Setup Qeury - Speakers and such

Hello,

First post. I am looking to build my first "adult" setup. I had a Harman Kardon setup built in high school back in the 80's. Building system around Denon dp-1200 turntable i purchased (running perfect thanks to a tip about hitting the speed pots with DeOxit) and a DL-110 cartridge i have installed. Currently I am enjoying only via headphones and ART DJPRE. Sorry for the preamble...hope someone stays on to advise...
Thoughts on the system after trolling this and other forums:
-AMP: Rega Brio (2017)
-Speaker Options being considered: KEF Q350 or LS50 / Revel Concerta2 M16 / ELAC Uni-fi UB5
System will run the DL-1200 and Audioengine B1 for streaming sources.
This will be setup in my living/dining room, speakers are going to to need to be wall mounted (i know people are cringing here) thinking they will be about 6' high and will be wide for the space set about 6-8" from corners of room (this is based on room has windows almost full width of room and can't have stands on floor.

Let me know thoughts on if this system makes sense for the room and intended output and critically feedback on speaker suggestions considering my limitations.

Thanks!

 

Have you considered in-wall speakers?

 

yes, investigated that as an option but won't work in intended room.
Thanks for reply. I appreciate this is less than ideal. Was hoping to get a bit of feedback on pairing of equip and if any of the speakers being considered might be less compromised by particulars of my setup.

Thanks

 

Honestly I wouldn't spend that money if they have to be placed as you described. It's kind of like buying a Porsche but never getting out of 1st gear. Actually, it's probably worse.

My advice is to get speakers that are designed to be placed on the wall, or one of the better sound dock things, like the Devialet Phantom.

Sorry don't want to be harsh in my suggestions nor dissuade you from having nice sound in your home. You would just be spending a fair amount of money to get gear that's capable of a certain amount of quality, then immediately cutting that quality in half, or more. It's important to buy equipment that works in the space you have, as opposed to trying to fit gear that was optimized for different conditions than yours.

 

Helom, I'm betting the farthest into the wall he wants to go, are with a hammer and screwdriver.

So, you're intending to mount them on the wall with all the windows, then? I sure wish you had somebody close to you, to convince you to get the speakers about a foot away from the wall, and closer into the middle of a wall than stuck into the corners.
And, I'm having trouble imaging what sort of wall doesn't acommodate stands on the floor...is this a room-sized pool, perhaps? Or the floor around the edges is actually quicksand? If you have a wall full of windows, surely there's not foot traffic going through every one of them?

Barkroy, I'm sure there are people who would love to help offer advice. We would appreciate a little more idea about the dimensions of the room, and where the doors and large furniture pieces are. Somebody may suggest some sound-deadening materials, and it would be helpful to know where those could be.

First off, I suggest that you not dream of which equipment to buy, until you know for sure which placements will be most effective. Facing a listening position like a chair or sofa? Facing across the living room into the dining room? Part of your video system? It's fun to buy square pegs; but first you need to make sure you don't have nothing but round holes to put them in. Tell us which equipment you have already purchased and have in-home, then...put the charge card down until you get a chance to get other suggestions.

 

Yeah, like others said, room size info would help. Where you are going to place it in relation to the whole room, you sitting position, etc, would help.

If you intend to do critical listening, then your current height of 6' and placement on the wall near the corners would likely won't work well.

 

You mentioned whether this would make sense for the room but I don't see any info on room shape and measurements.

Pics of the room and where you intend on putting the speakers could be beneficial to you as we might be able to find another solution based on what is presented in the pics.

Right now, there's too little info for us to be as helpful as you'd need.

 

"Jt" is right on the head of the issue. You will spend your coin and then spend your time most likely never hearing what you want. Having the speakers as far as you describe from the room boundaries likely will leave you lacking in low end energy. Every room has multiple spots for good placement and we often find that narrowed by where we are going to sit. I am not sure what advice you are asking for as you seem pretty fixed as to where things can go. I would surely avoid any speaker with a rear port. Front port may serve you as these designs are usually more efficient. The real issue for you I think is not being able to tweak speaker location you will just have to settle for whatever you get. You might consider horizontal mounting with woofer outside or upside down with woofer up in an attempt to interact with the ceiling as it is the closest room boundary. Lastly if you had speaker placement flex. I would suggest spending more on the speakers and maybe less on the amp. Another possibility given your situation is to look into a pair of active monitors. Curious why can't you accommodate a pair of floor standing columns?

 

Thanks all for the feedback. I will take another look at the room tonight and follow up with more detail and think about what options i may have. Limitations are furnishings and tolerances of my wife.

 

Vandersteen VSM is a good sounding wall mount speaker.

 

My wife is an interior designer, my living/listening room is multi-purpose also. Fully furnished with big pieces. Wife was quite surprised how unobtrusive the new speakers were/are (Focal 948). They are not small but fit right in. My wife listens to music also. She now appreciates her acceptance of the towers Lol I am just about to add a pair of sub-woofers and have not told her..... This is so much fun don't ya think?

 

These Martin Logan's are wall mountable and have a nice sound.

https://www.martinlogan.com/motionSeries/models/ultra-slim.php

 

Yup. I've looked at these for an on wall set up also. For cost and quality in a dedicated small home theatre I am going with Magnepans MMW.

 

+1 Speakers not designed for wall mounting will not sound good when wall mounted. In particular, the low end will be way off.

 

Actually, I would think that coaxial speaker design on the two KEF choices would sound a bit better than most (read: less bad) against a wall, depending on where the port is. Remind me -- where's the port on those two? And since the LS50 is based loosely on the LS3/5a, it gets my vote.

Also, the Gallo Strada 2 is designed to be hung on a wall -- that's even one of the choices for configuration. I have the Reference 3, which is basically the Strada on a subwoofer/as a stand/"tower" version, so you know it's a sound I like.

 

just helped a friend who moved into his new Condo home to buy a complete setup.

due to time constraints, we listened to 2 demos at the shops -

1. Yamaha RN602 - Yamaha CD S300 - Dali Zensor 7s (with Van Der Hul ICs n Black Rhodium spk cables)
2. Marantz PM6006 - Marantz CD 6006 - Q Acoustics Concept 40s (with QED ICs n QED spk cables)

both priced a little more than S$3k with ICs n speaker cables thrown in, so that the system will be plug and play when delivered.

as i own Dalis, i m a little inclined towards the Dali sound. i found the Marantz/QA sounding a litte to laid back for my taste.
however, the couple chose the latter as they found the relaxed sound more to their liking.
so once again it goes to show how subjective sound is. and its the wife who made the final buy call

 

For much cheaper, look at Dali Zensor 1 or Zensor 3. Nice speakers and designed to be placed close to walls...not 6 feet up, though. *shrug*

 

I own a pair of Dali Zensors 1 which I use against the wall (at ear height). They sound good when listened to near field, but less so at a distance, as the bass can get unpleasantly boomy.
The Dali Menuet, made to work against a wall, will probably work better for OP's room. Don't know how much they cost in the US, but here they're a bit cheaper than the LS50.