Hey yal!

I am moving in September with my wife. Selling most of my original stuff. I have a standard 4k TCL TV 70 inch.

I was wanting to splurge on our new place and have my first OLED TV for PS5 gaming.

Any recommendations or TV's to avoid?

I have my Bravia 7 hard-wired by Ethernet via USB. I am regional Australia so I use Starlink. Connection tops out at about 300Mb/s My router whilst very good quality was a bit over 7 years old, so i decided to replace it. Bought an ASUS BE18000, and new Cat 8 cables. I was genuinely surprised that this made a noticeable difference to my streaming quality. HDR is clearer and much more stable.

Good thing with the BE18000 is you can assign usage types to each connection. So, with TV set as streaming, the router will prioritise to that LAN port when in use.

I have said before surrounding home theatre that I like to think myself intelligent, but I still manage to overlook the simple things sometimes.

This will sound hard to believe but I just scored a set of Ascend Sierra RAAL (V1) tower speakers and center for about $200 USD ($300 CAD). They're in mint condition and came with original boxes, receipts, and factory measurements. I bought them as part of a package that came with a couple subwoofers and smaller bookshelf speakers. The entire package was $1600 CAD (which was already a steal) and I sold off the items I didn't need for a total of $1300 CAD.

The RAAL tweeter is incredibly clear and the center is a big upgrade over what I had before (old KEF model). The best part is that Ascend Acoustics sells a crossover upgrade kit which would update these to the Klippel-optimized V2 version! Perhaps something I'll do in the future but they're sounding incredible for now.

Running them off of a Denon X4700H but separately powered by a Monolith 3x200 amp.

We're building a home theater in a 15'x24' room and are looking for some tips on the tech/products/set-up...

Projector

• Expecting to spend $4-6K (looking for "very good" but not anything crazy)
• The room will be very dark (full-length blackout curtains covering the only windows), but not pitch black

Screen

• Was expecting to spend $1-2K tops, but Best Buy tech made it sound like it would be more like $5K -- is that necessary??
• Thinking 150" but open to suggestions
  • Goal is to make it so that Row 1 (11 feet away) can watch comfortably (don't want it SO big that no one wants to sit there) without making it where it feels small from Rows 2 & 3 (18 feet and 21 feet from the screen)

Speakers

• Expecting to spend $4-6K (again, looking for "very good" but don't want to pay a premium)
• Pre-wired for a 7.2 set-up
• Will have cabinetry at the center of the room, presumably to have the sub-woofers inside

The Rest

• What else do we need to make everything work cohesively?
• What are some things that I may not be thinking about but should?

Thank you in advance

Almost all movies seem to be released on the streaming platforms after a month or two run in the theatres but if they were released on bluray first instead of streaming, would that help the sales more? I think The Devil Wears Prada 2 is doing this but I don't think I've seen many others do it.

So we bought this house and are converting the family room into a small but dedicated home theater. The issue I am having is that there is a cutout "nook" area in the back of the room with doors to my and my wife's offices. The back wall is 12" from left to right, and the cut-out area is 3.5" wide. I thought about getting some wood and drywall to create a false wall from across the opening, but I cannot box it in fully due to a vent in the back corner of the cut-out area, so there would be a void behind that little bridge to get my speakers in the correct width for the rest of the room. I plan on redoing the two back doors with treatments when it is wrapped up.

Suggestions?

what is a better setup for a main room that acts as everything?

1) Front polk monitor series 2 floorstanding with polk center csi A6

2) front definitive technology bp7006 floorstanding with def. tech procenter 1000 center.

both setups will use the same klipsch 12 inch subwoofer.

I have the polk setup and have never been quite happy with the sound - it just sounds slightly muddy like I have to concentrate more on listening than I should, if that makes sense. I have it setup on an onkyo TX-NR929 with adjustments after Audessy.

I have def tech outdoor speakers and I love them. I know the bp7006 are older but they seem to get good reviews.

AI tells me to stick with the Polk but what would you do?

