So I’m going to be moving in a few months. When I do I’m going to have a space for Dad. I have not had my own dedicated listening / viewing space in years. The Wife and Kid have taken over, it’s madness!! But… I’ll have enough room for my own 65" TV (Or maybe one of those ultra short throw projectors) and I was thinking about keeping my audio very simple but high quality. I’m not sure I’m looking to do a full surround setup again but I want a really great music first stereo set that will work well with film without the center image sounding illegible. I have a pretty decent Onkyo stereo receiver. The Klipsch Heresy was on my short list, but I have also heard some Definitive Towers that I really liked in the test room, but it’s so hard to tell how it will sound when you get it in it’s space. Anyone have experience with 2.1 dual duty systems?
I am in a nursing home and I have Visio 55inch Dseries tv about 12 foot in front of me. I am bed bound against the opposite wall. I have sharp ht sb603 soundbar which is 2.1. This soundbar is suprisingly good with 4 two inch mids and two 1 inch tweeters split at each end of this 55 inch wide bar. it has 160 watts for mids and highs. A separate enclosure has a 6 inch woofer bass with 150 watts. It has good clarity up to a point. More than enough volume to disturb other residents. I have a nice Headphone setup for detail music listening.
I would check out Ohm Acoustics. Zeos wasnt exaggerating. I love mine.
The Ohm’s do look like an intriguing option. I like the idea of an omnidirectional pattern that sounds good no matter where we will be in the room.
Not super crazy, or maybe I’m also crazy… I’m currently using a set of white Jamo s803’s and a S808 subwoofer for my desk/movie(4k TV) setup. Some of the new Jamos, the 803s included, have support for Dolby Atmos modules which offers a future upgrade path. Plus, they look fantastic(no wife complaints for sure, only set of speakers mine didn’t find ugly) and sound just as good. As an added bonus they are front ported which can really make setup easier as you can put them closer to the walls. I really like the sub as it surprises you with how much can come out of a small box, mines currently turned nearly all the way down. You could do one on either side of the TV but depending on the space one might be sufficient.
The speakers are passive and the sub is powered but I use a Audiosource AMP110(old but does the job perfectly) and put the sub on the pass through output. Hopefully this helps!
One last thing, Jamo regularly has massive price drops at Fry’s. I usually look at slickdeals.net as people usually put the deals there. For the price I don’t think the Jamo S line can be beat. I’ll probably pick up a set of S809s when they go on sale again… now that would be a crazy setup for sure haha
I know you already have a receiver, but I would HIGHLY recommend the Edifier S350DB 2.1 system. They’re powered, great looking, small but loud as hell, and most importantly, have and AMAZING sound. I use it in my bedroom with my PC, for music, movies and sometimes gaming (when I don’t want to use headphones).
I love them, and even my brother got his own set after watching Zeos’ review and listening to mine. They’re around $250 USD right now (originally at $299).
Here’s Zeos’ review: https://youtu.be/kH_-JqaAsOA
You are NOT crazy. This is exactly what I did. In my opinion if your budget is <$1,000 a 2.1 will always blow any 5/7.1 out of the water, especially if it’s dual purpose for music and home theater. People really underestimate the power and sound of a good 2.1 for watching movies.
If you’re watching alone it’ll be perfect. If you plan on watching movies with other people, get a 3.1 unless they sit in the center with you.
That being said, I would still upgrade to a 5.1 receiver so you have the option of adding on speakers later. And whatever you do, don’t skimp on the subwoofer. A good sub will support average speakers easier than good speakers supporting an average sub. It’s easy to correct a speaker through placement/eq/crossover, it’s hard to make bad bass better.
Honestly, 2.1 is a great way to start as you can concentrate on getting really good quality speakers, which is a superior to a 5.1 system with bad speakers. I tried to do 5.1 on a budget and it just didn’t leave me happy.
The great thing about getting a good 2.1 or 3.1 system is that you can upgrade over time and feel good about each purchase adding value as the only thing you’ll end up replacing is the amp.
I have nothing to contribute to this. But hey, aren’t you from Icrontic, Cliff?
I cannot deny that I am the curmudgeonly yet loveable geek that occasionally posts on the Icrontic forums.
So I purchased a pair of Klipsch RP 160M bookshelves, stands, cables and a Klipsch reference 10" sub for around $750. The prices kind of drove me there. At first I’ll just be playing music on them, but ultimately I’m going to try and get them going as a dual duty simple two channel home theater set up when I move. I had aspirations of buying much more expensive speakers but after auditioning a ton, I found it hard to justify the price. I guess the rate of diminishing returns. Klipsch reference premiere speakers are silly good for the little bit of money, and I suppose if I get the itch a year from now to upgrade they didn’t cost so much that I’d ever have deep buyers remorse.
I will say, the Bowers and Wilkens 705 S2 had me ultra close to spending $2,500 on a pair of bookshelf speakers, they had more clarity and this kind of textural detail that’s hard to put into words, plus they look sexy as hell, but in the end, $350 or $2,500… I just could not justify the gap when the Klispch perform so admirably.
so are you running them off the Onkyo you already had.? Does it have a sub output being you said is was a Stereo receiver? or are you doing Hi Input in then out to speakers?
Yes, I have a TX 8160 if I recall the model, 80 watt per channel solid state, nothing boutique but decent. There is a sub out on there. I’m going to experiment but I think I’m going to set it to about 60 Hz, let the sub grab that part of the low end and let the speakers handle everything else. I’ll have to play with the blend a bit to see how it ends up. I know I could have gotten by without the sub for music, but ultimately I’d like some low end theater rumble when I have them flanking a display.
I HIGHLY recommend the RP 160s. I have the 150s and wish they sounded a bit bigger.
+1 for the RP 160s. I have them in a 2.1 setup with an SVS sub. Sound phenomenal
Definitely not crazy my friend I used to have a pair of Elac B5’s Rev.1 but now currently have the KEF Q100’s. And a BIC Acoustech PL-200 i for my subwoofer best setup I’ve had in a great while for dual duty. Front speakers are the most important then comes the Sub then the center. Good luck my friend
