The same dilemma, pocket vs heart!

[Covid]

Dear All,

After many months of silent observation, finally joined the forum. I am currently in process of setting up my apartment hall to add a decent setup of home theater in 5.1.2 configuration. it will be incrementally built based on salaries each month. The hall dimension is 25x12x9 ft. Seating will be middle of the room. No scope of dampening etc since it is the HALL/Dining section of the apartment.
Total budget probably will be 150K finally[difficult to get home minister approval for anything higher].
Current State:
The false ceiling of the apartment is being done, so bought a 250 ft roll of C&E 14AWG cables to keep the wiring for rear surround and ceiling speakers. [darn cheap in amazon currently]
Please help me with the following part:
a. For the end point of the wires of surround rears, any known place in bengaluru where I can buy banana plug wall plates ? or is it not that necessary and wires out of wall can directly be added to speaker posts.
b. for ceiling speakers i think will have about 4-4.5 inch depth clearance in ceiling, any suggested speaker to fit that depth?
c. For the AVR part: Thinking to buy a Denon X1400 or X2500 or a Yamaha 585. Not planning to extend the setup later, so 7.2 will be enough for me. Any sugestion based on mixed listening of music and movies. Also any suggested BRay Players to go with?
d. Then the doubt for the speakers: Two floor standing, one center and a pair of rears. suggested to go with same brand or mixed brand is ok too ? any suggestion for the same from the bengaluru guys for experiencing and good price [not very good in bargaining].

 

[harryneopotter]

1.5 lakh is a very good budget for this setup, specially if you are going for 1400h. However, I will suggest going with 2500h as it has more power which you will need due to the size of the room.

 

[Rjoshi]

The blu ray is for discs ? I am using the Sony UBP X 700 4K player mostly for movie discs and it works great. digital media I use a Nvidia Shield. I have the music on a NAS and play it directly on the Denon bypassing the shield. (x2300... Time to upgrade!!) I suggest if majority of usage is digital, then Nvidia shield would be best vs bluray (Should cost around same in India, much less if bought in US)
Speakers I use Wharfedale (see signature) had a similar budget when I did 5.1 in 2017 , started with bookshelves and then upgraded to floor standers + Atmos . Build step wise was the advice I got on this forum and did that, happy building something every year in increments...

 

[ankitbhargava]

Dear All,

After many months of silent observation, finally joined the forum. I am currently in process of setting up my apartment hall to add a decent setup of home theater in 5.1.2 configuration. it will be incrementally built based on salaries each month. The hall dimension is 25x12x9 ft. Seating will be middle of the room. No scope of dampening etc since it is the HALL/Dining section of the apartment.
Total budget probably will be 150K finally[difficult to get home minister approval for anything higher].
Current State:
The false ceiling of the apartment is being done, so bought a 250 ft roll of C&E 14AWG cables to keep the wiring for rear surround and ceiling speakers. [darn cheap in amazon currently]
Please help me with the following part:
a. For the end point of the wires of surround rears, any known place in bengaluru where I can buy banana plug wall plates ? or is it not that necessary and wires out of wall can directly be added to speaker posts.
b. for ceiling speakers i think will have about 4-4.5 inch depth clearance in ceiling, any suggested speaker to fit that depth?
c. For the AVR part: Thinking to buy a Denon X1400 or X2500 or a Yamaha 585. Not planning to extend the setup later, so 7.2 will be enough for me. Any sugestion based on mixed listening of music and movies. Also any suggested BRay Players to go with?
d. Then the doubt for the speakers: Two floor standing, one center and a pair of rears. suggested to go with same brand or mixed brand is ok too ? any suggestion for the same from the bengaluru guys for experiencing and good price [not very good in bargaining].

In ceiling speakers, probably you should try to have a clear 5 inch depth
Same Brand and series can not go wrong and if you expect to watch Movies more than listening to Music .. allocate bigger budget for Center Channel (that is from where most of sound in Movies come from). Understanding the dimensions, you may want to use 2 small Subs as against one bigger.

 

[anilpatel]

Welcome @Covid.
You have mentioned the dilemma of many people of audio world.

 

[fLUX]

Dear All,

After many months of silent observation, finally joined the forum. I am currently in process of setting up my apartment hall to add a decent setup of home theater in 5.1.2 configuration. it will be incrementally built based on salaries each month. The hall dimension is 25x12x9 ft. Seating will be middle of the room. No scope of dampening etc since it is the HALL/Dining section of the apartment.
Total budget probably will be 150K finally[difficult to get home minister approval for anything higher].
Current State:
The false ceiling of the apartment is being done, so bought a 250 ft roll of C&E 14AWG cables to keep the wiring for rear surround and ceiling speakers. [darn cheap in amazon currently]

Please help me with the following part:
a. For the end point of the wires of surround rears, any known place in bengaluru where I can buy banana plug wall plates ? or is it not that necessary and wires out of wall can directly be added to speaker posts.

If you are not going to move the speakers there is no need of banana plugs on the rear. This will help hide the wire behind the speakers as well if your satellites are big enough

b. for ceiling speakers i think will have about 4-4.5 inch depth clearance in ceiling, any suggested speaker to fit that depth?

