Answered Best way to gradually upgrade my speaker setup??

is1111

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Hi I currently have a small tv room that I use for movies, normal tv viewing and gaming. Run everything through Denon AVR X2200 to the screen and to an all in one Tannoy TFX 5.1 package. Also have set of Onkyo upfiring atmos speakers which I feel aren't placed correctly as they can't sit on top of the Tannoys. Speakers were bought originally as got them for reasonable price and seemed to review well for what they are. They do what I need them to do fine but feel I would like to upgrade them now and although room isn't big the setup now can accommodate slightly bigger speakers. So looking for advice on best way to start changing the speakers for something slightly bigger and better. Funds are tight so will be case of changing the fronts and the centre then either sub or rears as I go along depending on what is best way to do it.
Space wise can't go full floorstanding but do have space for bookshelf type ones and definitely bigger than the current tannoy satellite speakers. As per another post on here I was looking at tannoy mercury ones as going pretty cheap but seems Richer sounds don't even have them in stock to sell anyway at the deal they are advertising.
Any advice is much appreciated. Also happy to wait and pick up 2nd hand from classifieds on here
 
The most important speakers in any set up is the front three. This is where you should upgrade first. Surrounds and your Onkyos can wait for funds. The next upgrade should be a better powered sub woofer with BK being probably the best value. I would then look to upgrade the Onkyos as they are not the greatest upfiring speakers available and the market place now has several units that are far superior.

Last of all the surrounds.
 
Any suggestions for the fronts?
 
Plenty! What's your budget and what are your space/size constraints?

Ps- I agree with @gibbsy , BK subs worth a look.
 
Fronts sit on a big tv bench so smallish speakers will be best but obv bigger then the tannoy satellites I have. Prob looking at 200 to 300 for fronts and then whatever to match it with a centre. Happy to look out for bargains on classifieds. Then just over time change rest as I get more cash. Cheers
 
Post a photograph of that bench. If it is on the narrow side you may get away with a pseudo centre with just using the left and right. This would give a 4.1 basically. I've attached an image of my layout on a TV cabinet. 165315424.7JqH7i6z.jpg
 
Are you willing to consider used? Electronics, especially with surround sound (as opposed to straight stereo) evolve quickly, but good speakers from 5-10 years ago are still good speakers and aren't really outdated (with the exception of Atmos modules perhaps), so going used can be a great way to increase the quality massively while staying well within budget constraints.

I've owned Monitor Audio Radius surround set-up in the past with a number of variations I built up over time using initially a Radius One HD soundbar at the front with R90HD rears, then R90HD fronts with a R250 HD centre, then R270HD slim floorstanders L&R with the R250HD centre. This was an excellent set-up and sounded awesome with my old Pioneer AVR.

There are plenty of good used examples on the 'Bay from the mark 1's through to the HD's and the current models. I really loved their tonal balance. They were exciting, very fast and dynamic with superb steering effects and sounded pretty good for music too.

The R270HD's might be too big for your room and can still be quite pricey but there are plenty of R90HD's (for L, R and surround) at decent prices, along with perhaps an R180HD centre. I actually preferred the Radiuses (particularly the treble) to the MA Gold GX's I later "upgraded" to, and I think their quality can improve greatly with high quality amplification many times their price.

So that's just a personal recommendation. As there are so many models the Radius range is quite good at adapting over time to different needs and they share their treble with the MA Silver and MA Apex range, so again can be upgraded and matched quite well with speakers from those ranges too, although they may not float your Atmos boat.
 
Post a photograph of that bench. If it is on the narrow side you may get away with a pseudo centre with just using the left and right. This would give a 4.1 basically. I've attached an image of my layout on a TV cabinet.View attachment 1087171
Not the exact one but similar to this. Don’t seem to have mines in ikea anymore. Basically it has a 65inch tv on it and the front satellites sit at either side and the centre in front. Tv is going to go on wall once I get new speakers so the whole length of tv bench will be free to use.
 

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Are you willing to consider used? Electronics, especially with surround sound (as opposed to straight stereo) evolve quickly, but good speakers from 5-10 years ago are still good speakers and aren't really outdated (with the exception of Atmos modules perhaps), so going used can be a great way to increase the quality massively while staying well within budget constraints.

