Dedicated theater - Vista, Purity, or Source

So I currently have a dedicated HT room that I've been running M&K speakers in for the past few years. Just recently, my center channel went out so I decided an upgrade was in order. I had purchased a set of Preface with the Encore center channel, but returned them since I felt the Encore was lacking compared to the M&K I had. I have since purchased the Motif and love it. I am now stuck on what to use for my L/R speakers.

This room will be used for 99% movies/TV. The 1% that will be music will be in MP3 format so quality is not all there. I have listened to the Source and the Vista and can tell a huge difference between them when listening to music. But since I'm not doing music on them, would I be ok going with the Source, or maybe the Purity for my L/R? Only reason I was leaning towards the Vista was the taller panel. I have 2 rows of seats (3+3) and the back row is 14" higher than the front. The taller panel gives me a little more vertical room.

Most of the time it's just my wife and I in the room, so I want the sound spot on for me. She is not concerned with the sound. As long as she hears what is going on, she is happy. For the times we have people over to watch movies, most people will be just fine not being in the sweet spot.

So to all the experts out there, will the Source or Purity work, or should I really jump up to the Vistas? Will I noticed that much improvement from the Vistas that cost twice as much in a strictly HT environment?

Also, the speakers will be powered with an older Adcom amp. 150W/channel

Thanks,
David

For home theater use your center channel and sub are more important than your front L/R speakers. You want to hear the voices and feel the bass. My opinion, your mileage may vary.

Wardsweb said:

For home theater use your center channel and sub are more important than your front L/R speakers. You want to hear the voices and fell the bass. My opinion, your mileage may vary.

Click to expand...

Agree. That's why I decided against the Encore and went with the Motif. For subs, I have 2 Dynamos plus a SVS that I can kick on for the extra WOW factor.

for movies only the L/R will not get much of a workout. You should be just fine with the lower-end stuff.

The only caveat I would suggest is that if you were eventually upgrade your DVD player to a Universal Bluray player like the OPPO BDP83 then you could play 5.1 surround sound SACD and DVD audio on your HT system.

But be careful you may get hooked on music for your HT and then yeah you would wish you had put in the Vistas. Life is not fare

Otherwise the previous advice is right on.

I would add one more thing, MLs are a slippery slope. Once you start down the ESL path it is hard to stop, unless you reach the Summit, or some would say the Summit X, or the CLX or whatever. MLs can be very addictive.

JMAUSGP said:

The only caveat I would suggest is that if you were eventually upgrade your DVD player to a Universal Bluray player like the OPPO BDP83 then you could play 5.1 surround sound SACD and DVD audio on your HT system.

But be careful you may get hooked on music for your HT and then yeah you would wish you had put in the Vistas. Life is not fare

Otherwise the previous advice is right on.

Click to expand...

In that case, I could just move the Source speakers to the back and buy the Vistas or something better for the front.

Musically, the Source will be much better than the M&Ks I had. I think starting our with those would probably be fine. I just wanted to hear from others and see what they thought.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Hello,
It really seems in this instance, with HT being a major priority, you will be best served by purchasing either of the ESL Series Center Channels: Motif and Stage.

While much more expensive, they are much bigger speakers that will perform far better. The Vista on up are the matching speakers, but it is not as though using a speaker from the Design Series will be an issue. Vista's would be better all around as, in certain mixes, the front left and right speakers see much action. However, the Center is really the speaker most critical.

On Audiogon, sometimes the 3,000 Dollar Stage has been available for around 1,500 Dollars. Motif for a bit over a grand.
ML

Just so you know, I used to have Sources for the rear speakers in my 5.1 music set up. They were really nice for the money.....which you can get a nice used pair on A'gon for around grand if you look.

But when I replaced the Summits with the CLXs I replaced the Sources with Vistas and I was actually surprised at how much better the Vistas were. The Vistas are about 2 grand on A'gon if you look. And I might have seen them new on Audio Advisor for about 2100????

My previous posts were a little tongue and cheek, but there is a bit of truth in them as I have experience with replacing Sources with Vistas, in fact I have fallen victim to the ML slippery slope 20 times.

So consider yourself warned.

I respectfully disagree with the L&R speakers not being as important for home theater.If you skimp on them you will not have a seamless soundstage across the front.If something moves from the left to the center and to the right the L&R will sound differant from the center.Todays soundtracks employ the use of the front three channels together more than ever before.In the days of Pro Logic the sound was primarily out of the center channel.A good example of this is Jurassic Park.Listen to it in pro logic and then listen to it in DD or DTS.The differance is night and day.In pro logic the T-rex is mainly in the center where in DD or DTS is is spread evenly throughout the front three.I do not understand the argument that the left and right speakers are not important.In my opinion that does not make any sense.

Horchem1972 said:

I do not understand the argument that the left and right speakers are not important.In my opinion that does not make any sense.

Click to expand...

It is not that they are 'not important', rather that in HT use they are of less importance than the center. So when you break down the budget it is important to get a quality center first.

So I went down to the local dealer after work yesterday and listened to both the Vista and Source side by side again. Listening to certain music there was a huge difference. Other music, there was a difference, but not sure if it was a $2k difference. I am going to head back there again today and listen to some movies on both of them again and make a decision. My wife gave me the green light this morning, so now I just need to make my decision.

I feel that the Motif center that I bought does a great job. I currently moved my Montages that I have in my living room to my theater to try along side the Motif since they are closer to it than the M&Ks I have. The Montages seem to do very well in a HT environment. I know the Sources are a step up from the Montages since the are ESL compared to ATF. So they may be able to handle what I need them for.

The ML bug has bit me. Good things this isn't as bad as the Porsche bug I had for a few years.

JRace said:

It is not that they are 'not important', rather that in HT use they are of less importance than the center. So when you break down the budget it is important to get a quality center first.

Click to expand...

This is always an interesting dialog. . Some people get confused with the fact that since the center will be doing 60+ percent of the work, it needs to be better than the LF & RF...or the LF & RF can be of lesser quality;not so! Bottom line is that in terms of good overall sound it is important that the L, C, R all be of equal quality, or at the very least match in timbre. If either is better than the other, or there is a timbre mismatch the sound will appear to jump from speaker to speaker rather than panning smoothly across the stage. It is equally important that the surrounds and the Rear Centers (if 7.1) match in timbre also.

That is why manufacturers frequently specify which speakers make the best combination. Unfortunatly ML only does so in very general terms.

So here are some diagrams of my room. My seats are different, but this was the easiest way to represent the room



Here's a side shot showing the height different for the panels on the Vista and the Source



The source looks like it would be fine height wise. Just would need to play around with it a little on the angle depending on how they really line up once they are in the room. Obviously the Vista would be a lot more forgiving for height adjustment.

So after an extended period of listening to movies and some concert DVDs, the decision was made. A pair of Sources made it home with me tonight. During movies, I didn't feel a $2000 difference between the speakers. If I was going to be making this a listening room as well, then I would have gone for the Vistas.

Off to go hook them up now.

Thanks for all the input.

-David

Congrats on the new ladies.