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Help with Home Theater setup...


Sam Marrocco

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Hello!

I'm updating some of my old equipment and would welcome some comments on what I'm planning.

I currently have a family room, 15 feet deep and 20 feet wide to which I am using for Home Theater/movie viewing and music listening.

 

-I'd like to continue to use my older Yamaha RX-v795 AV Receiver unless it proves less than capable. It has been a rock and has had plenty of power (so far). It has no auto-calibration capabilities but I can handle that myself to a degree.

-I'm retiring a pair of 1981 Cerwin Vega CV3000 mains and looking at a pair of either Klipsch RP8000F or RP7-III's.

-I already have a Klipsch RP504c Center Channel.

-No Subwoofer currently, nor Surround. The room layout doesn't lend itself to surround behind, nor does it allow L/R in front. The L/R are on the sides of the viewing area, about 5 feet to the left and right of the sitting area.

 

Room layout looks like this (nothing can be placed where there are X's.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                       | DOOR-DOOR  65" Plasma XXXXXXX

                                       | X                           Center                                  Open to another room        

            Open to                                                                           

       another room                                                                       X|

                                                                                                      X|                                               

                                       |                                                              X|

                                       |  L           VIEWING SEATS                R  |

-----------------------------------|-----------------------WALL-------------------------|

 

I've heard a few reviewers saying that the RP7 III's woofers are enough where you might not even need a Sub. Unfortunately I have no dealers with them near me for a comparison. The old Cerwin's have 12" woofers so they had that going for them, but not much else above the base in terms of clarity.

 

I'm a bit concerned that I might be adding too much speaker with the RP7 III's for that size room and closeness to the viewers, and that the RP8000's might be more appropriate for my layout/size, but the reviews I've read seem to place the RP7 III head and shoulder's above the RP8000's.

 

All thoughts on this are welcome, thank you.

 

Edited by Sam Marrocco
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Same question as @HenrikTJ.  I think a photo if you don't mind may help.  Critical to have Center in the front, and next to it would be good to have LR at between 30 to 22 degrees toward the primary seating positions.  Dolby has a good speaker placement reference below.  On the page, click on the setup you're targeting.  i.e. 5.1, 7.1 etc and it has a good guide on placement suggestions.

 

https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/

 

IMO, the placement of your front towers, will matter more than RP8000 or RF7 iii.  Having speakers on L and R will also have some interesting (not good) effect on your nulls and peaks as they interact with the walls across from each other.  Usually that happens to surround as well, but there are much more content on the LR vs. surround channels.  So IMO, LR (and all speakers) placement is #1 priority, then speaker selection.

 

Lastly, one never needs a subwoofer, or 2 subwoofers : )  But depends on how much low end you want to feel as well as balance out the experience across the various seating positions.  

 

Definitely not something you need to add all in one shot, look for deals and slowly introduce components and you can experience what you like more of and go from there.  crawl-walk-run. : )

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1 hour ago, Sam Marrocco said:

And here I thought my ascii art was pretty hi-resolution! ;)

Here's is a pic of the locked-in place furniture and speaker direction to help.

Interesting about the nulls....

 

 

SpeakerLayout5.jpg.b19e21aa839f068f4f930e8cdf834b6e.jpg

 

Alright. In my opinion, upgrading speakers is not a prospect for you right now. What you NEED to do is to get your speaker placements in order. Your center is fine, but you have placed your L/R fronts in what would be your surround speaker placement. To this, I simply say no. Your fronts are supposed to be placed to the sides of your center in a parallel line making up your front stage, otherwise known as your LCR.

 

I can however, to a degree, understand the decisions you have done with your HT setup in this room, but to be honest, it doesnt seem like this room is well suited for anything HT. It seems like the room size is good, but never have I seen a room with 4 entrances. Were I you, Id start re-arranging/re-moddeling the entire room.  

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Ya... likely not the best room to invest in  costly HT gear as Placement is key.

 

have you considered something like the 180rpc-LCR? https://www.klipsch.ca/products/pro-180rpc-lcr
 

Nowhere near the presence of the towers but I think for this room config, it may be a good choice.  Then save those $ for a proper room later.

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Thanks for the input, Henrik and Univek.

Regarding the number of openings....yes, it's a home built in 1929 and every room is accessed from that 'family room'. It literally is the hub of the house. BTW, technically, it has *five* openings including the front door! Working within those confines has been difficult to be sure.

 

At one point I considered in-wall speakers just to get better placement. However in another testament to old home construction, the house is all wet plaster and the spaces behind the walls a pretty filled-in.

 

Univek--Those speakers you linked to seem interesting. I may have to re-explore in wall options. Cleaning out the areas behind and making certain they have enough cubic space behind them might be difficult but worth exploring again. Thanks!

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