Need hometheatre both for music and movies

[grunthos]

Confusion 1:- I am planning to buy AVR from US as I see the price difference is somewhere around 15 to 16K for the same model in India. Till now shortlisted Marantz NR1504 and Yamaha RX-V475 BUT, when I looked at the power rating, I am not sure if this will be sufficient to drive the FS speakers. (will buy a step down tnsfmr. to convert 220 to 120 volt)

The Yamaha V475 would easily be powerful enough to drive the entry level FS like Dali Zensors, Boston Acoustics A series and Tannoy Mercurys or a 5.1 system based on these FS
The Marantz has much lesser power rating (50W), and might struggle to drive a full 5.1 system, should you build FS + surrounds (although there is a big set of people who think Marantz is conservative in power figures and actual might be much more than 50W)
For a strictly 2.0 FS system, both should do

Confusion 2:- As per my room specs, what do you guys think about the type of speakers? I am not a big fan of bass but definitely like highs and lows in music and love to hear each instrument voice reaching my ears clearly. I currently own ATH-M50 headphones and this is sufficient to make me reach the nirvana state after few minutes of listening. So please suggest what speaker type will suit best and more importantly will the above mentioned AVR do justice to FS speakers?

Given your room size, you should go in FS for fronts

Confusion 3:- Many people have suggested to buy a decent AVR and spend more on speakers. So what is point in spending more money on AVR (mentioned above). Rather can I not buy an AVR for 25-30K and spend more on speakers? How much will be the difference in terms of sound quality if buying an AVR for 30K versus buying say Marantz 1504 or may something like Marantz SR5008/9 (if used with same type of speakers). My point is, Is it really worth spending 50K+ on an AVR?

The advice is correct - you should spend more on your speakers than your AVR
But what is a decent level is difficult to decide.
Since it was my first hifi system and given the prices in India, I personally had figured that Rs 40k AVRs were midrange, sounded decent and had enough "features".
If you are getting AVRs from the US, the prices will be lower.

 

[shriharsha.p]

Hello Fellow Members,

I have posted following in a different thread but did not get a reply, so posting it here.

After reading various threads, I have at least decided to build/assemble my HT system on my own rather than going for a complete bundle. My requirement is 50% Music and 50% Movies. I have purchased a flat and plan is to setup this HT in my hall (size 14*12) which extends towards dining area in length (size 13*12).

As music for me is of higher importance, I have decided to go for following configuration.

AV Receiver :- Marantz or Yamaha

For speakers, as of now will go for two floor standing or Bookshelf and later add rest of the speakers.

Speakers:-
- Dali zensor (Read a lot of positive reviews)
- Boston Accoustics (Auditioned)
- Wharfdale (Read a lot of positive reviews)
- Tannoy (Read a lot of positive reviews)
- Jamo (Auditioned)

Now starts the confusion .

Confusion 1:- I am planning to buy AVR from US as I see the price difference is somewhere around 15 to 16K for the same model in India. Till now shortlisted Marantz NR1504 and Yamaha RX-V475 BUT, when I looked at the power rating, I am not sure if this will be sufficient to drive the FS speakers. (will buy a step down tnsfmr. to convert 220 to 120 volt)

Confusion 2:- As per my room specs, what do you guys think about the type of speakers? I am not a big fan of bass but definitely like highs and lows in music and love to hear each instrument voice reaching my ears clearly. I currently own ATH-M50 headphones and this is sufficient to make me reach the nirvana state after few minutes of listening. So please suggest what speaker type will suit best and more importantly will the above mentioned AVR do justice to FS speakers?

Confusion 3:- Many people have suggested to buy a decent AVR and spend more on speakers. So what is point in spending more money on AVR (mentioned above). Rather can I not buy an AVR for 25-30K and spend more on speakers? How much will be the difference in terms of sound quality if buying an AVR for 30K versus buying say Marantz 1504 or may something like Marantz SR5008/9 (if used with same type of speakers). My point is, Is it really worth spending 50K+ on an AVR?

Can someone please suggest.

Thanks
Gourav

Hi Gaurav
Confusion 1: I have the RXV 475 and the Dali Zensor 7s. Rest assured that the 475 easily drives these. I had auditioned a number of speaker/AVR combos before finalizing this and I am pretty happy with it. I also have a thread outlining my experience (very similar to @ Grunthos).

