Advice sought on AV receiver and speaker selection for my front room...

[admin_exported]

Hi Folks,

This is my first post so apologies if it is a bit rambling! It is also posted in substantially the same form on the other forums site.

Hopefully folks can advise me on a choice of speakers and AV receiver
to go with a newly acquired TV and Blu-ray player setup, now that gf
and I have finally taken the plunge and joined the digital age

Our front room is a little cluttered, to say the least, and sadly we
don't have another room to use as a dedicated AV room - so there is a
lot to work around - I would have attached a pic showing layout and furniture but don't appear to be able to do so on this forum...

The TV is a 32in Samsung LED UE32B7020, sat in the alcove beside the
fireplace (gf deadset against wall mounting above the open fire) and is
sat upon an Ateca Versaille walnut AV cabinet as shown here which fits snugly into the alcove space.

Blu-ray player is a Samsung BP3600 and we are having a Freesat dish put in to connect upto a Humax twin-tuner pvr.

We don't currently have any decent hifi system (just a portable box
thing my gf has been lugging around for last 20 years) but we do both
enjoy listening to music as well as watching films, so ideally I would
like to hook up a receiver that will do a reasonable job of handling
music as well as movies. I realise that an AV receiver will not do as
good a job as a dedicated Hifi amp but it will certainly be better than
what we have at present and I can always look to upgrade to a decent
stereo amp for hifi in future...

Doing some research I had initially narrowed down receiver choice to
either the Sony 2400es or Yamaha 863, but it appears both of these are
now difficult, if not impossible, to come by.....

and are in the process of being replaced by newer models....

Speakers wise, I was thinking of a 5.1 setup initially with perhaps the
option to add a further set of decent front speakers at a later date
(Dali lektor or Ikon perhaps??). Given the space constraints in our
room, it does not seem practical to go for large speakers, particularly
floorstanders, as there simply isn't the floor to stand them on, so I
was looking at getting something like the Kef 3005se package.

So, some questions for folks....

1. Would the Kef's be a good speaker package for this size room (main
area approx 4m x 4m) and would the satellites be ok being wallmounted?

2. If I wallmount the speakers are they ok being at ceiling height and
angled downwards somewhat (is this possible with these Kefs?) or should
I look to mount mid-way up walls where possible?

3. Centre speaker next to TV ok or should I place on a shelf directly above TV?

4. What would be a good AV receiver to pair with? Should I try and
track down a Sony 2400es or Yamaha 863 or is there something better I
should be looking at for comparable budget? Is the Sony DN1000 worth
waiting for and will it even be released here for example?

Hope that all makes some kind of sense and people can point me in the right direction

Cheers!

 

[lobby]

Both amps mentioned are great amps, but if you choose Kefs what ive found from Auditions is they sound best when using an Onkyo amp especially for movies, but don't sound that good for music. My choices would be either the Yamaha or a Denon amp. The kefs are fine wallmounted and great sub sat package, but you can getter better for music. Have a look at some small bookshelf speakers in 5.1 config, this combined with one of the Yammy or Denon amps should give you a decent package for both will have a look for some small bookshelf speakers and post later.

 

[Senna 94]

If you can afford it the Yamaha RX-V1900 is a great amp with the Kef,s and for that size of room would be great i have them in a 6m x 4 m room and the sound is great.

 

[lobby]

I would like to see a picture of your layout to be able to give you more advice, but as for speaker placement fronts and centre ideally should be placed at ear level. Majority of owners sit the centre beneath the tv, and looking at your cabinet, the best place would be to place it on top and wall mount your tv. Front speakers should go at ear level so this may be less than half way up the wall.. Rear speakers should be placed facing your ears and only slighty behind more towards the side then directly behind. Wall mounting your tv will give you so much more options and a greater choice of traditional speaker packages, although you might be able to wallmount your centre above the tv if it's not to high. Look at the Kefs 2005.3 and 3005se, B&W mt-30's Tannoy Arena-lites. For Taditional speakers look at MA range Vectors and maybe some k series, the Radius series R90, R45 . And also worth auditioning are the Q Acoustics 1010i, Tannoy f1 customs, Quad-Lites which i have and Wharfedale Diamonds 9hcp maybe the Acoustic Energy Aego t. These are all fairly small and should'nt cause to many problems wallmounting them. The smallest and easiest being the the B&W Mt-30, but also the most expensive, hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the advice so far - all very helpful! You can see the room layout on the attachment to this post:

http://www.another site/forums/av-amplifiers-receivers/1014823-first-post-advice-receiver-speakers-sought.html

Options for moving stuff around is sadly very limited as gf is dead set against wall mounting TV above the open fire....

It looks as though we will be putting a shelf above the tv and placing any centre speaker on that so its central and level with front of screen as best as possible or possibly as suggested wallmounting TV on a pivotable bracket and placing centre speak ontop of the cabinet..

I had a look at the Yamaha vx1900 but it's outside my available budget really, as are the B&W MT 30.... It looks as though we will be going with the KEF's as gf is not keen on putting anything bigger on the walls (though I will likely at some point in future get a pair of decent hifi speakers to add to these and use as a dedicated pair for music listening (dali ikon 2 perhaps?) and once the bills for this lot is paid off, consider looking at a stereo amp as well....

Have been quoted in the region of £1550 for the Kef 3005se, Sony 2400es and 31m of QED XT... sound reasonable?

 

[lobby]

Seems ok as the Kefs are £999 Sony amp £440 and speaker cable about £150. Just seen this at A1 Sound and seems a great deal the Kef 5005.2 in sliver only with free wireless system and speaker stands normally over £2000 now £1000 and something will cut down on speaker cable and hassle. just a though, but i think they rated quite well maybe better than the 3005se at that price, a long cylindrical shape thus making them slim great for the centre speaker and wall positioning.