Hello All,

I am new to the forum and I just recently purchased the M3 outdoor speakers that I am anxiously waiting to get and install! Anyway I am planning a theater room for my basement and I wanted to get everyone's input on on the receiver and speakers I want to get. I am thinking about getting the Axiom Epic 80 7.1 package and run it with a Marantz SR7005. I have dabbled with home theater equipment for years, but I have never pieced anything together on my own.

One other question is with the speaker placement... Has anyone installed front surrounds? Do they work or should I stick with the standard surrounds and rear surrounds?

Also what does everyone use for a remote? I would like one that actually controls everything... It would be nice to run it through the iPad as well.

Thank you everyone!

Welcome!

I'm not sure what you mean by "front surrounds". Typically, a 7.1 system has "surround" speakers to the sides of the listening position and "rear" speakers behind. Some newer receivers now matrix 9.2 or even 11.2 channels for "height" and "width" speakers that ARE designed to be positioned in the front of the room.

Depending upon your room size and configuration, the QS8's are SO good, that going from 5.1 to 7.1 may not make a heck of a lot of difference. That was my experience.

People seem to like the Marantz units. Denon and Onkyo are also very popular and present good values.

I don't know why you wouldn't be thrilled with the Epic 80 system. I would advise getting the VP160 or VP180 as a center channel rather than the VP150. The newer, bigger center channels seem to be quite an improvement.

I can't really help with the remote thing. People seem to like the Harmony One. Personally, they can have my URC MX-700 when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. It's old tech, but works very well for us.

I use my iPad to control my Squeezebox for music. It is beyond cool.

Enjoy the journey! Stop by the Beer Thread.

What size is your theater room going to be?

as for your remote question.

I have an Osiris MX-350 and really like it a lot... Not as fancy as some of the newer remotes, yet does pretty much everything that the new ones do and the batteries last about 6 months... My 350 is a smaller version of Tom's remote.

Tom, he may be asking about front "height" speakers?

JC, welcome. The Epic 80 7.1 would be an excellent choice for your HT setup, but a significant step up would be getting the VP160 for the center speaker.

The assumption in getting a 7.1 setup would be that you have enough room behind the seats(say at least 4')for an effective rear sound field to form. Those sitting right up against the wall would get little or no benefit from back surround speakers. So, on this point it isn't the size of the room as such that's significant, but the space available behind the listening position.

As to the receiver, the SR7005 would certainly work well, but I suggest that a similar Denon or Onkyo unit is more cost-effective. If you'd want to stay with a Denon/Marantz product the very similar Denon 3312 available as a factory refurb from Accessories4less here for about $650 can be recommended. An excellent Onkyo unit of the same class(except quite a bit heavier)is the 809 available from A4L for about $600.

Welcome. I too agree with what others have said about the additional 2 surround speakers. I had a 5.1 Axiom setup for years, but with my current build I have 2 rows of seats, and I wanted great surround placement for both rows, thus I upgraded to 7.1. I can't say that in my initial testing that the 2 additional rear surround channels make a whole lot of difference in the experience for the front row, but without them, the back row would either get blasted with surround sound so that it was loud enough for the front row, or the back row wouldn't get really any surround effect since the surround speakers would actually be in front of them, placed ideally for the front row.

I haven't sat in my 2nd row yet to see how enveloped the sound field is for that row with QS8s behind as well as to the sides and in front of those seats, but in theory it could become a great row for audio performance in my setup.

I happen to have a good 4-5 feet between the back of my 2nd row and the rear QS8s. If I didn't, or if I had a single row of seats, I would have just stuck with 5.1 and been superbly happy.

Where else can you go online to a company's site and have people actually looking to help you from possibly spending more than you need? Most placed try to upsell you, even people, like us, that are consumers and in no shape or form working for, getting kickbacks from Axiom, or anything. You will get a lot of honest ideas, help, and opinions here. Again welcome!

I agree with all of the above. Good advice there.

For a remote question, I also love the URC remotes if you can get your hands on them. Some of the better models are tough to get here in Canada. In general, but not universaly, the Harmonys are easier to set up but the URCs allow for more serious customization. It depends on your priority. Many people do not need customization beyond what the Harmonys' provide so I usually recommend them to family and friends.

My family loves the Harmony One remote but don't like the other, cheaper Harmony remote. It seems to not always turn stuff on and off or switch sources as well as the 'One'... We end up hitting the 'help' button a lot with the cheaper remote.

Welcome,
I also use the Harmony One although I am at a point where I think I'd like to add some more customization and would consider something more advanced when/if my Harmony dies.

However for the iPad point, Logitech recently came out with a new gadget in the Harmony lineup that does exactly that - link

Cheers,

Another Harmony user here and planning on getting another one for the main floor now that they support the receiver i've had in there for a few years. The list of brands and components it supports has grown exponentially.

I use the Harmony 1100 because I have access to every function for all devices through the touch screen. My equip is in a different room and it's much easier to scroll through this screen when needed, than to run back and forth between 2 rooms.

The con to the 1100 is the touch screen doesn't last. My first one lasted a year. I'm about 6 months into my 2nd one.

Now after having said that, I wouldn't mind trying the Harmony One to see what I would think of it.

Thank you everyone for the great feedback!
Yeah I was talking about the "front" height speakers, thank you for the clarification! I have a 16x30 foot room and the home theater will be setup on one side of the room next to a large window. I wont have room to have the couch 4-5 feet away from the back wall and that is why I was interested in how the front height speakers work. If that isn't a good choice I do think after what everyone has said that I will stick with a 5.1 system instead of going with the 7.1. For the speakers I agree I want the large center channel so they system I am going to get is the http://www.axiomaudio.com/epic80_800.html.

Has anyone tried the Harmony Link? Or Redeye?

Thanks again! Its nice to meet everyone!

I tried the RedEye mini. Didn't like it. WAY too hard to program, and - honestly - I like buttons instead of a touch screen for those functions. YMMV.

Dean (grunt) has written pretty extensively about his experiences with height and wide speakers here on the boards. But I'm too lazy to search for you

I've very happy with my Harmony 880

Harmony One for me and it has worked great for 2 years now with my kids dropping it, throwing to each other, knocking down the stair well etc. very durable so far.