Cinema speakers for a big room (THX Ultra2)?

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Summary:

Floorstanders/bookshelves vs sat/sub systems for a big room?

Detail:

I'm moving into a barn conversion in 2 weeks time. The main open plan living space is 10m x 5m, with a 5m high vaulted ceiling, exposed wooden beams and a slate floor.

To fill this volume (~190 cubic meters) I'm going to need some serious kit. My original plan was to floorstanders either side of the TV, a sub and bookshelf speakers in between the beams down the length of the barn, giving me a 7.1 system.

Having read a little it seems the "pros" favour a sat/sub system (with a huge sub for THX Ultra2 etc) over floor standers and bookshelf speakers. The reason seems to be that you get better control over the bass. The bass is that hardest part to get to sound right in your room, so if you only have one source of bass, you only have to move around/tweak one component when setting the room up.

First of all - is this right?

Secondly - if we assume I'm going to buy a THX Ultra2 amp (like Pioneer's SC-LX82, or the nearly released Onkyo TX-NR5008), should I buy:

a) A floorstander setup like B&W 683 Theatre, MA Silver RX6 AV12, Tannoy Revolution Signature or similar?

or

b) A sub/sat setup like M&K 950THX, Teufel Theatre 8 Ultra2 or similar?

 

[Frank Harvey]

For that room, I don't think you'll like the top end of the B&W's - some here feel they're a little bright, and that's in normal rooms. I find the Revolution range a little weedy, more suited to average rooms. I think the RX series would be a better bet as they're much smoother, which will help cut back on HF reflections. I also recommend two subs for that size room - it'll help even out the bass response, and two subs will fill that size room far easier than one will. One sub won't make it's presence felt in a 10x5m room.

Personally, I don't think you'll have so much of a problem with a larger room, problems with boom tend to be more smaller rooms. To help, you can always set the crossover points of the speakers a little higher than usual (around 70/80Hz) which will help them perform more like a satellite speaker.

 

[Anonymous]

I personally would agree with David, Monitor audio RX series (RS6AV?) because there is a much calmer top end which will help reduce brightness. Likewise, as long as you aren't sitting too close then a big room should have less HF reflections. I'd also urge you for two or more subs, not for loudness but to keep the bass throughout the room. I am running two Monitor audio RSW12 in my setup and it really has caused the bass to become more uniform and enveloping (and causes my ceiling to crack on 1/5 volume!)

 

[v1c]

As it is for Cinema i think M&K would be the way to go, as it is a large room go with two subs. M&K sub/sats systems are specifically designed for producing the best out of movie soundtracks. As an alternative to M&K you could look at the Sunfire XT series. Link to MK and sunfire products here.