Solution Needed for Home Office - Recommendations Please!

[dmorrow]

Due to COVID we decided to move full time to our beach home. I work from home, running a consulting business. The move leaves me with a spare bedroom to use as my office/music room - size is 14'4" x 10'4". Speakers would go on a credenza centered on a long wall. I also have room for stands on the ends of the credenza if needed. I have a few other options, but this placement is by far the best for home office ergonomics. Speakers, of necessity, will be close to the wall probably around 8".

My use case, in order of priority, is: 1) Music. I listen to rock, pop, Americana, & Jazz. Love a female voice like Norah Jones, Ricki Lee Jones. Also listen to a lot of acoustic music (e.g., Miles Davis). 2) Clear, articulate and faithful rendition of bass lines - both acoustic & electric bass. (I'm a bass player) 3) Clean, unobtrusive visual impact with minimal wires/connections. 4) Sound system for a wall-mounted TV above credenza with HDMI ARC output. 5) Turntable input for my old-school, reconditioned Connoisseur bd2/a.

I listen to music at sound levels from quiet (while working) to loud (when my wife is away). Nothing earth shattering.

Given the use case & space limitations, I am considering Klipsch The Fives plus a quality, small sealed sub like the new SVS 3000 micro-sub. I discussed this setup with Audioadvice. While they highly recommend The Fives, they also expressed concern that The Fives could be very "boomy" for my space. The Fives cut off low frequencies with a sub, so that would be good first step toward control. They suggested I consider an alternative configuration with front ported speakers, perhaps the AudioEngine HD4s.

My questions:
1) Since The Fives and the SVS are DSP based, could boominess be controlled using supplied apps? In the case of The Fives, when the app is released?
2) Could boominess be controlled by migrating to Roon or alternative?
3) What are my other options?

I'm open to an integrated amp with passive speakers but that configuration starts to violate number 3 of my use case. Powered speakers with DSP active crossovers and the proper set of inputs seems like the optimal solution.

Budget is $2K.

Appreciate any insights from this incredibly knowledgeable audio community.

Thank you

 

[dmorrow]

Didn't seem to be much interest in my situation, but I'll share my results just in case someone else is exploring The Fives.

I ordered the Klipsch The Fives and decided to send them back. Too much bass for this small room. Before I made the decision, I paired them with my current sub, an Audioengine S8. The pairing did help since The Fives reduce bass when a sub is plugged in . . . but it wasn't enough improvement. If my room were bigger by about 30% I think The Fives would have made the cut. Subjectively, they were really nice speakers with excellent detail and soundstage. My only complaint is that it would have been useful to have the long promised DSP app to fully explore their use in this space . . . disappointing that it's still not available.

I ended up getting the Audioengine HD4's paired with the S8 sub. I'm using my Topping D50S/A50/P50 stack to bypass the internal DAC. Pleased with the result for now.

Note - I don't have the ability to measure room response so this is my subjective assessment only.

 

[Sancus]

There are a lot of purchase advice threads posted here, and a lot of times they're not really that interesting because it appears the poster has done little research. If you perused the Klipsch speaker reviews to date, you'd see they mostly have poor tonality and other issues. Not very popular around here.

Your connection needs/preferences create a pretty big problem, as outside of soundbars and the like, there are very few powered speakers with HDMI inputs. Normally that problem is solved by an AVR, like a Denon with XT32. Bass boominess is also typically a result of room modes not being controlled via measurements and EQ/placement adjustments. Decent room correction like Audyssey XT32 eliminates the worst of it in most cases.

Of the options I'm aware of(not including soundbars), they're basically:
1) Get an AVR(recent-ish Denon with XT32 eg 3700H/3600H/etc) and whatever bookshelf speakers catch your fancy/budget(Revel M16, Elac DBR-62, JBL Stage A130, etc).

2) Get digital Genelecs(eg: 8330A, etc) w/GLM room correction and use an HDMI-> SPDIF adapter. However, this is probably overbudget with a Genelec sub, as they're expensive, and non-Genelec subs don't work with GLM.

3) MiniDSP SHD w/optical or spdif in and powered monitors like JBL 305p/Kali LP-6/Adam T5V. May be a bit overbudget as well.

There are some wireless solutions like Buchardt A500 + their hub but I think all the good ones are significantly overbudget.

 

[Webninja]

I have a similar requirement for a secondary system. I was able to wire the receiver in a closet, and will just power two passive bookshelves. I don’t watch much tv on this system, so no center needed.

Without an avr, you probably didn’t have many choices in how to get what you need, but let us know how your turned out.

 

[dmorrow]

Sancus - Don't worry, someday I may purchase a pair of Genelec 8020D studio monitors. (the 8030's are too big for my credenza)

Webninja - HDMI ARC was a lower priority so I decided to just go optical into the D50S. I'm ok with a separate remote for volume. Relatively pleased for now. I suspect others will be adding ARC to their powered monitors in the not too distant future.