Hello all, I just began reading through reviews and posts on this site a few months ago when I began to get an itch to significantly upgrade the sound setup in my family/living room. I would like to have a high quality listening experience for audio (CDs, phono, streaming) as well as an upgrade to the what I currently have for movies.
I am not the type to feel a need to upgrade to latest/greatest type technology when it becomes available. For example, I have a reasonably old LCF standard HD TV. I suspect I will use that until it becomes obsolete or I feel compelled by some currently unknown force to upgrade. I currently have an inexpensive all-in-one-home-theatre-in-a-box type setup for sound. I currently only have the front three speakers and sub connected (3.1).
Given the room layout (see pictures attached), the living room is part of an open floorplan where there is quite a bit of volume of space that gets filled with the adjacent kitchen and dining area. The living room is probably about 16'x16' with a 12' ceiling at the peak and closer to 8' at the exterior wall. I am currently thinking that at most I would be looking to setup a much improved 3.1 system. The different permutations there can get a bit tricky.
I was initially thinking that I might be working to a budget of 3k but I suspect that could change upwards, especially if elements can be added piecemeal after-the-fact (additional speakers, for example). I have no real interest in getting to a fully immersive setup of 7,9,11 channels. At most I would imagine 5.1 but probably 3.1.
Main questions/thoughts
1) Write ups on this website (and others) for the Revel brand speakers appear to be exuberant in their praise at their price point. I was considering the F36 speakers for fronts (currently around $1500) with a mismatched (brandwise) sub. My first thought would be to evaluate whether the center channel was necessary.
2) Receiver: Most all receivers are sized for more ambitious home-theatre setups. I suspect I am stuck with just having unused channels, which is ok, to get a quality receiver. Given the parameters above (speakers, room size, etc), are most of the receivers in the market going to be acceptable at providing good, clear, powerful sound? Are there particulars to avoid? I do not have a 4k tv (as mentioned) but obviously this is the type of capability to have in the future when a TV may be purchased. I am not a high-tech gamer; my child plays Nintendo Switch so it is not requiring the big processing power of the more advanced systems.
Each day I look at this stuff I have different permutations and thoughts in my head so any bit of feedback or recommendations from the universe that could inform this novice would be greatly appreciated.
I am not the type to feel a need to upgrade to latest/greatest type technology when it becomes available. For example, I have a reasonably old LCF standard HD TV. I suspect I will use that until it becomes obsolete or I feel compelled by some currently unknown force to upgrade. I currently have an inexpensive all-in-one-home-theatre-in-a-box type setup for sound. I currently only have the front three speakers and sub connected (3.1).
Given the room layout (see pictures attached), the living room is part of an open floorplan where there is quite a bit of volume of space that gets filled with the adjacent kitchen and dining area. The living room is probably about 16'x16' with a 12' ceiling at the peak and closer to 8' at the exterior wall. I am currently thinking that at most I would be looking to setup a much improved 3.1 system. The different permutations there can get a bit tricky.
I was initially thinking that I might be working to a budget of 3k but I suspect that could change upwards, especially if elements can be added piecemeal after-the-fact (additional speakers, for example). I have no real interest in getting to a fully immersive setup of 7,9,11 channels. At most I would imagine 5.1 but probably 3.1.
Main questions/thoughts
1) Write ups on this website (and others) for the Revel brand speakers appear to be exuberant in their praise at their price point. I was considering the F36 speakers for fronts (currently around $1500) with a mismatched (brandwise) sub. My first thought would be to evaluate whether the center channel was necessary.
2) Receiver: Most all receivers are sized for more ambitious home-theatre setups. I suspect I am stuck with just having unused channels, which is ok, to get a quality receiver. Given the parameters above (speakers, room size, etc), are most of the receivers in the market going to be acceptable at providing good, clear, powerful sound? Are there particulars to avoid? I do not have a 4k tv (as mentioned) but obviously this is the type of capability to have in the future when a TV may be purchased. I am not a high-tech gamer; my child plays Nintendo Switch so it is not requiring the big processing power of the more advanced systems.
Each day I look at this stuff I have different permutations and thoughts in my head so any bit of feedback or recommendations from the universe that could inform this novice would be greatly appreciated.