Hello all, I have been stalking around the DIY website and forum for quite a while trying to decide on speakers to build. It seems I change my mind about every other day on which ones I want. I guess I should begin by telling you what I presently have and why I am upgrading. I currently have an older HK 7.1 amp that pushed around 60w rms for power. My fronts are a pair of DCM MTW 5" 1" 12", they are approximately 18 years old. No center channel (no room at present). My surrounds are Pro Acoustics 8" in wall and ceiling built ins with aluminum drivers. Subwoofer is a 12" infinity with around 200 watts. Sorry no model numbers off the top of my head. I do love the way my system sounds now with the exception of no center channel. It has a very smooth sound at virtually any level. The reason for the upgrade is that I am remodeling my basement and I am building a new home theater room. My HK does not have any HDMI functions on it which was not a major issue with my flat screen but I am switching to a projector so HDMI becomes an issue. My front I am worried about just because of their age, that and after 5 children poking, prodding, and spilling they are looking a little rough. There is really nothing wrong with my surrounds, but I figure if I am going to upgrade might as well do the whole system. I have listened to many off the shelf speakers from Polk, Klipsch, and others. I have not been overly impressed to say the least in any of them under $1000. For the most part they sound waaaay to harsh to me (too much 1khz to 3khz). The new theater room is 18' wide, 25' deep, with 8' ceilings. It will have textured sheet rock walls, hard wood flooring with area rugs, and 4 microfiber reclining love seats. I have decided on a Yamaha 7.2 AVR with approximately 100w a channel. I am going to use all 7 channels plus the front presence and 2 subs. I have several amps available to me for the subs. QSC and Behringer pro audio amps ranging from a few hundred to several thousands of watts for the subs. Building this room has been on my wish list for quite some time and I don't want to sell myself short with the audio end, it's kinda my thing, but I have been out of the game for quite a while on the home theater end of it. I want a full rich sound that is not too bright, but yet detailed if that makes any sense. Thunderous low end is a must for explosions etc. I was leaning toward the Alchemy speakers, but just not sure. Towers for the fronts, the center channel, then the singles for all the others. Subs? I currently own 12 BFM Titan 48's and love the wave guide for live sound in large areas, but I am concerned about that style for size and confined space for home theater application. So I was leaning a little more toward 2 ported enclosures. Wow, sorry for the novel, but wanted to give all the information I could. Any advice, pointers, do's and don'ts would be most appreciated. Thanks.
Hi, I replaced 2 polk RTi8s and a CSi a6 with 2 alchemy towers and the matching center, and it was WELL worth it. They sound great, can fill my large, open room up with sound, and I haven't been able to tolerate a loud enough volume to make them distort. I still have polk RTi6's as my surrounds and if I listen to music in all channel stereo mode, the polks absolutely can't keep up. I went back and forth trying to decide between upgrading the surrounds to the fusion-8 bookshelves, or the volt-8 coaxials, and ended up choosing the volts after doing some reading and getting some opinions on waveguide vs. coax for surround speakers. Hopefully my order will be finalized soon so I can get those polks the hell out of my setup. Have fun with the new build!
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I am having one of my flip flop days today, I was looking at the Fusion 12 as an option and wonder how it would compare to the fusion 8 towers.