Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 7.1 or 5.1

Bleevin

You have about 3000 cubic feet of space in you room( not including the wet bar and play area). I would suggest you look a at the Grand Master 350 and consider upgrading the subwoofer. However, that is a 5.1 system and is already at around $2100 and is getting very close to your $2200 budget. Remember you will do better if you go with the factory outlet.

I'd rather see you spend the money on a better qualty 5.1 system then a sub standard 7.1 system (based on the room size). The last thing you want is to start to bottom out a sub becasue it just can't fill the volume of air in the room.


An upgraded subwoofer or center channel will give you sig. better sound then adding the back surround speakers.

Get your 5.1 working right now, worry about 7.1 later.

paul

The 400 would be the wrong choice for that room (The 400 is designed to give deep bass to small rooms only). The 350 would be more reasonable, but the 500 more likely satisfying.

I agree with Mark on the sub. A 400 would not be sufficient but certainly better than no sub at all if that's what the budget permits.

I also add a vote in for 7.1 in a room of that size but again, if the budget is demanding, spend the money on a reallllly good 5.1 system and add the extra rears later.

For a sub, definitely an EP500, or better.

Sorry to jump in here again, but the 400 is actually more expensive than a 350 (which would outperform a 400 in a large room) and not that much less than the 500.

I don't mean to sound harsh on the 400, I would love to have a couple for their intended use... but they're not a good choice in terms of output capability OR cost for a large room. They're a niche item.

I agree with the recommendation of going to a good 5.1 system for the quoted budget. You could upgrade to a 7.1 system in the future if you pre-wire now as someone suggested. Even at $2200, that's a tight budget if you are going to use M60s or M80s up front....you might be looking at M22's as mains to stay in budget. Try a couple of scenarios through the factory outlet to get the discount, and see what you come up with.

I've decided to wire for 7.1 and try out a pair of 7yr old Energy bookshelves as the rears, which means I'll be spending the budget on a 5.1 system.

My new question is... would the M22 HT package (Epic Grand Master) with the ep500 be sufficient? And when I upgrade to M60's would the M22 be too large if I moved them to the rears?

btw... just wanted to say thanks for all the suggestions and opinions.

The M22's might be too tall to mount over the window vertically. I'm going to be trying on-wall M22's for rear speakers one of these days, when I can clear an extra $100 or so needed for wires.

If it were me, with what I know today, I would buy 2 M80's and 2 QS8's. Then wait to get the rest of the system. You can do this for under $2000. You would end up with a much nicer system than settling for smaller speakers today.

Edit: The M80 and QS8 would give you the best sound for the money now. M80's will phantom a center. M80's will do bass, except for the very lowest.

While the M80s can handle bass pretty well, do be aware, that without a sub hooked up to the appropriate output on the receiver you will not get any .1, LFE content from movies. Even with the M80s set to "large", and the sub to "no", receivers don't mix the LFE content into the main channels.

Ok. You'd lose the LFE, but to add a sub, say EP500, the price then runs around $3000. I still think M80 + QS8 in that size of a room, would be a better choice than M22 + QS8 + EP500. Especially, considering that the M22's would be planned obsolescence. Then as finances allow, purchase the EP500.