5.1 Speakers for Sony STR-DA5800ES £2k budget

MyronAub

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The improvements to the rest of the house are now either finished or in progress and so now I get to start work on the fun stuff; a dedicated movie room... So it's a 4.5m square room, for movies/TV only and I'm planning on building false walls so that all the speakers are hidden in-wall (sub-woofer excepted.) Ideal budget is £2,000 for the speakers.

Bearing in mind that previously I've had a Panasonic SC-BTT775 all-in-one speaker/amp system I'm hoping the following will really take my home cinema audio experience to the next level:

Sony STR-DA5800ES Amp
3 x KEF Ci200QL for L/R/Centre
2 x KEF Ci130QS for Sides
Monolith Plus DF subwoofer

Would these speakers be a good match for that amp? I looked at MK IW95/85 as well but thought probably overkill for my size room and would almost double my budget.

Any thoughts on anything else I should be considering?
 
Though it is not clear, the WT380-IDC is from MONITOR AUDIO. Certainly a worthy consideration.

I suspect the Kef would be fine. Quality speakers.

Though certainly harder to find, you might want to at least give a look at the Dali IKON Phantom and Dali Phantom Series speakers. Some recently posted in a discussion of In-Wall speakers, that they were very pleased with these speakers -

DALI PHANTOM IKON

DALI INSTALL LOUDSPEAKERS

That said, there is nothing wrong with the speakers you originally selected. If you don't mind the price, I don't see any problems.

Well, one problem: it is difficult to audition In-Wall speakers, so I think the best you can do is go by the general voice of KEF free standing speakers, and compare that to the general sound of similar Monitor Audio speakers. If you like KEF in general, then you will likely like the KEF In-Wall.

Though it seems obvious, it is easy to stand and imagine the speakers in the walls with out concern for how the speakers and wiring get into the walls. Especially the wiring. If you intent to run the wiring blind (unseen) back to the amp, that is a complicated construction project. It means tearing up the wall, running the wiring, patching, and re-painting the walls.

The simpler alternative, and especially so with In-Wall is to simply drop the wire down below the speaker and connect it to a Speaker Terminal Wall Plate, the run the wires externally.

Speaker Cable Push Type Terminal Wall Plate x 2 Connection

Speaker Wallplate for A Single Speaker Steel

If you run the wire inside the walls back to a central location near the amp, there are multi-connection wall plates for that too -

Nexxia Dolby 7.1 Speaker Wall Plate Screw Terminal

Satin Finish 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker Wall Plate - FutureShop.co.uk

Fisual Speaker Wall Plate 7.2 Polished Chrome - Speaker Wall Plates - AudioVisual Online - Home Cinema and Hifi Specialists

Audio Visual On-Line has quite a wide selection of Wall Plates. They are mixed in with Accessories, but if you search for "Wall Plates" you can isolate them.

Lastly, In-Walls speakers only work, or work best, if you have Stud-Frame/Sheet-Rock walls; Stone, Brick, Mortar, Cement Block walls will probably require the building of a False Wall to house the speakers.

Things to consider.

Steve/bluewizard
 
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