Speaker Suggestions for living room

Ram Mahalingam

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Hi all,

I would like to get your opinion on speakers for a new 5.2 set up. Please see attached photos of my living room. I have currently Yamaha floor standing speakers run by AVR Yamaha RX-V775. Due to glass windows, I get lots of reflection causing ear tiredness. My interest is both movies (from blu ray & netflix) and music (youtube HD, Tidal).

My living room is 40 m2 and listening area is 4*5 meters (~ 20 m2). Listening distance is 4 meters.

I have listened to lot of hifi speakers in the shops but they sounded completely different when heard them in my living room.

I have read many forums (including Linkwitz) and came with the list below in the order of preference.
1. Pure audio project open Baffle speakers with ESS or Beyma run as active
2. Genelec 8351 or 8350 or 8260 for LCR and 8340 for rears
3. Neumann KH 310 or 420 for LCR and 120 for rears.
4. Fohhn Audio LX 60 ASX for LR, LX 10 for rears and AT10 for center (active)
5. XTZ Divine M6 for LCR and S5 for center.


Some of my friends say that for my set up only dipole or omni directional speakers will work and they claim none of the box speakers will work. Some say studio monitors with control directivity in combination with DSP and room correction will work. Some say column arrays with controlled beam like Fohhn audio will suit best. I am confused and not able to decide.

I heard XTZ in my living room but returned it as it did not sound well as compared to the shop (please see my old post at the begining of this year). I did AB comparision of Genelec 8030 and KH120. Both are great. KH120 was bit harsh with better mids whereas 8030 was musically better but little compressed mids (KH had better mids).

With my first preference Pure Audio Project which will best suit my living room, issue is WAF and no matching center available. Most of the omni directional speakers have poor WAF. So my second preference is Genelec due to GLM 2.0 and due to white color availability.

Could any of you please help me if you had been in a similar situation and hear all these speakers? Genelec are box speakers and how will they tackle reflections. But on the other hand, Genelec 8351 are considered to have constant controlled direcivity.

Can you please suggest which model will suit better 8351 Vs 8350 Vs 8260. My prefernce is 8350 but if the sound difference is huge, then I may not mind extending my budget to 8351.

Would also a AVR like Anthem with a better Room correction than YPAO work well with XTZ? Probably the issue was with Yamaha.

Additional Comments:
I have ordered some curtains. Though they are thin/non-trasparent, they cant be compared to thick curtains. I am hoping that they would bring the reflections down still. Concerning the rug, my wife has allergy to carpets but I am still considering to have one.

The Yamaha NS-777 that I currently have does not bring clarity to the mids/highs. One reason could be the reflections or probably it was the best that it could produce for the money.

One of the reason to go for the small studio monitors is to have better waf and at the same time more details/clarity/sound quality compared to Yamaha. So, I want to be absolutely sure that I get much better quality when I do a big investment. Hope the room correction from GLM or may be a new Anthem receiver fixes the room reflections.

@ all: any recommendations on the above list. Will Neumann KH 120 be sufficient as they cost less compared to 310. Somewhere I read that 120 is quite near to 310. But when I heard, 310 was in a different leage. However the hearing was in a shop.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 

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You're going to have problems with just about most speakers in there with no curtains or rugs. Does you wife have dust allergies? Something to consider that will look and sound good with WAF in white will be the range from MK Sound. I use these with an Anthem as a pre amp.

All things being equal, it's the best combo so far from me but if the room is really bad you're really going to struggle - omni this and dipole that has no importance here until you can stop things bouncing off the floor at 1st reflection.
 
@ Rock Danger:

Thanks a lot for your tip! I am definitely going to fix the room with curtains. Due to low WAF, I am planning to remove the huge floor standers. Few additional questions?

- have you compared MK to active studio monitors like Genelec / Neumann?
- how does MK fare in music. Sometimes I listen to 2.0 channel music.
- I like MK tripole for rear. I have listened to XTZ S5 tripoles and they were very good. I am considering tripoles for rears as my couch is very close to the rear wall. In that case, will I get good sound qulaity if I go for Genelec/Neumann fronts LCR and MK S300 T or S150 T for rear?

Best Regards,
 
I bet if you do the good old clap test you'll get echos of all those bare walls. Certainly and at the very least get curtains and a rug for the main listening area. The placement of the speakers themselves is not very good, too close to the walls.

That's a pretty big room and floorstanders would be the obvious choice but maybe seriously good standmounts could be easier to place with quality stands. Is the likes of the KEF Reference 1 within reach?
 
@ Rock Danger:

Thanks a lot for your tip! I am definitely going to fix the room with curtains. Due to low WAF, I am planning to remove the huge floor standers. Few additional questions?

- have you compared MK to active studio monitors like Genelec / Neumann?
- how does MK fare in music. Sometimes I listen to 2.0 channel music.
- I like MK tripole for rear. I have listened to XTZ S5 tripoles and they were very good. I am considering tripoles for rears as my couch is very close to the rear wall. In that case, will I get good sound qulaity if I go for Genelec/Neumann fronts LCR and MK S300 T or S150 T for rear?

Best Regards,

I've only mixed studio audio with genelec in studio and they're definitely one of the better monitors out there. A few members have them for cinema and seem pleased.

The MK stuff I use at home. I've heard many different set ups in different rooms and they are the only systems so far that are consistent in their results.

They're best served on Anthem avr products.

The only thing notably better so far has been Steinway Lyngdorf, but that is the next notch up in quality and price. At ISE last year, Procella and JBL did a great job too, but again were powered by the excellent Trinnov processor.

My 300s are fine with music the outshine my previous Kef reference 205/2's. I haven't heard the XTZ range.

I would be more inclined to go with the same brand of speakers up front as the rears, giving you a nice timbre match with surround panning.

Your first priority would be looking to into breaking up those reflections.

Hope that helps!
 
Answered your other thread on this subject but just noticed you seem to have the subs on the unit as well? If so then again this is not going to be ideal as they should really be on the floor.
 
This looks very familiar, did you post on AVS Forum in the USA. If so, I responded extensively there earlier today.

Steve/bluewizard
 
@ Rock Danger:

Thanks for your help! How will MKs s300T or s150T fit as rears when my couch is very close to the wall?
 
@ Rock Danger:

Thanks for your help! How will MKs s300T or s150T fit as rears when my couch is very close to the wall?

Mines currently pretty close to the wall too although intend to move it out at later date. I know that bipole don't seem to do very well bit the 150s are probably the best surround speaker I've heard (or 300s for bigger / louder) applications.

I've 4 X 150s on the roof for atmos so it all makes a good bubble of surround, not too directional, but also not lost in a wall of mush.

Proximity won't be your issue. You got some good on wall MK fronts that have high waf factor to look into - the speakers are excellent, but regardless of what you buy make sure it's all matched up and you get the room deadened down a bit - a hypoallergenic rug of some kind would clean up probably 50% of the scatter in there.

Try and stay away from marketing buzzwords and magical tweeters etc - most of it is total nonsense in the real world when the whole system is running.
 

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