2. home-theater
  3. 1294093878

What to upgrade or just leave it alone ?

I have a large, bouncy (tiled floor) great room w/12' ceilings that is used for the home theater (no basement here in Vegas...). I do have heavy drapes along the left wall and an area rug in front of the main listening area, but otherwise it is sheetrock and tile...very large volume as the house has an extremely open floor plan.

I like what I hear from my current budget mid-fi system, but figure I'm missing some opportunities for significantly better sound.

Current system:

-Rotel 1056 receiver
-B&W LCRs up front (all three)
-B&W in ceiling surrounds out back
-Two velodyne SPL-10s (serve as speaker stands for the L&R LCRs)
-Lower end Kimber cable for LCRs
-Sony XBR4 (50")
-Sharp BD20 Blu-ray running HDMI video to Sony and 5.1 audio direct to Rotel (blue jeans cables)
-Directv DVR video via HDMI to Sony and digital audio (Kimber) to Rotel
Dedicated 20A power circuit for all AV equipment

I have limitations on space and asthetics (I've been married 25 years and want to stay that way...) so I can't just put some big honkin' B&W 803's up front or anything like that.

I almost bought an Oppo 83SE but held off for some reason ($ at the time) and now Oppo is putting out a new unit so I figured it was a good time to ask for help from others on my total system.

The system is mainly used for watching TV or movies, and listening to the radio (wife). Not too much critical music listening, though I'd like to spend more time doing just that. Musical tastes run from Rush to Steely Dan to Jim Brickman to Andrea Bocelli to the Beatles and beyond.
A warm sound is preferred.

So, should I get a new blu-ray player or get fancy and get a receiver/processor with a microphone and auto setup type system? Or just forget it and buy a Rolex? =8^O

Given all the compromises inherent in the room situation, maybe just sit back and enjoy what I have...

Thanks for reading all that!
admranger

Showing 1 response by admranger

admranger OP
144 posts
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Daverz: The speakers are B&W LCR6-2's up front

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/0e/64/elec_Home_SpeakersStereoBW_600BW_LCR6_S2-resized200.gif

Thanks for the multisub paper, Bob. I'll have to sit down and read it, look at my room, and see what I can do. I think placing the subs elsewhere in the room would be fine, as long as they were hidden (for the most part) and I have a couple of options there (possibly).

On to my goal(s) for the system since I was not at all clear in my original post: I want the system to reproduce music as realistically as possible, given the constraints of the room. It also has to function as a theater system handling action movies as well as HDTV off the DirecTV DVR.

I have no ability to create a 2-channel listening room (no unused space in the house) so this system has to pull double duty.
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