If you get a good sub you can bypass floorstanders and get all bookshelfs. This will allow you to get better speakers cause all freq below 80Hz~120Hz is usually routed to sub.

Is it flat and have no ceiling fan? 9ft is still generally okay for upfiring setups.

Soundbars are the worst in providing upfiriring Atmos experience. I mean... just look how puny the drivers are, it's almost impossible to expect anything immersive out of it. It would give you a rough idea of how it sounds like I guess.

A big “NO” got up firing atmos speaker

Bookshelf speakers are more suitable for a small room right? And it requires a proper stand as well making it kinda difficult to find a proper setup for the set. I’m all open now to suggestions whether it’s a bookshelf-typed or floor-standers, main concern would be which brands to go for, for a best possible best bang for my money planned on spending with these setup without sacrificing sound quality.

Ceiling is flat with one ceiling fan of course. Mounting wouldn’t be much of a problem as most probably looking for a wall-mounted ones if I’d go for the direct firing overhead speakers, concerns would be wire management in which could be resolved by concealing it under those acoustic wall foams (cheap China-made one) but the cost of these cables in general. May I know what kind of cables are you using for your setup there in your siggy and which type of connections? Brands wise now looking for Klipsch (as per your recommendation to other forummer, QAccoustics, SVS to name a few).

And I would most probably go for the Denon AVR X6400H, for future upgradability, and full support for a 7.1.4 without external amplifier. Never really bothered about a proper HT setup before but since now in a planning stage, well F me, the price of the top-fledged AVR like X6400H is like building a mid-ranged desktop pc!!

Recommendations for reputable shops and good price will always be welcomed as well.

Anyway, Still doing some readings of my planned setup as I don’t like everything to be handled by the shop. I wouldn’t mind paying but definitely would mind if got cheated. Lol

This post has been edited by emy_xvidia: Oct 29 2017, 09:51 AM

Go check with max audio. They can recommend you a lot better with reasonable expectation. You can join FB for home theatre malaysia for more know how. The new denon is x8500. That will be the top if you can wait until 2018

Bookshelfs usually cut out at 50Hz floor standers at 35Hz and can be placed on a long TV rack to save on stands. If you plan to get a sub then anything below 80Hz goes to sub.

Well if your budget is 12k. Good sub min 4k gone. so not much for your other speakers and amp. Unless your budget can expand. Either look for 2nd hand amp/sub then start with 5.1 slowly upgrade to what you want. If you are having a dedicated HT room then 7 speakers on the floor is doable or else 5 would be max what you need cause speakers cannot be placed too close to wall unless you get wall mounted speakers or add damping behind speakers.

There are no rules stating that bookshelfs should be in small rooms and towers are in big. If you ask me, I'd still get 3 large bookshelfs over a tower setup for a pure HT room (example 3x PSA MTM 210 for LCR). The main reason being that 3 large bookshelfs that plays FLAT too 60-70hz with a high sensitivity (above 93db/1w/1m) is cheaper than buying 3 towers (or 2 towers + 1 center). The extra money can and SHOULD go to a bigger sub, which is the foundation of the audio spectrum.

But then I have a tower and an individual center. I have indeed pondered on the thought that I made a wrong choice, but I do appreciate my towers because I still like listening to music from time to time in pure 2.0 stereo. The other reason is because I wanted to try a ribbon tweeter, safe to say there's no going back.

I'm just using ordinary Belden 5000UE series cable. Bought a reel last year and just terminated them myself. They are 12 AWG cables, which is thicker than I need for the length of runs I want. Some people here and other social spaces will tell you all about the mystical-unicorn-blood-infused speaker and power cables though.
My stance is that, none of them can and have shown the science and being that I've blind tested them too, they don't sound any better or worse... different than "normal" well built cables. You can keep and open mind and go listen if you can hear a difference, I didn't - fortunately. Which meant I had extra money to put it into other parts of my system.

Depends on what speakers you get, may not be a great choice to get a single amp and run all your speakers off from it. A Denon x4400h and an Emotiva A-300 is cheaper than a single x6400h and will perform better than the latter. Weigh out your choices on that. The x4400h does 11 channel processing too, you just need an external 2 channel amp to make use of it.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 29 2017, 07:59 PM

-deleted-

This post has been edited by skeelee: Aug 19 2022, 06:56 PM

Huh?

There are still pre-pros around, to name a few off the top of my head:

Yamaha CXA5100

Marantz AV8802

Anthem AV60

Emotiva XMC1


There are plenty more from the likes of Triad, Crestron, Arcam, Rotel, etc.
Individual pre-pros are not dead. They just aren't very popular anymore because it doesn't offer enough simplicity to the vast majority of users.

-deleted-

This post has been edited by skeelee: Aug 19 2022, 06:57 PM

AVR Sales > AVP Sales?

I suppose cheaper prepros should exist, but it doesn't sell. The general consensus for many is: buy speakers + amp = sound. Complicate the matter and they would just say; "okay get a soundbar". There are other issues, how are you going to market a prepro to the majority? "Hey it decodes everything!" But then a smartass would say - "look the AVR decodes everything too and it also has an amp! It's plug and play!"

Market has changed. Gone are the days where the norm is - if a person wants to do a HT setup, it's a proper HT setup. They have a room, they have rows of seats, they have multi subs, they have speakers that goes above THX reference standards. These are the people who would get a pre-pro which allows them the flexibility to do what they want in their room.