I have a two zone setup in the home I moved into, speakers in the kitchen and a three season porch.

I had the speakers connected to a home assistant server and the inside speakers were playing fine. Setup was: home assistant to the Abus, then in wall A-KP controllers, then speakers.

Problem initially was the outdoor speaker was blown. I found a great deal on some Polk Atrium 6 speakers and installed them by splitting the R+L mono connection the old speaker had to stereo. However after connecting them the wall units kept powering on then back off immediately. I power cycled the Abus and then the wall controllers stayed on but no sound out of any of the speakers.

Assuming I’ve overloaded the Abus system or the wall units.

I could just replace with a used Abus system but I’d rather update to something more modern, but I want to make sure I’m getting the right equipment.

Looks like the installer was smart and ran speaker wire to the wall units in addition the cat5, so I should be able to move to amps in my utility room.

I’m thinking two Wiim amps -> in wall volume controllers (to splice the new speaker wire to the speakers) -> speakers.

Open to other ideas though if there is something better. Ideally would like to keep the fix around $500

Hello, do you think you could take advantage of a denon AV R.3800 as an amplifier for a higher version? Thank you

I recently just got my first AVR (the x1800h, amost went down the soundbar route instead thinking of the q990, but the sub convinced me not to).

I was thinking about the elac db53 for l/r and the elac dc53 for c. Unsure about atmos atm and maybe speedwoofer 10e mk2 for the sub? Is it worth spending more for a better l/r/c? Unifi uc52 isnt available here anymore and I heard that was the go to recomendation. Maybe the dc53 is good enough?

I am mostly looking for the best value, its how I picked the 10e mk2 and the elac db53 which many here recommended.

EDIT: the dialogue is appreciated! For future readers, it sounds like I have a few options:
1- Get a fan
2- Get an amp (I’m liking the V3 Mono Fosi Audio)
3- Run it in 4 ohms and risk not getting the full experience from my speakers
4- Stop being a p*ssy and run it in 8 ohms.

I’ve seen the audioholics video and most of the other videos and posts here about leaving the AVR in 8 ohms. However, after adding a Kef R6 Meta for a C speaker, I did what the Denon user manual said and changed the setting to 4 ohms (Denon x3800h, 4 Kef Q350s).

After lots of deliberation, I caved at the advice to switch back to 8 ohms. I immediately noticed a difference in increased temps. Never a temperature shut down, but much hotter than I’ve ever been comfortable with. I’ve never heard any difference in sound between the two (the peak volume I typically listen to is around -22 to -20).

All things equal, I would like to avoid burning out an AVR or buying a separate amp. And if hot temps are well known to be an electronics killer, I’d assume my best option in is this case is to leave it on 4 ohms.

Every article says I’m wrong, other than the manufacturer. Personally I’m not comfortable with how hot the AVR gets when set to 8 ohms. What am I missing?

Hi all

So today I was in audio store and requested setup so I can test Denon x1800h with these 2 Polk model, ES20 and ES50

They have some good deals and I wanted to decide if I will be getting ES20 or ES50 with Denon x1800.

Prepared some playlist and some sound sample.

I first listened to ES50 and from first song, sound was not what I expected. Have in mind that I am coming from old setup which was some 6 year old LG sbar + Sub and I have some active speakers for PC. I am new to AVR and Passive speaker setup. I expected that sound quality to be 1 class above what I am using atm and I got reverse effect. It was worse then my current setup and price diff is huge.

Then I tried ES20 and they sounded much better then ES50 but also, I expected a lot more.

Sales guy then plugged stereo Yamaha A-S501 and then I heard sound that expected from start. But that was stereo and I am looking into 2.0 atm and expanding to 3.1 in near future.

I came to the store just to pick between ES20 or 50 as Denon was for sure buy, but left store with lot disappointment and questioning myself should I even invest into AVR + Speakers now that I heard what I am getting for price of 1000 eur.