There are numerous offerings from Polk, Monoprice and so forth for ceiling speakers. Not too sure which one is good or vfm, have seen folks prefer the owm3

c. For the AVR part: Thinking to buy a Denon X1400 or X2500 or a Yamaha 585. Not planning to extend the setup later, so 7.2 will be enough for me. Any sugestion based on mixed listening of music and movies. Also any suggested BRay Players to go with?

When you say you donte intend to extend the setup do you mean to say you will not upgrade your speakers or you wont go beyond 7.2 ? An AVR with good power is important , the X2500 might be the best bet in the lot. If you can extend your budget a little more for the AVR the Marantz SR5013/14 might be available which will allow you a lot of flexibility if you ever decide on getting further upgrades to your speakers/need more power. Not too sure about any Blu ray player , i use a pre-owned one and its quiet good

d. Then the doubt for the speakers: Two floor standing, one center and a pair of rears. suggested to go with same brand or mixed brand is ok too ? any suggestion for the same from the bengaluru guys for experiencing and good price [not very good in bargaining].

Fronts & Center need to be of the same brand, both surround L/R need to be of the same brand. For your remaining budget accomodating fronts other than Pioneer/Taga 606 would be difficult if you also want to buy a subwoofer. Ideally i would suggest QAcoustics 3050i as Fronts, 3090i as center and 3010i as surrounds (65+17+21) and then save more money (about 40k + ) then go for a subwoofer like Bic PL-200ii, SVS SB-1000, SVS-PB1000 etc. You can refer to below for list of auditioning places in Bangalore. You can also audition the Polk Series in Pro Fx/The Home Cinema and see if you like the samee

 

[anilpatel]

@fLUX Thanks for sharing this information.

If you are not going to move the speakers there is no need of banana plugs on the rear. This will help hide the wire behind the speakers as well if your satellites are big enough.

I have been considering the banana plug and I would not move my speakers. So i will not use banana plugs.

 

[Covid]

thanks a lot for the replies ...
a. For the speakers, i am looking towards bundle package QAccoustics 3050 package but sceptical about the slim profile woofer.
b. Not purchasing the SW and stretch the budget to 1L for the speakers sounds like a good option. anyways the FS should provide me some amount of rumble for the the initial days.
c. Noted the suggestion about the center channel. Any particular brand in mind @ankitbhargava ?
d. TODO : Nvidia Shield, was not aware of it yet, sounds promising. currently was planning the Samsung Frame 55" as the source for movies. Let me work on this. [Hope Home Minister does not see this thread any time ]

 

[Rjoshi]

Check if you would want to get an Xbox S which can play all your streaming apps, 4K Blu Ray discs and if games is an interest / requirement. Should be multi purpose and not very different than India price of Shield. arranging from US / Hong Kong is always cheaper...

 

[sud98]

While the Nvidia Shield is a great device, for practical reasons and to save costs you can use a Mi 4k for a much smaller cost.

 

[fLUX]

thanks a lot for the replies ...

a. For the speakers, i am looking towards bundle package QAccoustics 3050 package but sceptical about the slim profile woofer.

Unless you are getting a bigger discount on the package go individually for the components. Especially the subwoofer in the package is very poorly rated across reviews whereas the QB12 from QAcoustics is a much better option. Alos at a slightly higher price range you can also consider SB1000/PB1000/XTZ 10.17 in the future

b. Not purchasing the SW and stretch the budget to 1L for the speakers sounds like a good option. anyways the FS should provide me some amount of rumble for the the initial days.

You will get good tight bass and fair amount of rumble for frequencies above 40hz. Good enough till you save up for a subwoofer (i watched Jurassic Park - Fallen Kingdom with just the Elac FS57.2 without sub and was happy with the output. Confident that 3050i will do a much better job.

c. Noted the suggestion about the center channel. Any particular brand in mind @ankitbhargava ?

Keep the brand same as to the Front LR you purchase , you can go for the Concept Center (28k) vs the 3090i(17k) from QAcoustics. Alternatives are going for a Dali Spektor/Dali Oberon fronts and Dali Spektor/Oberon Vokal Center but your budget would overshoot mostly if you go for the Oberon series.

d. TODO : Nvidia Shield, was not aware of it yet, sounds promising. currently was planning the Samsung Frame 55" as the source for movies. Let me work on this. [Hope Home Minister does not see this thread any time ]

If you manage to get someone to source one from US please get one for me as well I am also looking for one.

 

[Barun7]

You can opt for Oberon 5 and Oberon Vokal initially ao to see if you really need a Subwoofer in your setup. You should get at least 10-12% discount on MRPs from local dealers. Later you can add surrounds and if needed, a sub.
Oberon sounds great even for music!

 

[Covid]

Resurrecting the thread...
Sanity prevailed, so now i can list out the plan:
AV Recevier: x3700h
Speakers: Concept 20 + 3010i + concept center + QB12
Now, the doubt about procing and where to buy from? The prices are very high in online portals compared to last year, so will it be wise to wait till the dust settles around the pandemic?

Whether someone has similar combination and can let me know the experience, the online reviews are sggesting the sound signature is warm which is quite ok for me as the music to movie ratio is about 65%-35% .

How reliable are the dealers ads in OLX for Q Acoustics? have seen some quite low [about 20% lower than price of Hifi Mart etc] in OLX from some Chennai posts, are these reliable? any experience?

 

[fLUX]

For Qacoustics product you can reach out to Modern World, Domlur or The Home Cinema , Ecity. Both are good shops to go ahead and make a purchase.