Home theater planning advice

I was at our local BB the other day and tested the edge in-wall speakers for possible front channels. I was a little unimpressed. I have 4 vanquish speakers in my living room and absolutely love them. For the theater, I wanted to get away from in-ceiling and was hoping the edges would be good. I think I was wrong, even at BB the vanquish sounded more full than the edge.

We also demoed Theos and Summit X's. The Summits were incredible. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can convince my wife that floor speakers are the way to go.

Theater room is 16 x 23'.

I am planning on a 7.2 system.
Center: Stage X or Motif X
Fronts: kind of up in the air right now
surrounds/rear seat: FX2's
Subs: 2 Dynamo 1000's.

Worst case scenario: I go with a Stage X, 6 vanquish, and 2 Dynamo subs.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I am also looking at the Paradigm Studio's, but would prefer to stay with ML.

a couple of observations. Vanquish has proven to be a hell of an in ceiling beaten our estimates, but Edges have no disadvantages. I can' speak to exactly why the edges may not have worked as well as it can at a BB, but i have to assume less overall wall volume in those small cells they put them in versus the bigger air volume that the ceiling volume provides that the Vanquish see. Other factor is less break in time as in ceilings receive the lions share of demo times.
A couple of CEDIAs ago, to prove the in walls merits, we built false walls, mounted Edges and a/b to Montis to show that the apple doesn't fall to far.
Since you have subs, you may also explore the on wall stats? Similar to the EM ESL and would be perfect with the centers you have listed. again, you have plenty of bass gong on.

Peter,
Thanks for the information. I love my Vanquishes in our living room with 10ft ceilings. The HT will have 9ft ceilings and I really want the sound to come directly from the front, which is why I was interested in the Edges. If I go with the Edges, they will be on an exterior wall, so don't know if that will make a difference or not. I have considered the on-wall EFX's for the front, but was a little worried about the size of the panel, considering we will have two rows of seats & an eat at bar. The second row of seats will be elevated and the bar will be slightly higher as well.

Thanks again,

Kurt

Peter Soderberg said:

a couple of observations. Vanquish has proven to be a hell of an in ceiling beaten our estimates, but Edges have no disadvantages. I can' speak to exactly why the edges may not have worked as well as it can at a BB, but i have to assume less overall wall volume in those small cells they put them in versus the bigger air volume that the ceiling volume provides that the Vanquish see. Other factor is less break in time as in ceilings receive the lions share of demo times.
A couple of CEDIAs ago, to prove the in walls merits, we built false walls, mounted Edges and a/b to Montis to show that the apple doesn't fall to far.
Since you have subs, you may also explore the on wall stats? Similar to the EM ESL and would be perfect with the centers you have listed. again, you have plenty of bass gong on.

Click to expand...

it sounds like you have good overall listening distances which makes vertical dispersion less critical so the people on the back bar should be fine. Also, EFX can be mounted upside down so that you can work with the panel length to make sure you have good coverage vertically for the two rows. if it doesn't work then Edges it is. I have worked often with these goods an obviously they are voiced to work with what you already have so i have confidence you will be good with it. We designed these products to work in the air space of a wall as opposed to a small air volume so we can increase power handling, bass output. Since it is an outside wall, you will have some firebreaks, but there will be plenty of air volume to do what we need. I do always recommend the Dynamat architectural systems for improved performance, reduced sound leakage, actually much better than a box.
on another note, if you do any of the on wall stats, like the centers, possibly EFX, run a 16 gauge two conductor along with the speaker cable so you can power these products versus having to have an electrician come out to put outlets near the locations. As it is only 16 volts running through it, you can legally do it with your low voltage contractor as opposed to new power. just splice in the power supplies at your plug location and off you go.

esso2112 said:

I was at our local BB the other day and tested the edge in-wall speakers for possible front channels. I was a little unimpressed. I have 4 vanquish speakers in my living room and absolutely love them. For the theater, I wanted to get away from in-ceiling and was hoping the edges would be good. I think I was wrong, even at BB the vanquish sounded more full than the edge.

We also demoed Theos and Summit X's. The Summits were incredible. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can convince my wife that floor speakers are the way to go.

Theater room is 16 x 23'.

I am planning on a 7.2 system.
Center: Stage X or Motif X
Fronts: kind of up in the air right now
surrounds/rear seat: FX2's
Subs: 2 Dynamo 1000's.

Worst case scenario: I go with a Stage X, 6 vanquish, and 2 Dynamo subs.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I am also looking at the Paradigm Studio's, but would prefer to stay with ML.

Click to expand...

If you stand up with your EFX, you will lose detail because the panel isn't that long but if you're standing up you probably don't care anyways as you are busy doing something else. Just be mindfull how high the second row is.

I would go with x8 Vanquish (4 hight + 2 front and rear) for a Dolby Atmos or Auro3D setup using Marantz 7009 or Dennon 4100 (Onkyo dropped XT32 with their current line that supports Atmos). That would be awsome!

Or you could use two EFX front and rear matching (I'll sell you my pair) that would be cool too but the footprint will be larger

Or tell you're wife that you will get rid of your subs and replace them with all in one Towers like the Spires ($4000 used price) The EFX isn't saving you floor space when you require two subs to suppliment them.

So I'd make the wife happy and go with 6 vanquish and two Spires (no subs). I'm doing something similiar but with Ethos and IC in-ceiling for a 5.0.4 Atmos setup.