Need help with Speakers selection for first time HT Setup

[newhtdreamer]

Friends,
I'm finally a member on the site after being an avid reader in the last few months. Setting up a Home Theater has been a 12 year dream and finally I've begun working towards this, but I'm no audiophile/expert so I will need all the help and guidance from all the experts here in my journey for a first time HT setup.
To begin with, I need your guidance in shortlisting/deciding good speakers.

The needs:
-Decent HT Setup, something that will be good for movies as well as music (stereo)
-Planning to get only the front floorstanding speakers and a good center speaker
for basic movie experience, will get the sub woofer and surrounds later
-Looking for warmer/neutral sound and clarity in the mid range - should not cause fatigue over extended hours of listening
-Range of music and movies is quite wide right from Indian classical, Indian film music, Rock, Pop, Country, Indian and Hollywood movies (anything that sounds good/any movie that is good)
-Budget about 1 lac for the speakers

Progress so far:
-Bought the Onkyo NR709 AVR
-Auditioned ELAC 127 and Energy CF 50. Found the ELAC better for music (warmer) but the CF 50, though brighter it felt better for movies
-Auditioned Mordaunt Short Aviano 6 and Monitor Audio Bronze BX5. Between these two, BX5 felt better overall. Also, the Aviano 6 and BX5 definitely seemed to be in a different league compared to ELAC and CF 50
-The leading contender so far is the BX5 which will cost about 70k for fronts+center

Since I've come so far I want to shortlist and audition some more speakers before making the final decision.
For now, these are the speakers I'm planning to audition:
KEF Q900 (seems above my budget though since I also need to get a center speaker within budget!)
KEF Q700
Polk RTi A9
Polk RTi A7
I plan to audition these at a dealers place later this week.

Should I add Energy CF 70 also to the list ?

Some friends also recommended Focal Chorus based on reviews, so I added to this list the
Focal Chorus 726 V but the problem is there are no dealers in Bangalore now so it cannot be auditioned.
Does any member in Bangalore have these speakers and would it be possible to give a demo sometime ?

Need your suggestions for any more speakers to be considered for audition.

 

[newhtdreamer]

Friends, can someone help me with the speaker shortlist please ?

 

[pallav_gupta]

Look at polk Rti a9 for movies. You can get A9 + Csi6 within your budget. I use them along with fxia6 for surround and they are awesome.

 

[prosenjit]

u demoed the speakers with your avr??
very important.
also demo wharfedale,sonodyne avant,and very good decision about buying step by step.
you can also buy just a centre and a sub for enjoying movies presently.
Or as you decided a centre and 2 fronts.
good sub velodyne/svs although expensive...

best of luck

 

[newhtdreamer]

u demoed the speakers with your avr??
very important.
also demo wharfedale,sonodyne avant,and very good decision about buying step by step.
you can also buy just a centre and a sub for enjoying movies presently.
Or as you decided a centre and 2 fronts.
good sub velodyne/svs although expensive...

best of luck

Thanks. So far all auditions have been with my AVR Onkyo NR709, will do the same for the remaining speakers as well.

 

[newhtdreamer]

Look at polk Rti a9 for movies. You can get A9 + Csi6 within your budget. I use them along with fxia6 for surround and they are awesome.

The Polk Rti A9 and A7 are in my list so I will definitely audition them.

u demoed the speakers with your avr??
very important.
also demo wharfedale,sonodyne avant,and very good decision about buying step by step.
you can also buy just a centre and a sub for enjoying movies presently.
Or as you decided a centre and 2 fronts.
good sub velodyne/svs although expensive...
best of luck

So far I've done all the auditions with my AVR Onkyo NR709.
After spending so much money, I'm hoping the bass from the front floorstanders will be good enough (don't want thumping bass) for now so that I can postpone buying the sub.

Thanks guys.

 

[Kittu]

Add PSB Image T5 , T6 and Paradigm monitor 11 to your auditioning list.

 

[milestoneseeker]

Focal can be heard at Audio Dynamics in Bangalore as they are the dealers for JM Labs. Contact Abhishek @ 9916728013 .

