5.1 System Recommendations - ~$1500 Budget

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Hi there,

I am putting a home theatre system together, including a Panasonic TC-P46G25 TV and an Onkyo TX-SR608 receiver, and now I'm not sure what to do about speakers.

The whole budget for the system is approximately $3000 USD, so I've got just about $1500USD left for speakers (I'm not going to count IC's as part of the budget :p), so I'm wondering if anyone could recommend what I should be looking at for a 5.1 system.

Things that I've been looking at so far:

B&W 685 Theatre -- As far as I can tell, B&W is one of the top-rated brands going, and this system has reviewed incredibly well wherever I've seen it. It's a smidge pricy, but I'm willing to make it happen if the results are going to be worth the extra expenditure.

Monitor Audio BR5/FX/LCR/W10 -- I'm really attracted to these because of the specs; the BR5 apparently goes from 36-30KHz, a much larger range than anything else I've seen. I know that numbers don't mean much (especially when it's the manufacturer who's providing them), but I'm still impressed.

Polk Monitor 70/50/CS2 -- The big attraction with this setup (70's for the fronts and 50's for the rears) is the ability to have all tower speakers, eliminating the need for stands or wall-mounting of the surround speakers. What worries me is that I can't find a single professional review of these speakers, but the price is better than anything I've listed, coming in way under budget. Polk also doesn't make any subs that are apparently worth the time at the price-point I'm looking for, so I've looked at pairing these with a BIC America F12, which reviews incredibly well (again, no professional reviews, though).

Other considerations, though I haven't looked into them much, are setups by Acoustic Energy, Axiom and Paradigm.

These will be going in an apartment, so their ability to operate well at high volume is much less critical than their ability at low volume. The room they're going in is attached to the kitchen/foyer area, and I'd say the whole thing is about 10ft*25ft (not at home right now, or I'd get the measuring tape out).

Also probably important is that I'll be using these mostly for watching movies and playing video games, with music being of much lesser importance. Still, I've heard it said a few times that if a speaker can't play music then it can't really do much of anything, so I'd imagine good musical performance would translate into adequate theatrical ability.

If anyone could let me know which of what I'm looking at sounds like the best option for me, and as well suggest anything else that would be somewhere near my budget and would also be worth looking into, I'd appreciate it very much.

Thank you!
 

strapped for cash

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For listening in an apartment I'd advise against the Onkyo 608. It's very boomy and not particularly neighbour friendly. The 685s will serve you very well, but I'm a longstanding B&W fan, so pretty biased here (class is permanent).
 
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What can you suggest instead? Most important to me is 1080p upscaling and a fair number of HDMI inputs. I have no desire to go to 7.1 so that's not terribly critical for me, and if I can get more power per channel than the 608 would provide, so much the better.
 

chrisup

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Hello,

I have an Onkyo 905 partenered with the B&W 685 Theatre but I upgraded the Subwoofer to the B&W ASW610. It sounds fabulous with movies and games (Xbox Elite and PS3) and my son and wife even like it with music. I would not choose speakers on specifications but you should audition your favourites with movies you are familiar with. The Onkyo and B&Ws sound good at reasonable volumes but stunning at anti social volumes.
 

bob.g

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I have a Bose Acoustimass 15 speaker system, which is absolutely fantastic for TV and movies. I suggest would be great for an apartment.
 

strapped for cash

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chrisup:
Hello,

I have an Onkyo 905 partenered with the B&W 685 Theatre but I upgraded the Subwoofer to the B&W ASW610. It sounds fabulous with movies and games (Xbox Elite and PS3) and my son and wife even like it with music. I would not choose speakers on specifications but you should audition your favourites with movies you are familiar with. The Onkyo and B&Ws sound good at reasonable volumes but stunning at anti social volumes.

I'd love to be able to crank my receiver up to an antisocial volume, but this is why I suggested that the Onkyo may not be the way to go in this case -- since the system will be used in an apartment, presumably with neighbours above and/or below. I hate to keep pushing my own kit on the forum, but I have the same problem (I have people living in a flat below me) and I found the Yamaha 1065, after trying different receivers at home, to be the perfect compromise. Great at low to moderate listening levels, but can go loud and remain composed if necessary.

To be honest, in the current market, at this price band at least, it seems like Denon, Yamaha and Onkyo are more often than not the way to go. I wouldn't criticise anybody for buying the Onko 608, it just didn't suit my current requirements; and I suspect it wouldn't be the best option in this instance, either...
 

chrisup

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I have a flat which has neighbours above, below and beside me and I get on with all my neighbours. My lounge is approx. 7m x 5m and the ceilings are over 15 feet. I have a Nytech receiver, Rega Planar 3 with Celestion speakers which is my oldest HiFi system. I did mention reasonable volumes when describing the Onkyo. By the way the B&W 685 sound great with my Arcam Hi Fi system. If I want to watch a movie late at night or early in the morning I have a choice of headphones to use. Others on the Forum have Onkyos with B&W speaker systems. One neighbour played his Naim system at much louder volumes than I and he had a few comments as a result but he only stayed a year.

Chris
 

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