Home theater in a budget of 2L give or take

[BOSS8055]

BACKGROUND
Iam a novice. hyeah:
My budget is anywhere around 2L.
I would be glad to spend them on a 3.1 + total cabling for the whole set up + Voltage stabilizer + AVR for now (want to build a 7.2.4 combo step by step)
My prime usage is movies & HD channels. Almost nil of music usage but if you people can suggest on AVR which has got good musical capabilities too ( which is rarely seen in entry and mid level) it would be icing on the cake.
Right now i will use in living room for few months but later move on to a bigger room or dedicated HT. Lets say i wud use this in my 20ft x 10ft x 10ft pent house after 6 months.
PREFERANCE
I prefer neutral, well balanced sound. They should not be laid back as I often watch action movies. So a tight bass from the Sub ( but which doesn't leave your ears in fatigue after a while) and good vocal sounding center and front floor standers to flow in mids and lows with a musically well capable AVR. (am I not asking too much?) I don't want boom boom. I want to hear a good sound stage enveloped in clear and precise sound details.
I don't mind waiting for a couple of months or more to get AVRs equipped with HDMI ver 2.0 & Dolby Atmos with a pre-out launched in india ( probably SEP or OCT).
Want to buy with bill and manufacturer warranty in india (except for cables).
Iam thinking of <1L for FF, <40K for SUB, < 30K for CC and 15K for cabling and <15 K for VERTEX HT stabilizer. If i can squeeze anything from this and add the rest to buy a AVR ( in 50K range). Ofcourse its little flexible here and there.
I wont be sold by looks but looking for black colored sheer performer in dull/ matte finish ( to avoid any minute light reflection in a dark room) from a reputed manufacturer. This applies to whole setup as much as possible.
QUIERIES
Should i go for a active/ passive sub or a combo can be done in a 5.2 or 7.2 kinda set up?
Want to build HT around speakers and not AVR as electronics keep changing but good speakers are ageless (well to an extent). Is this a good idea?
Is buying all the speakers ( & SUB) from same series and make would give any advantage as they sync well (?)
OPTIONS
FRONT FLOOR STANDERS + CENTER
1.PSB Image T6 + Image c5
2.Paradigm's Monitor 11
3.Tannoy REVOLUTION DC6T SE + VCi
4.Dali - Zensor 7 + Vokal
5.MA RX6
6.Wharfedale 10.6
7.kef Q900
8.B&W 684
9.Focal v726s
10.Polk Audio A9 + CSi A6
SUB WOOFER
1.Velodyne impact 12
2.SVS
3.Polk Audio DSW PRO 660
4.Paradigm
REQUEST
Please try to suggest all the 4 components which gel together well
Please feel free to suggest anything worth that i was missing.
I did put up a long list cos if you people suggest the best 5 of the lot i will start auditioning
I got the bucks but don't know which of these are worth. Iam saddled hyeah:
I want to pick up AVR from Marantaz (very musical but poor after sale support)/ Denon (bright and good for movies but poor in music)/ Onkyo/ Yamaha ( musical and good for movies too) only. No pioneer please. This might give you (perhaps a vague) idea to which i want to rig them.
If any of the above speaker or subwoofer series is going to be discontinued shortly i would prefer to wait for the new series as long as they are not abnormally priced than the preceded.
Not interested in used ones.
Though AVRs of newer specifications are announced of which some are in my budget, I didn't mention even a couple those model numbers as i don't want your focus distracted to electronics.
So sound first....electronics and features next.
Please correct me if i was wrong or unclear anywhere.
I know some might say my ears are the best judge but a novice is a novice and i am looking up to you fellow members to help me walk through this perfectly. Guiding is part of forum and discussion right? So please just don't say go jump and test waters. Teach me me a bit how to swim.
Thanks one and all in advance.

