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Question on home theater/music listening set up

Hey all! I am new to the forums. I was introduced by another member here and I have to say I am blown away by the amount of information on here. 

My question lies in the 7.1/7.2 surround sound systems. I will utilize my setup to watch movies, tv, and when I have the house to myself I love to put on some older 80's rock and sit and enjoy the setup. I love to dabble in classical music and for some strange reason I love horns. I am a big lord of the rings and game of thrones fan, and during battle scenes with drums, horns, ect I want to feel it in my soul haha. I love what I currently have, but I am trying to polish out what I have. I am open to suggestions on any brands that may go well with what I have now. My price point is primarily the used market. If you could just suggest the speakers you think would compliment the system I can attempt to find the best deal on those as possible. 

My current setup is as follows:

Speakers:
Polk Audio SDA-1A
Polk Audio SDA-2
Velodyne Minivee 8
Monitor Audio MR center channel

Receiver-
Denon AVR-3803

Power Conditioner-
Belkin AP41300-10

I have looked into ELAC, B&W, MIRAGE, PARADIGM, SVS, Ect trying to find something I like and I finally figured I should open it up to you amazing individuals to lend me a hand. 

Thank you in advance!
joshwest90
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
ELAC is warm (the designer even states so), B&W is bright (good for low-level listening, though the employ a dip in the crossranhe which I hate), Mirage is meh, Paradigm is fine, SVS is fine.

The NHT C3 bookshelves or C4 towers, and whatever its matching center is, would sound awesome.

Also, a puny 8” subwoofer doesn’t even come close to good enough for movies. A Rythmik F12 would blow it away. If you decide to upgrade, play the first opening scene of Edge of Tomorrow on the 8” and then on the Rythmik (turn down volume to be safe), or play Blade Runner 2049 (in the beginning when he flys back to HQ for instance), etc.  
  
i used to have an 8”, thought I wouldn’t need to upgrade as it sounded good, but did upgrade and it was not even fair to compare (granted, my 8” was much cheaper than yours).
joshwest90 OP
7 posts
 
I’ve been wanting to get an additional sub. I figured I would use the 8” for tighter bass notes and get a 12 for the rumble. I’ll have to look into NHT. I am constantly being brought back to the thought of my ideal system being one in which I feel like I’m right there. Whether it’s a symphony or an action scene I want to be able to feel like I can reach out and touch the instruments. Obviously I’ll need higher end stereo equipment for this but I feel the polk set up has been giving me what I want; I just feel there is just something missing and I need to round out the 7.1/7.2 anyway so I figured I would look into branching out and getting another paid whether they are bookshelf or towers I’m open to both. Thank you both for your responses. I am open to anymore info, advice, critisms, ect I’m here to learn! 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
100% fabricated myth that an 8” is tighter than an 18” (though it should be obvious that a $500 8” is likely better quality than a $500 18”). A well built subwoofer is good no matter the driver size. Rythmik’s owner has a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering, he knows what he is doing (not to put that on a pedestal, as HSU’s owner, Dr. Hsu, has a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering I believe), and he has a whole list of web articles explaining how he gets good performance:
http://www.rythmikaudio.com/technology.html

Rythmik, HSU, and PowerSoundAudio (co-founder of SVS) all make excellent bang for buck subwoofers; maybe a $2500 Vandy is better than a $1000 Rythmik/HSU/PSA, but it’s not better than a $2500 Rythmik/HSU/PSA.

Rythmik even takes a shot at Velodyne on their F18’s page:
The independent test lab site www.data-bass.com has published the max distortion numbers for F18 and Velodyne DD18+ (courtesy of Josh Ricci). The F18 has lower distortion and yet more output than Velodyne DD18+ for 1/3 of the price. In addition, the test results also include the impulse response of 18hz high damping which shows minimal ringing, a testament of F18 articulation bass sound.

joshwest90 OP
7 posts
 
I’m currently in school for electrical engineering and that’s my goal is to get into audio engineering. I’ll have to check out the brands you mentioned. I’m excited to have all of this good info and new brands to research 
mahler123
3,354 posts
 
I just added an Anthem 520 to my 5.1 and it’s a huge upgrade.  Their room correction software is great and it sounds so much more immersive.
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