Speaker/ext. Amp ? for 2700 cubic ft theater

[stl1cjg]

In the process of building my dedicated HT in basement. All I have left is carpet and treatments. My room is 14 wide 24 long and 8 high. There is a half wall that separates the right side of the room from the bar and a half wall in the rear that separates the HT from game room. (acoustical nightmare) I will treat will thick HT curtains and wall panels. I plan on a 110” FP screen with a front stage. I have already purchased a Marantz sr-6003. Now I need to fill up the room with speakers and other goodies. I will mostly use the room for HT, but when we have parties I would like music to sound good with whatever I play…ie rap, rock, house, techno, classical. It all depends on what kind of party it is. Lets just say 85% HT 15% for starters.

I have auditioned Klipsch RF-63 in 2 channel driven by a Rotel amp (? Model number). I enjoyed it. Then I told the guy that I was building a HT and he took me back to their auditioning room and let me watch the opening scene to Iron Man. I was blown away! He then told me that those were bookshelves in the room. (don’t know which ones but the room was much smaller than mine) HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS.

Would it be wise to run RB81’s in my room (approaching 2700 cubic feet), or should I move up to a floorstanders? If I had to move to floor standers is the AVR powerful enough to fill the space adequately? I have seen some 3 channel amps on ebay for around $500 used (sunfire, adcom, rotel). Should I research these? My goal here is to put a quality system together with the ability to upgrade later. IMO – I would buy the best speaker I could afford then upgrade power/avr stuff later. What I don’t want to do is spend a fortune and have buyers remorse, OR spend too little then end up not liking how the system sounded and have to buy more.

BTW – I have auditioned Paradigm (monitor, studio, signature) and Klipsch. Overall the s4’s were the best in 2 channel listening, but I know that I would spend a fortune trying to get the matching center, surrounds, and properly amplify them. I was still very impressed with Klipsch. Any help or advice is appreciated as well as constructive feedback.

One more thing – The sub will be SVS.

Thanks.

[willland]

Welcome to the forum.

First I do not have a dedicated theater room but my family room/kitchen is 16ft wide at it's narrowest by 33ft long with a 10ft/12ft stepped ceiling. I am running a theater setup consisting of an RC-64, RF-63's, RSX-4's, and a RSW-10d sub. I am powering all this with an Onkyo TX-SR705(100w/ch) receiver and a three channel B&K(200w/ch) amp. I am sure with some more dampening material and a bigger sub it could sound better but I can tell you the sound fills the room with no problem.

I had a pair of RB-35's(pre RB-81) and an RC-62 before my current setup and there is no comparison. If you can afford the 63's(or 83's), you will not ask the question "what if I had gotten .....?"

Bill

[stl1cjg]

Thanks! Based on your comments a 3 channel amp would be required to make the 63's or 83's sing.

[willland]

Thanks! Based on your comments a 3 channel amp would be required to make the 63's or 83's sing

I would not say required to make them sing just recommended to make them sing better.

Bill