The niche market is simply too small for a low cost prepro unfortunately. The parts in these high-end prepros don't even cost that much to be very frank, look them up specifically - the margin that the manufacturers get out of them is HIGH.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 30 2017, 05:00 PM

As beginner don’t need to go separate yet. Having just 1 avr6400 is easy without the mess.

my budget can definitely expand but still i am not money-is-not-an-issue-kinda guy. I think to simplify things up I'd go for the Denon all-in-one solution of the AVR-X6400H (without any external amp for the extra 2 channels), surveying online, that costs an average of RM10k-ish. Maybe another 10-15k for a proper 7.1.4 speakers set, cable and maybe one good BD Player, Oppo perhaps. Mixin-and-matching the speakers seem to be the most affordable solutions according to some of the reading materials i've found online. Anyway since Im new to this, I would usually take my time juggling my options especially on the speakers set, since I am currently in JB, and JB isn't as exciting for the HT scenes, so definitely have to take a visit to those HT shops in KL for the next few weeks when i have the time.

A very good info on the cable things. I was kinda shocked as well to see some of the speaker cable costs thousands whereas it's just a few metres in length. If it really costed that much, i'd give up on the idea of having a 'proper' HT setup.

Anyway would really appreciate recommendations of a 7.1.4 (or 5.1.4) Atmos setup (inclusive of the the brands so that I could find out reviews online, too many speaker brands that Ive never heard of but when reading on whathifi.com and others, they are actually award-winning speakers and costs a lot locally lol ), assuming my budget for the speakers and other miscellaneous things like cables, mounting panel is around RM15k excluding of the AVR. Or is it better to just get the one-set system from a shop. They usually mix up the speakers and costs a bit lesser than buying individual brand to our preference?

This post has been edited by emy_xvidia: Oct 30 2017, 10:28 PM

Depends on the store. Some stores do have system packages, if you show that you are really serious in doing business with them - you can usually cut a decent deal.

I personally just pick up my stuff here and there, not all from one spot. Probably ended up costing me more in total, but since I spread out my purchases over time instead of buying everything at once, the innitial cost doesn't really matter. Doing it one by one allows a deeper understanding of this hobby, this isn't like buying a PC unfortunately. It's not a "buy RM15k PC with a Gsync monitor and forget about upgrading for the next 3 years". You may initially think that, "oh I've got a good system now", but the journey to audio nirvana can be a long one and in many cases if you are not careful; becomes a deep rabbit hole.

For RM15k excluding AVR and since you are going to stick to only a single amp, a high sensitivity speaker setup will be nice.

Klipsch RP260f Towers L/R - I believe you want towers right?
Klipsch RP250c or RP450c - Depends if you need more output of the bigger 450c or not, the RP250c may possibly have less defraction issues due to less drivers.
Klipsch RP250s Surrounds - Honestly you don't need to pay so much for surrounds, you could just source the second hand market for cheap bookshelfs to use as surrounds too.
Klipsch RP140sa or SVS Prime Elevation - They are both mountable, but the Prime Elevation is what I'm using currently and they're pretty nice.

For the sub, an SVS PC2000 or PB2000 should be what you are looking at. Buy one now, buy another next year. Multi subs are 9/10 times benefits more than whatever else you add to your system except changing out your main LCR.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 31 2017, 12:21 AM

thanks for your recommendation. good knowledge on HT, easy for beginners like me to venture into HT.

for the surround speakers, the speakers you recommend is a bipole/dipole-typed. my main room, on the left side is actually a window (with a thick curtain). How would it fare in regards to reflection/ sound effect compared to using a normal bookshelf direct-firing one? anyway to save up for a 7.1 most probably my budget would allow me to go for a normal bookshelf one (looking at Klipsch R-15M or RP-150M), so that I could put another pair as back speakers as the price of that RP250s is quite expensive.

anyway, anyone has buying experience with Style Laser Audio shop HERE? are they good, in terms of after-sale service as well? they seem to bring a lot of hi end speakers to our local market. surveying the price hopefully manage to get a good price.

The whole reason for bipole/dipole speakers are so that you cannot exactly tell the ambience effects in a movie. However I personally don't like them too much because they are always designed in fairly slim cabinets, sharing a single crossover and with inefficient small drivers. There are exceptions and I have heard of some convincing dipole/bipoles, if done right they are pretty decent.

I'm definitely more of a monopole guy because I also use my system for games. Having more distinct directionality for surround effects in games is I'm sure you know, pretty important. You don't absolutely have to match your surrounds to your main LCR, if your budget doesn't permit it then getting cheaper bookshelfs is a good alternative.

Style Laser is okay. They do sell snake oil, some of their staff are into the whole "mythical" beliefs in cables, power conditioners, and so on but their prices for most of their products are fairly competitive. Just know how to look pass the bullshit and they are okay to purchase from.

Finally, don't take my suggestions as the last word. Audio is very subjective, just like food. All I can do is set you on a beginning path and you have to go out and listen to some systems to get a rough idea of how they sound like (they will most definitely sound different in your own room at the end of the day however).

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 31 2017, 02:55 AM

Ya no worries. I still have time to juggle options on which stuff to get, trying to find the right spot between cost and of course performance.

Good discussion here indeed.

You can also take a look at the Q Acoustics 3000 series line btw. They're cheaper than the Klipsch and I really do like them.

They are not exceptional at any areas but they do good in about every kind of content you throw at them. The QA 3000 series speakers are nice well rounded speakers that don't break the bank, the money you save can go to the more important stuff i.e the sub.

The SVS Prime series is also a good alternative (except their Prime Satellites, which is mediocre at best), similar in price range to the Klipsch RP series.

Cables do make a lot of different to the sound. There is reason on what separate the high end and the low end. Of course there are some who believe that the metal from a clothes hanger can even make speaker cable. Don’t just read and take everything in. Is best to self experience it to judge. As a start let’s not worry about that too much. I will say allocating 5% of budget for all cables will be good. Becareful or mix and match. Without proper timber matching the surround sound can be really weird