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New 5.1 setup bookshelf front mains under about 1.5k

Karppila

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I am replacing my old floorstanding speakers in my 5.1 setup with bookshelf speakers and I just cannot decide because I do not have a lot of listening possibilities here. I might swap out my really old mid channel so that might also get upgraded. My speakers are powered by a Denon AVR X3400H and I have 10 inch sub in my system. I do 50% movies 50% music.
Some of the options I have been thinking are:

-KEF Q350 (Great price at 450$). I could also get a KEF Q250C center with these and it would still only be about 850$.
-B&W 606 (850$)
-Revel M16 (1350$, really do not see how these could be a reasonable buy as there is no way these can provide more for the money than the other options)
-Elac UB5, UB52 and DBR62 (800$, 700$, 600$)
-Polk R200 (850$)
-Elac BS 263 (1400$, does anyone have experience with these?)

What do you think would be best for this setup? I would love to hear your personal experience with any of these speakers!
 

Koeitje

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Not the B&W 606 for sure, that is simply a terrible speaker.

KEF R3 might be an option if you get a good deal, don't know US pricing?
 
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Karppila

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Not the B&W 606 for sure, that is simply a terrible speaker.

KEF R3 might be an option if you get a good deal, don't know US pricing?
Yeah im actually also not in US but just converted the prices into usd as I thought there would be more US readers. But yeah thought about the KEF R3 also but the cheapest i can get them where I am located is 1300€ = 1500$ which is quite a lot especially thinking that I can get the full front setup of Q350s and Q250C for half the price of the R3 pair. If I could get the R3 for maybe a couple hundred less then maybe. Or if I could listen to them and was very impressed.
 

sweetchaos

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Q350 review => Nothing special.
CEA2034.jpg

B&W 606 (I'm assuming S2 version) => No review.
But there a review is for 607 S2 => Avoid
CEA2034.jpg

Revel M16 review => Recommended
CEA2034.jpg

Elac DBR62 review => Recommended
CEA2034.jpg

Elac UB52 review => Avoid
CEA2034.jpg

Polk R200 measurements => Recommended
CEA2034.jpg

Elac BS263 and UB5 => no spinorama

So that narrows it down to:
Elac DBR62
Polk R200
Revel M16

I think you'll be happy with either of those 3.
 

theyellowspecial

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My experience with Kef coaxial (LS50) for home theater (20x11x8 room / 9ft seating) is poor, even with 100Hz crossover. The woofer gave up and farted a few times during peaks on loud scenes. Also, just not very clear during loud scenes in general (IMD probably). Q350 uses a larger driver but I suspect it would behave similarly based on distortion measurements. R3 would fix that problem with separate woofer.

A130 is the best home theater bookshelf I've tried (also great for music). My ears start crying before the speakers do. Can also be comfortably crossed at 60Hz-80Hz, so more subwoofer crossover flexibility.
 

raistlin65

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I am replacing my old floorstanding speakers in my 5.1 setup with bookshelf speakers and I just cannot decide because I do not have a lot of listening possibilities here. I might swap out my really old mid channel so that might also get upgraded. My speakers are powered by a Denon AVR X3400H and I have 10 inch sub in my system. I do 50% movies 50% music.
For 5.1 for movies, the center channel is arguably much more important than the left and right speakers.

So depending on how much you value that, you might need to be deciding on all three at once. Rather than privileging the left and right.
 
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