 

[dheerajin]

one thing I wud like to tell u about HT setup that...........heart and mind of any HT setup is center speaker and subwoofer..and in any way it depends on powerful AVR..

so do mix and match..
whatever u choose..choose wisely and after doing research on the net..and also after audition..
cheers
dheeraj

 

[Falcon21]

Going by your requirement, Tannoy & velodyne sounds like a good match as i've listened to them together with a marantz avr. Tannoy are very good for clarity, the best i've heard so far but too bright at same time. A pair of Focals/Morduant Short/Wharfedale would give warmer sound. Velodyne also being very powerful sub would compensate for bass requirement. For AVR yamaha sounds great for movies. And if you want musical avr too then a yamaha Aventage or Pioneer Elite sounds interesting. Pioneer with better features and only avr with 32bit dac so far starting with model sc lx 57.
You also said not pioneer, any specific reason? Because i recently learned pioneer has better features & bang for buck kinda deal. Can anyone share some knowledge/experience?

 

[BOSS8055]

Going by your requirement, Tannoy & velodyne sounds like a good match as i've listened to them together with a marantz avr. Tannoy are very good for clarity, the best i've heard so far but too bright at same time. A pair of Focals/Morduant Short/Wharfedale would give warmer sound. Velodyne also being very powerful sub would compensate for bass requirement. For AVR yamaha sounds great for movies. And if you want musical avr too then a yamaha Aventage or Pioneer Elite sounds interesting. Pioneer with better features and only avr with 32bit dac so far starting with model sc lx 57.
You also said not pioneer, any specific reason? Because i recently learned pioneer has better features & bang for buck kinda deal. Can anyone share some knowledge/experience?

Thank you for your inputs about tannoy and velodyne with marantz.
If heard can you share your thoughts on image T6, monitor 9 or 11 & MA RX6 too.
Also can anyone say how good Marantz NR1504 is which is retailing at 49K in hifimart?
Thanks in advance to one and all.

 

[Falcon21]

haven't heard the speakers you mentioned but going by specifications NR1504 looks too weak before the speakers you're aiming at isn't it

 

[BOSS8055]

haven't heard the speakers you mentioned but going by specifications NR1504 looks too weak before the speakers you're aiming at isn't it

Perhaps but why is it so premium (still 46k in hifimart!!) if its not a performer?
I don't think it has any fancy features like 4K pass also :sad: someone please throw light on this.
Marantz NR1504 AV Receiver

 

[Falcon21]

marantz is a very reputed brand and receivers are generally costly in our country

yes its good quality so you might wanna demo Marantz NR1504 with the
speakers you like

or simply try a higher rated amp like 7.1 so you can bi-wire to supply more power to the speakers.

since you don't fancy pioneer maybe try vsx823 or sc lx 57 just a thought

 

[Acuity]

Hi bossboss

I'm also from Hyd. And a few months back went through similar process as you are currently doing. My response is like this:

The PSB T6 are amazing speakers. They have a lovely audio quality, reasonably transparent, and offer some nice bass.

The Tannoy Rev DC 6T SE (which I use), are even better speakers musically, and with even better transparency, and for me the musical output was kinda magical. (I have purchased this model after a lot of debate between this and PSB T6). Only downside of this speaker is the bass is slightly lesser than PSB T6, and the center speaker is a bit small in proportion. It was a small trade off for me to gain the great quality music.

B&W 684 are also excellent speakers.

Monitor Audio RX6 is also good and capable, but personally I thought it was a little bit bright. And less musically suited.

Focals were also good, very similar to MA RX6 in many ways.

For my personal taste: I did not find Paradigm (don't recall the variant), Dali Zensor very remarkable. Polks are just too bright for my ears.

Careful with the KEF Q900. I thought the Bass was quite off, and just too heavy.

In a way my recommendation is in the order of the speakers I've written about. I've put the PSB above the Tannoy only because it seems you are focusing less on music.

Select the speakers first, and then you can plan on your Receiver.

But just as an example you could consider:

PSB T6
PSB Centre
Velodyne Sub
Yamaha RX-v675
DAC Cables
This should already be a bit over 2 lakhs.

But if you are going for such good speakers, I would recommend you go for a premium Receiver such as the Yamaha Aventage RX A-1030 - about 40k costlier I think. This will provide slightly better quality and also better musicality.

Like I said, I was going through very similar choices sometime back. So I hope you find the above useful.

 

[Acuity]

Regarding the Marantz NR 1504, its only 50w / channel. Not recommended with the larger, FS speakers.

