7.2 Hi-Fi Home Theater, help me choose components and vote, please :)

Originally Posted by Electrocutor 

If your room is conditioned, there is absolutely no reason to have two subwoofers. In fact, adding the second subwoofer can screw up your soundstage. Having two subwoofers is never necessary and only desired if you have spots around your room with standing waves or dead zones; if you condition against this (like you say you are), then you've eliminated any reason for a second sub.

7.1ch surround is a marketing gimic. There is nothing real called 7.1ch surround, it is just 5.1ch with split up surrounds to try to help compensate for poorly layed-out rooms. If you've setup this room specifically for home theater and listening, save the money on the extra two speakers and put it into getting better mains.

I've not personally heard either of those company's speakers, so I cannot comment on them, but with a budget of 7k, you really ought to think about floor-standers. Usually speaker companies put more effort into their flagship and high-end floorstanders than their bookshelves (there are some exceptions). In that price range, I would probably include the B&W CM-9 / CM series on my listening list.


I hope you have a local hi-fi audio store where you can go into properly setup listening rooms and compare and listen to music on various speakers and electronics. No one else will hear things quite the same as you yourself, and that's extremely important especially when looking for a true high fidelity setup. Also, look for audiophile forums that are heavily trafficed because a lot of them have boards where you can find someone near you that is using a set of speakers that you may want to hear and are open to you visiting their house to give them a listen before you drop wads of cash on them.

Originally Posted by bumblebee1980 

I don't think spending all your money on a receiver is a good idea. the Yamaha RX-A2020 is $1500 USD. what I would do is go with separates (eg. $500 receiver with pre-outs and $1000 multi-channel power amplifier)