Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Newbie HT Purchase - Advice Appreciated

The second, thanks. Hmm. I actually haven't heard M22s and an EP500 together, so I'm not really sure...

That's a pretty big room, overall. I'd really hesitate to recommend M22's.

I'm a very satisfied M60 owner. But then, I've not heard M80's, so ignorance is bliss. M60's are easier to drive, cheaper and still play wicked loud. But, of course, if you can swing the M80's financially, by all means do it. I'd agree that their ability to play lower/louder could give you a more satisfying HT experience until you can get a sub.

While I really like everything else about it - especially the Audyssey system - my concern with the Onkyo is that it does not have pre-outs. So, if you find that you do need more power for the M80's, you won't be able to simply add an amp.

Our forum HDMI expert mdrew has been auditioning a Yamaha RX-V661 to good effect. I believe he HAS been driving M80's with it and it does include 7.1 pre-outs. It might be just a little more expensive, and it has the Yamaha proprietary YPAO, which is not as universally embraced as the Audyssey system. YMMV.

Everybody seems to like everything about Denons except the remotes. Regardless of your receiver choice, you might want to budget some money for a universal remote control (like the still-righteous MX-700 at www.surfremote.com). That was - by far - the best investment I made relative to my beautiful wife's acceptance of the Home Theatre.

I'm certainly not going to say anything bad about the Mits projector. It gets great reviews, and I think your throw distance fits it well. Have you researched this at www.projectorcentral.com?

I'll echo comments made earlier about the acquisition progression.

1. Get "permanent" mains first
2. Use the Newtons (or the Pioneers, whatever sounds better to you) as surrounds initially, then get QS8's later.
3. I'm not optimistic that you'll prefer using a mismatched center over a "phantom" center, but it won't hurt to give it a shot.
4. I agree that getting a sub before a center will probably make sense.
5. Look into Hsu and SVS subs. The EP500 is a GREAT sub. For your room, I'd not consider the EP350.
6. Don't overlook the possibility of using a vertical center channel (like a single M22) or even a pair of M2's (one above and one below the screen) rather than a VP100 or VP150. It depends upon what "look" you like, what your amp can handle and what form factor fits your space.

I'm not sure I understand the placement of your surrounds. Will they be on the side walls or behind the primary viewing position? You certainly would NOT want them in front of the viewing position if they are hung on the beam and facing the screen. I probably just don't get it.

Enjoy the journey!

VTF 2.3

@Rick: thanks for the link and advice. That sub looks great.

It's nice to hear that the one thing most everyone agrees on is the acquistion progression. It helps me phase this out so that I can enjoy each step, which is very important to not only me, but towards WAF.

I'm going to read-up on the Yammy 661. I have no preference on which receiver to go with, I just want to avoid (the inevitable) upgrade itch as long as I can with that purchase. The Onkyo was merely an AVSForum recommendation that I stumbled upon, but that 661 looks very nice.

@Tomtuttle: Regarding my surrounds: basically, if you were sitting on my couch and looked straight up and back 1 foot, you'd see the projector. To the left and right of the projector, approx 4 feet out from the projector, is where you'd find the left and right surrounds. So, they're mounted on the ceiling beam, approx 7' off the ground, 4' to the left and right of you. Hope that helps a bit. I may have not mentioned, but the 7.1 side-surrounds are pre-drilled too. The guy that owned this house prior to me really did his homework.

It seems like the consensus is to get mains first. I suppose the question running thru my brain regarding which mains to get is this:

Should I spend the $1200 or so on M80's or should I spend $900 on M60's and put the remaining $300 towards the purchase of the VTF-2 MK 3 Subwoofer, or the like?

It seems like everyone universally feels that a sub should come before a center. So, the question for me is whether the M80's alone would suffice until sometime next year, or would the M60/VTF-2 MK3 combo trump it for a little more cabbage?

I plan to give my existing surrounds a whirl alongside whichever of the 2 above options I decide to go with. I may also poke around with the Pioneer center I have and if not, I could go phantom like some of you suggested. So, it looks like a 5.1 vs. 5.0 question. (do you still call it 5.1 with a phantom center?) Weird, eh?

Any other thoughts on this? Thanks again for all the feedback.

You still need a sub with the M80s. Even if you are going to listen to just music (unless you listen to only flutes ).

You don't have to use a centre for 5.1. If you do use a centre however, it anchors the dialogue and it sounds like it's coming from the centre over a wide listening area. You lose this benefit with a phantom centre. Dialogue and bass sound very different with a phantom compared to a dedicated centre speaker. But the centre does have a major drawback. Many listeners don't know how to calibrate it properly and they end up making it too loud thereby negating some interesting effects that the sound engineer built into the track. You can't make this mistake with a phantom. People also make the same mistake on surrounds but that's not nearly so disastrous (at least that's what my ears tell me).

I am starting to really enjoy listening to CDs in Neo and PLIIx. For some recordings I enable the centre and for others I disable it for a phantom presentation. For movies, I always enable the centre.

You'll have a lot of fun playing with your system I'm sure to establish what's optimum for your environment and ears.

Funky, welcome. The Onkyo 605 should be an excellent choice for the setup that you're considering, regardless of whether you go with the M22s plus sub or the towers. The center speaker can certainly be the one to postpone, either using a "phantom" center or experimenting with one of your present speakers.

As to the location of the surrounds, if you're not going to use both side and back surrounds(7.1)they're still side surrounds even if they'll be a foot or so behind you. They should be separated a little more than the present 8' wiring locations, so extend the wiring maybe 3-4' wider to each side.

@tomtuttle - yeah, I forgot to mention I have a Harmony Remote...makes life much easier.

@mojo - those are some good thoughts on the center speaker. Once I get this setup, I'm going to really need to figure out how to calibrate it. I use the DVE discs to calibrate picture quality on my TV, is there something out there for the audio side of things that helps calibrate your speaker settings?

@JohnK - good advice on the surrounds. I just measured it, and it looks like I could get another 2'6" each way. I'd have to drill new holes through the beam and patch and paint the existing holes. Worth it?

@Grunt - I think the M60/Sub combo is making the most sense to me as well. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

By the way, not sure if I mentioned it previously, but this setup will be 75% dedicated to Movies and Nintendo and 25% dedicated to music listening. I'm a film junkie and watch every type of movie 'cept Horror (I'm a scaredy cat). So that is my primary interest. The kids will likely spend quite a few hours playing the Nintendo Wii on the system too. And the system will play music when we're hanging around playing pool and stuff like that.