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Thoughts?

I already have a pair of Focal Aria 906 bookshelf speakers and a Denon X3700.  I’m looking to start building a surround setup in my gameroom.  I don’t really have a place for the 906s other than this room, so if they’re not utilized here, then they’d either end up in storage or on the market. These are the options I’ve been tossing around:

1) buy stands for the 906s and use them as L/R, buy the matching Aria Center channel and add a sub.  Add surrounds and height speakers later on when budget allows (most cost effective option)

2) Buying a new pair of towers (sub $3000), adding a center and sub.  Adding rears at a later date.   

3) Buying open box Aria 926 towers at  below $3000, buying the matching center, and trying to incorporate the 906s as rears.  Also would have to buy a sub (least cost effective option)


128x128mlenow
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
I would say that buying a sub is almost mandatory in your scenario unless you get a really hefty set of tower speakers.  The Focal towers would not really do well here because they are not effective at deep bass. 

If you bought a different set of towers and center, you could likely still use the 906 for surrounds.  I have found that the front 3 speakers need to be exactly the same sonic signature (i.e. same make/model).  However, the surrounds don't necessarily have to match 100% as long as they are close.

Even though you "could" use the 906 for front left/right with a sub, I would still go for something different.  Either get Focal towers or a different brand bookshelf that does bass/midbass really well.  The Focal just don't have bass/midbass strength.  The Focal tower speakers do "okay".

Even though you will have a sub that is likely crossed over at around 80hz, there is still a LOT of bass/midbass coming out of your left/right speakers between the 70hz and 150hz area.
mlenow's avatar
mlenow OP
15 posts
 
So what you're saying is that it probably makes more sense to look elsewhere eventually than try to make a pair of $2800 Aria towers fit

For a while I was leaning towards SVS Prime Pinnacle towers and a demo Ultra center and SB4000 available locally
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
If you are looking at $2800 Aria towers such as the 926, you will probably be just fine. I’m saying that the 906 bookshelves will not have a strong enough midbass for left/right (my own opinion).

The SVS will definitely have stronger bass than Focal (even with Focal towers), but they are not going to be as refined or as high resolution. SVS uses polypropylene drivers for woofer/midrange and they are not as clean/clear sounding as other drivers because the poly material has a lot of flex.  It's up to you for what is more important.

For subwoofer, I would look at Rythmik subs first. I generally like ported subwoofer better because they have a thicker/meatier sound.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
If you want to consider a really refined high-resolution tower with good bass "for the money", maybe look at Elac Carina, or even better Elac Vela.
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