They are typical not too great on bass side so sometimes stereo exp may suffer. Movies are taken care by the SW.

sent from my SIII using tapatalk

 

[newhtdreamer]

Add PSB Image T5 , T6 and Paradigm monitor 11 to your auditioning list.

Thanks Kittu, added these to my list.
Do you know who are the dealers in Bangalore for PSB, Paradigm and EPOS ?
Where can I audition Focal (ProFx not a dealer anymore) ? Do you if you know of any member of the forum who has Focal 726 in Bangalore ?

 

[Kittu]

Paradigm and PSB can be auditioned at (Final Touch , Millers Road).

Paradigm with Marantz at htstore.in (JP Nagar).

EPOS - Swishaudio.com (Some where near nice road).

 

[newhtdreamer]

EPOS - Swishaudio.com (Some where near nice road).

I was planning to audition the EPOS M16i (got it from the speaker price thread where it is being discussed currently) as this seems to be in similar price range as the others in my list.
However, the EPOS website lists this one under "Old Products" category so should I also include Epic 5 ? Any idea how much it costs ?

 

[newhtdreamer]

Focal can be heard at Audio Dynamics in Bangalore as they are the dealers for JM Labs. Contact Abhishek @ 9916728013 .

They are typical not too great on bass side so sometimes stereo exp may suffer. Movies are taken care by the SW.

Auditioned the Focal Chorus 826 (this was the only one available for demo) at Audio Dynamics. This was simply the best that I've heard so far but way off from my budget - I was planning for the 726 but even that is currently priced at 1L :sad:, shocked that retail price has gone up by about 18k in 7 months since the last Pro Fx brochure of Feb 2012 listed Chorus 726 at 82k!
Abhishek was very helpful and patient during the 1.5 hour audition with lots of CD's that I had carried, Thanks Abhiskek, will decide soon after approvals with home and finance ministries hyeah:
The soundstage reproduction was simply superb with great detail, vocals were crystal clear and no fatigue despite a long session - listening to classical music felt like a live concert :clapping:

 

[milestoneseeker]

Auditioned the Focal Chorus 826 (this was the only one available for demo) at Audio Dynamics. This was simply the best that I've heard so far but way off from my budget - I was planning for the 726 but even that is currently priced at 1L :sad:, shocked that retail price has gone up by about 18k in 7 months since the last Pro Fx brochure of Feb 2012 listed Chorus 726 at 82k!
Abhishek was very helpful and patient during the 1.5 hour audition with lots of CD's that I had carried, Thanks Abhiskek, will decide soon after approvals with home and finance ministries hyeah:
The soundstage reproduction was simply superb with great detail, vocals were crystal clear and no fatigue despite a long session - listening to classical music felt like a live concert :clapping:

I am glad! In fact, now I am equally keen to listen to the Focals. What did you listen to the Focals with? Which amp and CDP set-up? And what was the price for 826?

Abhishek is very helpful during such sessions and it is a pleasure interacting with him.

 

[newhtdreamer]

I am glad! In fact, now I am equally keen to listen to the Focals. What did you listen to the Focals with? Which amp and CDP set-up? And what was the price for 826?

I had initially planned to audition the Chorus 726 with my Onkyo 709 AVR but since only Chorus 826 was available for demo I did not carry my AVR, just wanted to see Focals in action.
Abhishek had pretty high end stuff, I think it was an Exposure Stereo Amp with a 200W per channel driving the Focal 826 floorstanders and CD Player was also Expsoure branded, really good stuff.
Also, the room was almost the size of my room 14' x 18' and acoustic treatment on the wall behind the speakers and 2 other sides had heavy drapes, no carpeting on the floor. The other side had a wooden shelf with electronic equipment - the shelf was just to separate the total length of the room to allow for 2 office tables on the other side and the far wall had glass.
I was actually happy with this setup since the room where I'm planning this setup is a living room and will not be a perfect 'theater'/media room.
The price of the 726 itself shocked me so I did not ask for the price of 826 hyeah:

 

[milestoneseeker]

... I think it was an Exposure Stereo Amp with a 200W per channel driving the Focal 826 floorstanders and CD Player was also Expsoure branded, really good stuff.

Ok, I guess he used Exposure 3010 s2 CDP/Amp combo. So that was ~3L worth of equipment driving the Focals