Building Home Theater, decided L/R ML Source but what for in-wall surround

[jouyang]

Hi All,

Let me just say this first, I am a speaker noob. I am currently building a 12Wx17Lx8H room for home theater. There's a 12Wx6L storage room next to the home theater. I can basically push my equipments inside that room so the TV and projector screen can be flashed with the wall. I currently have a 10yr old Klipsch Synergy SF-2 5.1 setup but wanted to upgrade to a better system. I have my "eyes" on Martin Logan Source and they "look" good. I've heard them from Fry's and it's actually pretty good.

Since the 12 feet width is not much room so I wanted to use in-wall speakers for surround. Can anyone recommand some matching surround for Martin Logan Source? What should be the height of in-wall speakers? Also, I am planning to get Onkyo 1008 receiver. Is that good enough to drive the speakers? The only reason why I pick 1008 because it got 2 HDMI output(one for TV and other one for Projector). If the 1008 is not good enough, what would you recommend?

Here's the layout of the floor plan.

___________d__
|....................|
|6' storage.......|
|___._R_______| R: receiver and other devices
|......TV/P......S| TV/P: TV / Projector screen
|.L...............R.| L/R: Left/Right Speakers
|....................| S: Sub
|....................|
|....................|
|x.................x| x: in-wall surround
|....................| P: Projector
|.........P.........| d: door
_w__x_____x__d w: window




thanks in advance,
~joy

 

[daniel]

I've installed logan passage inwall ( for surround) last week.
They really sound great.

 

[jouyang]

After I posted here, I went to Fry's because they are selling Encore for $150. I talked to the salesperson and he said that I shouldn't get Encore because Motion 4 is a better matching surround for Source. Does anyone here have Source with Motion 4 for surround? The sale will end on tomorrow. ah... decesion decesion.....

 

[jouyang]

Just got Vista and Stage

Well, I was looking for Source and Matinee but I end up with the used Vista and Stage for the same price as if I am getting Source + Matinee. Now, I am still back to the original questions. Is Onkyo 1008 good enough to support Vista and Stage? Would Vignette a good fit for surround? Also, with a room size of 17Lx12Wx8H, would 7.1 setup a over kill?

thanks in advance,
~joy

 

[Thai]

Well, I was looking for Source and Matinee but I end up with the used Vista and Stage for the same price as if I am getting Source + Matinee. Now, I am still back to the original questions. Is Onkyo 1008 good enough to support Vista and Stage? Would Vignette a good fit for surround? Also, with a room size of 17Lx12Wx8H, would 7.1 setup a over kill?

thanks in advance,
~joy

My room is similar size to yours. See my signature. Onkyo is OK with your speakers, but not optimal. You should be able to get decent sound from them. I recently bought Sunfire amplifier to optimize my setup...and it does make a difference...more of a difference each time that i listen to it. :rocker: And i have the Vignettes...like 'em a lot.

 

[jouyang]

Ok, I am a speaker noob. I finally got a chance to hook up the Vista but I am confused. There are 2 sets of input behind the Vista and there's only left+right from my receiver. Do I only need connect it to the ESL or I need to get a special cable for 1 input with 2 output? Also, I was planning to get the Emotiva XPA-3 to power left, center and right. Now that I know Vista has 2 input, do I need to get XPA-5 for it? Sorry for those noob questions.

If I may, there's one more question about the XPA-3. The specs says it output 200 watts per channel @8ohms but it also says 300 watts @ 4ohms. I know the Vista runs on 4ohms. Is there a switch on XPA-3 to use 4 or 8 or it will automatically detect your speakers? If the XPA-3 can support 300 watts, why not advertise it as 300watts.

 

[churchill]

The Vista has the ability to be bi-amped (amp for the panel and an amp for the bass), but the speakers should have a set of gold jumpers to tie the panel and bass driver together. If the jumpers are in place you can run them fine with a stereo amp, does this make sense?

 

[jouyang]

The Vista has the ability to be bi-amped (amp for the panel and an amp for the bass), but the speakers should have a set of gold jumpers to tie the panel and bass driver together. If the jumpers are in place you can run them fine with a stereo amp, does this make sense?

Ok, I brought these Vista used so maybe the previous owner forgot to give the "gold jumpers" to me. Does anyone know where to buy these "gold jumpers" for Vista?

thanks,
~joy

 

[MrBT]

I don't think Vista's jumpers are gold plated. Mine looks like nickel plated. Everybody knows that nickel in audio path is not good solution. If you're into a basic DIY, I would suggest getting spades/banana connectors off ebay (china and a piece of decent speaker cable. Should be pretty cheap. Otherwise you may want to call ML.

 

[churchill]

I couldn't remember if they were gold or nickel. Try contacting Melodie at: [email protected]

 

[TomDac]

you can make your own jumpers as a temporary solution using some speaker cable or old lampcord.

I use these ones:

http://www.anticables.com/jumpers.html

 

[jouyang]

Thank you all. I finally know what you guys are talking about now. All my cheap speakers only have 1 input so these 2 input thing just confused the hell out of me. I'm so noob.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

As far as rear surrounds go they should be a couple of feet above your head when seated and I like them to be a couple of feet behind my listening position. Truthfully for movies your rears don't really have to match the fronts that critically...they are mostly effects and ambient noise and when calibrated properly should add to the depth of the sound. Multi channel music is a different game though so it depends on what you want to optimize the room for.