 

[edge111hussain]

After reading all the above comments, i would personally say:
Get the best center you can find,
get the fronts you like the best for music
Get the best possible avr that fits your budget (capable enough to run your choice of towers in its full capacity)
Skip the sub for now and get decent surrounds (dont overspend on the surrounds)

My reasons:
the fronts, centers and avr that you are aiming at will anyways take you close to 2 lacs, if not cross it.
Since your focus is movies, you will need that good center speaker and a good avr to drive it.
Buy the best fronts you can afford, they might have enough bass for now to run your movies and you might not feel the absence of a sub for sometime.
For a 20x10x10 most of the towers you mentioned should be enough for starters.

Alternatively for a 20x10x10, one can opt for bookshelves with a good sub (everything else remaining the same). Suggesting this since you seem sure of buying a good sub and focus is more towards movies.

 

[hemantwaghe]

BACKGROUND

I prefer neutral, well balanced sound.

Very interesting ? How you decide Neutral and well balanced? Like what are the reference sound? You checked that on mixing console?

 

[BOSS8055]

Very interesting ? How you decide Neutral and well balanced? Like what are the reference sound? You checked that on mixing console?

I said iam a novice and barely know or can describe how a pure sound would taste. I was using the most popular words/ terms to convey what I am looking for. And iam not a audiophile myself but I have to convey to fellow FMs what iam looking for right? Its always difficult to translate a feel into words....any feeling for that matter. So iam just trying to convey what iam looking for in words known to me. Fortunately few understood what I was looking for and already helping me in my quest. By the way how many own/ heard a music console and that to an authoritative one...perhaps the best one ever made in the world by man in entire human civilization to know how a pure sound(?) would taste? Is there an end to perfection. Most of us own some or the other speakers with a media player/ AVR...and that's our benchmark.
Regards.

 

[BOSS8055]

Hi bossboss

I'm also from Hyd. And a few months back went through similar process as you are currently doing. My response is like this:

The PSB T6 are amazing speakers. They have a lovely audio quality, reasonably transparent, and offer some nice bass.

The Tannoy Rev DC 6T SE (which I use), are even better speakers musically, and with even better transparency, and for me the musical output was kinda magical. (I have purchased this model after a lot of debate between this and PSB T6). Only downside of this speaker is the bass is slightly lesser than PSB T6, and the center speaker is a bit small in proportion. It was a small trade off for me to gain the great quality music.

B&W 684 are also excellent speakers.

Monitor Audio RX6 is also good and capable, but personally I thought it was a little bit bright. And less musically suited.

Focals were also good, very similar to MA RX6 in many ways.

For my personal taste: I did not find Paradigm (don't recall the variant), Dali Zensor very remarkable. Polks are just too bright for my ears.

Careful with the KEF Q900. I thought the Bass was quite off, and just too heavy.

In a way my recommendation is in the order of the speakers I've written about. I've put the PSB above the Tannoy only because it seems you are focusing less on music.

Select the speakers first, and then you can plan on your Receiver.

But just as an example you could consider:

PSB T6
PSB Centre
Velodyne Sub
Yamaha RX-v675
DAC Cables
This should already be a bit over 2 lakhs.

But if you are going for such good speakers, I would recommend you go for a premium Receiver such as the Yamaha Aventage RX A-1030 - about 40k costlier I think. This will provide slightly better quality and also better musicality.

Like I said, I was going through very similar choices sometime back. So I hope you find the above useful.

Can you tell me where you auditioned Tannoy and PSB, if in hyd? Wish I can audition them side by side. Also from where did you buy your tannoys and how much they costed if its not too much to ask for. Thanks in advance.

 

[Acuity]

Can you tell me where you auditioned Tannoy and PSB, if in hyd? Wish I can audition them side by side. Also from where did you buy your tannoys and how much they costed if its not too much to ask for. Thanks in advance.

Sure, you can buy Tannoys, PSB, KEF, Paradigm and SVS from the shop called "Home Cinema", its at NSL Centrum in Kukatpally. Devender who runs the place is knowledgeable, helpful and not snooty like some other audio sellers. But I auditioned psb and Tannoys in Blr. I got the Tannoy FS pair for 1.05 lakhs I think. The psb costs lesser.

By the way Servex Servo stabilizers can be bought in Hyd.