Confusion2: 50% movie watching would definitely dictate an investment in a subwoofer. You can actually save a packet by going in for a slightly modest FS like Zensor 5 (or equivalent) or even good bookshelves like the Zensor 3 (or equivalent). I am speaking from the perspective of speakers being able to dig deep and having good bass performance. I was hung up on this and in retrospect, this was a non-issue as your crossover in the AVR is set to the 60-80hz range anyways.

Confusion 3: An RX v475 or Denon x1000 would future proof you for quite a while and have your bases covered in terms of HDMI inputs/outputs, networking and YPAO/audessey calibration. Consider streaming options like Airplay etc. if a lot of your music is stored in an IPAD/android device. In summary, dont skimp too much on the AVR part and go for a barebones model. a middle range model probably makes sense.

P.S. : I had auditioned the Tannoy V4i and found them excellent for the money. They were 15-20% cheaper than most other brands in the same leaague..

Cheers and hope this helps,
Harsha

 

[vijoy]

I know this topic is repeating again and again and maybe some of them also got bored to answer the same question. But believe me I am following this forum from so many months after a long gap from joining. And finalised marantz + ba offer from reliance. So before buying had listened them and got surprised. Found that those are not made for me... Now here comes my requirements:

Living Room size: 12 x 7.5 feet
City: Mumbai
Usage: 80% music 20% movies
Sources: daily viewing tata sky, listening mp3 songs from my nexus4, bluray player ( not sure my PV8 plasma will display bluray HD content, pleas help)
Why avr: can not have 2 receivers one for music and one for movies due to tight budget.
Songs genre: mostly Bollywood mp3 and dts, and sometimes English pop.
Expectations: the music should sound crisped and detailed with tight bass (hope I am not expecting more in a less budget)
Budget: max 60k

What I have auditioned till now.

Demon x1000 with polk tax 220b bs speaker at profx kurla: not happy with mp3, and beyond my budget since its just the pair and avr for 61 k

Denon x500 with BA soundware s 5.1 at sound out haji ali: the fronts sound great with awesome SW, but could not check mp3 and surrounds due to connectivity issue.

Marantz NR1604 with BA A 2310 HTS speakers and soundware s sw at MZ Audio bandra: I like the sound for movie, I love the SW, it was perfect. But I am not sure about the detailing since the speaker were hanged on the ceiling and way too far from ears. So I think the its not logical to comment on the clarity.

Marantz NR 1604 with BA soumdware xs 5.1 at MZ audio bandra: not good for DTS songs. And can not check mp3 since format was unsupported for that player and I don't think mp3 will sound good on this. Movie was ok, but again the same above problem, the speakers were too far hanging on the ceiling. So this can be the problem that it lacked clarity..

Overall I found BA A 2310 HTS better than xs. But again not heard mp3 on this setup and its expensive than xs. And also speakers are at ceiling level, so not so sure.

I will check at andheri since there are more options there.

So if I finalized nr 1504 for 35k at MZ audio, what remains is 25k, so do u guys think I can get proper speaker package in this amount..?

Please suggest something so that I listen them at andheri.

Thanks in advance.

Your taste is my kind of. I am building my setup now, its a custom build for music and movies. I have auditioned Polk, Jamo, Pioneer, Energy, finally settled with Monitor Audio MR 4 floor standing ( 29K, Audio planet) as FR with Denon X1000 ( 34K, HT store). Trust me Stereo is awesome, i auditioned with Azur stereo amplifier, mine works charm with AVR only. Denon just super and Monitor audio as well.

 

[akshaye]

Thanks vinoy.. I am also considering yamaha now, to save some money. Today is audition day...going to viola..let's see what happens

 

[akshaye]

Hi Guys,

Finally 1st round of Bs audition is done. I have listened 3 Bs with denon x1000

1: Dali zensor 1: These sounded very bright with harsh highs made me dissapointed. Not my types.
2: Paradigm Atom Monitor: I like these speakers. They have very nice bass with good soundstage. but somehow details were slightly less than q acoustics 2010.
3: Q acoustics: I got surprised to listen these small BS with the great sound. I LOVED them. They are very crisp, detailed and have great soundstage. I am not excited to listen their big brother, 2020.

