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Is buildiing a HT around the speakers a good start

I just bought a new house with a gorgeous library. I thought it was perfect for my dream of building a home theater. The room size is: 19’L x 11.2’W x 8’H. My listening habit is 80% Movies and 20% Music. The biggest challenge is the speaker placement. The library covers three walls. The front wall has a bay window incorporated into the shelving. My wife would be quite irate if were to “clog up” the front with speakers. To resolve the issue I am thinking of the Thiel PoerPoints for all five speakers. This will be my first try at building a HT. Am I on the right track? Do I now buy components that work well with the speakers? Does anyone have thoughts on which components would work well? It should be noted that the PoerPoints have limited bass extension, in this case a lower limit of 75 Hz. Thus, a subwoofer is mandatory.
I am thinking of one of the following 3 processors, as they are in my price range: a) Krell Showcase b) Parasound C-2 c) Aragon Stage 1
captaincapitalism
subaruguru
1,376 posts
 
We're all over the place here, so I might as well chime in....
Since the family room falls within my wife's perview, I had to be careful. Yet I convinced her to accept a beautiful pair of rosewood Spendor 3/1p on great-looking Plateau V23 steel stands, using a GREAT Spendor black SC3 center. Hiding the NAD T751 on a side-cabinet was the easy part.
The hardest part was the surrounds (of course). So may of them are really ugly, or stick out too far, and ESPECIALLY are NOT voiced for boundary support! I finally pleased both of us with the semi-cyllindrical beautifully-voiced (on the wall) Boston VR-MX in Cherry. They can be configured either bi or di, too. Makes a phenomenal fake 5.1 from 2ch with FM radio from across the room BEHIND them at the computer station too. I used fine cheap Canare star-quads for cabling, and of course my own $39 PC Kits on the T751 and the new Panasonic 36 Tau. LOTS of HT and background FM for around $4k.... Still using a cheap Panasonic DVD which sucks on Redbook...but that's what my ref system in the other room is for, eh? Have fun...and be SURE to demo rear speakers ON A WALL! Shame on JM Labs and Paradigm for screwing up their otherwise nice surrounds by forgetting to compensdate for boundary support! Sorry to bend the thread.
captaincapitalism OP
52 posts
 
Thank you all for your advice. Incidentally, when I said my habits are 80% movies, I meant that for every hour of movie watching, I listen to about 10-15 minutes of music. That does not mean I care about movies more. I would listen to more music; it is just a time constraint issue. That is why I prefer this site to all others. For my initial set up I would like to concentrate on the audio for more. My plan is to get a video scaler in a year or so, right after I integrate AMX for controlling the system. I am already spending in the area of $20,000 as it is.

Cytocycle:
All Thiel speakers need 200 watts? I thought the wattage depends on the sensitivity, impedance and room size. These speakers have a sensitivity of 89db and impedance of 4 ohms and my room size is less than 2000 cubic feet. Based on Robert Harley’s book (“Home Theater For Everyone”) 125w should be more than enough. I understand more power never hearts. But I really want to keep the cost below $20,000. The PowerPoints cost $1300 a pop and after the projector and screen that leaves about 7-8K for the processor and amp. Do you have a recommendation for that price range?
abex
322 posts
 
For $20K you should have no problem getting a respectable dealer to come in and set your sytem up for the best effect possible.
I think HT is very over rated BTW and I would focus more on getting your 2 main speakers and front amplification to be the best possible and build around that.
For a CC I would definately try the Magnepan CC if it will blend correstly with the Thiels.Magnepan is known for its clarity for dialog.

Good luck!
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