Not tricky at all - http://www.parts-express.com/cat/pro-woofe...nge-speakers/31


They're easy to get, they're cheap to buy.
If you have a knack for good worksmanship, you can build your own speakers and subs. Warranty lifetime, everything lifetime. You pay considerably less money because you don't have to deal with bullshit marketing and whatever else.

Best of all? You build your own speakers, you have your own sound. You know what they say right? What sounds best to you is what's most important, nothing else is.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 10 2016, 04:07 PM

Welcome to the upgrade bug club.

It'll stop when you find your sweet spot. If you keep having that urge to upgrade, then it simply means you haven't found what you really like despite being happy with what you already have. Very common and it's something that many people don't want to admit.

The usual stuff that they are letting go, nothing special unless you need it. Mostly models from 2015 and 2014, they need to clear as much as possible.

Only the v581, v681 and v781 will have Atmos and DTSX support.
The v481 and v381 doesn't have Atmos or DTSX, which makes sense because they do have a smaller power supply and driving more than 5 channels will not be a smart thing to do (that's why they only support 5.2).


Sony KLCC.
That was a few months ago (in Jan IIRC). Definitely promo over already.


Saw those speakers at Harvey Norman Pavilion. I think they're going for RM2999 or something. The towers are decent, but the center and surround satellites are laughable toys.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 17 2016, 04:57 PM

No it's not. Only v581, v681 and v781 has Atmos and DTSX.

The v381 and v481 only have 5.2 channel processing, how to have Atmos?

With your space, you have 2 choices:

1) Get a satellite based system.
2) Get a pair of bookshelfs.


If I were you, I'd get a pair of good quality small bookshelfs or satellites and an intergrated amp, then call it a day. Then when you have the space, you can move those small bookshelfs for surround duties and get a bigger, higher-end LCR.

Maybe a pair of Q Acoustics 2020 or SVS Prime Satellites would best fit your area.
If you absolutely want to cram in a bookshelf with 5.25" drivers or bigger, then your choices are very limited.

You simply don't have the space to accommodate anything larger. Remember, doesn't mean you have the space to place the speakers, it will work well. You need some space from the boundaries of your wall (back and side), otherwise things will sound boomy, muddy and your soundstage will be limited. If the speakers are vented, you can plug them, but you will need a sub to overcome the loss of low-end. That's another area where you have to find space.

*EDIT*
That floor space infront of your TV is also a big reflection point that you will want to attend to, at least put a rug there.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 17 2016, 08:01 PM

SVS Prime Satellites are probably the best satellites I've ever heard. You must mate it with a sub though, on its own it cannot produce much bass.

Other than speakers, you have other issues to attend to first lol... just looking at that pic, the amount of bare walls is a recipe for an insane amount of echo. DIY some acoustic panels with a texture of your choice to go along with your decor, hang it on the left side of the wall. Get a rug, put it on the floor. Those are some starting points.

Of course, it's your house so... don't take my suggestion as something you must do. But my point is, the room is equally as important as speaker choice. You can buy $50,000 speakers but if the room's condition is poor, it's still going to sound like crap.

Prime Satellite pair SRP is RM1.6k, but it can be had cheaper. How much cheaper I'm not sure, because they're affected by currency fluctuation. You need to call Maxx Audio or their other dealers to get the latest price. RM2.5k is the price for the Prime Bookshelfs, different product.

I've always had a soft spot for the Q2020i, I still like it until today. Good little bookshelfs, doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Its bigger brother the Q3020 is even better of course, but I was suggesting the Q2020i because I was under the impression you need it to be under RM2k a pair.



Under RM1k, the SSCS5 bookshelfs are one of the best budget bookshelfs I've heard. IMO, it's better than the very popular Pioneer AJ BS22. That said, stock from Sony is quite limited. You definitely need to place special order with them because AFAIK and have been told, they sell out like fresh goreng pisang the moment new stocks come in. Shouldn't have promoted them that much...

The CS8 center is okay-ish, wouldn't say good. But to my ears, the entire Sony Core Series lineup weak link is the center channel. The towers are great for its price, the bookshelfs are pretty good too, but the center... yeah, in comparison is somewhat of a disappointment. That said, it's RM500 so it's quite cheap and is certainly still better than the muffled Pioneer AJ C22.


Yes, that's my opinion.
But understand that with most intergrated amps, you're limited to 2 channels (+ a sub). So if you do plan to do 4.1, 5.1 or whatever else, then you'll need a receiver. That said, with your dimensions, it is quite difficult to get an optimal 5.1 surround setup. You can mount the rears on top of your sitting area I guess, but I generally wouldn't suggest it.

I took a look at your pic again and I see that you probably could have a center channel below the TV. If you do get the Sony Core Series which comprises of the CS5 and CS8, I think all you need is a decent budget AVR and you'll be set. I don't think it will sound better than a pair of higher quality bookshelfs though, but if you want 3.1 without going down the HTiB sound quality route, the Sony CS5 + CS8 is a pretty good compromise.

