Home theater setup recommendations?

@caphill  Agreed, and a good option as well.... but as you point out, it lacks multi-channel (minimally three or 'virtual' efforts beyond).

I have a Muso and it works well for stereo playback from the TV, but offers so much more for music listening.

An even simpler option would be to choose a TV with an integrated soundbar like LG's OLED series or, better yet, one of the OLED acoustic panels from Sony. The Sony's sound more than terrific (I have the LG with integrated bar) actually fantastic for TV / Movie sound. AND it's coming from the screen so placement has greater reality.

@david_ten

Agreed....those acoustic panels from Sony OLED is pretty good for tv viewings. Or else Bose small surround sound speakers system will work for them since Bose seems to be a reference system for them and is simple to operate.

Hey guys, before we get too deep in sound bar options and single TV options, shadowcat specifically said he wanted to build a good sounding "low end audiphile" HT system.  As good a sound bars are, I don't think that's the direction he really wants to go.  As he said, he wants to "impress" his daughter as to what a real audiophile type system can do.  A "Bose" type system is also not what he wants to do.

You folks have a lot of good input, thanks!!

This may be off the wall, but.........Does it make any sense to run 4 of the same speakers + center.............I see a lot of Vandy 2c and 2c sigs for sale at reasonable prices.

I have the 3A's myself and love them. Running two sets of Vandy 2's, L-R-LR-RR might be amazing and I don't think you'd miss a sub-woofer with a setup like that to keep things a bit simpler.

Never heard a setup like that, so there may be downsides I'm unaware of, either with Vandy's or any other set of 4.

The Vandersteen have a very unique warm/dry type of sound, mostly due to the combination of a poly mid (warm sounding) and the coated metal tweeter (contributing to the dry sound). If you love that sound, that’s great! The Vandersteen 2c looks to have a used value of $500-600 a pair. The 2ce looks to be $1400-1600 a pair. You don’t necessarily have to use a full range speaker for surrounds, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. You could use two of the VCC-1 center channel speakers for surrounds, but they are $850 each, so you are actually doing better by getting a set of 2ce for surrounds. So, four 2ce speakers would be very nice, and since they are perfectly matching, the sound will be very cohesive around the entire room. As long as you get a matching VCC-1 or VCC-2 center, you are good.

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That being said, the 2ce is a rather low efficency speaker -- it’s only 86db efficient. Also, the impedance drops down to 4 ohms in the sub bass area (30-60hz):
https://www.stereophile.com/content/vandersteen-2ce-signature-ii-loudspeaker-measurements
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If you wanted to go the Vandersteen route, I would highly suggest getting a really good external 5-channel amp because the receiver just won’t have the power supply to push these Vandersteen effectively. Essentially, the receiver won’t get the volume and will suffer in bass power/strength (this may cause you to think you need subs).
For these specific speakers, you really want to get a 5-channel amp that has a massive power supply. I would also not recommend a warm sounding amp because you want the most amount of attack/resolution for home theater (and the fact that the Vandy are warm sounding already). The smaller amps (such as 100 x 5) would not be as good, in my opinion.

Looking at new, the Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 3 is probably the best you will do for the money at $1599. Used, there are options, but they can definitely get expensive. The Emotiva Gen 3 uses switching power supply, but it does have enough current to drive your Vandersteen.


There’s a Krell Showcase 5 on audiogon/tmraudio for $1599. It will definitely be fast and resolving, but may not have the power supply to give you good strong bass.  We can discuss more if you want to explore this direction.