New house, new rig advise please. S.E. Asia

[Bahtman]

I'm in the process of gathering recommendations for a new 7.2 system to fit this rather large room.

Reasonably priced components in Thailand are limited, but it is what it is.
Construction methods are cement walls and tile over the concrete floors. I'll deal with the acoustics in due time.

Speaker selections are really limited to JBL's , KEF's and Polk Audio's. Klipsch speakers are double here.
Competitively priced AVR,s include Marantz, Pioneer and HK. Denon's are double as well.

AVR's price wise, I've been looking at Marantz 6009 ($1200.00) and JBL's 500 series ($3200.00)　speakers or the LS series.

I'm looking at 5-6K for the package, but am always flexible for the right gear.

If you folks would be so kind as to recommend some matching components, I'd be eternally grateful.

Thanks in advance for any ideas and suggestions

 

[mep]

Bahtman-Welcome to AS. I hope someone who is really into home theater will help you.

 

[cmalak]

Bahtman...welcome to AS :hi:

2-channel guy here so don't really know the multi-channel space/gear that well. I am sure quite a few folks can chime in and help with their expertise.

 

[the professor]

Welcome

I'm 2 ch also, so not much help.

 

[RichardAusten]

For relatively budget receivers Marantz is probably a solid choice - they generally offer the longest warranty and my suggestion would be to try and choose a model with pre-outs so that you have the option down the line to add separate power amps. This is an important feature regardless which brand of receiver you go with because there is only so much money to go around in these receivers and generally the amp section is one major area that can be improved upon and without the preamp out you're kind of stuck with the receiver sound as is. I had a flagship Pioneer Elite and brought home a Bryston which utterly trounced the Pioneer Elite.

I quickly looked up the 6009 and according to the site it has preouts for all 7.2 channels - make sure that is not a misprint because sometimes these sites mess that stuff up. If so it has some future flexibility in terms of power. Marantz receivers also don't sound sucky like a lot of receivers - you should be pleasantly surprised by the music output it offers as well. I can say receivers have come along way on that front over the years to the point where $1200 on a receiver looks more attractive than $1200 on an integrated amp.

Speakers are a personal taste thing but I would consider adding Anthony Gallo loudspeakers to your list. $3000 is tight but that can get you a pair of Strado 2 mains with stands and their top subwoofer. $1000 for the Center and two side channels. For home theater you're generally best off going with identical speakers all around (especially the front three main speakers).

Gallo is pretty deceptive when it comes to the size and volume capability. Anthony Gallo Acoustics | Reference Strada 2 Center Speaker Bundle They offer a 60 day in home trial so there is that.

If the Galoo's size and or looks scare you off the have a look at the Martin Logan Air Motion series - $3200 for 7 speakers and a sub is difficult but these speakers are pretty awesome for pretty low money. MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System | Sound & Vision

 

[Dpod4]

I own marantz and KEF LS 50s. Both very musical and well built.

 

[Bahtman]

For relatively budget receivers Marantz is probably a solid choice - they generally offer the longest warranty and my suggestion would be to try and choose a model with pre-outs so that you have the option down the line to add separate power amps. I had a flagship Pioneer Elite and brought home a Bryston which utterly trounced the Pioneer Elite. I quickly looked up the 6009 and according to the site it has preouts for all 7.2 channels

Agreed and the Marantz has the pre-outs you referred to.
Bryson brand is new to me and certainly not available here, but the Elite's are

Speakers are a personal taste thing but I would consider adding Anthony Gallo loudspeakers to your list. $3000 is tight but that can get you a pair of Strado 2 mains with stands and their top subwoofer. $1000 for the Center and two side channels. For home theater you're generally best off going with identical speakers all around (especially the front three main speakers).

Gallo is pretty deceptive when it comes to the size and volume capability. Anthony Gallo Acoustics | Reference Strada 2 Center Speaker Bundle They offer a 60 day in home trial so there is that.

If the Galoo's size and or looks scare you off the have a look at the Martin Logan Air Motion series - $3200 for 7 speakers and a sub is difficult but these speakers are pretty awesome for pretty low money. MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System | Sound & Vision

Those speakers aren't available here, only the ones I listed and there is no auditioning here. You buy it, you own it, unless it's DOA.

But I'll have to look at the ML speakers, as I might be able to find them here, but not to sure about the pricing.

And I really can increase the budget, as this will be the last setup I'll be putting together.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Bahtman]

I own marantz and KEF LS 50s. Both very musical and well built.

