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Newbie - Replacing front speakers & going 5.0! Advice needed :)

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on an AV forum, so please be gentle.

I have come here to get the best from my set up, share my experiences and learn more about audio. I currently have the following which I purchased around 6-9 months ago from Richer Sounds:

  • Front Speakers - Monitor Audio Bronze 2
  • Centre Speaker - Monitor Audio Bronze Centre
  • AV Receiver - Yamaha RX-V481
  • Cable - Chord Company C-Screen
  • Banana Plugs: Cambridge Audio V2
I listened to the Bronze 6's recently and absolutely loved them, they sounded amazing compared to the Bronze 2's. I plan to move by Bronze 2's to the back and use them as my rear speakers so I can get the Bronze 6's for the front and have a 5.0 set up. I don't plan on going 5.1 as I live in a top floor flat, floor standers will provide enough bass.

I enjoy TV, movies & music. I probably care about music quality first, movie quality/experience second. 

I wouldn't mind stretching the budget a little bit and getting a floor stander from the new Monitor Audio Silver 6G range, but my OCD says to get the Bronze 6's so my set up is uniform.

I also wouldn't mind spending a little bit extra on cable/banana plugs if the extra money is worth it for floor standers.

I am fairly new to this and £699 is a fair amount of money to me so I want me make sure I won't have any issues with acoustics, sound reflections, speaker placement, bass, clarity, bottlenecks, surround sound and anything else which I need to consider!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)
dan89
erik_squires
16,006 posts
 
I am a big fan of Monitor Audio. My experience, both in theaters and at home is that with room EQ the difference in speakers won't matter as much as you think.

Get the best L and R speakers you can afford, and let the room EQ handle the differences between the 5 speakers. 

THEN if you still feel put out, consider upgrading the center.

Best,


E
erik_squires
16,006 posts
 
Also, keep an eye on Parts Connexion and Audio Adivisor, they often carry discontinued Monitor Audio for cheap.

http://www.partsconnexion.com/t/eblast/2017/auxms/auxms.html

Best,

E
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

I will have to agree to disagree with Erik here. While many love room correction, I have not had good results with it. I have worked with super high end Dirac Live processors as well as low-cost receivers. In either case, the audio just sounds more natural to me without automated room correction. Manual EQ can be helpful, if you know what you want to do.

Since your primary goal is music sound quality, I will agree with Erik on this point to buy the best speakers you can for left/right. Go for at least the Silver 300 model if you can, which has a dedicated and better voiced midrange (very important for music). The Silver 300 shares the same tweeter as the Bronze series, so voicing will not be that different for anything above 3khz (not as bad as combining two separate speaker manufacturers).

From a Home Theater / Movie standpoint (which is my primary goal), I feel that matching the voicing of the three front speakers (left/center right) is very critical. Matching the surround speakers is not as important here, but it’s a "nice to have". The absolute most important speaker for home theater is the center channel. That’s what I would upgrade first, then follow the left/right upgrades when I could.

erik_squires
16,006 posts
 
Hi Aux,

Well, I never said all room correction was good sounding but that it was a good way to match otherwise different speakers.

Personally I use miniDSP and custom settings, and can get seamless sound out of 3 very different models of main speakers, plus the subwoofer.  I may be cheating, since I made all 3 of those speakers. :) Different parts and costs but same tonal balance.

YMMV

Best,


E
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