I've owned Monitor Audio Radius surround set-up in the past with a number of variations I built up over time using initially a Radius One HD soundbar at the front with R90HD rears, then R90HD fronts with a R250 HD centre, then R270HD slim floorstanders L&R with the R250HD centre. This was an excellent set-up and sounded awesome with my old Pioneer AVR.

There are plenty of good used examples on the 'Bay from the mark 1's through to the HD's and the current models. I really loved their tonal balance. They were exciting, very fast and dynamic with superb steering effects and sounded pretty good for music too.

The R270HD's might be too big for your room and can still be quite pricey but there are plenty of R90HD's (for L, R and surround) at decent prices, along with perhaps an R180HD centre. I actually preferred the Radiuses (particularly the treble) to the MA Gold GX's I later "upgraded" to, and I think their quality can improve greatly with high quality amplification many times their price.

So that's just a personal recommendation. As there are so many models the Radius range is quite good at adapting over time to different needs and they share their treble with the MA Silver and MA Apex range, so again can be upgraded and matched quite well with speakers from those ranges too, although they may not float your Atmos boat.
Yes more than happy to get used ones. Prob will go that route as I know budget is tight. The Onkyo were bought used from here just to give me some sort of atmos but as I said before they aren’t even placed well as I don’t have speakers big enough for them to sit on. Still get an idea of the effect from them but know they aren’t great solution.
 
Have a listen to the MA Bronze 2 range for a front 3. I've had them as a front 3 (still got the FL and FR as rear speakers now) and they were excellent at your price point.

Always bear in mind that matching the centre with the FL and FR is very important!
 
The main thing you want to get right is the size of the speakers to the size of your room. Speakers that are too big for the room can cause more problems than they solve, so if your room is small be careful not to buy on looks alone.

But the suggestion of MA Bronze is a good shout. A friend has MA Bronze 2's and they're excellent for the money. As with all MA's, despite their vinyl wrap (as opposed to the piano or real wood finishes of Radius, Silver and Apex ranges), they're very well made and finished so would make a good choice as long as they've been looked after. There are plenty around too, so if they're not mint, walk away.

Again the Bronze's can take much better amplification later on should you want to go that route. Also consider buying something like Auralex Mopads or other similar devices to try and separate the speakers from your cabinet. Otherwise there will be a lot of unwanted resonances at work.

I used Mopads for my centre speaker. As the pads are angled it's helpful too in directing the centre up toward your listening position rather than firing the tweeter at my knees.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Given me something to look at and work with. Much appreciate d
 
In a small room with your loudspeakers mounted on the TV 'bench' you can easily go with Front LR rather than LCR and put your money into less Loudspeakers.

Gallo Acoustics would always be my preference - either Micro's or A'Diva.

Joer
 
When upgrading on a budget the best place to start is the likes of eBay and going secondhand, brands like KEF, Mordaunt Short and Monitor Audio have produced brilliant speakers for years so even stuff that’s 3-4 years old will still be superb. Pick wisely and you could have a cracking LCR setup for £200 that would have been probably 4 times that when new and if money allows you could add surrounds and even a Sub.
 
That's a very subjective matter. Most people seem to feel that the LCR speaker are the main players in a HT. To me the subwoofer is by far the most important element. I could easily sell my front floorstanders and buy a pair of (cheaper) standmounts to match the rears and still be very happy with the sound. In fact having 4 of the same speakers at front and back could even turn out to be very beneficial as it would give me a more balanced sound all around instead of having bigger speakers as fronts which give a fuller yet slightly more muffled sound while having smaller speakers at the back which have a more sparkling top end and leaner sound. I could even go for an inferior line of speakers and still be very happy but I couldn't downgrade my sub without missing the depth and the punch that it adds.
I also run a phantom center and I far prefer it like that over having a center speaker which in my setup, and a bit due to space constraints and the way it was positioned, made the dialogue sound a bit thicker and not very well integrated with the other speakers. So if I was to build my HT from scratch all over I'd invest most of the budget money on a really great subwoofer, then I'd get 2 or 3 pairs of good standmounters and run either a 4.1 or 6.1 setup, while also investing on the best receiver I could afford as to my ears, it makes a hell of a difference having a powerful and well matched amp.
 