Also demoed following speaker with denon x500

1: Again BA xs: they are not made for music for sure.
2: denon speaker (model no..): not for music
3: Jamo s426: sounded better for music.
4: some focal model: very bright and colourised sound. Not my types.

I still need to audition MA BX1 and Boston acoustics A26. Can somebody tell me the the sound signature of these 2 compare to Q acoustics 2010 which are as per my liking?
Do I really need to listen to these speaker?

Also somebody told me I should consider boston A26 than Q acoustics 2010, as its service center is in mumbai and Q's has in banglore. Please help

And for AVR, I should consider denon over marantz since denon is quick in servicing thing.
Can you through some light on this.

Thanks.

 

[crestdelta]

I know this topic is repeating again and again and maybe some of them also got bored to answer the same question. But believe me I am following this forum from so many months after a long gap from joining. And finalised marantz + ba offer from reliance. So before buying had listened them and got surprised. Found that those are not made for me... Now here comes my requirements:

Living Room size: 12 x 7.5 feet
City: Mumbai
Usage: 80% music 20% movies
Sources: daily viewing tata sky, listening mp3 songs from my nexus4, bluray player ( not sure my PV8 plasma will display bluray HD content, pleas help)
Why avr: can not have 2 receivers one for music and one for movies due to tight budget.
Songs genre: mostly Bollywood mp3 and dts, and sometimes English pop.
Expectations: the music should sound crisped and detailed with tight bass (hope I am not expecting more in a less budget)
Budget: max 60k

What I have auditioned till now.

Demon x1000 with polk tax 220b bs speaker at profx kurla: not happy with mp3, and beyond my budget since its just the pair and avr for 61 k

Denon x500 with BA soundware s 5.1 at sound out haji ali: the fronts sound great with awesome SW, but could not check mp3 and surrounds due to connectivity issue.

Marantz NR1604 with BA A 2310 HTS speakers and soundware s sw at MZ Audio bandra: I like the sound for movie, I love the SW, it was perfect. But I am not sure about the detailing since the speaker were hanged on the ceiling and way too far from ears. So I think the its not logical to comment on the clarity.

Marantz NR 1604 with BA soumdware xs 5.1 at MZ audio bandra: not good for DTS songs. And can not check mp3 since format was unsupported for that player and I don't think mp3 will sound good on this. Movie was ok, but again the same above problem, the speakers were too far hanging on the ceiling. So this can be the problem that it lacked clarity..

Overall I found BA A 2310 HTS better than xs. But again not heard mp3 on this setup and its expensive than xs. And also speakers are at ceiling level, so not so sure.

I will check at andheri since there are more options there.

So if I finalized nr 1504 for 35k at MZ audio, what remains is 25k, so do u guys think I can get proper speaker package in this amount..?

Please suggest something so that I listen them at andheri.

Thanks in advance.

Hi have you auditioned the ONKYO HTS5600 .
The system comes with 2-Way Bookshelf system and a powerful speakers .
I have audioted the HTS9400THX , and the only thing I can say is WOW :clapping:

 

[Ashwin84]

recently i bought the polk audio 5.1 rti series package with rtia7 front and my friend bought wharfedale diamond 5.1 package with 10.7 fronts at the same. we both personally felt that polk was somehow better overall in terms of music & movies. we felt wharfedales were better only while listening to jazz. for everything elase polk was better. thats our personal opinion. and both were run on marantz avr.

 

[akshaye]

You guys rock [emoji1] thanks for the suggestions, I was wondering why q acoustics 2010 and 2020i or any other stuff from this brand is not popular on this forum, since these are wonderful speakers. I think Dali zensor seems more famous here. Anyways, this weekend I will audition MA bx and BA a26.

 

[saikatbiswas82]

You guys rock [emoji1] thanks for the suggestions, I was wondering why q acoustics 2010 and 2020i or any other stuff from this brand is not popular on this forum, since these are wonderful speakers. I think Dali zensor seems more famous here. Anyways, this weekend I will audition MA bx and BA a26.

Great.... but let me tell you this. if you hear MA BX (i mean BX2 not BX1), you will probably discard Zensor 1. I believe, Q Acoustics are simply superb (as per review, I did not get a chance to audition them).

If budget permits, check B&Ws as well.

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Add Paradigm Atom Monitor v7 to demo list.

