Moving from floorstanders to small bookshelf 5.1

rG-tom

rG-tom

rG-tom

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2004
Posts
10,327
Location
North Beds
Hi all,

I've had my home cinema set up a long time now and originally bought when I lived in a detached house. I now live in a small zone 2 flat, and my fiancée hates the floorstanders and I can't really make the most of them anyway.

I had a look at some sound bar setups and without spending literally thousands they were all crap (including the Samsung q90).

I've recently noticed the q acoustics range get really good write ups.

Currently I have:
Denon AVR-4306
Mission
M35i Floorstanders front LR
M3c2 centre
M32i rears (though actually not using as no space! Using as LR in the office)​
Paradigm ps1000 sub (using with the m32i in the office. It's bloody massive though).

Thinking of
Q-Acoustics
3020i front LR
3090Ci centre
3010i rear LR
BK P12-300sb-df sub​

Still using the Denon to power them.

How do you think that set up will stack up against what i have now?

Also it'd be great to see photos of anyone with a similar set up next to a 55 inch TV for scale :)

Thanks!

Tom.
 
For home cinema I think that setup will be very nice, I use 5.1.2 setup myself with monitor audio silver 50s which are small bookshelves. I have pics but mine is 65" TV. Your receiver is a bit old though, might be worth an upgrade as well.
 
200sols said:
For home cinema I think that setup will be very nice, I use 5.1.2 setup myself with monitor audio silver 50s which are small bookshelves. I have pics but mine is 65" TV. Your receiver is a bit old though, might be worth an upgrade as well.
Click to expand...

Cheers.

Might do the receiver upgrade too but it's not essential, it's a very very good receiver and doubt I'd be getting anything worth it from a newer one! Unless you really think Dolby digital plus is noticeable on such a small speaker set up?
 
For movies, I've stopped recommending anything other than M&K Sound loudspeakers. Completely different league to anything else I've heard for the price (and I've heard everything across all the major "hi-fi" oriented brands).

They're available in all sorts of form-factors (in room; on wall; in wall) so can be hidden away; and they are identically voiced to give the best possible multi-channel experience. Their tri-pole surrounds in particular are amazing.
 
BlairH said:
For movies, I've stopped recommending anything other than M&K Sound loudspeakers. Completely different league to anything else I've heard for the price (and I've heard everything across all the major "hi-fi" oriented brands).

They're available in all sorts of form-factors (in room; on wall; in wall) so can be hidden away; and they are identically voiced to give the best possible multi-channel experience. Their tri-pole surrounds in particular are amazing.
Click to expand...


The speakers I mentioned in the OP run for 150-170 a pair, bar the sub at 3-400....unless I'm missing something, the m&k stuff is four figures a pair?
 
willhub said:
Downfiring sub in a flat?
Click to expand...
Yeah might get the front firing version on reflection, but means you have to be more careful with placing it! Very thick concrete floors here and I've never noticed noise from up or down before so might be ok either way
 
As with many rear ported speakers, the 3020i are going to work best given a little space to the rear. Most speakers also like a fair bit of space to the sides. That means stand-mounting. Is that what you plan to do? If it is, then a pair if 3020i on stands versus a pair of floorstanding speakers; are you going to gain much?
 
lucid said:
As with many rear ported speakers, the 3020i are going to work best given a little space to the rear. Most speakers also like a fair bit of space to the sides. That means stand-mounting. Is that what you plan to do? If it is, then a pair if 3020i on stands versus a pair of floorstanding speakers; are you going to gain much?
Click to expand...

Definitely not stand mounted, wall mounted or on top of the TV unit.
 
rG-tom said:
How do you think that set up will stack up against what i have now?
Click to expand...

Given the right conditions, your Mission system probably pips the QA, but that's the point; in the new place you don't have the right conditions.

The QA 3020i won't be working optimally either, but they'll be closer to acceptable than the Mission M35i.

The combination of QA with the BK sub will give you better bass both in speed and depth than the Paradigm sub can do. That will help to full in the bottom end of the QAs nicely.

For midrange, I'd say that the QAs have the advantage over the M35i. It's easier and cheaper to make a small cabinet that's rigid than it is to make a large one. That pays dividends when it comes to upper bass midrange resolution because the cabinet isn't resonatin

What will be interesting is what you think of the treble. I'd characterise the De on as leaning towards a touch of brightness, and the Missions too. The QAs would be less toppy.
 
I've got 2020s front and back but only a 42 inch TV c
an post a photo if you want?

Edit as lucid said 2020s are rear ported as well they do come with bungs, not sure what effect that has over all as I dont use them.
 
Mr.Cookie said:
<snip>2020s are rear ported as well they do come with bungs, not sure what effect that has over all as I dont use them.</snip>
Click to expand...

Most speakers get a bass boost from being close to a wall. With sealed speakers such as centre speakers, the boost is quite small. With ported speakers, it has a much bigger effect on the sound. You can get a lot more bass volume from a ported speaker, and porting is way way cheaper than putting a much bigger driver in the box and having to make a bigger box too.

However, there's no free lunch. The trade-offs with porting are (potentially) some loss in the precision of the bass and midrange - it's ability to stop and start cleanly; and some limits to where the speaker can live.

Corners are bad places for any main speaker. There's too much bass boost and it kills the imaging. This is why all the speaker manuals give recommendations for a minimum distance from the side wall.

The rear wall is a different thing. Ported speakers are designed to work best at a certain distance from the rear wall. The distance varies from design to design depending on things such as front or rear ported, and the size of the speaker.

Sitting the ported speaker too far from the back wall will make it sound bass lite, but the bass precision will be as good as the speaker can do.

As the positioning moves closer, there'll be a sweet spot where bass still stops and starts cleanly, and the bottom end fills in nicely.

Get too close and the bass will overwhelm the sound and lose precision.

The port bungs alter the place where this change in the characteristic of the sound changes. The speaker can live closer to the back wall with the bung in place.

Some worry that blocking up the bass ports will damage the speaker bass driver. That's rarely the case and never true for any speaker supplied with port bungs as standard.
 
rG-tom said:
Cheers.

Might do the receiver upgrade too but it's not essential, it's a very very good receiver and doubt I'd be getting anything worth it from a newer one! Unless you really think Dolby digital plus is noticeable on such a small speaker set up?
Click to expand...

I’d recommend it more to get access to the much cleverer room EQs nowadays. Denon, Yamaha, Arcam & Anthem are some of the best I’ve heard. It makes a huge difference if your setup is suboptimal and you cant do any room treatment etc. I had to plop my MA Silver 8 floorstanders in two alcoves and the EQ saved them from being a boomy mess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom