Spec me a 2.1+ HT setup

Squid Vicious · 12 Feb 2023 at 13:21

I've been out of the AV loop for a while but am looking at options to improve the audio in the living room and really need some inspiration.

Primary use case is TV/Movie (Wall mounted LG EF9500 but looking to move to a 65" as the LG's getting a bit long in the tooth now

)
Secondary - some light music duties - something that I can connect to via BT/wifi would probably be sufficient.

Constraints:
1. 1 year old child who likes to pull cables and climb on things
2. Wife (AV needs to not be too intrusive)
3. No rearrangement of furniture

Budget approx 2k euro (for a 2.1 setup with AVR) but have some flexibility.

After a bit of hunting around I was starting to settle on some stand mounted Dali Opticon 1 MKII, placed close to the wall either side of TV along with an AVR and potentially a sub if it was needed (SVS SB1000) - but now coming to the sad conclusion that stand-mounted may be to risky for both speakers and toddler. Thinking that On-Wall maybe the only option given the child.

Need to sort out the cables for the TV as its currently a mess and the boy loves to hang off them, so could look at false walls/chasing cables for both TV and speakers. Even whilst writing this I'm thinking that adding a centre could make sense if I'm going to be making a mess anyway.
I don't see how I could do 5.1 given the layout of the room and the fact that it's the family living space rather than a dedicated room - 3.1.2 could probably be done quite discretely in the space though (time for more research...)

Pic to give you an idea on layout and dimensions.

Background with AV, first experience was an entry-level Onkyo Receiver + Tannoy 5.1 setup in my first flat (loved it over the TV speakers), followed by a Yamaha YSP-2500 soundbar in 2nd house (much preferred the audio quality on that original 5.1 setup but just not an option in that house).
Now hopefully in this house for a long time and would really like some decent audio again as I'm currently stuck with the built-in speakers (YSP-2500 sold before last move) .

Any thoughts appreciated!

lucid · 12 Feb 2023 at 14:41

You mention currency in Euros. I take it then you're not domiciled in the UK. That could be a factor on what brands are available to you? Obviously mail order gets around this to a degree, but with the UK now being out of Europe then sending gear to and from (warranty) becomes a little more complex. What's your country and nearest major city. Which retailers should we be looking at on your behalf for products?

Also, colour preferences. Is that a factor? Black/silver for electronics. Speaker colours - preferences and no-go colours? Dali Opticon - is that a size guide even wall mounted?

Squid Vicious · 12 Feb 2023 at 15:33

lucid said:
You mention currency in Euros. I take it then you're not domiciled in the UK. That could be a factor on what brands are available to you? Obviously mail order gets around this to a degree, but with the UK now being out of Europe then sending gear to and from (warranty) becomes a little more complex. What's your country and nearest major city. Which retailers should we be looking at on your behalf for products?

Also, colour preferences. Is that a factor? Black/silver for electronics. Speaker colours - preferences and no-go colours? Dali Opticon - is that a size guide even wall mounted?

I'm based in the Netherlands now with the nearest city being Rotterdam and Amsterdam within an hour, occasional trips to the UK with the car but definitely preferable to have it available within the EU.
Apollo.nl seems to carry a fair range of brands, but there's a a lot of independents who offer competitive pricing and deals if I shop around.

Colour : Speakers will need to be white to fit in, electronics I can be flexible on colour as they'll be out of sight.

For wall-mounted I can go larger than Opticon 1 - on that basis that they're not going to be anywhere near as deep - just needs to be a clean and simple and design and not draw to much attention to themselves (I'll likely have to keep grilles on).

Wife had already ok'd KEF LS50 Meta, B&W 606, Dali Opticon 1 - it's only recently that I've considered book-shelfs an issue due to child related risks - though I'll continue the hunt for some secure stand-mount options and happily consider any alternatives.

lucid · 12 Feb 2023 at 22:35

Initial thoughts

[Quick win] narrow down your choices by looking only at speaker ranges with white as an option for L, C, R: Dali, Monitor Audio, KEF, Q Acoustics, Acoustic Energy, Wharfedale, B&W as a starting range. (Other brands might also be suitable)
forgetting room boundaries and budget just for the moment, a floor-stander takes up the same space as a stand-mounted speaker. Being one piece rather than two, it might even be considered a more secure option. [Just food for thought]
[Longer read but important] nearly all speakers are bass reflex ported - some rear, some front. Very few are sealed / infinite baffle designs. All speakers experience a boost in bass from being next to a wall/floor/ceiling. It's 6dB for each. A corner mount might see bass boosted by 12dB. A floor stander with the bass port at the bottom of the speaker would see an 18dB lift being close to a room corner. It's called The Boundary Effect - 'TBE'. The effect starts to kick in around 150Hz (male voice range) and gets progressively larger the lower the frequency. This is one of the reasons why subs are sometimes placed in a corner (extra bass 'for free', but not without other problems), and it's why we try to avoid putting main loudspeakers in corners if they're not designed for it. (There are other issues too such as first reflections.) TBE causes a thickening and unpleasant 'boominess' to the sound that takes away the precision in midrange and bass. Infinite baffle speakers are designed to go close to the wall, so they use rear wall but still need space to the sides. Bass reflex (ported) speakers already have bass lift in the design, but TBE increases that even more. That's bad. One way to improve this significantly is to block the bass ports. Some ported speakers are designed for this. They come with foam plugs that fit in the port tube. Other's aren't designed like that. [Advice]: Keep your options open. Look for L&R speakers which allow the ports to be blocked
you're going to have to sacrifice some room depth to accommodate the AV receiver and sub near by the TV (I presume), so the centre speaker can have some depth to it since the receiver itself is going to need 50cm (unit + cabling clearance + front control knobs)
treat the sub as a separate purchase. You've already earmarked SVS. I'd add BK to the list even if it means having a sub delivered to a friend/relative and collecting it when you're in the UK and taking it back by car
the space laid out as the listening area is small (3.1 x 4.5m), but it's part of a much larger open-plan area (8m x 4.5m). That's the effective area that the sub has to pressurise just to be heard properly where you're going to sit. Despite its power and the SVS reputation, IMO, something like an SB1000 with be lost in a room that size unless you can get it positioned very close to your listening seat. Definitely one to audio before laying down the cash.
Receiver - this is to do mostly movies but also a little music too. You also mentioned it being 'out of sight'. Lots of people have a hard-on for Denon. For movies they're very good, and they do offer a lot of features. If it was just a movie system then I would suggest their range too. However, I think they suck for music. IMO, Yamaha is a better choice where music is part of the requirement. Denons also have a reputation for running hot, and that caused a lot of problems in the past for Onkyo with them frying their HDMI and optical/coax decoder chips. (Onkyo was once the brand AV enthusiasts had a hard-on for. Now it's Denon. History repeats.)
Both Denon and Yamaha off the option of adding wireless rear speakers. For Denon, the feature is part of its HEOS multiroom audio capability. Yamaha calls this same sort of feature MusicCast. (Think 'Sonos', but built into an AV receiver.) Just like the Sonos sound bar where the little multiroom speakers can be repurposed as the rear speakers in a 5.1 set, then so both Yamaha and Denon have the same feature too in their sound bars and their AV receivers.

Have a read, then come back with your thoughts.