Few minutes later...
Missed your post about Atom Monitor. I heard them at The Shop and liked it slightly over the 2010i (not sure if it was 2010).

I plan to purchase bookshelf speakers for rear surround and multichannel duties.

Let me know if you interested to visit The Shop, Andheri for an audition.

 

[shriharsha.p]

Great.... but let me tell you this. if you hear MA BX (i mean BX2 not BX1), you will probably discard Zensor 1. I believe, Q Acoustics are simply superb (as per review, I did not get a chance to audition them).

If budget permits, check B&Ws as well.

+1 to Q acoustics. I had auditioned the 2050i and they were superb. They are slightly less expensive than the Dalis too, if I remember correctly. But if you have significant movie usage, audition with a number of DVDs/Blue rays. One of the reasons I didnt go in for the QA was that I felt the centre channel was weak - it kind of appeared puny.

Thanks
Harsha

 

[girishrode]

Go for Yamaha....... You will love the music as well as movies.
Check for Yamaha 299. or Similar new Model.
Price Bracket :- Rs.50~55K

 

[rav_mk1]

Hi Gourav,
Amplification is the heart of your system and should always be given adequate importance, Having a decent amp will make your current speakers sound even better and feeding your new setup with inadequate power would rob you of the true potential of your system, therefore I would suggest you take a good look at the new set of receivers from Denon as it ideal for HT and quite decent with music and would cost you lesser than a marantz with similar specs, for speakers I would ask you to audition an Indian brand Sonodyne which makes wonderful system at very earthly prices so go ahead enjoy your auditions before you decide.

 

[efernand1]

Hi akshaye

I have been using the Marantz + BA XS for over a year now and have no complaints. I did my auditioning at MZ audio to get an idea of BA. I ended up purchasing elsewhere. No regrets....music / movies / gaming excellent sound and punch....

If budget is an issue and you are open to pre owned stuff, there is someone selling a Marantz 7.1 AVR on HiFi Ads.....check it out...there would also be other AVR brands available...you never know...you may just get lucky and save money!

 

[thameem]

buying Marntz means you must buy good speakers

 

[akshaye]

Hey shaiju,
It was 2010, I like their detailing and wide soundstage over Atom. Atom has nice bass but found.less detailed than 2010. I heard these speakers at "the shop" only. I am planning to go to CST for MA bx, might be tomorrow. BTW which fronts do you have?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Akshaye,

I have Pulz towers and center. Where in CST are you going?

I am on leave tomorrow and will go to The Shop again for demo.

 

[akshaye]

Hi akshaye

I have been using the Marantz + BA XS for over a year now and have no complaints. I did my auditioning at MZ audio to get an idea of BA. I ended up purchasing elsewhere. No regrets....music / movies / gaming excellent sound and punch....

If budget is an issue and you are open to pre owned stuff, there is someone selling a Marantz 7.1 AVR on HiFi Ads.....check it out...there would also be other AVR brands available...you never know...you may just get lucky and save money!

Hi efernand, I heard this combo thrice. To my ears they are good for movies but not for music, is what I feel. Marantz SR series is out of budget. So considering NR. But do you think q acoustics 2010 or 2020i will get well paired with NR1504?

 

[efernand1]

Hi akshaye

I don't feel there would be any major challenges for QA 2010 or 2020s to be paired with the NR series...these speakers are 6 ohms and rated between 15w-75w RMS...perfect match to the NR 1504. The 1504 can handle speakers of 6 ohms and above load.

The advantage of the Marantz is that besides the Audyssey setup, you have Bass + Treble controls. moreover 9 band adjustable EQ for each channel to tweak the sound to your tastes.....as long as the speakers can output maximum frequencies between 20hz - 20khz...better the sound...also bigger the speaker cone, better the throw and handling of frequencies.....

Thumb rule is to carry your music with you and use the same when auditioning any brand of speakers, I am surprised that you have had a bad experience for the BAs....anyways it's individual taste and choices....BAs to most owners is true VFM and ofcourse better than BOSE or JBLs that are available today.

Best audition is to take some classical music where you can hear instruments, vocals (ghazals), some bassy club music to check handling of continuous bass etc....then take a good judgemental call.....all the best

 

[hamhifi]

How about using a music projector? I recently bought a music projector for both listening to music and watching movies with my family.