Sound System Upgrade - Advice Needed

[BrynJ]

Some time in the not to distant future I'm hoping to upgrade my current hifi system (Sony CDP-XE530 cd player, Marantz PM-57 amp, Mission 701 speakers) into a fully blown multi-channel setup.

The Digitheatre I've got in the lounge has whetted my appetite for digital surround lurveliness, but it's limits are now all too apparent. Unfortunately, I won't be able to upgrade to a full separates system in the lounge due to space... and parents ;) Hence I've decided to upgrade my bedroom hifi system.

As well as surround sound for movie watching, I also want a definite improvement to the stereo performance I get from my current hifi as I listen to a lot of music. I've been reading through a few posts on this forum and have come up with a rough idea of what I think will suit my needs:

Marantz SR5200 Amp
Mission M74 Speakers (for fronts)
Tannoy MXC Centre Speaker
Paradigm PDR-10 Subwoofer (incidentally, who sells these? Can't find any place!)

I was hoping to keep my Mission 701s for the surround duties, with a view to a possible future upgrade. I'll also keep my Sony cd player for music (amp will be fed from digital out on soundcard for surround).

For the new system I'm thinking of a budget around £800 - which the above lot fits into nicely, although I'm obviously open to ideas :D

All opinions and advice appreciated :)

[BrynJ]

Bump :)

[Ragnar]

First thing, unless you have a huge bedroom, dump the subwoofer, you won't need it, as you will get plenty of bass from the Mission MX74's,
Now get the matching centre speaker to the MX74's, the Tannoy will not be a good tonal match & will be overpowered by the MX74's.

Match it up with the Marantz SR5200 amp & the Mission 701's at the rear,

& enjoy.:D

If you are still determinded to get a subwoofer, spend at least £400, otherwise you won't get any real benefit from it, try one from the likes of REL or M&K.

P.S.
Remember to budget for some decent interconnects & speaker cables.

[BrynJ]

Thanks for the reply ragnar. It's interesting what you said about the centre speaker, as I had originally thought of going with the matching Mission until I read this (http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26036&highlight=mxc) - which obviously put me off a bit. A couple of people also mentioned having the M74s and the MXC in their setup :confused:

Hmm, I'll have to think about the sub as well - my room is about 12' x 13', so how does that sound? Ooh, I do liek bass!!!!111 :D

I realise about the interconnects and speaker cable too, but kind of figure that might be worth a thread in its' own right sometime ;)

Keep those opinion coming... :D

[Ragnar]

The sensible thing to do, would be to find a dealer who will let you audition the MX74's with both the Mission & Tannoy centre speakers, & decide for yourself which you perfer.

Another option is to go for one of Mission's complete speaker packages, they seem to get good reviews from the critics.

[Ragnar]

Originally posted by BrynJ

Hmm, I'll have to think about the sub as well - my room is about 12' x 13', so how does that sound? Ooh, I do liek bass!!!!111 :D



The room is still a little on the small side for a sub, but if you want deep bass, then switch the MX74's for smaller bookshelf speakers, & buy a decent sub like I suggested in the previous post, this way you won't overfill the room with bass.

[BrynJ]

Auditioning the speakers or amp is something I would definitely like to do, but given my location and the complete lack of any decent av stores, I don't think I will be able to :(

What I may do then, is just go for the M74s along with the whatever centre speaker and then decide whether I 'need' a sub ;)

Are there any other suggestions on suitable speakers, other amps to consider or further things I should know?

Cheers :)

[BrynJ]

Surely somebody else must have something to say? :D

Any other suggestions / advice on speaker setups? Especially interested in hearing of setups in similar size rooms to mine (12' x 13').

Thanks :)

[Neon]

I've got M74, M7C, M7DS with a Yamaha RXV-620RDS. There's plenty of bass, but not quite enough to induce vomiting, so I'm on the lookout for a sub at the moment.

[BrynJ]

Sounds good Neon :D So what size room do you have?

[Neon]

15x12. Plus big furniture, so it ends up about 3x2.

[MikeK]

Originally posted by BrynJ
Sounds good Neon :D So what size room do you have?


Despite the new Marantz AV receivers being pretty good with music (relatively speaking), I doubt you'll find an SR5200 to be any improvement on your PM57.
That said, it's still probably the budget AV star at the moment.

As you are going to be putting your system into a modest sized room, you may want to reconsider Mission M74 if you'll be putting them up against the wall - the M74s are rear ported and will probably need a foot or so at least behind them to allow the port to breathe properly. Boom boom city if you don't.
If placing against the wall, I'd consider a front ported design if I were you - there's no shortage of options- Tannoy, Wharfedale, Monitor Audio, Heybrook, (and many others) all have current models available, and places like Richer Sounds are always good for an end of line bargain. They do the Mission 702e for £100, which is the biwirable floorstanding version of your 701s, but they sound practically the same, so if you aren't happy with the 701s then it's unlikely the 702e will change your mind.

