Hello Everyone. This is my first post on this forum and its going to be a long one (skip to the end for the tl;dr). I've recently started building a dedicated Home Theatre. This is being done piecemeal on a pretty tight budget, partly because budgetary constraints and partly because I want to experiment and tweak without having to return or sell stuff if I make a mistake.
I'll break this post up into parts - these are all the aspects that I'm looking at improving - I just can't decide in which order, and since there are so many of them, I thought I'd bundle it into one post. If any of you have experience in any of these sectors, feel free to chime in, especially with regards to what order I should prioritize.
For reference the room is 4.4m long x 4.1m wide, with sitting position at 3.7m, right against the back wall.
Audio:
I currently have a Sony STR-DH710, with the immensely popular Yamaha NS-P110 set. (https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/speaker_systems/ns-p110/specs.html#product-tabs)
Not the best, I know, but you can't go wrong for R800 secondhand. I'm not really concerned about the reciever. It has as many inputs as I need, 7 channels and Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD/MA decoding. I'm not in a rush to get Atmos going, especially because that would mean getting ceiling speakers installed, So I can live with this for now.
The speakers are a problem though. 30w power handling at 86dB sensitivity doesn't produce a lot of volume, and they distort very harshly when I'm playing THX's Deep Note (one of my all time favorite things ever). They have extremely limited bass response. The center channel is also muddy, and sometimes dialogue is simply a pain to keep up with. Finally, the sub is boomy and loud, but it has almost no definition. This is especially true when listening to EDM - the kick drums just aren't punchy.
My thinking was to go Bookshelfs -> Center -> Sub. I would aim to match the center with the bookshelfs down the line. The considerations are the Klipsch R-15M's, The Boston Acoustics A26, the Polk Signature S15, and possibly the Monitor Audio Reference series (but very unlikely). I would repurpose the 4 tiny Yamaha's as satellites for the rear/sides.
I have auditioned the Klipsch and the Bostons, but under very poor conditions. I aim to do a full audition of the first three sets sometime soon. My biggest fear with the Klipsch is their highs - I could tell there was some scratchiness to it when listening to music, but would this be a consideration in a 90% Home Theater use case? The Klipsch draw me in because of their insane volume and supposed dynamics, which are supposedly very good for HT. The Bostons seem a bit too reserved, and I've heard even the Polks have fatiguing highs as well. If anyone has any experience with any of these sets then let me know what to look out for.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Surely nothing can be worse than what I currently have?
Visual:
Currently have an Optoma HD36 projecting onto... a beige/cream-mix wall. It was surprisingly bright and I never had an immediate need for a screen. But the room looks really funny without one, considering the TV used to be on the wall and a couch facing a bare wall is rather odd. Image is 114" 16:9, maxed zoom.
So Now I'm looking for a fixed-frame, 16:9 screen (with a black border). It seems I have two options - Vega and Grandview. Grandview seems to be about double the price (looking at pricelists, still going to get proper quotes), as well as having high contrast options as well. I'm inclined to get the Vega and call it a day, also considering the Vega has a 110" option while the Grandview is 106". On top of that I think I'd be able to live with White, as long as I get the sliding door sealed up (more on that below). But the fact that Grandview is double the price seems to suggest that there has to be some massive difference in the two.
I don't need something that's going to light the world on fire, but any improvement in visual fidelity will be welcomed. I mean, surely the screen can't be so bad as to make my image worse? right?
Treatment
I have realised halfway through writing this post that I don't know much about Acoustic treatment, so I'm going to hold off on that for a while until I've read more. The room has a 3m wide x 2.1m high glass sliding door on the right side that bleeds in a ton of light. I aim to install a motorized roller blind with really serious blockout material. Since I can't install an absorption panel there I'm hoping the material could do some absorption - would normal blockout material do this or is there some special stuff I could look into? is there any material like this?
I'm seriously torn on what to do first - the screen, the speakers... the treatment? While any improvement would be good I don't want to waste time/money fiddling with the little details and chasing the last 10% of performance, but rather get the most impactful stuff done first.
In all I'm really glad I've found a local forum for this stuff and I'll probably be coming back quite a bit in the future. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this seriously long post.
tl;dr a few questions:
Will literally anything be better than the Yamaha speakers?
Polk Signature, Klipsch Reference, Boston Acoustics A series? (Or possibly Monitor Audio Reference?)
