Suggest me a 5.1.2 atmos setup for about 1.5L

[heatednemz]

Hey heatednemz. While you are at it I think you should take a look at the SONY bravia theater quad atmos soundbar. It's not a traditional soundbar. It's almost within your budget and the 4 flat speakers should be a good fit for your room. While I haven't personally heard them but I too am researching a movie setup for my room. Cheers.

I've been looking for a place to audition them. I went to a bunch of Croma and RD stores, but haven't come across them yet.
I do agree that they look great and probably sound just as good. I think they will work best in a plug and play setup where running wires is an issue. In my case, I'm looking for something a little more modular in terms of upgradability. Also I'm not entirely convinced of the up-firing atmos speaker. Feels like a compromise when I can get the real thing. For me, my place is still being constructed, so running speaker cables is not an issue.

That being said, I will definitely demo them when I come across them.

 

[Shadymonk]

Yea i cant find a demo anywhere too. In india they expect you to buy niche expensive audio gear blindly without any return policy. The mind boggles.

I have had a brief experience with bombay audio. The guy is good and honest.. I didn't buy anything because I was still not sure about the whole speakers avr wire setup when supposedly the soundbars like the Samsung 990d and Sony bravia theater quad give you good theater experience with simplicity and no hassle. The samsung 990 series is supposedly rated as the best soundbar for years now with its 11.1 4 speakers.

I'm also sure you know this but speaker placement is very important specific to each room and seating position so wall mounting them could hinder ideal speaker placement for the sweet spot to get good sound stage and imaging.

 

[heatednemz]

Update:

I got a chance to visit Pro Audio Video in Laxmi Industrial Estate, Mumbai. I initially thought they only sold music production speakers, like pro studio monitors and broadcast equipment, but I spotted a box of the Focal Sib EVO on their storefront, so I decided to check it out. Turns out, they also do home theaters and have a demo room. In fact, they carry more brands than most other places I’ve been to.

Since my last set of auditions, I had narrowed my options down to the Polk ES15s as mains, HTS10 for the sub, and Polk OWM3 as surrounds, with the ES35 as the center. While I auditioned everything else, I hadn't tried the OWM3s as surrounds. After doing some research online, I found that most people use them as height speakers, with only a handful using them as surrounds—and those reviews were generally positive.

I went into their demo room to audition the Polk OWM3s as surrounds. The Polk ES10s were used as mains. I don't recall which subwoofer was used, but we tested a few clips and some music. As a system, everything sounded good. The ES10s are impressive for their compact design even as mains. Unfortunately, they were still too big to use as surrounds in my setup.

After a few scenes, I asked them to isolate the output to the OWM3 speakers only. Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed. There was a noticeable lack of bass, even with their 4.5-inch drivers. I played them with and without the sub, but there was no real impact. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was slightly disappointed. The speakers are also a bit larger than I had hoped, I could likely convince my wife if they sounded great. She’d still prefer something more modest in size, though.

So, I’m still on the fence about the surrounds. One thought I had was to buy the Focal SIB Evo pair and use them as surrounds, as I was really impressed by their size-to-performance ratio. They also look good in my opinion.

It’ll be a bit of a wait before I make my purchase—probably around 3-4 months down the line. I plan to re-audition the Polks, Focals, and Klipsch Reference set before making a final decision. I’ll also bring my own scenes to demo next time.


While we’re on the topic, I’ve been considering the 65-inch Sony X90L. It’s a bit over my budget, but I’m willing to stretch if it lives up to the hype. I did see it in person, though the experience was less than helpful—demoed by a salesman who was a borderline mythomaniac. Not a word of truth came out of his mouth about the TV. The demo was in a brightly lit showroom with uncalibrated settings, competing with super-bright OLED and Neo QLED panels, so it didn’t really give me a proper sense of the TV’s performance.

If anyone here owns the X90L, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Also, what are some comparable options in that budget? Would I be better off going for something slightly cheaper in a 75-inch size, with a mild compromise in picture quality?

Thanks for the read and feedback.

 

[heatednemz]

Hey heatednemz. While you are at it I think you should take a look at the SONY bravia theater quad atmos soundbar.

I finally got a chance to audition the Sony Bravia Quad setup in Dubai. I tested it with the Sony SA-SW3 200 subwoofer. The four Quad speakers themselves delivered an impressive soundstage, especially during the Atmos demo content and the action scenes in Mad Max: Furiosa. The immersion during intense scenes was fantastic, with the Quads really shining.

However, in the demo setup, TV's built-in speaker was the center channel, which couldn’t keep up with the other speakers. The TV used was a Bravia 9—one of Sony’s higher-end models—yet it still fell short, breaking the immersion. The TV speakers is nowhere close to the performance of the Quads. I’m sure there’s an option to create a phantom center channel, but with the current configuration, Its not as good.

As for the subwoofer, I found it too boomy. This could be due to poor placement or incorrect settings, but either way, it resulted in an unpleasant listening experience. Additionally, connectivity is limited, and the interface only supports one additional HDMI input, which restricts flexibility.
I recommend it for those looking for a neat setup with space restrictions. Wife approved the look too. She would rather have this over everything else. While I hadn’t seriously considered the Sony Quad system for my setup, it was fun to audition.

Please take the sony quad review with a grain of salt as it was in an open store with no sound treatment or optimized sound.

In Dubai, I also auditioned a friend’s Sonos setup, featuring the Arc soundbar, Sub, and two Era 300s as surround speakers. We tested it with the race scene from Ready Player One, and unsurprisingly, Sonos delivered great sound quality. The Era 300s, in particular, stole the show.
My friend claimed its a 9.1.4 setup, I asked him where his height speakers were, apparently, 2 up-firing speakers in the sound bar and 1 in each era 300 speaker. The whole room did really fill up with sound, but at no point did it feel like sound was coming from above. I guess it would sound less atmospheric without the height firing speaker. That being said, Its easy to recommend this setup for friends and family for movies without the hassle of cables, setup and learning curve. Its easy to convince the wife for something like this too.