What next?

Hi Ricred, as some one who has a mix of ring radiator and AMT based speakers in his HT I may be in a similar position. Based on my experience (some of it in motion picture auditorium sound) I’d say that matching your speakers isn’t your biggest need right now. Sometimes I also swap in some Monitor Audio Radius speakers as my surrounds, depending on living room re-organization.

Matching speakers has NOT proven to be the biggest improvement. Matching timbre AND the subwoofer have been. I just read you have a sub already, and your receiver has very good room EQ built in. I hope you are running your fronts as "small" with that receiver.

You have very nice front speakers, but with only 100 Watts, a killer subwoofer + running the fronts as "small" speakers will give you the most dynamic range. If you run the fronts as full-range the receiver will run out of steam VERY quickly with low Hz high dynamic range motion picture sound tracks. It will probably do just fine with most music though.

It’s also really important to note the receiver is rated at 100W/channel but only with 2 channels at a time!

So the real question is whether the receiver has enough juice for you to enjoy movies like you want to. :)

If it does, then your next step is matching speakers to your very nice mains. Otherwise, I’d suggest a power upgrade. Maybe not a lot, in terms of maximum wattage, but being able to put out 125 to 150W into at least 4 channels simultaneously would be an upgrade.

I do find that being able to run the main speakers as "full-range" is a real treat, which you may be just a little undersized for.

Best,


Erik

Erik,
My Jeff Rowland 625 S2 amp drives my main speakers through my preamp's HT bypass. The Marantz drives the rear and center channel. 

So it seems you have most things dealt with. :)

I would do room acoustics next, followed by speaker matching. 

Best,


Erik

I have GIK room treatment. My thoughts are another sub(2nd sub), center channel(PLC350 is 5K, I'm hesitant to pay 5K), or nothing and "try" to be happy. I'm not sure is spending money on better rears is worth it?

The question I'm left with, is there something that needs improving or are you just looking to spend money?  Perhaps supporting musical education or other charitable work to support culture is a better spend for you right now.

I mean, yes, you can get more dynamic range with another sub, or larger surrounds, but you can only listen so loudly, and distortion can only be lowered so much. If you make it your life's ambition to improve your hearing to the point where you hear every 0.001 of distortion you'll never be happy. :)

Otherwise, movie posters, a popcorn kiosk, books on old movies.... :) all sorts of other ways.

Best,


Erik