Vega v Grandview for cheap projector screens?
What order between Speakers, Center, Sub, Screen and Treatment?
I'll break this post up into parts - these are all the aspects that I'm looking at improving - I just can't decide in which order, and since there are so many of them, I thought I'd bundle it into one post. If any of you have experience in any of these sectors, feel free to chime in, especially with regards to what order I should prioritize.
For reference the room is 4.4m long x 4.1m wide, with sitting position at 3.7m, right against the back wall.
Audio:
I currently have a Sony STR-DH710, with the immensely popular Yamaha NS-P110 set. (https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/speaker_systems/ns-p110/specs.html#product-tabs)
Not the best, I know, but you can't go wrong for R800 secondhand. I'm not really concerned about the reciever. It has as many inputs as I need, 7 channels and Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD/MA decoding. I'm not in a rush to get Atmos going, especially because that would mean getting ceiling speakers installed, So I can live with this for now.
The speakers are a problem though. 30w power handling at 86dB sensitivity doesn't produce a lot of volume, and they distort very harshly when I'm playing THX's Deep Note (one of my all time favorite things ever). They have extremely limited bass response. The center channel is also muddy, and sometimes dialogue is simply a pain to keep up with. Finally, the sub is boomy and loud, but it has almost no definition. This is especially true when listening to EDM - the kick drums just aren't punchy.
My thinking was to go Bookshelfs -> Center -> Sub. I would aim to match the center with the bookshelfs down the line. The considerations are the Klipsch R-15M's, The Boston Acoustics A26, the Polk Signature S15, and possibly the Monitor Audio Reference series (but very unlikely). I would repurpose the 4 tiny Yamaha's as satellites for the rear/sides.
I have auditioned the Klipsch and the Bostons, but under very poor conditions. I aim to do a full audition of the first three sets sometime soon. My biggest fear with the Klipsch is their highs - I could tell there was some scratchiness to it when listening to music, but would this be a consideration in a 90% Home Theater use case? The Klipsch draw me in because of their insane volume and supposed dynamics, which are supposedly very good for HT. The Bostons seem a bit too reserved, and I've heard even the Polks have fatiguing highs as well. If anyone has any experience with any of these sets then let me know what to look out for.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Surely nothing can be worse than what I currently have?
Visual:
Currently have an Optoma HD36 projecting onto... a beige/cream-mix wall. It was surprisingly bright and I never had an immediate need for a screen. But the room looks really funny without one, considering the TV used to be on the wall and a couch facing a bare wall is rather odd. Image is 114" 16:9, maxed zoom.
So Now I'm looking for a fixed-frame, 16:9 screen (with a black border). It seems I have two options - Vega and Grandview. Grandview seems to be about double the price (looking at pricelists, still going to get proper quotes), as well as having high contrast options as well. I'm inclined to get the Vega and call it a day, also considering the Vega has a 110" option while the Grandview is 106". On top of that I think I'd be able to live with White, as long as I get the sliding door sealed up (more on that below). But the fact that Grandview is double the price seems to suggest that there has to be some massive difference in the two.
I don't need something that's going to light the world on fire, but any improvement in visual fidelity will be welcomed. I mean, surely the screen can't be so bad as to make my image worse? right?
Treatment
I have realised halfway through writing this post that I don't know much about Acoustic treatment, so I'm going to hold off on that for a while until I've read more. The room has a 3m wide x 2.1m high glass sliding door on the right side that bleeds in a ton of light. I aim to install a motorized roller blind with really serious blockout material. Since I can't install an absorption panel there I'm hoping the material could do some absorption - would normal blockout material do this or is there some special stuff I could look into? is there any material like this?
I'm seriously torn on what to do first - the screen, the speakers... the treatment? While any improvement would be good I don't want to waste time/money fiddling with the little details and chasing the last 10% of performance, but rather get the most impactful stuff done first.
In all I'm really glad I've found a local forum for this stuff and I'll probably be coming back quite a bit in the future. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this seriously long post.
tl;dr a few questions:
Will literally anything be better than the Yamaha speakers?
Polk Signature, Klipsch Reference, Boston Acoustics A series? (Or possibly Monitor Audio Reference?)
Vega v Grandview for cheap projector screens?
What order between Speakers, Center, Sub, Screen and Treatment?