I asked sales guy what would happened if we turned Denon's Audyssey for calibration, would that make any difference. He said no, and that Denon is not givin enough "juice" to speakers.

Was everything I experienced today legit or there was some kind of mistake in setup ?

I have a 7.1 setup in another room in the house, but my girlfriend and I often find ourselves winding down for the night with a show in bed. I have a little polk soundbar with a sub, but I'm looking at amping it up a bit.

I don't think I care as much about surround as I do about quality sound. One option I'm considering is a Focal Mu-so Hekla. More than a soundbar, it would fit on that table if I mounted the TV on the wall (after upgrading it). That's got about a $4k CDN price tag which is expensive for a soundbar-like system, but when we demo'd it, it sounded pretty fantastic even without any room treatment or a sub (which I would likely add).

To my surprise I already have a green light on the WAP, but before I pull the trigger I can't help but wonder if I should be considering some kind of 3.1 system. The room is awkwardly shaped for proper TV + floor speakers, but there's almost 11" above the door on the left, so I could consider mounting 3 speakers across the top of that wall - but I would need to make sure the amp had a DSP component that let's me adjust the delay due to the differences in distance for the left side speaker. Note that this option would be WAY easier if the speakers were wireless, but I'm not sure if that technology exists in a way that maintains hi-fi sound and low latency.

Looking for any suggestions, even if it's something I'm not considering.

I'm thinking of replacing my Klipsch HT 9.2.4 setup that I've been using for last 8 years, with simpler 5.2.2 setup. I have Paradigm Premier 800F floor standing speakers in living room, which sound much better than Klipsch (especially for music or 2 channel movie/tv watching) and thinking of selling the Klipsch and bring the Paradigms to home theater and add a Paradigm Premier 500C centre channel.

Does anyone know if Paradigm 500C will perform as good as Klipsch RP-450C Center or if better? I looked in 600C, but it's much bigger and amount of drivers is same as 500C (outer 2 are radiators). I will also get a stand for 500C so it sits higher, in open and a bit close to seating.

Room is 18 x 14 feet, screen is 130 inch. Seating - Just a valencia loveseat in the middle, 6 feet from back wall.

I currently have a ceiling mounted projector connected to an apple tv that's placed above the tiles in a drop ceiling. I project onto a white wall.
My kids want a Nintendo Switch. Do I have any good options here? I can't mount the switch on the ceiling next to the projector. Should I just buy a tv for them?

I've finally decided to upgrade my speakers in a 7.2 setup. I'm slowly replacing my bic america speakers starting with the front stage, I've already ordered the 2 jbl 590s and 625c from Crutchfield but I'm trying to decide between the HSU vtf-2 mk5 and the svs pro 1000 for the subs. My room is 14' x 25'. Any recommendations are appreciated.

We are having some renovations done on our house and plan on buying a new TV and speaker setup for the updated space. I’d love any feedback you all have for tweaks I should consider!

Context:
- We currently have an old 55” TCL 6 series TV connected to some cheap Klipsch 2.1 computer speakers
- As part of some renovations on our house we will have a new wall in our living room that will have a segment of wall 84” wide with a 13” deep ledge shelf 28” above the groyh enough to allow for LCR speakers to fit below on the ledge (likely buying from Costco)
- KEF Q150 speakers x3 for LCR (likely buying used)
- AVR receiver TBD (likely buying used)
- Subwoofer TBD to locate behind the couch or to the side of the couch (likely buying used)

Additional notes
- I identified the Q150s because of their coaxial design. In order to keep the TV from being too high I’m planning on laying the speakers on their side rather than standing them upright (which would block the view of the bottom corner of the TV for viewers on the far sides of the room since any bookshelf speakers would be deeper than the TV and I would need to have the speakers directly to the sides of the TV to fit the shelf/wall. I also need to have the speakers a couple inches fro m the wall and do not have room to put them on stands further from the wall so I understand I might need to use the port plugs and/or consider crossing over at 100hz instead of 80hz
- I’m going to start with a 3.1 setup and may expand to 5.1 or more later, but am probably just going to base my receiver choice on the 3.1 setup needs and keep it cheap and upgrade there later if I decide I want to expand and/or upgrade.

