HT upgrade recommendations

[fLUX]

Congratulations, Focals is a good choice amongst all the options you have discussed ( I have heard most of them), it is from a different segment, other than being offered at a deep discounts currently due to dealer change, it is usually compared to higher segment speakers.

Making Wooden boxes with Spikes underneath is ideally suited for energetic speakers like Focals. The Wooden box needs to be filled with Sand to add required amount of strength and inertia. Other option is getting Steel Platforms custom made to your requirements.

Thanks Kritik, will keep it in mind. Probably will get it done once pandemic spikes down a little. Will focus on getting rear diffusers at the moment.

Congratulations on your new purchase. Enjoyed reading the thread.

Thanks, learned quiet a few things myself

 

[fLUX]

Upgraded a few components, got a nice deal for used Focal Aria CC 900 and also got XTZ Spirit 11 for dedicated seated stereo listening /surround duties in the backside of the room. They are now currently are in front configuration till the Aria's arrive. These floorstanders just sing especially the vocals and details are amazing, yet to have an extensive listen but based on the out of box impressions i am very impressed to say the least. Also got the XTZ 12.17 Edge for the living room and SB4000 in exchange of SB2000 in the dedicated room. Eagerly awaiting the Aria 926 FS now.

 

[Love4sound]

Upgraded a few components, got a nice deal for used Focal Aria CC 900 and also got XTZ Spirit 11 for dedicated seated stereo listening /surround duties in the backside of the room. They are now currently are in front configuration till the Aria's arrive. These floorstanders just sing especially the vocals and details are amazing, yet to have an extensive listen but based on the out of box impressions i am very impressed to say the least. Also got the XTZ 12.17 Edge for the living room and SB4000 in exchange of SB2000 in the dedicated room. Eagerly awaiting the Aria 926 FS now.

Man that’s some serious gears u got there. Can you pm me the edge pricing ?

 

[avtar2008]

congrats bro. Those are dream products for many of us(including me)

 

[fLUX]

congrats bro. Those are dream products for many of us(including me)

I think for a budget of upto 1L XTZ Spirit 11 (for warmer/neutralish signature) and XTZ 95.44 (For brighter preference) should be seriously considered, they punch well above their weight.

 

[Love4sound]

I think for a budget of upto 1L XTZ Spirit 11 (for warmer/neutralish signature) and XTZ 95.44 (For brighter preference) should be seriously considered, they punch well above their weight.

Yeah I am a huge fan of xtz. Highly underrated product in India.

 

[sud98]

Congratulations. Somehow missed this thread, liked your approach and decision making. Hope you have a blast.

For carpets, check out carpet kingdom(malsa) in Indiranagar, they have a huge collection.

Can you give details as to where you bought your gear? I am assuming Focal was from DNI.

 

[RajithKumar]

Congratulations You have done some good homework for finalizing the setup..Enjoy the setup..

 

[fLUX]

Finally the Aria arrived on Saturday evening. Had a gala time setting up the same. Will create a separate thread detailing the same with pictures of the setup. Very happy with the way the setup has panned out so far and thanks to the deals from FM @anirudhchandrashekar have obtained a Crown XLS2502 and just booked the Bluesound Node2i from FM lrajudhs.

Pending items for future are a good pre-power amp in future for the Aria 926 for dedicated stereo listening, some budget nankarrow diffusers on the front wall , power conditioner from Rontek and ceiling speakers for HT in exchange of upfiring setup currently present.

 

[sud98]

Looking super.

PS. - Just a tip: put any pictures that you are sharing in an image sharing site like imgur. That way this forum doesnt get burdened, your storage limit is not exceeded and people can see the full image without having to click on the thumbnail.

 

[fLUX]

Thanks sud98, was unware of the fact of having a storage limit. Will do going forth.

 

[Sanjay2000]

Let's all request hifimart to get the 4.c. should find enough tablets. I am/was interested in them as well but ended up getting the Quad SC-2 to replace my concept centre since only the 4.cs was available and both had the same driver size. Still interestedin the 4.c and would want to check them out before i get rid of the Evos.

