HT LRC Choices

Hello everyone,

IÂ’ve been window shopping Ascend for about 3 years, and finally decided to take the leap and build a home theater (thanks to some forced downtime thanks to the pandemic).

IÂ’m between a few options for LRC, but first, some details:

Room is basically “fat L-shaped,” 20’x15’ on the legs with 90”x40” cut out. The screen lives on the short wall and will be about 10” wide.

Because of the odd shaped room and other constraints (doors, windows, etc) IÂ’m planning on an acoustically transparent screen to maximize screen size.

Surrounds and atmos will be in-wall to help with WAF. ;)

Subs will be Rythmic LVX12 x2.

My two main thoughts for the front stage are:

1) Sierra 2-EX plus Horizon, or
2) Duo LCR, or
3) Sierra 2-EX for LCR

The Duo is ideal for its small size, allowing the screen to sit about 7-10” farther from the first row (depending on how far the Horizon needs to be from the wall). But I also don’t want to sacrifice sound quality or long-term happiness of the Sierra setup is better.

Does anyone have any suggestions either way?

If all three options are in your budget, I'd go for 1 (followed by 3, then by 2).
A fourth option is the S2-EX for L/R, Luna Duo for Center.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by racrawford65

If all three options are in your budget, I'd go for 1 (followed by 3, then by 2).
A fourth option is the S2-EX for L/R, Luna Duo for Center.

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Thanks for the reply. I hadn’t thought about using the Duo in place of the larger horizon.

Forgive me, I’m a complete newbie in the high quality home audio world, but from what I’ve read here and elsewhere, it sounds like if I have good subs with crossover above 80Hz, the larger woofers become less important (although more efficient, etc).

Your fourth option is intriguing, though my gut says put more money behind the center than the other channels, the difference in depth is substantial.

So many options!

Folks generally cross the subs at 80 hz as a starting point, sometimes a bit lower (eg 60hz). Mine is crossed at 80 for all channels (Towers w/Raal fronts, S2 surrounds, HTM200 ATMOS) except center (Luna Duo) where Anthem ARC Genesis crossed it at 120 hz. I've not played with lower crossover yet on the center.

If your budget and space allows and you are mostly movies/HT, by all means, go for the Horizon. I would have, but I just didn't have the space for it in my setup (didn't want to set the tv directly on the speaker nor get a taller riser than the one I currently have).

You want your sub crossed as low as the system allows. The bass is non-directional, but the harmonics that the bass induces are not. Plus, the sub lowpass slope at 80 will still have audible remnants into the 200s. If you cross a sub at 80 (and you don't have 2 of them, each close to L+R) then you can pinpoint its location. This will pull the soundstage image toward the sub.
In my opinion, if you listen to any 2 channel music, you should put most of your full range dollars in L+R. If not, then spend most on the center and relatively little on the L+R.