. please see below pics of living room and current speaker position and space available.

 

[Gasp3621]

Oh man this looks tricky. You don`t really have space for the speakers at front unless you move lot of stuff away from the front walls either side of tv, including computer as the right main speaker would be wall mounted about the height of your monitor. There is no space for bookshelf speakers and while the name implies bookshelf i wouldn`t put expensive speakers inside bookshelf and you would need to have identical bookshelf at the right side too. Either way it ain`t happening if the computer stays there. Center channel would be mounted below tv and it`s quite deep (Oberon Vokal) which you might not have measured, could come as a shock for wife. For the surround speakers i think best would be just to keep what you have (you can mix them with other brands) as you have again lot of stuff where the larger speakers would go and i don`t believe your wife would be too happy if changing/removing everything for AV.

If you can´t do any changes then as you have new receiver, CA Minx subwoofer which you can use with new speakers and the small sats (keep surround pair) you could consider passive soundbar below the tv (=front three). It`s compromise, but i can´t see much options otherwise unless doing big changes there. It would be mounted just below tv so the speech should be clear and there would be more weight/depth to everything. Monitor Audio has few good models with decent size drivers so it should be noticeable step up from the Minxes, but it ain`t cheap either. If you have got any chance to listen the below products first in local Richer Sounds or similar then do that, call and ask around who has demo option assuming you are intrested.

Monitor Audio Radius One Black Passive Soundbar Speaker at AV.com

Monitor Audio Radius One Black Passive Soundbar Speaker at AV.com

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Monitor Audio SB-3 Soundbar

Now you can add big sound to your big TV display without filling the room with speakers.

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Monitor Audio SB-4

The new SB-4 passive soundbar is designed to provide a visually balanced, audio solution for 70” screens and larger, this stylish, high performance, passive soundbar is ideal for installers keen to deliver premium performance in media room applications.

petertyson.co.uk

 

[ShanePJ]

I have to agree with @Gasp3621 that adding front speakers is going to be hard for you to fully achieve without rearranging your room and that a soundbar arrangement could be the best option for you. As you have a healthy budget, you could move to something like the Klipsch 1200 which should work well in your room. You will have to mount it to the wall, but this should give you something extra on what you are experiencing at the moment. Now there is a trade off in using a soundbar compared to what you are using now and that is that you loose the wider dispersion sound creating a narrower soundstage

If you do don't want to move down the soundbar solution, then you really will have think hard as that small gap below where you have the centre channel will be similar to placing a speaker inside another box creating a poorer acoustic level for vocals. So mounting a speaker beneath the TV is going to be recommended I think by everyone.

With a budget of £1.5k, you could add something like the Apex 10 and Apex 40 to improve the front end whilst leaving the rears for another day. In making these three speakers work in your room, you will probably never really look to change them as they are an extremely good speaker solution. These speakers should also give you a little extra change to maybe look at a woofer. Now looking at the room, maybe looking at a slimline woofer might be the best option (not usually one I go down), but this should be easier for you to place. So something like the Q Acoustics 7060S might do the job

If your AV receiver has the ability to do Atmos, you can also repurpose a couple of the Minx speakers for front high duties as you certainly have space for front high speakers

 

[Joe Fernand]

'current speaker position and space available' - definitely a time for a redesign of the front of the room if you want to improve the front soundstage.

As you are sitting head on to the TV you could go without a Centre speaker and concentrate the budget and layout on a decent Front LR speaker pair.

A Passive Front LR or LCR Speakerbar below the TV is, as Gasp3621 says, another option.

Any improvements are going to hinge on being able to rejig the layout.

Joe

 

[password1]

Those little minx speakers are rubbish for any mid bass content, they don't play very low and need to be high passed quite high with the sub playing the mid bass.

Could you upgrade to beefier speakers..As you have limited space, you should consider small speakers and flat speakers. Whats your budget? Those minx will be ok for surrounds. A minx 22 might help a tiny bit but probably not worth the expense as imo they're expensive speakers for what they are. For the same price you can get a proper centre. Perhaps consider the cambridge aero centre or minx xl centre whatever it's called. (the centre with the BMR tweeter, same technology as minx drivers so should be a better match than other speakers) There is a member on this forum with minx surrounds and front L and R but with the Cambridge Audio aero centre.

There is a picture in the for sale thread.. where the minx x300 or 301 was also for sale. Gasp is the forum expert in looking for member's setup pictures.

 

[steveski83]

Thanks everyone for your help its really appreciated, Sorry for the reply. So ive made my decision and about to order my new setup.

Ive got the mrs to agree to move stuff around to accommodate my new system (Good Girl)

So im thinking Dali oberon 5 for the left and right and oberon vokal for the centre ive decided to pair them with a svs sb1000 pro sub. Do you think this is a good choice?

Im keeping the rear satellite speakers as the minx 11 for the time being, This may be a stupid question but im going to have x2 spare minx 11's, Can i add these to the current 11's and double them up each side and wire them in either parallel or series?

I will upgrade them to oberon on wall eventually.

Thanks again everyone and Happy new year

 

[password1]

Good system but you should also consider a sub from bk for better value for money as the svs sub has gone up in price from £549 to £639 or more.

You'll get far more choice of finishes which may be more room friendly, rather than the old fashion black woodgrain vinyl on the svs.

Dont run the minx in series or parralel. Use a separate channel for each speaker if your avr has surround backs and side backs for 7.1.

 

[Gasp3621]

Thanks everyone for your help its really appreciated, Sorry for the reply. So ive made my decision and about to order my new setup.

Ive got the mrs to agree to move stuff around to accommodate my new system (Good Girl)

So im thinking Dali oberon 5 for the left and right and oberon vokal for the centre ive decided to pair them with a svs sb1000 pro sub. Do you think this is a good choice?

Im keeping the rear satellite speakers as the minx 11 for the time being, This may be a stupid question but im going to have x2 spare minx 11's, Can i add these to the current 11's and double them up each side and wire them in either parallel or series?

I will upgrade them to oberon on wall eventually.

Thanks again everyone and Happy new year

No you can´t "double them".

Oberon system sounds good, you would place the mains roughly about halfway each side. But you understand that you need to move computer table away and also remove the units on the left side?! Measure the Oberon Vokal, you want to mount it fairly high below tv. It is rather deep so show that wife.

I would stick with SVS cause the small size will be beneficial, has much longer amp warranty, BK suffers humming amps often (SVS like others may have faulty amp but it will be swapped fast - sadly BKs old amp tech means humming/buzzing still continues), purely performance wise the smaller SB beats the larger BKs, phone app control etc. You should be able to get some discount, -10% was possible while back. Contact these dealers for SVS and ask "AVForums member discount".

Cinehome | SB-1000 Pro Subwoofer (Black Ash)

On Demonstration. In stock for Next Day Delivery. The SVS 1000 Pro Series features technology breakthroughs from the reference 16-Ultra Series, the most award

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SB-1000-PRO Subwoofer

AVForums - Best Buy. Small subwoofer cabinets are not conducive to big bass, which presented a challenge for SVS engineers when designing the SB-1000 and its compact 13x13x13-inch enclosure. Refusing to sacrifice performance for size, SVS engineers threw out preconceived notions and designed a...

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