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Speakers to match the size of the room


risselba

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Is the size of the room really an important consideration when choosing a set of surround sound speakers? I have been looking at the HD Theater 1000 and HD Theater 500 speakers. The brochure on these speakers indicates that the 500's are for a medium size room and the 1000's are for a large room. But there is no definition of "medium" or "large".

The speakers that I am looking for are going to be installed in my family room, which is 13' x 21'. Is that a "medium" size or a "large" size room. Most importantly, are the HD Theater 500 speakers sufficient for that size room?

Thanks to anyone that can help answer.

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I'd say your room leans more towards the Large size. If you're debating between the two and both fit within your budget then I'd suggest the HD 1000.

Its kind of like having a car that tops out at 55mph. It would be sufficient since that's what most highways are rated for, but at 55mph its giving all it has. By way of comparison a Corvette isn't even breaking a sweat at those speeds. Headroom is a good thing.

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Is the size of the room really an important consideration when choosing a set of surround sound speakers? I have been looking at the HD Theater 1000 and HD Theater 500 speakers. The brochure on these speakers indicates that the 500's are for a medium size room and the 1000's are for a large room. But there is no definition of "medium" or "large".

The speakers that I am looking for are going to be installed in my family room, which is 13' x 21'. Is that a "medium" size or a "large" size room. Most importantly, are the HD Theater 500 speakers sufficient for that size room?

Thanks to anyone that can help answer.

When talking the size of a room, you need to figure for cubic feet not square feet. I would say that 13' by 21' would sould like a large sized MEDIUM room, but how high is the ceiling?? How many doorways open into this room? Does the room have another room attached by a large archway or door opening without a door to close?? Then we are talking major differences in cubic feet.

A good rule of thumb is that what companies deam adequate is not satisfactory, or go bigger and don't run your equipement as hard.

Roger

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Absolutely the size of the room is an important consideration, Twistedcrankcammer pretty much nailed it. If you have a 'room' that has no doors that close ( IE open concept ) you have to consider that you are trying to fill much more cubic feet than if you had a room that is able to be closed off from the rest of the home.

13 x 21 would rank between medium sized and large sized rooms. If you have a 7 foot ceiling and it is not open to the rest of the home, you have 1911 cubic feet. If the room is laid out as commonly with the screen or television on the short wall, your listening position in a typical room like that would be around 16-17 feet from the speakers.

I feel that you may want to look for something with a bit more power, unless you have a really quiet home ( off of the highway ) or you don't really typically listen loud at all. Is there a dealer within an hour drive that you can demo before you buy?

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Thanks much for all of your answers.

After reading your responses, I have come to two conclusions.

1) If I am going to choose between the HD Theater 500's and the HD Theater 1000's then the 1000's are most definitely the better choice.

2) I think that I really need to expand my search again beyond these two sets of speakers. That brings me back to a more general question. How do I choose the best speakers for my situation (i.e. size of room, listening habits, etc.). I wish there was a formula or a process or a software program that I could follow where I could provide all the input data and it would spit out the answer..."go buy speaker xyz".

I want to find a set of speakers that I can be satisfied with but I don't want to break the bank doing it.

Any other words of wisdom will be welcome.

-- risselba --

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It really comes down to your budget. You could piece together a system for around $1000 that would be much nicer than the HD 1000. A system with RB-51s for mains with a rc-52, maybe KG .5s for surrounds and a assembled dayton subwoofer with a used reciever would be pretty close in price while having cleaner, better sound and more output with the beautiful look of the reference line.

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The room I am installing my HT in also serves as the main living area. The viewing area has about 3,500 cu ft. The room including all adjacent areas and openings is something like 6,500 cu ft. I think I would be OK with just a 5.1 system maybe even a 3.1. I am looking at running the system with an Emotiva UMC-1 with XPA-5 or XPA-3 amp (depending on the number of channels). I have a budget for speakers of up to $1,500, I would be interested in suggestions.

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Forget about the HD 500/1000 and just piece together a system. The HD series probably will not have output to wow you. Would you be opposed to building a DIY sub? You could build a sealed box with a Dayton driver that will save you a little money and have more lower end output that subwoofers in the price range. Looking at ebay real quick I found you a pair of RF-52s for 575 shipped. Rc-52 for 249 shipped. RB-51s for surrounds for 299 shipped.Also found a Yamaha Rx-v659 for 329 shipped. That would put you at 1452 total minus a subwoofer. If you want an assembled sub I could downsize a little bit but that is one hell of a theater for 1450 and 5 leagues out of the HD 1000.

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