Small home theater speaker recommendation? (movie, books, dance, cinema)

[marc515]

We have a small home theater set up I put together over the years consisting of an Onkyo receiver, a set of 20+ year old Cerwin Vega stereo 3-way speakers with 12" woofers. a center speaker, and 2 bookshelf speakers I use as the surrounds.

However, my wife wants a significantly smaller set similar to the Bose Acoustmass series.

So looking for some decent speakers that will also produce decent stereo sound, movie sound, and will be in accordance with my wife's plan.

Thank you

[skel1977]

It really depends on what you want to spend

You can get something like polk audio 5 piece surround for 400 bucks or get something more expensive like bose cinemate for around 800. You usually get what you pay for though.

[Danzjeepn]

Energy 5 speakers. I have these in my master bedroom. In the living room I have JAMO architectural speakers in the ceiling and walls. Painted same as wall, Very clean and very hidden.


Please don't get BOSE. No High's, no low's must be BOSE!

[Irishtom29]

Go to Guitar Center or an online pro-sound store and get some KRK ST-6s. These are small speakers meant for monitoring in studios and work very well as small hi-fi or HT speakers. They've gone out of production but are still available.

These speakers have excellent clarity and a natural tonal balance with smooth highs and clean bass---no "earwire" highs or booming bass. And in the right room they can do the big "3-D" imaging thing giving a stereo image with good depth and width that extends past the speakers themselves, even with a solid state amp like a Denon.

They can be found for about $200 a pair, a real bargain. I've used ST-6s in a den system while my main system has used no holds barred speakers like Altec VOTs and Model 19s, JBL Pro 3115s and Martin Logan electrostats driven by both solid state and vacuum tube amplifiers. The ST-6s do OK. Of course don't expect the dynamics and clean high output of larger speakers.

And yeah, be leery of Bose. It's instructive to note that the number of experienced audio hobbyists who favor Bose speakers is about zero.



My old HT with Altec 19s


Same system with KRKs


Same system with Altec VOTs

KRKs in current den system