[lokie]

The front three (or two) speakers will be placed in a bookshelf w approx 12" depth. This is for a "den" so not going to be too anal about the perfect typical AV measurements. Will utilize 1 or two subs... probably infinite baffle. Xover will be in the 80Hz to 100Hz range. Main seating will be up against a back wall at 15'.

Custom speaker cabinets could be made to "fit" in the in-wall bookshelf unit. The two surrounds will be in a ceiling that opens up into crawl space. The front three (two)  speakers definitely have to match, but I might make a compromise on the back surround spkrs as long as they are in the same "family".

I'm thinking I would like 12" (or 8") high efficient alnico (might use tube amps for the front three channels). Wouldn't mind going vintage but getting at least three to match might be hard depending on vintage, SQ and availability. Ex. Electro Voice Wolverine's are cheap and plentiful (but SQ might not be up to the level I'm going for).

Haven't zeroed in on a budget yet. Still early in process and I have "stuff" laying around I could implement.

Any suggestions, advice or observations would be appreciated.

[JLM]

Alnico and HT?  I don't equate/think of the warmer sound of Alnico with HT.

5 won't be cheap either.  I love my Fostex F200A (8 inch) Alnico drivers that I use in my audio system, and they also offer a F120A (5 inch) little brothers that could be used for rear channels.  The 5 drivers would run about $2,000.00 (without the EnABL treatments that I'd highly recommend), beam high frequencies, and have somewhat limited sound pressure levels for HT.  But the F200A is rated F3 = 30 Hz, so need for a sub would be minimal.

[lokie]

Alnico and HT?  I don't equate/think of the warmer sound of Alnico with HT.

Well... alnico for AV makes perfect sense to me... Alnico mitigates the need for spending big bucks on a refined AV processor.

Takes the "digital edge" off.

[JohnR]

FWIW, I think that for HT some peaky/edginess is actually helpful, whereas for stereo it can detract. I use 5 x JX92s, although recently I've added Neo3 tweeters and I do think it sounds better anyway. With 8 or 12 inch drivers you will be looking at single-seat only.