Help with Surround Sound

[rumpsteak08]

Hi,

 

I have recently set up a Jellyfin server and want to accompany this with a good surround sound system.

 

Ideally, I would like a 5.1.2 system. I have watched a few videos and know I need

• AV Reciever with 7 channels (2 to assign to Atmos) and for it to support Atmos.
• A centre speaker
• 4 Bookshelf/tower speakers (ideally bookshelf)
• A sub
• 2 in-celling or Atmos-enabled speakers (ideally Atmos-enabled)
• And the usual compliment of a rat's nest of cables.

My Audio knowledge is limited to a speaker at its loudest and probably isn't as clear as at less than 70%. Watts are how loud and impedance exists.

I have tried a Sonos ARC and while it may have been improper calibration, there wasn't much of an upgrade over my £100 Sony 2 channel. I was not impressed and would like a proper surround system.

I want the speakers to be of a higher quality (not audiophile good) so that if and when I move and have a dedicated theatre room or just a living room more accommodating to a 7 or 9-channel surround system, I would not need to upgrade my speakers and just the Reciever and add more speakers.

 

If there are any fantastic deals for receivers or speakers please let me know (live in the UK) but just a general guide of what specs on the equipment I should look for.

 

My room is 5.5m by 3.5m with the long side having my TV. My Jellyfin client is a Fire TV 4k. I would plug this directly into my receiver as my TV lacks Atmos. It has ARC and does support 5.1 but I would like 5.1.2

[tikker]

For consumer AVRs I'd say have a look at Denon, Marantz or Yamaha. I use a Denon X1400H for my home theatre setup and a Yamaha for my PC speakers.

 

Speaker brands: I went with Dali for the theatre setup. For my PC I have two Wharfedale bookshelve's, but they put a little more emphasis on the bass to my ears. Both sound great however. For subwoofers SVS or HSU are commonly recommended. I got the SVS SB1000 and it is great.

 

In general I would give two tips. First, I would try to match the left, right and centre. I went with one line-up lower for my centre (Dali Spektor Vokal for centre vs Dali Zensor 5 for left and right) and although it is far from the worst, even being the same brand, I do find it noticeable at times. Matching the surrounds at Atmos speakers is less important in my opinion as they are more subtle anyway. Especially the Atmos speakers. Secondly, think about positioning. Look up e.g. Dolby's specification regarding speaker placement and see how closely you can accommodate that. I enjoyed my setup for a while with wrong placement for surrounds, but once I put everything where it was supposed to be it was a big improvement.

[rumpsteak08]

Ok. Thanks. I will look at some speakers from some of those brands.

[Sharkyx1]

How did your setup go?

 

I have denon x1700, a 5.1 round of SVS speakers (prime bookshelf, prime satellite, prime centre), and an LGB9-55 

 

Very very pleased with my purchase. No atmos or anything like that though 

[rumpsteak08]

Hi. I found a local shop that came and did a free survey of our room and set up the system at their theatre room

 

All good

[cmndr]

1. Budget + Location
2. Any constraints?
3. Describe use case. E.g. if 99% of viewing is by 2 people in the middle of the room, the center channel matters relatively little (it could even do more harm than good). If much of the viewing is off angle or in a wide seating area among many people then it can matter.

I'll outline the things that I have bought that are not 100% stupidly priced. Note that I'm in the US and probably have more spending power so... 

1. L+R speaker considerations: Emotiva B1+ / Polk ES15 / Polk R100 / KEF Q150
2. AVR: Something on sale that happens to support atmos and 7 channels
3. Sides: doesn't matter a ton, ideally the same as the L+R or similar
4. Heights: doesn't matter a ton, ideally the same as the L+R or similar
5. Center: optional. AVOID MTM designs. An MTM center is arguably worse than just diverting the channel to the L+R. Also be aware that centers end up at weird angles because TVs are now WAY bigger than 30 years ago (when EVERYONE screamed that centered were the most important speaker... which they are, but only if you have one, otherwise it's the L+R)
6. Subwoofer: 2x SVS PB-1000 or 2x SVS SB-1000. 1 will work. 2 gives the benefit of more even frequency response over a larger area (read: more seating flexibility) and helps if your have issues with room reflections (most people do)

[Sharkyx1]

20 hours ago, cmndr said:

1. Budget + Location
2. Any constraints?
3. Describe use case. E.g. if 99% of viewing is by 2 people in the middle of the room, the center channel matters relatively little (it could even do more harm than good). If much of the viewing is off angle or in a wide seating area among many people then it can matter.

I'll outline the things that I have bought that are not 100% stupidly priced. Note that I'm in the US and probably have more spending power so... 

1. L+R speaker considerations: Emotiva B1+ / Polk ES15 / Polk R100 / KEF Q150
2. AVR: Something on sale that happens to support atmos and 7 channels
3. Sides: doesn't matter a ton, ideally the same as the L+R or similar
4. Heights: doesn't matter a ton, ideally the same as the L+R or similar
5. Center: optional. AVOID MTM designs. An MTM center is arguably worse than just diverting the channel to the L+R. Also be aware that centers end up at weird angles because TVs are now WAY bigger than 30 years ago (when EVERYONE screamed that centered were the most important speaker... which they are, but only if you have one, otherwise it's the L+R)
6. Subwoofer: 2x SVS PB-1000 or 2x SVS SB-1000. 1 will work. 2 gives the benefit of more even frequency response over a larger area (read: more seating flexibility) and helps if your have issues with room reflections (most people do)

Looks like he got something already 

[rumpsteak08]

Hi. Thanks for the advice but a company called Richer Sounds came and gave us advice. Free for them to come and see our room and set it up in their store to try. Excellent service. Or was a Sony DH790. And monitor audio radius line speakers.

[sm1th5]

Don't go with Sony av receivers. 

All I ever hear is cheap and lower quality.

The only brands to consider are denon and yamaha 

[rumpsteak08]

We have it set up and it sounds amazing. We went with the Sony due to size constraints. We looked at the Denon but it would have meant chiseling the wall or to make it fit in the cabinet below or TV.

 

[cmndr]

Sony receivers are mostly fine. Modern receivers are mostly OK. I've mostly gone Denon/Marantz (same parent company and a lot of the engineering/design/software overlaps) for Audyssey room correction, though the latest generation of high end Sony AVRs has me wanting one (up to 13 channels and a lot of interesting tricks related to spatial mapping). I'd risk giving up a bit in terms of calibrating multiple subwoofers but that might just get offloaded to a separate DSP anyway.