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When upgrading on a budget the best place to start is the likes of eBay and going secondhand, brands like KEF, Mordaunt Short and Monitor Audio have produced brilliant speakers for years so even stuff that’s 3-4 years old will still be superb. Pick wisely and you could have a cracking LCR setup for £200 that would have been probably 4 times that when new and if money allows you could add surrounds and even a Sub.
Yes I am keeping eye on classifieds here, gumtree and ebay for some monitor audio bronze 2 as going second hand route. Only issue is most want collection only so need to wait until some appear near me. Set on gumtree not far from me but guy wants £180 and one has a slight scratch at back edge and they are now £250 new so don't think they are worth that. Will keep looking as not in a great rush anyway
 
Yes I am keeping eye on classifieds here, gumtree and ebay for some monitor audio bronze 2 as going second hand route. Only issue is most want collection only so need to wait until some appear near me. Set on gumtree not far from me but guy wants £180 and one has a slight scratch at back edge and they are now £250 new so don't think they are worth that. Will keep looking as not in a great rush anyway
Not sure if these are within budget, but they are unbelievable value for what you might be looking for...

Bowers & Wilkins 685 S2 Speakers
 
@is1111 if you're still in the game, take a look at my classified for the MA Bronze Centre

Cheers
Mike
Have replied on there mate as defo interested in it. Was waiting on richer sounds letting me know if they have one of these in stock at Glasgow to pick up at weekend as I have offer in for the front l and r's with someone on gumtree so would be a good start on upgrading my setup
 
Hi I currently have a small tv room that I use for movies, normal tv viewing and gaming. Run everything through Denon AVR X2200 to the screen and to an all in one Tannoy TFX 5.1 package. Also have set of Onkyo upfiring atmos speakers which I feel aren't placed correctly as they can't sit on top of the Tannoys. Speakers were bought originally as got them for reasonable price and seemed to review well for what they are. They do what I need them to do fine but feel I would like to upgrade them now and although room isn't big the setup now can accommodate slightly bigger speakers. So looking for advice on best way to start changing the speakers for something slightly bigger and better. Funds are tight so will be case of changing the fronts and the centre then either sub or rears as I go along depending on what is best way to do it.
Space wise can't go full floorstanding but do have space for bookshelf type ones and definitely bigger than the current tannoy satellite speakers. As per another post on here I was looking at tannoy mercury ones as going pretty cheap but seems Richer sounds don't even have them in stock to sell anyway at the deal they are advertising.
Any advice is much appreciated. Also happy to wait and pick up 2nd hand from classifieds on

in the states craigslist is a great place to find good used speakers for great prices.
 
So just received set of MA bronze 2's today which I ended up buying new as sale on gumtree fell through and no luck with sourcing a pair on here. Had no luck on ebay either and as I had received mikeysthoughts old Bronze centre which looks like new I didn't have patience to wait for used pair of fronts to become available :D
Going to get these set up and good chance will order some bronze fx pretty soon.

Would a BK Gemini 2 sub be suitable to add to the MA bronze's from my denon?
 
I had you setup, Bronze 2 + Bronze Centre and the Bronze FX but I paired it with a BK downfiring 10”, I believe the Gemini is only a 8”.

BK make brilliant subs and imo the one I had worked brilliantly with the Monitor Audios.

Best will in the world you’ll end up craving more bass than the little Gemini can muster so unless funds are tight I’d personally stretch the extra and get the bigger one.
 
cheers just seen one for good price used will look at the more expensive one. is it the xls200 then that is the 10 inch. no point in going half hearted now :rotfl:
 
cheers just seen one for good price used will look at the more expensive one. is it the xls200 then that is the 10 inch. no point in going half hearted now :rotfl:

My apologies I got it wrong, mine was the BK 300DF which is actually a 12", why I thought 300mm equalled 10" I'll never know :confused:, the Gemini is a 10" but where they really differ is their wattage, the Gemini is only powered by a 150W amp which is half that of the 300DF has.

Here's a suggestion which you might prefer, get the Gemini at this great price and if and when you want more bass just add a second. Two sub across the front sound stage is always preferable to one in my opinion and is what I've now done.
 
Well thanks for all the guidance, suggestions and advice. Gemini sub ordered and waiting for it to be delivered but bronzes all in place and tv put up on wall and wow what a difference. Was worried wouldn’t notice a difference for the money as good bit over budget but will do me a good few years. Even finding the Onkyo atmos much better now they are placed properly and working alongside much better speakers. Be even better once the sub arrives but the old tannoy seems fine just now.
 

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