home cinema + stereo sound basic understanding

[journal]

Hello everyone,



I’m totally new to this forum and honestly quite new to understanding audio like a audiophile. But I do wish to keep upgrading my knowledge and my listening experience. I love listening to various genres of music and watch quite a few movie mostly streaming (which I’m happy to upgrade).

I do own a very basic harmon kardon 171S, 7.2 networked AVR and 5.1 dome flax speakers, AppleTV 4k, Air Sub from Focal. Now a generous friend of mine is giving me a pair of Focal Chorus 726v tower speakers along with a centre focal speaker. TV is LG OLED

So I wanted to understand how and what all will it take to upgrade my 5.1 and ideally even the 2.0 or 2.1 hearing experience.

my room size is roughly 12' x 18'

 

[spirovious]

I do own a very basic harmon kardon 171S, 7.2 networked AVR and 5.1 dome flax speakers, AppleTV 4k, Air Sub from Focal. Now a generous friend of mine is giving me a pair of Focal Chorus 726v tower speakers along with a centre focal speaker. TV is LG OLED

Since you are getting good speakers then pair them with them to see how combo sounds. Good speaker cables will make some improvemet.Surround speakers can be different than Focal.

 

[journal]

Since you are getting good speakers then pair them with them to see how combo sounds. Good speaker cables will make some improvemet.Surround speakers can be different than Focal.

Thank you spirovious

I was hoping to use the focal chorus floor speakers as the front left and right. I was wondering if the dome flax would be good enough for the surrounds. While the other 2 of the dome I could use in zone 2.
My friend was suggested that I upgrade my Avr to anthem or arcam to make the most of these speakers.
I asked a vendor ( in Bombay, since I live there) and he said that may be I can use the existing Harmon kardon Avr and just get a pre amplifier for the front 2 focal chorus (250w).
Also I need to get a good network player to stream the music from. Is Roon the best way to stream music online?
I heard the difference between apple airplay and roon and the difference was a lot.
So I was wondering what’s the best solution for a dedicated source for music streaming.
Besides for 5.1 would I need to upgrade my sub woofer as well ? Or is it better to make it 5.2 and get a more powered sub ?
Any thoughts guys

 

[spirovious]

he said that may be I can use the existing Harmon kardon Avr and just get a pre amplifier for the front 2 focal chorus (250w).

That is amplifier and not pre-amplifier technically. I don't think your AVR has preouts where you can connect external amp. A good power will make speakers sing. surrounds do not matter much as long as they are doing their job. Front and center should be matching.
Since you already have avr, use it for sometime. If you still feel you are missing something, then try upgrading. If your friend has a good amp, try connecting it to focal to find out difference in the sound.