Yea, the Marantz is on my short list and KEF's are available but I've not compared the pricing here to others yet:
Q 500 @ $1050.00, the Q 700's @ $1500.00 and the Q 900's @ $2150.00. No LS series here.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Bahtman]

Agreed and the Marantz has the pre-outs you referred to.
Bryson brand is new to me and certainly not available here, but the Elite's are





Those speakers aren't available here, only the ones I listed and there is no auditioning here. You buy it, you own it, unless it's DOA.

But I'll have to look at the ML speakers, as I might be able to find them here, but not to sure about the pricing.

And I really can increase the budget, as this will be the last setup I'll be putting together.

Thanks for the input.

I checked on the ML speakers here:
Motion 40's are $2150.00 but I've not compared the pricing elsewhere.

 

[RichardAusten]

Are you in Thailand? Man everything is in Bangkok - the Big massive shopping mall there has audio dealers galore. For these manufacturers check out their distributor pages and they will list their locations. Martin Logan for example is at

KOMFORTSOUND. LTD.
367 Onnut Road Prawet Prawet
Bangkok, 10250

The best thing you can do if you live outside of Bangkok is to get a list of 5-10 interesting speaker lines - make the trip to Bangkok and listen for yourself - then you can have the dealer ship what you like to your place. Heck they'll probably ship it for free if you're buying several pieces. Everything is available in Thailand. They have the $100k MBL speakers in the shopping mall right next to the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and Lamborghini's - crazy mall. I was there for New Years a few years back.

 

[Bahtman]

Thanks for the links and response.
You da man Richard.

I'm 8 hours N. of BKK but will be passing thru twice on my way back to the US and back, and plan on shopping after I get back. Not much gear here in NE Thailand.

I followed your Komfortsound link and ended up on another forum in Thailand I've not been to in awhile and was able to gather a lot of info including connecting to a audio engineer.

Granted, there are a number of shops around, but getting fair pricing due to import fee's etc. is a bit more daunting.
JBL's, KEf and Polk Audio speakers are fair, but Klipsch'c costs are double. Same with AVR's

Anyway thanks big time for your post and all the info I'll get from it. :congrats::yahoo1::celebrate008_2:

I'll stay in touch.

Mike

 

[Bahtman]

Are you in Thailand? Man everything is in Bangkok - the Big massive shopping mall there has audio dealers galore. For these manufacturers check out their distributor pages and they will list their locations. Martin Logan for example is at

KOMFORTSOUND. LTD.
367 Onnut Road Prawet Prawet
Bangkok, 10250

The best thing you can do if you live outside of Bangkok is to get a list of 5-10 interesting speaker lines - make the trip to Bangkok and listen for yourself - then you can have the dealer ship what you like to your place. Heck they'll probably ship it for free if you're buying several pieces. Everything is available in Thailand. They have the $100k MBL speakers in the shopping mall right next to the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and Lamborghini's - crazy mall. I was there for New Years a few years back.

I'm just back from a lengthy visit stateside and revisiting the posts and soon-to-be purchases with great enthusiasm.

I picked up a 65" Sony display and look forward to getting the gear to make this place sing.

The plan is to head off to BKK and spend as much time as needed auditioning various systems hoping to come way with do-able.

I've talked to a seller of Denon/JBL's and they've sent me their current promo's including the Denon 5200w paired up with the JBL studio 580's.

My MLP is currently 11' from the soundstage but 14' from the surround's position and 11' from rears, if I added them. The question arises about the distances and speaker sizes needed.

Someone suggested "towers in all positions" which I'm prewired for but I'd like your take on that and multiple subs. I'm pre wired for those as well but may have to go with wireless based on the layout.

And while I have your attention, I've noticed subs using RCA inputs, whereas I've run std.12ga. wire. Are there adapters available for the conversion?

Thanks for the advice and input.

 

[Bahtman]

I own marantz and KEF LS 50s. Both very musical and well built.

I'm looking at the Marantz 6009 as having pretty much what I need, spec. wise. I like to look and specs of the KEF Q series and was wondering about towers front, for surrounds and for the rears as well. (sized accordingly of course) based on the size of the room and speaker distances.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Bahtman]

Ok, back from BKK and 4 days of shopping around.

I'll probably be getting either the Focal 926 or KEF Q 900 mains, the Denon X4100W with a 6 mo. old Martin Logan Dynamo 1500 sub.

Surrounds to be determined so please look at my new thread about surround locations.

Thanks for all the help.

BKK rocks