@DB1989 I went by bike so could not unfortunately do the same. But i have heard a similar set of songs across most of the speakers so memory wise i have based my findings.

Have written a brief description about the same (all speakers were tried on stereo mode with sub turned off). For most of my listening i used the following songs unless mentioned otherwise ( Jiya Jale from Dil Se , Hotel California (2013 Remastered Version) , Beat It by Michael Jackson , Sawali Si Raat from Barfi, Raah Piya )

i) Dynaudio Emit M20 - This is my reference at home currently. They were driven out of my Denon X4500H AVR without subwoofer and obviously in an untreated room. I found the mids to be on par or better than most of the speaker I have listened to and overall signature is slightly laidback.
I listened to "Keith Dont Go" and i found the M20 dont really do justice to the guitar sequence towards the 3rd part of the song , the decay of the guitar string is not evident in the M20s

ii) XTZ Spirit 11 Towers - These were the first pair I demoed. This has a slighlty warmish signature with good lows ,mids were clear,lush and the highs seemed little rolled off. The lows were tight but quantity was slightly lacking. These have an option via a jumper on the back to set the highs t 0/-3 DB configuration as per your preference. Listened to this in a partially treated room. This was played on Marantz SR7013

iii) XTZ 95.44 Towers - I enjoyed listening to these as they were engergetic and at the same time not very bright. The mids were slightly forward, lows were tight and punchy with a good amount of quantity. Jiya Jale , Beat It and Hotel California sounded really nice with this setup with nice staging and instrument seperation. This was present in the untreated section of the showroom. This was played on a Marantz M-CR412

iv) Sonodyne Avant T2 - This was in a room which was well treated with bass traps, diffusers & absorbers setup. In terms of the listening experience. The listening experience was in a different dimension. It actually felt like i was in a concert with pinpoint stereo imaging and instrument seperation with perceptible depth. The bass seemed to be severely less on these pair but everything else sounded top notch. A must try pair for anyone looking for FS under 1L. his was played on a Denon X4500H connected to Emotiva XPA-2

v) Focal Chorus 726 - No one really attended in person, they were busy with another customer.They were playing demo content so could not play my songs. Listened to "Jiya Jale" , "Sultans of Swings" and some random songs. Was not really impressed with the vocals part of "Jiya Jale" and the guitar reproduction of "Sultans of Swings" on the Chorus 726 and found the Qacoustics 3050i which they were demoing to another customer to be better for the same songs. The random songs which i dont really remember the names of had good bass and soundstage & instrument seperation on the Focal Chorus 726. So this might just be a case of not having a right setup (they had some old Denon AVR not sure of the model) and also hurrying up which kind of distorted the experience , but overall did not like this a lot.

vi) Kef Q950 - I first played "Jiya Jale" on this pair and was not immediately attached to the music. After finishing this song the moment i played "Hotel California" it just took center stage and took control of the song immediately (there is a drum sequence at around 3.53 which was eargasmic on these pairs) ,the bass was really top notch amongst all the FS i heard till now, plenty of details with pinpoint imaging and a wide soundstage. I did not find the treble to be bright but was really musical. "Sawali Si Raat" has a nice rendition of punchy bass in between the songs and also a sound of chimes moving along , this was best rendered by Kef Q950 followed by XTZ 95.44. "Beat It" also has a sound like a firecracket rocket launch at start of the song and that also was really well rendered. This was played on a Denon X4500H

vii) Kef Q750 - Tried this after trying the Q950 and could clearly make out the Q950 was the better pair. Q750 has much lesser quantity of bass , is not as energetic as the KEF Q950 overall but otherwise similar in the overall presentation. This also was tried with the X4500H , did not give much of a further listen due to the above

viii) Kef R3 - This is one hell of a powerhouse for the size. Anytime i decide to replace one of my bookshelf , this is going to be the number one choice if budget permits. Did everything much better than the Kef Q950 , had almost a similar quantity of bass as the Q950 and was even more tighter and much more musical. These cost about 30k more than the Kef Q950s, but considering the fact that i want to keep a FS in the room i will have to let go of this pair.

