Media room plan advice

[amshah97]

Building a new media room in the basement. Use case is mainly for movies at 7.1.4. Current thoughts are the following - open to any feedback on the following - thanks!

Front L/R - XT F100 or F20 or F10 (no one has the F20/F10 to listen to nearby but they might be good enough?)
Center - XT C100
Rears - MP10 or Motion 4i
Rear Surrounds Motion 4i or 2i
Atmos ceilings - TBD
Sub - TBD
Receiver - Denon AVR-X3800H
external amp for front 2 or 3 speakers

the biggest and most expensive decision are the fronts - do I get the XT F100s or save money and get the F20s or even the F10s? possibly using those savings for more/better subs

 

[Robert D]

At your price point, this amp would be great for the front 3 channels.
https://emotiva.com/collections/amps/products/basx-a3-three-channel-power-amplifier
I recently bought one for my daughter's home theater setup and it sounds much better than just using the receiver's amp. The price is good on it.

For the front speakers, I think I would probably spring for the extra $1000 on the XT F100 pair. It would also be beneficial to have the tweeter on the fronts match that of your center. I see the lesser model fronts have a smaller tweeter.

Another option, since youre using it for mostly movies, have all of the speakers in wall. You can put the front 3 speakers behind the screen and use a sound transparent screen. Thats what I plan on doing. If youre using a panel tv then disregard. You can put in walls around your tv panel though. I use four ML ceiling speakers for my Atmos setup now and am very happy with their sound.

 

[ttocs]

How large will your room be?

I can't help with your listed choices for LCR, but with regards to using the 4i or 2i, I would recommend using something with larger woofer drivers.

I have four 4i speakers. It began when I was in a smaller room and bought a pair for Surrounds when I first went to a 5.1 system. Worked ok. Then when I changed the room and enlarged it I bought two more for Rears for a 7.1 system. I only bought the second pair to match the first pair.

After some time went by I wanted better surrounds and went with in-wall speakers, the ML IW, which is pretty similar to the current XTW6. So when I upgraded to ATMOS I used the 4i for the Tops.

The 4i will work, but any speaker with a large woofer will work much better.

If choosing between the 4i or MP10, go with the MP10! You'll be happier for longer.

 

[Fidji99]

A) Fronts: i would second to go for same tweeter size for all the L-C-R

B) Surrounds - in 7.x.x. setup your Surr and SurrBacks should have the same capabilities, if you want to have this "bubble of sound" feeling and should be comfortable playing to 80Hz - which means, that you should look for specs of 60Hz in case of ML [and others]

This is size comparison of 4i, 15i and 35iXT [previous gen], so today's 4i, b10 and XTB100.
I would not go with 4i's they start to heavily compress up to 110Hz, when played loud. MP10 - you get smaller enclosure, and it will affect your FR extension.

My proposal - but all depending on your priorities and budget:
1) try to get 4x Motion 15i or even better Motion 35iXT with discount [if there are some available] - this will get you enough woofer/tweeter size and put them on the adjustable wall mount - you will get bettet results than 4 MP10
2) I would also not exclude Foundation B2 speaker, if your room is not too big and you do not intend to play very loudly
3) third option 4x B10 [or ideally] 3x XTB100

3) Amp - Emotiva is a good tip, but there is lot of clean cheap power to have in Class D [Hypex/Purifi] amps - I know that in US Buckeye Amps has good reputiation.

4) Subs - they are important part of your experience - consider in your budget at least 2 identical subs [and for start - SVS PB1000 is not enough ;-) ], but subs are endless discussion - but plan with 2 for start and have space for another 2 later

5) Denon 3800H - if you have budget - I would go for 4800H - it looks very similar in specs, but uses higher quality electronics in both DAC and amp section. 3800H is really cost optimized to bare bones by Denon. If you room is long, then I would even consider going one level of receiver higher to allow for 9.x.4 in the future

last advice - go for quality components, and build gradually, if you have strict budget - you can expect to hear audible improvements after each upgrade.

E.g. I would start with 5.1.2 and better receiver, then add sub to 5.2.2, then extend to 7.2.2, then later add external amp for fronts , continue upgrade to 7.2.4 etc. etc.

 

[amshah97]

Thanks for the input!

I've attached some pics of the room - it's 13 ft wide. As for length, it has an opening at the back but I'm planning at 13 ft for the main seating and around 18ft is where a wall would be if we had one.

@Robert D

i'll keep that amp in mind. If I went with the F20s, should I get the matching C10 center instead of the XT C100?

I'm 95% certain on getting a panel tv but was thinking of in-walls when originally planning for a screen.

@ttocs

size about 13 wide x 18 long, seating at 13ft. Thanks for the feedback on the 4i's. I had read good things about them and they sounded decent at the store for surrounds. I'll look into the in-walls for my surrounds but will need something wall mountable for the rear surrounds.

@Fidji99

all good points - I have the 15i's as L/R in another room and they are great but I'll need either in-wall or smaller mountable speakers for my surrounds due to my layout and to pass the wife test.

 

[Robert D]

Running the wires for your in walls can be tricky. I hired a pro to do mine and it even took them quite awhile to do it, especially the ceiling speakers. It's well worth the time and expense.
Mine was made easier though because my theater is in the 1st floor family room and the basement underneath is unfinished in that area.

 

[amshah97]

My current thoughts:

Front L/R - XT F100
Center - XT C100
Rears - MP10
Rear Surrounds - MP10
Atmos ceilings - RSL C43E MKII
Sub - SVS PB-2000 Pro
Receiver - Denon AVR-X4800H
Amp - Emotiva BasX A3

This puts me at the high end of my budget so would need to make some tradeoffs to change things around and really the only big thing to cut could be to go from the XT F100s/C100 to the F20s/C10. That would be 1500 that could be spent elsewhere.

 

[Robert D]

The ceiling Atmos speakers should be where you spend the least money. I'm not familiar with what you're looking at for your ceilings. Is there a reason you're not going to use in wall speakers for surrounds and rears?

 

[amshah97]

The ceiling ones are $150 each. I could go lower but they seemed like the right price/quality balance.

I actually would prefer in-walls but I don't have a rear wall to put the rear surrounds into so I feel that my only option is to hang them from the ceiling from behind. I could put in-walls as the surrounds but then the 4 would not be the same if that matters. In that case, the MP10s as rr surrounds (or some angled in-ceiling ones) and the MW6 for surround. I could just go with 5.1.4 and get the XTW6's as the surrounds.

Thanks for your input and feedback.

 

[Robert D]

The ceiling ones are $150 each. I could go lower but they seemed like the right price/quality balance.

I actually would prefer in-walls but I don't have a rear wall to put the rear surrounds into so I feel that my only option is to hang them from the ceiling from behind. I could put in-walls as the surrounds but then the 4 would not be the same if that matters. In that case, the MP10s as rr surrounds (or some angled in-ceiling ones) and the MW6 for surround. I could just go with 5.1.4 and get the XTW6's as the surrounds.

Thanks for your input and feedback.

Ok, found them. They look like a great value.

https://rslspeakers.com/c34e-mkii-in-ceiling-speaker/