I just bought a new house and am planning the home theater system. My current home theater is about 5 years old now, so I'm looking to get new everything.
For the speakers, initially I was decided on 2 B&W 803S for the front channels, the HTM3S for center, either the SCMS or DS8S for the surrounds, and the ASW825 for the sub.
However, at the B&W dealer, I also demoed the 802D speakers and they sounded amazing. In fact, much better than the 803S. Since I will be using the system for both stereo listening and watching movies equally, I think I would be happier with the 802D as my front speakers.
The issue between choosing the two is of course, budget and also space. The 802D is about twice the cost of the 803S. I could probably get away with the HTM2D as the center speaker to match the 802D, but that is still 50% more than the HTM3S.
About space, my home theatre room is long and narrow. With the 803S, I can just about fit those speakers along with the sub and the rack of equipment I'm getting in a way that makes sense. The rack itself is more wide than tall, since it will be below the flatscreen TV I'm mounting on the wall, as well as the projection screen when pulled down. With the 802D however, they are too big for me to fit them and the rack and the sub without them being too cramped.
So I'm thinking perhaps a way to go with the 802D set-up is to skip the subwoofer, and just run the .1 signal to the front speakers, since they should have more than enough bass capacity. That would solve the problem of not having enough space for the sub.
Because of cost reasons, I'm thinking of skipping the center channel speaker as well. My room is going to be narrow in the first place, and if I'm going to be sitting in the sweet spot, the stereo imaging should convey the center channel accurately. Of course, the drawback is for anyone not sitting in the sweet spot, but I don't think it will really be a noticeable issue since the room is narrow anyway.
So I've calculated that to get 802D speakers instead of the 803S, I can spend roughly the same as I had budgeted before, but I would need to skip the center speaker and subwoofer, making it a 4.0 system. If I get the 803S speakers, I can get a full 5.1 set-up, but my stereo experience of listening to music will not be as good as if I had the 802D's.
So my question is what are your thoughts on this? Will my HT experience suffer having just a 4.0 set-up? Do you think the 802D's can handle the .1 signal just fine, or do you think it would be much better with a sub? What are your thoughts on not having a center channel speaker and letting the FR and FL 802D's do all the work?
For the speakers, initially I was decided on 2 B&W 803S for the front channels, the HTM3S for center, either the SCMS or DS8S for the surrounds, and the ASW825 for the sub.
However, at the B&W dealer, I also demoed the 802D speakers and they sounded amazing. In fact, much better than the 803S. Since I will be using the system for both stereo listening and watching movies equally, I think I would be happier with the 802D as my front speakers.
The issue between choosing the two is of course, budget and also space. The 802D is about twice the cost of the 803S. I could probably get away with the HTM2D as the center speaker to match the 802D, but that is still 50% more than the HTM3S.
About space, my home theatre room is long and narrow. With the 803S, I can just about fit those speakers along with the sub and the rack of equipment I'm getting in a way that makes sense. The rack itself is more wide than tall, since it will be below the flatscreen TV I'm mounting on the wall, as well as the projection screen when pulled down. With the 802D however, they are too big for me to fit them and the rack and the sub without them being too cramped.
So I'm thinking perhaps a way to go with the 802D set-up is to skip the subwoofer, and just run the .1 signal to the front speakers, since they should have more than enough bass capacity. That would solve the problem of not having enough space for the sub.
Because of cost reasons, I'm thinking of skipping the center channel speaker as well. My room is going to be narrow in the first place, and if I'm going to be sitting in the sweet spot, the stereo imaging should convey the center channel accurately. Of course, the drawback is for anyone not sitting in the sweet spot, but I don't think it will really be a noticeable issue since the room is narrow anyway.
So I've calculated that to get 802D speakers instead of the 803S, I can spend roughly the same as I had budgeted before, but I would need to skip the center speaker and subwoofer, making it a 4.0 system. If I get the 803S speakers, I can get a full 5.1 set-up, but my stereo experience of listening to music will not be as good as if I had the 802D's.
So my question is what are your thoughts on this? Will my HT experience suffer having just a 4.0 set-up? Do you think the 802D's can handle the .1 signal just fine, or do you think it would be much better with a sub? What are your thoughts on not having a center channel speaker and letting the FR and FL 802D's do all the work?
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