Advice on home theater speaker setup

Thanks DSkip. Unfortunately the whole front left side of the room is a double-wide doorway, so there isn't a way to put a floor speaker on that side. Thus, the only way to have the two front speakers balanced is to have them high. I can mount them such that they are angled downward toward the viewing area. Would that solve the "wackiness"?

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Some responses below:

FestYboy wrote: »

Any chance of spinning the room 180°?

@FestYboy No, I'm afraid the room orientation won't work that way.

rooftop59 wrote: »

But if you really are tight, the PSW505 is a solid choice for the $$$.

@rooftop59 Ok thanks for the suggestion. I do think that a sub is about the easiest thing to upgrade in the future, so I will probably hold off on that upgrade and stick with the PSW505 for now.

rooftop59 wrote: »

Finally, I would just go with in-ceiling speakers for fronts. You can angle the tweeters. I have not been impressed with the ones you are looking at.

@rooftop59 This is interesting and not something I had considered. We had the room wired for wall-mounted in the front because I thought it would be most important for the front speakers to point out toward the viewer and due to the aforementioned doorway in the front of the room there was no way to do in-wall for the front speakers. I also thought that wall-mounted would give me options with more power in those front speakers. Bottom line is at this point, I'm afraid it would require some messy drywall and painting work to change that, so I think the in-ceiling option is out.

In terms of the OWM5's, have you tried them before or are you just looking at the specs? Can you be more specific about what hasn't impressed you about them?

Jaybeez wrote: »

Agree with Skip. One other thought might be going with S15s or S20s in the front to go with your center. Then the front soundstage is well matched.

@Jaybeez This is an interesting idea as a replacement for the OWM5's. The cost of a pair of S20's is basically the same as the OWM5's. The downside is that they are way bigger and also only come in black or walnut. For the upper-corner-mounting I have in mind, this means they will stand out / stick out a lot more than the OWM5's (they are about 15" deep vs 4" deep for the OWM5's).

Given this trade-off, is there any way to describe to a newbie like me what would be gained from a sound perspective with the S20 vs the OWM5?

mlistens03 wrote: »

You could also find the newer LSiM series, which is much easier to drive, but your not gonna find them for cheap either.

@mlistens03 Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm afraid that series is outside my budget.

@rooftop59 Wow, this is super helpful -- thank you! I had no idea that Definitive and Polk were the same company. Ditto for Denon.

rooftop59 wrote: »

A pair of either 800 s or 1000s in white would absolutely crush those OWM5s, and can definitely hold their own with the signature series.

I'm surprised to hear you say that the 800's would be so much better than the OWM5's -- yet you sound so confident it's hard not to be persuaded by your POV on that. The Definitive options are indeed way more compact and also much easier to mount than the S20's. They're even better than the OWM5's in that respect. And they're in roughly the same cost ballpark, so I'd be totally inclined to go with them.

rooftop59 wrote: »

Don't forget the center channel!

In terms of center channel, I had been thinking about the Polk Signature S35. But now I'm wondering if I need to be thinking about a Definitive 1000/2000 to match the front speakers.

Bottom line, here's where this leaves me in terms of questions:

1) Front: 800's vs 1000's -- It's only ~$100 difference in total price so I could do either. However, since you recommended both, I'd be inclined to go with the 800's, both since they're cheaper and smaller. But please tell me if you think there's enough difference in the sound that I'd regret that in my size space.

2) Center: Here are my assumptions:

a) if I go with Definitive fronts, better to pair them with a Definitive center than a Polk center
b) I wouldn't be losing anything to go with the 1000/2000 over the S35
c) the choice of 800 vs 1000 for fronts should not affect the choice of 1000 vs 2000 for center

Would you agree with those assumptions (they could all be wrong for all I know)? If so, all things being equal, I've been told that the center channel is most important, so I would be inclined to spend more for the 2000 in the center even if I went with the 800's in the front.

3) Is there anything that would conflict sound-wise between a Definitive front soundstage as described above and the other components I listed in my original post (RC60i center surround, RC65i rear surround, PSW505 sub)?

Thank you again!