 

[Acuity]

After reading all the above comments, i would personally say:
Get the best center you can find,
get the fronts you like the best for music
Get the best possible avr that fits your budget (capable enough to run your choice of towers in its full capacity)
Skip the sub for now and get decent surrounds (dont overspend on the surrounds)
.

Hey edge111hussain, there a risk of tonal mismatch if he buys the best center he can find, and best musical stereo he can find. It may not gel together. And in a HT setup, the priority should be the overall 5.1 or 7.1 experience, and musical-ness should come second, unless the primary purpose of the purchase is music.

I also feel it is difficult to test the center as a standalone: if you listen to only the center channel, sure you can tell which vocals shine through, but just seems wrong to listen to the center channel alone without reference to the stereo channels!!

 

[BOSS8055]

Sure, you can buy Tannoys, PSB, KEF, Paradigm and SVS from the shop called "Home Cinema", its at NSL Centrum in Kukatpally. Devender who runs the place is knowledgeable, helpful and not snooty like some other audio sellers. But I auditioned psb and Tannoys in Blr. I got the Tannoy FS pair for 1.05 lakhs I think. The psb costs lesser.

By the way Servex Servo stabilizers can be bought in Hyd.

I just spoke to Mr.Avinash of AVIS Electronics, Rastrapathi road who is the authorized dealer for Tannoys and PSB. He quoted 83K for image T6, 26.5K for C5 and DC6T SE approx. is 1.1L. He too seems prompt in response and prices are after 10% discount. And promised he can arrange audition at home cinema but said that there are only older models. Can you tell where I can buy vertex stabilizers in Hyderabad. Thank you.

 

[Falcon21]

i agree about the magical sound experience with tannoy as I experienced it too and that too in mercury series so dc6 t should obiously be better

also someone told me the sr5008 would me better than nr1504

 

[edge111hussain]

Hey edge111hussain, there a risk of tonal mismatch if he buys the best center he can find, and best musical stereo he can find. It may not gel together. And in a HT setup, the priority should be the overall 5.1 or 7.1 experience, and musical-ness should come second, unless the primary purpose of the purchase is music.

I also feel it is difficult to test the center as a standalone: if you listen to only the center channel, sure you can tell which vocals shine through, but just seems wrong to listen to the center channel alone without reference to the stereo channels!!

No No, i meant get the best center u can buy along with the fronts. For eg, if u settle for a wharf 10.6, then one has a choice between the 10 cm, 10 cs. So what i am simply stating is get the best out of the options u have.
Also i honestly feel it is important to test the center extensively and it aint too difficult. Simply carry the same movie scene to every audition and make sure the scene has plenty of dialogues. Listen to em at different angles and look out for tonal changes/differences. At the end of the day your ears will tell you whats suits em the best.

OP, there are a few systems i have heard extensively for movies and i highly recommend them.
The kef Q700 with matching center and surrounds paired with a denon amp.
Focals(dont remember the model) with a pioneer avr.
psb image t6 is really good but i prefer paradigms over them for movies. Reason being i prefer paradigms centers.
the polk ati A7 paired with a denon amp. (cant go wrong here for movies and u wont need an sub)

 

[oswalakhil]

+1 on the Dali Zensor + Zensor Vokal combo with Marantz. Zensor 1 blends perfectly with the Velodyne Impact 10. I havent heard Zensor 7 but it should sound like the 1s.
Marantz 1402(same line as 1504) is powerful enough for the Zensor 1s, but prefer a higher powered AVR like the 5008 for the floorstanders. Audition with Zensor 1s for surround and you won't be disappointed IMO.

Tannoy DC6T was very good for HT and gaming, in a separate audition from the Dalis it gave a more enveloping soundstage.

I personally dont like the B&W 6xx series HT..it was too bright for me (when paired with a pioneer top-end receiver)

Top picks for value for me would be Tannoy Rev or Dali Zensor with Velodyne...havent compared them with PSB or Monitor Audio though..please listen to them all

Also if you can check the Dali Ikon series if possible, not sure if thats beyond budget but the floorstanders Ikon6 were amazing to listen to

 

[prasanna.kole]

Paradigm monitor 9 are god ones