Loft Conversion - Speakers

[neilshep]

Hi,

Just moved into a house in St Albans with a fantastic loft conversion. I have a Sanyo projector that projects onto a wall at around 110 inches in screen size. I didnt bring my previous Sonos in-ceiling speakers with me but have a good PSB Subwoofer and an Onkyo TX - NR905 AV Receiver. I'm currently using a very old pair of bookshelf JPW speakers from 25 years ago. The room is probably 5m by 4m and the ceiling is angled on the sides. I dont really listen to music much it's mainly for watching TVFilms in HD.

I'm trying to decide whether to:

a) Buy two floor standing speakers and have no centre speaker. Problem is there is some restriction in height because of the angled roof, I might have to bring them in a bit towards where we sit and close to the edges of the projected screen.

or

b) Buy two bookshelf speakers with a centre speaker and use some smaller back speakers I have.

I'm kind of going towards b) but I'm not sure if I'm overkilling on the number of speakers given the size of the room. We have a 3 year old son who will be asleep downstairs and I also thought that having a centre speaker might help as I could up that and reduce the noise on the bookshelf speakers.

I'd be grateful for any advice and in addition any recommendations on the speakers.

My budget is around 700.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Frank Harvey]

You don't need big floorstanders for AV use - a good pair of standmount or satellite speakers (with a sub) is all that's needed. Something from Q Acoustics, KEF, Monitor Audio, Dali, Acoustic Energy should be fine. They all sound good, choose something on looks (or size) if you need to!

The problem with having no centre is, as you point out, you can alter the centre channel level if needed, and it will also mean that you will be able to sit anywhere in the room, not just in the hot spot (which is ideal for only one person!). Dialogue tends to be more intelligible with a dedicated centre speaker for various reasons.

Are you looking to add a sub to the system, or is that a no go?

 

[neilshep]

Thanks for the advice David, yes I have a PSB Subwoofer already so wouldnt need to buy that.

Have you had any good demos with any of the following you mentioned? Q Acoustics, KEF, Monitor Audio, Dali, Acoustic Energy. I'm not so bothered on the looks front so quality is good with me and a good match for the PSB subwoofer.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Frank Harvey]

For me, KEF have always been great for AV systems because of their UniQ driver array, which tends to produce better imaging and have a wider dispersion than many other speakers. The Q100's and the Q200 centre are worth looking at.

I would also look at the Tannoy DC4's for similar reasons, with the matching DC4 LCR centre channel. The dispersion isn't quite as wide, but the excellent imaging is still present.

It is a shame there's no 'matching' centre channel for Q Acoustic's Concept 20 - a great sounding speaker for the money, but you'd have to partner it with the 2000Ci.