Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looking for Home Theater advice....

Hey all first time poster but have been a troll for about a year. I'm going to be purchasing a new system for my home theater at the end of August and would like some opinions a little more educated then mine :). First off i'm going to go with a 5.1 system and it will be used about 70% movies/tv, 20% music, and 10% gaming. I'm only renting a house which isn't very big but would like to get a system that will leave me some headroom once I get a bigger place, and besides I like to listen loud anyways. My view/listening area is a rectangular room with living/kitchen combind. I curtained off the kitchen to try and give it it's own feel which measures 17'5 x 11'3 x 8.

To be honest i'm actually considering either an Axiom or Paradigm system, and possibly going with an svs pb13 ultra as the sub choice for both. To run the system it's either going to be a Yamaha rvx-3800, or Onkyo sr875. This will all be connected to my 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma which I bought at christmas.

Sorry for the length and give thanks in advance for your time.

Budget? What kind of music are you listening to?

Nuke, welcome. When you mention a possible bigger future listening room and a loud listening level(protect your hearing!)you imply that you're leaning toward tower speakers, although M22s should be excellent in your present room when supported by the sub that you're considering. Either M60s or M80s should make you very happy and, depending on the room available, you might consider a vertical M22 or a third M60/M80 as the center. Certainly go with the superb QSs for the surrounds, probably the QS8s.

As to the receiver, either of those that you're considering would be fine with either the M60s or M80s. Keep in mind the superior video processing in the Onkyo 875 in deciding.

Nuclear, I just went with a M22/VP100/QS8 setup and I love it, my room is very similar to yours and it has no trouble with my Onkyo 605. Great for games or movies (although it's shown me that most games have subpar sound)

Hey Thefwam.. I have exactly the same system coming.. and just bought an Onkyo 606 for it.

Does the center channel sound pretty good?

I'll only have the Panasonic TV speakers to compare it to, so even though I know the vp100 isn't top of the line, I'm hoping with m22's, qs8's, and the ep350 it will still sound quite good, and not be a weak link. (pretty much all movies and games.)

No i'm very happy with it! I know that some feel that it is a weak link but it is great. At first I wasn't as impressed, but with the Onkyo you have to turn it up a bit to get enough power in them to sound really good. It makes me excited to get some external amplification on them! But rest assured they will sound great! I am missing the EP350 though. Hopefully that can come in the next few months.

p.s. it will kill the panasonic speakers

I have the M22's and M80s, have compared the M60s to them both and if price is not a concern go for the M80s, if they are too much then M60s and finally M22s. You could go with either the VP100 or VP150 for a more traditional center, as each sound nearly identical to each other and blend very well with the mains listed. The VP150 does have a slight edge in that it plays a little lower than the VP100.

I have the PB13 Ultra and it will rattle the foundations if you want it to, you could also go for the EP600 for a slightly smoother more encompassing sound, inspite of the reviews to the contrary elsewhere, the Axiom subs are very good and hold their own when directly compared to the competiton.

nucl3arboNg,

I have a room that is almost the same dimensions as yours. Whichever system you go with try to make sure if at all possible to put your front speakers on the shorter wall. If you don't do this then you will probably not be able to get any space behind you for the qs8's (or whichever surrounds you end up with) to be very convincing. You will probably end up having the couch up against the back wall and the qs8's in the corner of the side wall or on the back wall itself. Turning the system so that the fronts fire into the long dimension (ie they are on the shorter wall) will be much better. Now you can put your couch more in the middle of the room and you can have 4 to 6 feet behind you for the surrounds to have so room to breathe.

Anyways I would suggest you go with the qs8's and vp150. If you have the money for m60's or even m80's then you should probably go with them. But, my room is about the same dimensions as yours and I just have the m22's for fronts and am very happy with them. Keep in mind that if you go with the m80's then you will have to make sure that the amp will be able to drive them during all the big dynamic peaks. From around these boards I hear that Yamaha's have a can hard time driving the m80's as well as the Onkyo's. One poster had a onkyo 805 and it kept shutting down on him with the m80's. The onkyo 875 is essentially the same as the 805 except the 875 has the very good video processor as well. If you go with the m80's I would suggest either the denon 3808 or the the onkyo 875 with some monoblocks (like outlaw m2200 for example). I have the Onkyo 805 and it drives the m22's just fine in my room. If you go with the m22's or m60's the Onkyo 875 should be just fine in your room.

As JohnK suggested the video processing for the onkyo 875 is very good. It is much better than the one even in Yamaha's flagship model and much better than the Denon 3808. I would check out this months home theater magazine as they do a shootout of the video processors for many popular avr's. The shootout was between: denon 3808, denon 5308, onkyo 875, sony 4300, yamaha 3800 and yamaha rx-z11. The Denon 5308 was the best as you would expect at its price. Second place was onkyo 875 or sony. The rest didn't do all that well, including the flagship yamaha.

- Nick

Nuc,

I went through the same consideration between an Axiom sub and the PB13-Ultra (along with a couple of other guys). There is some great information in this thread.

Happy shopping.

Jason