Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Home Theater Help!!!

I've been lurking on this board for the past week, trying to get a feel for the type of speaker package I need to upgrade too. To give some background, below is my current unimpressive set-up...

BOSE Accoustimas 15
Kenwood KR-V6050
Phillips DVDR985
52 inch Panasonic HDTV

My goal is to upgrade the speakers to the Epic 80 Home Theater Package and upgrade the receiver to the Harmon/Kardon AVR 7200. I have approximately 4k to spend to cover the cost of the receiver/speaker/cables and I was wondering if you all could give me some feedback/recommendations to the decision above. I have also included a crude room layout below to give you an idea of the room size/positioning of the speaker. I know the speakers are overkill for the room size, however, I'm looking at this as an investment with the plan to move to a larger house in the next 5 years. With this in mind, will I notice that much difference in terms of sound quality with too much speaker?

Thanks for your help and equipment recomendations!

Sounds like you have it figured out pretty well. Purchase with confidence and enjoy the sound. The 52" tv is impressive to those of us without.

Hiya Tree. Have you spent any time on the phone with the Axiom folks yet? With your drawing in hand, they could advise you pretty well.

I'll take a run at this with you for now. The M80s would work here. I hope the room in the house you might move to is really big. These puppies need some room to breathe. I put M60s in a 16x22x10 space opening into a 14x20 room. At some point in the next couple of years, we'll be moving to a great room in another house (to be seriously looked for in the future). After talking to Joe, we figured out that the M60s wolud be just fine - and they have been. The M80s pretty much just add to your available volume headroom. An extra $300 is OK, but not really needed. Then there is the "I just WANT the damn things" argument. You should be OK either way. 80s are 4 ohm, but the HK should be able to handle them.

I don't see QS8s on your list for surrounds - they should be added. You'll need stands if you can't get them on the walls or the ceiling.

VP100 or VP150. The 100 is excellent but the 150 purportedley adds a little more. Again, in your situation personal preference, available space to put it and budget should be the drivers for your decision.

Get your interconnect cables at Axiom or Blue Jeans Cables. Get your speaker wire (12ga or 14ga) at Home Depot. Find the bulk wire and have them cut a really long piece for you.

Not clear if you have a sub yet, but SVS and HSU are often mentioned in the recommends and Axiom appears to have a good product.

All in all, if you have the money available, it's a pretty simple roadmap. Your real decisons are the fronts and the center. If you can avoid "what if" the smaller speakers (M60 and VP100) free up some money for other things.

My work is done here. I really don't know much about this stuff, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. . I you have spent time looking through the forum, none of this is new for you. You clearly have thought all of it through and are simply looking for a little validation before you make a major sacrifice to the HT gods.

Nice place to be - enough to do it right, clear line of sight to the equipment, a roster of choices that pretty much eliminates the ability to make a bad choice. I'm wondering - will we see pictures on Wednesday or Thursday?

My biggest concern is around the H/K AVR 7200 driving the Epic 80 package (M80ti, QS-8, VP150, and EP 350) effectively. Should I be looking at different A/V receivers or should I go the seperates route? Thanks for you help in advance.

Hi Tree,

The H/K AVR7200 has fairly massive authentic power output for a receiver and will certainly have more than ample power output to drive the Epic 80 and the 4-ohm M80s to clean, very loud listening levels in your current room or even a larger one in the future.

Or course, if you eventually put the system into one of those Texas-size "great rooms" with a vaulted ceiling and 8,000 cu ft of space, you may want to go to a separate power amp on the main channels along with two subs, depending on your taste for extreme SPLs. The M80s will really deliver in huge rooms when you feed them 250 watts per channel or more.

You could still use the 7200 as a processor--it's smooth and versatile--and ues its internal amps for the surrounds.

Regards,

All the above advice sounds good to me. You could also go w/ M60s and keep your current receiver for a while - saving big bucks and leaving your options open 5 years from now.

Yeah, maybe change to M60's and get a really big SVS sub (such as the PB+) or get the HSU VTF-3 MK2 Sub (now in a high gloss finish). It costs a little more, but they are more powerful subs than the Axiom EP350.

Otherwise, with Axiom, you really can not go wrong.

Have fun, your system is going to be mindblowingly good.

Tree, with a high end receiver, you really get the best of it. You will have (generally) more flexibility and features than a separates pre/pro (unless you spend lotsa$$), you will have more than enough power and the receiver can act as a pre/pro for a big honkin' amp later if you need it. Looking at the info that has been posted - you know everything you need to know. Spend the bucks my friend, there is no mistake to be made with the menu in front of you .

Hey Tree,

I'd definitely go with the M80's. I auditioned the M60's and the M80's side by side. There was more detail with the M80's especially when it came to music listening. I had posted a message before comparing them. If you're interested, just do a search for it. Good luck and have fun!!

You also might consider putting the surrounds on the walls on each side of the couch.

jbz I think that's a good idea. If that were my set up, I'd put the surround speakers on the side walls just behind the "ear-line." QS8s, of course. My choice of mains for that room, would be the M60's. As a matter of fact, I might choose the M60s over the M80s for any but the largest rooms.