Unless you like music without a sub (like me, but I'm not really a bass freak), then if you do actually get a sub, you may want to consider a pair of smaller standmount/bookshelf speakers as a previous poster mentioned, and let the sub do the bass duties.

[BrynJ]

Some good advice there Mike, cheers :)

I'd kind of figured the choice of amp might be a sideways step - any av amp will be compared to a dedicated stereo amp I suppose. I was thinking the main improvement could be made by upgrading the speakers - and possibly the cd player at a later date. A Nad 370 would be nice though :D

As for the speakers, what models in particular would you suggest from the makes you mentioned? I wanted as good a pair of fronts as possible, as I don't envisage listening to music in any kind of psuedo surround or - most likely - with a sub either. In keeping with tonality, do Mission offer any front ported models? With regards to speaker placement, I can't see there be being too much of a problem in bringing the speakers out a foot or two - incidentally, I know corners are big no-no too, so how many feet should they be from the sides?

Oh, btw, while I've got your attention Mike, might I ask for a little advice on cabling? I've followed previous cable threads and you're certainly the cable god of the forums :D I've opened an account with www.cpc.co.uk and I'll be ordering me some Puresonic 7845 speaker cable and banana plugs :) The question I have is that I'll be totally gutting my room and redecorating and I'm planning on running the cable under the floorboards so it's nice and out of the way - is this a good idea? Are there any precautions I need to undertake - should I be shielding the cable in any way? Also, if I just ran the cable along the skirting, how important is it for cable lengths to be the same - obviously the rear ones will be longer, but left to right?

Thanks for the help :)

[MikeK]

With £800 to play with, you should be well on the road to a decent setup.
Models to look at speakerwise include Tannoy MX3, Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 and Monitor Audio Bronze3 - at this level however, don't expect a massive improvement over your 701s - the 701 wasn't a top rated product without good reason. There's plenty of better models in absolute terms (obviously costing more), but with the type of amp and source, I simply don't think you'll get much benefit from spending more. The 702e I mentioned are also front ported, just like your 701s.

Assuming you are going to go with the SR5200, that leaves you about £450 left out of your £800 budget.

There are several things you could do:

1. Keep the 701s for use as fronts, and add a pair of 700s as rears and a 70c1 centre. Total cost £100. Then add a Tannoy MXSUB10 for about £180 (this is a 10" sealed design, probably the best type for use in a smaller room, and also probably the best type for use with music. They are the easiest to place, easiest to integrate (due to the smooth roll off) and suffer least from boom, the only drawback being a slight loss of ultimate low end extension compared to a similar sized ported box). Spend another £50-£70 on cables and connectors etc, and spend the remaining £100 on DVDs or lager :)

2. Get a pair of Tannoy MX3 and and MXC (around £220 for both), or similar, and use your 701s as rears. Add the sub and cable and you are about bang on budget.


Demos are really the key to finding the best speakers for you though - remember, we may have different tastes.
As for cables, the generally accepted rule is to keep left and right the same length, and as it's both easy and cheap to do, I would do exactly that.
Cables under the floor? - why not, I do. There's no special precautions you need to take either, but if your bedroom is upstairs, then it seems a lot of hassle to go to, lifting floorboards and all that just to run speaker cables - but that's really up to you! Mine are downstairs, so I just nip under the floor - easy!

Speakers in corners? - there's no real rules other than as you said, not in the corner. I'd start at about 3ft in from each corner (leaving about 6ft between the speakers themselves in your room) and experiment from there. As you get closer to the corner, try toeing them in a bit more - it can help, despite the fact that some makers tell you not to. Trial and error is really the key to positioning, but keep in mind the practicality of it too - no good finding the perfect sweetspot if it means you then can't fit your bed in your bedroom :)

[BrynJ]

Thanks for the further info :)

I've certainly got plenty to be getting on with regarding choice of speakers - only thing is the lack of any av stores around here to demo :( Any suggestions for dealers worth trying within a reasonable distance? I'm 40 minutes outside of Chester.

As I said, I don't think the speaker placement will be too much of a problem, as I'm planning on building my room around the hc setup :) Luckily, we've got a spare room after building an extension, so I'll be moving all my clutter in there - including my drum kit, which currently takes up most of the bedroom (and doesn't do the acoustics much good either :D). The only issue I have is that, because of the shape of my room (the door is in a cutout), one of my 701 will be in free space rather than against a wall. Regarding the cables, I should be okay with rooting them under the floor as, like yours, my room is on ground level.

My budget of £800 is not really set in stone, so if I spent some extra, what would you think of upgrading first - the amp maybe? Or a higher bracket set of speakers?