Wanting to downsize speakers but not sound

[jdoggg12]

Hey there fellow home theater peoples! Like most of you, I love full, powerful sound in my home theater. Unfortunately, I'm starting to feel like a grown-up and am less and less excited about the large footprint of my Klipsch RF-3 main speakers and Definitive BP-2002 that serve as rear surrounds*.

I'm looking for 5 speakers to replace these monsters with. I'm not sure what my budget is yet but I don't want to spend much more than 5-600 on all 5. What are the current top bookshelf-sized performers for the money in this price range?

This setup is a jack-of-all-trades type thing... music, movies, games, etc. I will probably build my own subwoofer as an experiment/learner project.

They are powered by a Denon 1613 if it matters.


*The definitives are hand-me-downs from my dad. I had the klipsch mains & RC-52 center for years...the BP2002s were an easy way to have SOMETHING for surround that could keep up with the mains & add bass.


I should probably add that I have a decent understanding of HT... So, I know I'm not going to get the same level of bass/mid-range from bookshelf speakers. I do know that you can get a lot of great sound out of small/mid-size speakers though. It's just that it's been many years since I've had to know what's what in home theater

 

[sdifox]

Room config?

 

[alcoholbob]

Downsizing speakers but not sound is a contradiction unless you are going down in size in the same product lineup and getting a bigger sub

 

[jdoggg12]

Downsizing speakers but not sound is a contradiction unless you are going down in size in the same product lineup and getting a bigger sub

Were it not for the tongue-in-cheek-ish smilie, I would've gone off on a rant, haha.

But yea, the sub will be pulling double duty in the new setup.

As for room config - how best to convey that?

 

[sdifox]

Were it not for the tongue-in-cheek-ish smilie, I would've gone off on a rant, haha.

But yea, the sub will be pulling double duty in the new setup.

As for room config - how best to convey that?

dimensions plus big item locations.

 

[gus6464]

For passives it is quite hard to beat the new ELAC B5/B6. They blew a lot of minds at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this year.

 

[sdifox]

For passives it is quite hard to beat the new ELAC B5/B6. They blew a lot of minds at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this year.

yeah get 5 B6 and call it a day.

 

[mdram]

emptek, hsu and svs all get good reviews over on avs

 

[jdoggg12]

I'm digging everything I'm reading about the empteks, thank you guys!

If I were do a couple of comparisons in person, are there any other similarly performing alternatives I should consider? Any models from KEF, energy, or ones from mdram's suggestions of hsu or svs?

Thanks guys!

 

[13Gigatons]

Those speakers are quite small.

You could get five bookshelf speakers and augment the bass with a larger subwoofer. That would save space and still sound reasonable good.