ix) Klipsch RP/R Series 4000/6000/8000 - The lows on the series were really tight and humongous on quantity ,overall imaging was precise with good detail seperation. I was impressed with the RP-4000 for the power they pack at such a small size but the Klipsch were overly bright to my tastes and my ears were slightly hurting after 4-5 minutes of listening to Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing ( can be due to the fact that i demoed so many speakers before reaching to this showroom). Then they played live version of "Hotel California" and the starting bass was thumping and super tight, but again the instruments were sounding sharp to my ears. Did not Do not ask them the amp they were using to run these and they were playing these songs of CDs. One thing i liked about this demo was they were switching between different speakers in a jiffy using a switch and placing placeholders to show which speaker was playing , which is sometimes useful for a quick audition if you dont have a particular speaker shortlisted already.

x) Focal Aria 926 - A FM was kind enough to accomodate me to demo the Focal Aria 926 and i played a plethora of songs on these. These are clearly better than the Q950 on the highs and the guitar reproduction is top drawer and is making me not enjoy "Keith Dont Go" on my Dynaudio M20s anymore. You can literally feel the guitarist plucking the string along with the vibrations and string decay. Noticed the same in "Hotel California" as well where it outdid the Kef Q950 in the treble department. The lows were not as much as the Q950/R3 in quantity
Only reason i am still not wanting to go for these speakers is the increased price and the need to invest in a much better chain (parasound/hegel etc.) to get them to sing.

Overall was a nice weekend where i got to try out many floorstanders and shortlist a few. Saving up to get a LR Towers, matching Center & Poweramp as a part of this purchase.

I would still love to audition the Revel F35/F36 and Tannoy XT8F if available anywhere. Any guidance would be appreciated on the same.

From your experience can you recommend me FS . my selection is "sonodyne avant t2 Or Klipsch rp 8000f " And do you know the price of both speaker mentioned above

 

[fLUX]

From your experience can you recommend me FS . my selection is "sonodyne avant t2 Or Klipsch rp 8000f " And do you know the price of both speaker mentioned above

Again its a personal taste, I found Klipsch to be a little bright and personally preferred the Sonodyne presentation. I dont remember the price unfortunately , you can reach out to @ankitbhargava to better understand the Klipsch since he has the same model if am not wrong and he can provide better insights based on his long term ownership of the unit.

 

[Barun7]

Avant T2 is produced around 100k. But you should get at 16-20% off on MRP depending on the dealer.

 

[ankitbhargava]

Again its a personal taste, I found Klipsch to be a little bright and personally preferred the Sonodyne presentation. I dont remember the price unfortunately , you can reach out to @ankitbhargava to better understand the Klipsch since he has the same model if am not wrong and he can provide better insights based on his long term ownership of the unit.

@Sanjay2000 for anyway "good sounding" speakers in an HT setup, you would not go wrong selecting Klipsch.
RP8000 F are sufficient for a mid size Room (250-350 Sq feet) and would surprise you with the detailing and punch. You may need to power them by Power Amps to use their potential properly. They should be available at 15%-18% discount on MRP

 

[Sanjay2000]

Avant T2 is produced around 100k. But you should get at 16-20% off on MRP depending on the dealer.

Which one will you recommend avant T2 Or rp8000f

 

[Barun7]

Which one will you recommend avant T2 Or rp8000f

Honestly, I have not heard either myself. But, T2 is their top of the line speakers. Reviews are mostly good for T2.

 

[saurabhpach]

My 2 cents. If you want your home theatre to sing, invest in power amplifiers for your front stage ( LCR) and get room treatment done. That’s a way better use of budget than running behind atmos etc. once you have the basic issues sorted (amp and all) you can upgrade on other things. There is nothing more effective.