A great quality 2.1 is better than a cheap 5.1. It goes back to the whole HTiB thing, there's a legit reason why most (if not all) of them can't compare to a pair of bookshelfs that cost as much (or slightly more) than a HTiB set.

I don't want to claim that I'm an expert, but I strongly believe that if you want to do surround, do it properly. Otherwise stick with good ol' stereo, you have less headaches, you have great sound quality, and you'll be happy.


KLIAV is in July. It won't be representative of what you will hear in your own space, but it should open your ears a bit on what to expect from different speakers. At least it gives you an idea.

Decent int. amp without breaking the bank - Yamaha A-S301 perhaps, around RM1.4k or less.
Again, do understand that by going with an int. amp, you're effectively giving up anything more than a 2.1 as an option. Codecs used by blu-ray movies will not be able to be played back in their original state, instead will simply be downmixed into PCM 2.0. Whether that makes a difference, that's an entirely subjective area.

For sub, you have to see where you are going to put it first. Sub placement is the trickiest component to work with. I like to recommend SVS and Rythmik subs, but they are expensive (in bolehland at least). However they blow a lot of those toy subs which cost under RM1k, you know those rubbish subs which has like an amp that crackles under mild pressure or the cabinet resonates like an osim vibrator.

I guess good subs, you want decent price you're gonna have to look at the 2nd hand market. Some I can recommend on a budget would be perhaps the Paradigm PDR80/PDR100, Taga TSW-90, or Sumiko S5. These are subs costing around the RM2k mark or so and they aren't super huge.
With your space, you need to find the dimensions of how big of a sub you can fit at the best possible location first.

Other bookshelfs around RM2k you can research on:

- ELAC Debut B6 (RM1.7k)
- Klipsch RP150 (RM2k)
- Paradigm Atom v7 (RM1.6k)
- Wharfedale Diamond 10.2 (RM1.9k)


These are off the top of my head for bookshelfs under the RM2k budget. I'm sure there's more from Mission, Martin Logan, and so on, but other sifus can chime in.

*EDIT*
The law of diminishing returns in audio is a lot more prevalent than say buying a TV, projector or even a computer. Because our ears don't hear linearly, anything that may sound bad to one may sound like the best thing to another. I mean, we have people buying beats products until today after all.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 18 2016, 07:22 PM

Don't have experience with the XLS encore. Just reading opinions and reviews is what I know from them, but if it's one thing everyone agrees is that they do present an exceptional budget-performance value.

In 2 channel mode, an integrated amp is usually going to sound better than an entry level receiver of the same price. How much better is subjective of course. If you're going to do 3.1 (which in your space does seem possible with a bit of squeezing, won't be too bad though), then a receiver is your only route.

If you want good sound over anything else, then the int. amp is the way to go but you do sacrifice some features like DD/DTS decoding, auto room correction, a hub to route all your devices and whatever else.

For around the same price as the Yamaha S301, you can take a look at the Yamaha RX-v379 or the upcoming v381. I can only suggest Yamaha for entry level receivers these days, the budget types from Onkyo and Pioneer has way too many reliability complaints. Denon entry level receivers aren't sold here, so there's that. So don't take it as though I'm a Yamaha fanboy, I'm not.


Blu-Ray discs usually comes with Dolby TrueHD or DTSMA tracks now a days. They are lossless compression codecs, similar in the sense to how FLAC is a lossless compression codec used for music. There has been countless debate on whether people can hear the difference between the older lossy codecs like Dolby Digital or DTS, regularly used during the DVD days. It's a grey area of discussion, only way to hear if there's a difference is that you test it out yourself. I personally can hear a subtle difference between DTS and DTSMA, but I can't tell a single shit of a difference between DD and DTS.

An integrated amp won't be able to decode any of the codecs from Dolby or DTS. So instead, everything will simply be downmixed into PCM 2.0, which is what ALL audio devices must understand.

I believe you could go for an entry level receiver with a 2.0 setup first, add the sub after that then add the center channel later on.

Just a note about center channels though, you'd ideally want it to be tonally matched with your L/R speakers and they should be equal in sound quality output or better.

Remember, only the v581 and above has Atmos.
Also consider the fact that 5.x.2 Atmos is really only viable in a small room. If you have medium sized room, 5.x.2 isn't immersive enough, even if you have 6.5" wide dispersion drivers as your overheads. That's my IMO at least, having experimented with them.

So, unless you'll always have a small room setup, consider the fact that getting a budget receiver isn't a long term investment.


5k isn't enough for an SVS Ultra LCR setup though, they would cost around RM8.5k+ or more. Just a pair of Ultra Bookshelfs, then perhaps.
The SVS Prime Bookshelf + Prime Center on the other hand is possible with a 4-5k setup.

