I'm moving to a new house at the end of this year beginning of next. The plan was to put the speakers on either side of the fireplace and they would project into the living/dining/kitchen area. This downstairs area ranges from 7,000 cubic feet to in excess of 10,000 cubic feet depending on how you want to measure it (ie what rooms to include). I have attached drawings of both the downstairs and upstairs as well as the approximate cu ft measurements.
I have now reconsidered my plan and as a result am seriously considering replacement of at least my two mains if not the mains and the center in my home theater setup. At that point I’ll use it for dedicated 2 channel when I’m not watching a movie. Here’s my reasoning…
Downstairs I’m trying to fill a HUGE space that isn’t going to lend itself particularly well to 2channel music to begin with. Additionally, placing the speakers on either side of the fireplace could result in some funky acoustics and vibrations from the fireplace itself. Upstairs in the game room I have ¼ the cu ft to fill and can acoustically treat the room if I choose (wife won’t allow acoustic treatments downstairs). Additionally, I can build out the amps/dac’s etc over time. I could go with speakers almost immediately and use my good Yamaha receiver to power them if I chose. (V1700 for those who are curious)
I can sell my SWAN arrangement up front and go with some SALK’s, have better sound and go with a wireless setup downstairs for portability (solves my outdoor problem too), size and convenience.
Additionally, I have the SVS PB12 for my home theater setup. It's a great home theater sub and it does ok on music. I'd be open to potentially replacing it if it were really necessary but it does very well on home theater. So unless it'll destroy my 2 channel listening I'd be inclined to keep it.
Here's the downstairs layout
And the top floor game/theater room with my proposed placement of the system.
I'm really leaning towards something from SALK. The HT2 TL's would probably give me the ability to run 95% of my music without a sub and really never miss the sub. I would also be open to other considerations, especially from SALK based on what I heard this week at the show. I talked with Jim at the show and he said with no sub definitely go with the HT2-TL's. Now that I've been rethinking it, are the SCST's the way for me to go? I would guess the midrange may be a bit better as well as the imaging on the SCST's because the drivers smaller and therefore a tiny bit quicker to respond.
Any thoughts? Recommendations?