2. home-theater
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My Home Theatre Room Challenges - Is It Worth It To Upgrade Speakers

I have a very nice 2-channel stereo room where I love to listen to music by myself.  I am happy with the equipment and set-up in this room (at least for now).

Our family room (on the other side of our home) serves as our Home Theatre room and my wife and I watch a movie in this room together almost every night.  We recently upgraded to a Sony 83" A90J television and we love the picture quality.  

I consider sound quality to be just as important as picture quality when it comes to watching a good movie.  The 5.1.2 sound equipment in this room currently features:

  • Yamaha RX-1080 Surround Processor
  • Paradigm Prestige 15 Front Speakers on stands 
  • Martin Logan ESL Center Channel
  • Polk PSW1000 Powered Subwoofer
  • Paradigm Millenia 1 Overhead Speakers
  • Polk In Wall Rear Speakers
  • Room size = 20' wide X 18' deep (no rear wall)
  • Ceiling Height = 20' tall

The room has two big challenges:

  • WAF is critical - this is our family room, having front speakers that sit 4' out into the room is not going to happen
  • there are two couches that sit directly between the Front L&R speakers and our two primary listening chairs.

I would love to make a big and impactful improvement in sound quality in this room. I am currently considering replacing my two front main speakers (Paradigm Bookshelf 2-way speakers with 6" drivers) with full-sized speakers.  I am considering speakers, like perhaps a nice used pair of B&W 803 D2's, with the intent to dramatically improve base and be able to better fill the large room with sound.

Question:  Will the two couches block the sound improvement that I am trying to achieve?  (Right now my bookshelf speakers sit on stands which allows the soundwaves to not be blocked by my couches.)   Does this upgrade of front speakers in my large room seem like a logical first step?  I would love to hear from someone else who possible made some similar changes.

Thanks!

hikerneil
erik_squires
16,057 posts
 

I don't think you need larger speakers. In fact, given the placement of the couches small stand-mounts are probably ideal.

Your 10" sub is probably too small for the room.  I'd recommend upgrading to a 12" or 15" unit instead.  And make sure your crossover is high enough, at 80 Hz. 

erik_squires
16,057 posts
 

Look for the AM Acoustics room mode simulator.  Try to keep your main and subs out of the lowest room modes. 

maxwave's avatar
maxwave
978 posts
 

LCF speakers should be of the same series.

Center speaker is about the most important in a Home Theater system
Two subs are better than  one.

If your room’ s acoustic is difficult maybe change the Yamaa receiver for a new Denon with’´ Dirac Live ´´ room calibration option.

Dont get me wrong , Yamaha is a flawless brand. But for room’s calibration, ???

 

hikerneil OP
36 posts
 

Wow, thank you all for the feedback and ideas.

I'm going to proceed with this plan:

  • Use my existing bookshelf speakers, since the couches are going to stay where they are.
  • Replace my center channel with a new Paradigm Founder 600c center channel - this will be a big step up from my existing and it will match my Paradigm front speakers
  • Add another subwoofer to my system
  • Recalibrate everything using the Yamaha YPAO room calibration tool

I will use my local dealer for each step, as they have provided excellent equipment and advice in the past.

Thank you again for all of the advice.

soix
9,456 posts
 

Sounds like a very good plan.  I assume you mean the Premier 600C center speaker?  That should be a huge and impactful upgrade as the center is so critical to good HT performance, and Paradigm makes excellent center speakers.  Between that and adding another sub I think you’re gonna meet all your goals and be very happy with the results.  

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