Speaker suggestions for smallish home theatre

[fabius]

I have a Denon AVR-X1800H and am looking to get new speakers for our home theatre to replace my well-past-their-best current ones.

Here's the space:

Ceilings are pretty low (2.2m / 7.2ft) and we'd be about 3m / 10ft from each speaker.

I'm not interested in surround, so 2.0, 2.1 or maybe 3.1, but simpler the better. Budget max of £1,000, but don't feel the need to spend all of that! In the UK, obviously.

The bookshelves aren't deep or high enough to house "bookshelf" speakers so I'd also need stands, unless I got floorstanders. Either way they'd be positioned about 30cm / 1ft from the shelves and walls.

I thought about Polk ES20s (£200 + stands) but I'd probably need a sub? So have considered floorstanders like Polk ES60s (£600), or Wharfedale EVO4.3 (£700), or Polk R500 (£800)... but maybe this is getting too much for the size of the room and my not-very-discerning ears!

I'm going round in circles trying to choose. Any thoughts, or further questions, appreciated.

 

[Eric Natural]

my thoughts are - in that small space :
a. floorstanding speaks with 8" woofers almost negate the need for subwoofer(which would be difficult to integrate there)
b. the center channel speaker is necessary for dialog - 2.0 channels are a poor compromise
c. keep an open mind about the surrounds & when budget allows, you'll appreciate the dolby efx w/even just 5 channels. Using top quality content(White Lotus S3 :=), it's quite dramatic
Best of Luck

 

[fabius]

Thanks. Towers with 8" woofers are bigger than I was thinking, even if they're within my budget?

Wondering if I should just go for Polk ES20s for L+R, a Polk ES30 for centre, and a Polk ES10(?) for a sub, totalling £750 + stands. Or a similar non-Polk option like Q Acoustics?

And yes, I'm leaving my options open about surrounds in the future. We all know that there's always room for improvement!

 

[JustJones]

With small room and low ceiling I'd research soundbars. Sennheiser and Sonos maybe?

OK, shoot me or ban me from the forum now.

 

[El Cheapo]

Thanks. Towers with 8" woofers are bigger than I was thinking, even if they're within my budget?

Wondering if I should just go for Polk ES20s for L+R, a Polk ES30 for centre, and a Polk ES10(?) for a sub, totalling £750 + stands. Or a similar non-Polk option like Q Acoustics?

And yes, I'm leaving my options open about surrounds in the future. We all know that there's always room for improvement!

You could consider the smaller ES15 for L+R, since there's a sub and KEF Q150 for center (better directivity).

 

[Power Pop 23]

Consider (if you haven't already) using the paid $20 Audyssey MultEQ Editor app with your Denon AVR-X1800H AVR for more control over the sound in your listening space.

It is available at the Google Play and Apple App stores. Amir recommended the app in his review from 2020:

Audyssey Room EQ Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Audyssey Room Equalization. Audyssey is standard technology in a number of Audio/Video Receivers such as the Denon AVR-X3600H I recently reviewed. The standard version in the AVR is mostly all or nothing so I downloaded the Marantz/Denon...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[fabius]

With small room and low ceiling I'd research soundbars. Sennheiser and Sonos maybe?

OK, shoot me or ban me from the forum now.

I did consider a soundbar for some time, given the room size. Getting massive speakers does feel a bit silly when we'll be sitting so close. But given everyone is all "soundbars can't possible match a 'real' system" I bought this Denon AVR to go in this direction instead.

 

[fabius]

You could consider the smaller ES15 for L+R, since there's a sub and KEF Q150 for center (better directivity).

Thanks, yes the ES15 might be plenty. Would the directionality make that much difference, given there are only two of us sat right in front of the TV?

 

[fabius]

Consider (if you haven't already) using the paid $20 Audyssey MultEQ Editor app with your Denon AVR-X1800H AVR for more control over the sound in your listening space.

Oh, thanks! I think I'd seen that but had forgotten all about it since getting the Denon, so I'll give it a go.

 

[Danimacl]

Here’s my personal recommendation.

First you have to decide what you’re really looking to achieve with the room. Then you have to work towards that end goal.

- Are you ultimately looking for a system which gives you the best possible performance.
- Best compromise of looks and sound quality?
-How much flexibility do you have with speaker and couch placement?
-Are you prioritizing lots of bass or higher spl levels?
-Do you think you’ll ever be upgrading in the future?

A simple two channel system with full range floor standers should give you good performance.

With a decent a subwoofer (or two), well positioned, you can run very small lcr speakers something like a q150 in a room that size with a high crossover like 125hz. And still achieve high spls for movie playback.

You might run into issues with audessy calibration if your main listening position is right against a hard surface.

A all else being equal a smaller speaker cone size has wider directivity, so theoretically is less sensitive to speaker placement. Inversely it will have to work harder to maintain low frequencies at higher spl levels which can increase distortion.

I don’t know your exact priority’s and I haven’t heard them, but from a physics spec sheet standpoint, I’d probably just run 2 channel with the Polk R500. Well designed, attractive looking speakers. Then you’re not running stands and have a simple setup.

If you choose to go with the Polk R500 and like to play your music a bit louder, after you run Audessy calibration, in the MultiEq application there is a function called Curve Editor. With the curve editor function Eq the speaker so it plays flat to maybe like 35-40hz(ish) then move the line so that it’s down -12db at 20hz. That way you take a lot of that low end energy out of the speaker which will makes the speaker play cleaner every where else in the audio spectrum.

Maybe one day if you want you could move to a bigger room with them with a sub they should still be able to keep up.

I hope this helps.