B&W 685 series has always been popular, I'm not exactly sure of the pricing but they are a good choice to check out as well. Some other I can recommend are Klipsch if you like clarity and sparkly trebles, their horn tweeters man... they're good stuff as long as you don't find them fatiguing.

KEF Q series bookshelfs too, they aren't bad. I used to own a pair of Q100 and Q200 as LCR, found them pretty good all rounders for many things but falls short of standing out.

As explained, if you only have a budget of an entry-level AVR, go Yamaha. Onkyo and Pioneer are alternatives, but you only need to make 1 search about their reliability reports and you'll understand why they aren't recommended below their high-end stuff.

A pre/pro is simply just that, a pre-amp and processor. It doesn't power the speakers.
An external power amp is usually connected to a pre/pro so that all an amp will do is drive the speakers and nothing else. The pre/pro handles all the signal processing, decoding, video passthrough and so on.

A pre/pro + power amp setup is usually the best way to driver power into the speakers. As already explained by bro dirtrun, the power specs on receivers these days are mostly bs marketing. Receiver companies love to inflate numbers by rating the power handling at ridiculously high THD or at low impedance, and in Onkyo's case, rate it at 1 channel driven because bigger number = better right???!

Then they have all these stupid specs like PMPO or JEITA (yeah Yamaha, looking at you) which makes absolutely zero sense.

At the end of the day, once you get to a certain decent wattage, it is difficult to go higher to get more volume. Example, if a 100w per channel amp can drive a speaker up to 85db output and peaks of 110db, it'll take more than TWICE the power just get another +3db. Volume is not linear, it's logarithmic.

So don't be too invested into the whole power ratings game on receivers. A receiver with 100w into 2 channels at 8ohms, under 0.010% THD isn't going to sound louder at all in comparison to an 80w into 2 channels receiver. 20w is nothing.

The final thing to understand about the power tests done by sites like Sound and Vision. They do full-channel testing which shows certain receivers (particularly Yamaha) having much lower wattage than its competitors. But a full channel test is not a real-world representation of how power is used because there are ZERO movies, games or music that will blast speakers with the same signal for more than a minute. Power is always dynamic, volume is always dynamic.


The ultra center is as good as the bookshelfs, they are equally matched. Same sized drivers, same refined tweeters, a very decent 4" midrange just for the vocals. Best of all, it adheres to the best center channel design which is a 3-way WTMW, off-axis lobing will not be an issue vs the more common MTM design.

You do however will need a decent amount of space for the ultra center, it's dual ported at the back so you're going to want to have a good 2-3 ft. off the wall. It's also pretty hefty, so the use of sturdy stands are recommended.

That said, why not just get a pair of ultra bookshelfs first? Get the center later. I kidd you not, the ultra bookshelfs to my ears are equal and in some aspects better than more expensive well reknnown bookshelfs like the KEF LS50 or the Sonus Faber Venere 1.5. I've compared them for lengthy periods, I always go back to the ultras at the end, phenomenal speakers.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 20 2016, 03:40 PM

Should be okay, just crossover higher than the usual 80hz.

Get a pair of Sony SSCS5 + Yamaha RX v381 = RM2098.
If you have space, get the CS3 floorstanders instead.

Bass won't be plentiful, maybe even weak or just enough depending on your room. A decent sub costs upwards of RM1.5k and above, most subs below that are rubbish.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 22 2016, 03:21 PM

I have no experience with the XLS encore, so I can't compre. That said, the Sony Core Series speakers do present some of the best value for perforamnce in speakers on the market today, that much I can claim without a doubt.


Not out yet, I was basing the price on last year's SRP. Yamaha haven't really changed their SRP prices since the ringgit became shit.


No, other than the inclusion of HDR support, 4k60hz at 4:4:4 and perhaps some geeral fixes, pretty much the same stuff hardware wise. Same power supply, same transformer, same amps. It's a good thing though I suppose, don't fix what isn't broken. The 379 was the most reliable entry level receiver last year, for a good reason.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: May 23 2016, 12:35 AM

@bolded
You answered your question.

Exactly~~!
I do wish there are more budget orientated speakers here with good support, and without dipping down into those that sound like sewage.

There are so many speakers I want to recommend, but getting them here means importing. Chane has some fantastic speakers, Ascend Acoustics too, all without breaking the bank.

Going to listen to a pair of Klipsch RF-7 II this weekend. Can't wait.

I'm okay with it, not don't like. The only Klipsch system I heard was the RF52 setup and that was with only 1 movie. Can't draw a conclusion at all.

If it has to be horizontal, try and avoid MTM designs. Then again, it really only matters if your sitting positions are like more than 30 degrees off axis. Those in the middle wouldn't be affected by lobing issues. WTMW designs are almost always better.

The best is to have 3 identical towers (or bookshelfs if you can't have towers) behind an acoustically invincible screen, the tweeter being just a couple inches above sitting ear height, generally.