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Setting up a new system.. appreciate advice...


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Howdy,

I am building a new home and need advice on how to best fill a 30 x 30 room with a great surround system. So far, I have two close friends that swear by Klipsch speakers recommending La Scalas for the front 2, RC7 and RS7 for the back 2.. Is this the best set-up of Klipsch surround sound? What is the best receiver/amp that I should get? I would like to not spend more than $3K for the unit and I am thinking aoubt going with a higher end Onkyo? Advice appreciated...

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Definitely go to the store and take some of your favorite music and movies. I feel that is the best way to audition a system. I am a huge Legends fan, not totally sold on the new reference line. But too each his own.

Receiver wise, I love my Denon. Onkyo also makes some nice equipment as well. If you have any questions, drop me a note.

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Smokey - Well, since you opened the door to Heritage speakers, I'll go through it. An awesome setup would be La Scala's in the front, with a Heresy center and 3 Heresy rears. I believe your room would be well filled with that rig! Add a robust subwoofer to it (lots of choices there - see other threads in this forum and powered sub forum for suggestions.

Are you looking at $3k just for the receiver/amp? If so, you might be able to go with separates. I can't give you any recommendations in that area, as I haven't looked into separates.

If your $3k figure includes speakers and the receiver, you can accomplish it, but you may have to add a little to get the subwoofer you would want for that size space.

DD

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I agree that you really ought to listen to the speakers before making a decision.

I will say that the configuration your friend recommends is not ideal. Speakers in a HT system need to be timbre matched to sound right. Timbre match of the front channels, left, center and right is critical. Ideally the speakers should be identical. For many folks, this is not practical. The center should at least be from the same family of speakers if at all possible.

Although all the speakers you listed are fine speakers, they are not timbre matched.

The La Scalas are from the Heritage series. They have one sound. The rest are from the Reference series. They have a different sound. The difference will almost certainly be obvious in the front, probably enough to be annoying. IMHO you would be better off with RF7s for the front left and right.

You will also need a good subwoofer.

FWIW I have Heresys all around. If I were to start from scratch today, I might very well go with Reference series.

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oooooohhhhhhhhh yes, seperates is the way!!! they are wayy better than receivers as far as quality. The only downside is the cost. If I were you, for 3k I would either get a reference set, or heritage. I think I would be leaning towards the reference line, but w/e works for you. heres the set I'd go with : RF-7 fronts, RF-3 rears, and an RC-7 center. Than for a receiver, the Sony STRDA-2ES. You can add a sub or upgrade to seperates later down the road. The reason I chose not to use bipole speakers as surrounds is that in my opinion, full range rears really give the movie more impact. my surround system right now consists of the SF-2's for fronts, SC-1 center, SF-1 for the rears, and a RSW-15 for the sub. I have a Mcintosh amp for the fron left and right speakers, run by a B&K pre amp, and than a cheap pioneer receiver for the rest of the channels. I just did it this way because I listen to 99 percent music, so I figure it would be good to have a nice amp and preamp for the front left and right.

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ooohh, silly me, you meant 3k for the amp alone. well, in that case, you could get seperates. at that price I say go with a Rotel amp and pre amp. I think they around 3249 for the set, which is very nice. if you can spend more on the speakers, I woud use RF-7's all the way around.

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In the 3K range you would be best to get a great quality receiver like the Pioneer TX47 or if you can find a deal spend a bit more and get the awesome TX49.The 49 bests the Denon 4803 and Marantz SR18!Features,auto calibration that works and built quality Pioneer lost a few good many years ago and found!The TX47 and 49 have surpriseing power and quality,not the Pioneer most know.A real surprise

Yes no doubt separates are superior,but your budget is only 3K for amp and pre/pro.If you had 3K for the amp and 3K for the pre/pro then I would say dont even look at any receiver and get a SUnfire Theater Grand III plus a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature power amp.You would have both superb quality and awesome power to rival the largest CinePro,ATI,Earthquake and Krell mulichannel amps.

And even better the Krell Theater Standrad pre/pro with the CinePro 3K6SE,oh what power and finesse.Oh

The best compromise is the Sunfire combo,you get close to perfection for a song(ok costly song)

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i got a tuner, a processor, and a 120 watt per channel amp, all rotel system (seperates) for under 3,000, and the performance puts the sound in an entirely difference class, i was using high end onkyo, which was great in the first place, but now i fell as well as hear the music, much more like being at the performance, makes music dvds much more realistic, and NO theatre i have ever been in sounds better. 12.gif

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