The best strategy to set up my home theater with my new-purchased monitor 70?

johnny_hunter

hello all: This is my first post in this forum, so greetings!

I just purchased polk audio Monitor 70 Series II (pairs) on a friend's recommendation. I read great reviews about them even though I've not checked it out yet.

However I have a slight problem here. I want to put them in my basement where there are already 4 panels (with 2 banana-plugin on each of them) installed (by the former house owner), two on front wall, two on the back.

I want to take advantage of these four panels, even I don't know exactly how they were used, not to say how they are wired behind the wall (these is a hold on the front wall b/w the two panels, and two wires stick out).

My take is, besides Monitor 70, I can have 4 surrounding speakers to hook up these panels? But I heard those are better put on the side and rear walls.

I don't think I need a subwoofer as people say Monitor 70 can play that role well enough, but certainly I also need a central and a receiver, your input on that is much appreciated.

I hold I've made myself clear about the situation, anyone kindly offer some help?

Thanks,
John

thsmith

Can you post some pictures and for HT you do need a sub for the full expereince.

johnny_hunter

sure will upload some pics after I go back home tonight.

tonyb

The hole in the middle with 2 wires is most likely for a center channel speaker. If you watch alot of movies, a subwoofer is a must as the 70's will leave you wanting more.

johnny_hunter

I've uploaded 3 pictures about how my basement currently has. 002.jpg is my front wall; 003 and 004 are the two panels on the back wall.

Thanks a lot!
John

specd_out

What I see in 2.jpg is 4 mounting holes where a tv was hung, the larger center hole looks like a wire drop from the TV to the stand which would have been directly below. Thats why there is two holes are in line.

The placement of the speaker wire connectors high and wide but in front makes me think he either used bookshelf speakers for his mains, or had a 7.1 setup and they where is Front Height speakers.

yes you will need a sub and yes you will want a good center. Those are two of the more important speakers in a 5.1/7.1 setup

johnny_hunter

thanks for the replies. The former owner had a 5.1, he used 2 bookshelfs as the mains - I noiticed that when I first visited the house. For now I might want to create a 5.1 system too (budget...). But just a question about 7.1. I looked some pics about 7.1 setup, the surround speakers are normally put on two side walls and rears. It doesn't seem right to me to mount two of them on the front wall as the surrounds, does it?

It seems everyone suggest a sub beside M70, any recommendation on that? As well as Center, surround speakers (some folks here use M40, how is that? I must use bookshelves so I can use the rear panels), and a receiver (my friend recommended Yamaha RX-V373, but it seems not 7.1 ready: http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V373-5-1-Channel-AV-Receiver/dp/B007JF8FD8/ref=sr_1_2?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1352739472&sr=1-2)

Thanks all for your input, I'd like to take the opputunity of this thx giving to see if I can get a sale of those.
John

specd_out

There are different ways to setup 7.1. Most receivers will have presets for them. I dont have experience with them, but there must be good reasons for it.

You dont mention budget, So i will just recommend what I have and what a lot of people recommend on this forum. I have a Polk dsw600. Its fantastic for movies you can get those for about $350ish on fleabay. The other popular one is the psw505. Both are 12"s and will rock the house in HT and still give fairly accurate bass for music. The center should be matched to your mains. I believe its the cs10 that you need for the center.

For the AVR I would step up a little in the lines. If you want a yammy then look at the 473 and up or Pioneers. I went from a Yamaha to a Pioneer and I like the pioneer better. 822k or the 1022k is what I would look into. The Mcacc is better then the YPAO for calibration IMO

hochpt21

CS2 is what you want for the center. On sale now at Newegg for $99.

be83663

Make sure you install a nice subwoofer too!

johnny_hunter

thanks!
@hochpt21: I read good reviews about cs2, ppl say its close to cs20 but cheaper. I didn't see $99 on newegg thou, I saw $119.

hochpt21

Went on sale today through next Thursday. $149.99 plus $50 off with promo code.

johnny_hunter

@hochpt21: thanks alot! Just placed the order. Any thoughts about bookshelf speakers? I have two candidates here: monitor 40 v.s. Tsi100

hochpt21

Best to keep them in the same series if possible. Monitor 40's would be the way to go between those two options. If you are wall mounting up by those bananna jacks, you may even want to go Monitor 30's just because of the size. That's up to you, however. I'm sure you could mount the 40's if you really want them.

hochpt21

And don't get the sub I have in my sig.

Most people around here say that the psw505 is the minimum you would want with this setup.

johnny_hunter

@hochpt21: thanks so much! I'll keep psw505 on my list. I noticed Monitor40 is also on sale at newegg.com - I'd like to hold the horse for awhile if they want to drop it further. :cheesygrin:

goofyGAguy

johnny_hunter wrote: »

@hochpt21: thanks alot! Just placed the order. Any thoughts about bookshelf speakers? I have two candidates here: monitor 40 v.s. Tsi100

Monitor 40. This is a no-brainer.

boomhower

I'd get the 30's and use them for front height in a 7.1 set-up. If your determined to keep all Polk the PW505 is what you want. If your set-up is mainly movies give the BiC F12 a serious look. The Polk is better for music and the BiC for movies. The BiC will give you the nice big thud in movies. The Polk will do a better job keeping up with music where the BiC will tend to fall behind. Just a matter of what your using it for.

ThereIsNoEye

Very true.

If you watch a lot of movies, get the Bic F-12.

If you are more into music, get the Polk PSW505.

johnny_hunter

@ boomhower" thank you sir. Whats your AVR choice in your 7.1? I did take a look at bic F-12, ppl do say it's better when it comes to movies rather than music, and I am more into movies than music.

Did you put your 30 side by side with your main speakers? whats your main speakers? My wife doesn't like the size of M70 too much, she didn't fight teeth and nails with me on that but consider it an eyesore. I convinced her the sound is better from a standing speaker as opposed to a bookshelf. However replacing M70 with bookshelves still is on the table (just noticed that one of my m70 has crack on the front cover), if we come to that (hope not! ), anyone can suggest a bookshelves replacement to M70?

hochpt21

I don't think he was talking about replacing the 70's with 30's. Front heights are in addition to you L&R mains. They are mounted higher up on the front wall.

30's won't come close to the 70's.

If you do want bookies for your mains, I would go outside the monitor line.

johnny_hunter

If you do want bookies for your mains, I would go outside the monitor line.

such as?

yeah I knew he didn't mean to replace 70 with 30. I was just curious what is his 7.1 set up made up with.

Thanks,

hochpt21

I have not heard them, but people like the RTi A line for ht. So RTi A3.

I like my LSi's, but they are a 4 ohm speaker and would most likely require additional amplification. But if you went that route, LSi 9.

johnny_hunter

hello all again! it's been a while now I am close to the completion of my HT setup - the remaining: AVR. I am still fishing for one, today I came across this Harman Kardon AVR 2600 7.1 for $300 (http://world-wide-stereo.store.buy.com/p/harman-kardon-avr-2600-7-1-channel-home-theater-receiver-w-dolby-volume/211914612.html). I am concerned that a 65W power might not be enough, isn't it?

As of the M40 in my HT, my wife kinda hates them as they look big when hanging on the wall. Is there some speakers smaller while delivering similar quality? In that case, I might develop my present HT into a 7.1 system.

Thanks again for all helps!
John