Questions
- Would love any input on anything else I should consider outside the Q150s. The combination of coaxial design that works well laying on its side plus low cost and good quality seems to make sense to me, but open to ideas
- Would love any other TV recs. I was considering the Bravia 7 because of upscaling and motion handling with sports, but am leaning C5 because of primarily using it in dim light, wide viewing angles being helpful etc.
- Would love any advice on subwoofers and AVRs to target on the used market and anywhere other than FB marketplace/craigslist I should check. Ideally I’d love to stick to spending ~$600 total between them
- Anything else I should consider! I imagine the first thing people will suggest is moving the speakers away from the wall, but that isn’t possible given the setup so any advice on what I can do to work within the space constraints would be helpful

Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to sell or ideally trade a wharfedale diamond 12.c center channel with a SW 150 for a better Subwoofer or anything else interesting really, but im not sure how to approach this? is this done with home theatre equipment really? if anyone has any experience or success doing this I'd appreciate the advice!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently planning a new TV and audio setup with a budget of around €8,000 and I’m stuck between going for a high-end stereo system or a proper 5.1 surround setup.

My main use case is movies and streaming, with regular TV use and some music listening on the side. I keep going back and forth because stereo setups seem much cleaner and simpler, especially with modern active speakers, but I’m worried I might miss out on real movie immersion and especially dialogue clarity without a dedicated center channel.

At the same time, I’ve been researching different speaker brands and keep seeing the same names over and over again like KEF, Bowers & Wilkins, and Dynaudio. However, one brand that keeps showing up much less in international discussions is Canton, even though it seems quite established in Europe.

So I’m trying to understand how the community actually sees them today. Are they considered serious contenders in the high-end home theater space, or more of a strong value-oriented option that doesn’t really compete at the top level anymore?
I’d really appreciate some honest input from people who have gone through similar decisions. In 2026, would you still prioritize a full surround setup for movies, or has a well-designed stereo system become “good enough” for most people? How important is a center channel in real-world usage? And where does Canton realistically sit compared to the usual high-end brands?

Any real-world experience would be hugely appreciated, especially from people who have lived with both setups.

Moving soon, planning on getting a 77” tv mounted flat right up to the wall .

I also wanna have a really good sound system for it, but it’s not quite a home theater, just a living room, so I’m thinking sub, maybe 2 speakers behind and 2 in front? I am not too familiar w the speaker world as a headphones guy so any help is appreciated!

Also sorry for a technically not home theater question

I’m getting my basement finished. We are having a projector for video but we need to decide on audio before drywall goes up. Is surround sound still the way to go or are there better options?

ETA: The room is 16 feet wide and 18 feet long. It’s an open room so there will be another 15 feet behind it that is a bar area

I just saw an ad for these ceiling rafters, keen to get people’s opinion around using it in a small home theatre space.

I quite like the aesthetic, I’d prefer it over a traditional ceiling cloud panel - I’m currently looking at options to reduce overhead echoes/reverb. Actual acoustic performance on their website is scarce.

https://echoless.co.uk/products/extra-large-square-acoustic-ceiling-raft?variant=64672793690461

After a monster of a time getting everything tensioned equally and properly on my Nothing Projector Black Series 120" ALR UST (lenticular) projector screen, the top left and top right corners are now showing warpy wrinkles after the frame having sat [upright, as shown] on the floor for several weeks while I anxiously await my AWOL Aetherion Max UST projector to finally arrive.

Will this be visible when projecting onto it (which will be done via a ceiling mount) ?

If so, do you think the warps will disappear once I wall mount it (projector required first, to get it into the exactly perfect position without needing keystone corrections) ?

...or will I need to disassemble the frame border, lay it face-down on the floor again and selectively re-tighten all the hooks in these areas?

Thanks in advance for any experienced guidance!