I have a similar question so I thought I would post it here.
Some Background:
When I moved into my house a few years ago, the prev. owner left some Mirage AVS-200 surround speakers on the wall and 4 Bose outdoor speakers on the second floor with all of the cables terminating at the spot for the main tv receiver downstairs.
The basement room is generally terrible for a home theatre setup (IMO):
The basement room is awkwardly shaped, about 900 sq ft with 8ft acoustic drop ceiling and a curved staircase that opens up part of the ceiling to the second floor. There are several drywall protrusions and alcoves for a bar area and doors for 6 other rooms, a hallway, and a gas fire place that all confuse the space. The best place to put the TV is between two pieces of wall that each protrude about 2 ft into the room (essentially a 50 inch TV fills the space between the two wall protrusions), on one side is a floor to ceiling gas fireplace and the other is the start of a hallway). I know some pictures would help but I have not figured out how to post any yet.
Since we had a lot of other stuff to spend money on with the new house, I wanted to use the existing speakers and I didn't know much about home audio so I bought a relatively cheap ($399 CDN) Pioneer Elite VSX-42 Receiver (80 WPC) and a Klipsch 10” 175W sub and just ran the system with the sub and the satellite surrounds only. I know, I know, I had other things going on and we didn’t watch a lot of TV.
Fast forward a couple years and my friend shows me his Axiom Air that he bought on the kick starter. After learning that in Axiom there was still a purely Canadian company that actually builds their speakers in Canada, with free shipping, I decided I didn’t need to look anywhere else for audio speakers. I was considering buying the AA when the price change was announced earlier this year where CDN prices would be going up. So I decided to load up on an AA, a pair of M60s, a VP-160, and an EP-350 (good sales idea Axiom, I know I wasn’t the only one that pulled the trigger then). I kept the Mirage surrounds and hooked everything up to the Pioneer VSX-42.
The speakers / sub have been fantastic! While that 10” Klipsch could produce bass I didn’t realize how sloppy / muddy it was until I acquired the EP-350. The bass from the EP-350 is fairly loud and powerful but what stood out the most was hour TIGHT and clean (musical?) it sounded by comparison. The M60s and VP 160 sound great, producing clear highs and good bass on their own. My worry is I am not getting all they can offer because of the low power amp in the receiver, and that they are all crammed below that TV in the space with the centre only having about 2 inches of clearance between each of the floor standing speakers. While I don’t think there is much I can do about the placement of the speakers for now, I am getting the upgrade itch.
MY Question
What are thoughts on purchasing an ADA 1250 3 channel amp for the M60s and VP160 vs a more powerful, better sounding receiver and some QS4 or QS8s? Initially, I was looking at the Marantz SR7011 but I don’t think I am going to invest in ATMOS until we move to a different house with better home theatre setup options. So buying a high quality used pre-ATMOS receiver sounds logical as recommended by TDIPablo. I am still regretting not going for the EP 500 initially so down the road I think I’ll be investing in 2x EP-600s (who know look like the CDN dollar is turning around again too). With a 2 year old and a 6 month old, I don’t get a chance to crank it that much right now anyway.
Any thoughts from the community?
