32 X 14 X 8 Living Room - 340's (2) + 10PB10

[sonnyt]

ok.... I am looking for some honest advice (and i know this might be hard because i am asking this ? in an ascend forum).....

I am about to buy some speakers and am thinking about buying (3) 340's LCR for the front and (2) 170's for the rear..... + an SVS PB-10 (or the 12"?) for Home Theater and DVD-Audio.

My living room is pretty big..... 32 X 14 X 8 about 3200 cu ft

Now here is the magic ?
With this setup 3 340's 2 170's + SVS PB-10....

WILL I be able to fill this whole space (32 X 14 X 8) with a BIG sound?
Very loud, accurate, and detailed sound? Will the 340's do the job and give me a full sound in THIS space?? Or will I have to step up to something larger? (I also listen to a lot of 2.1 and 3.1 sound) And along with very loud and detailed sound I also want to really feel the bass in my movie. I want that chest pounding feeling....

Any Suggestions will be appreciated....

Thanks, st

[BGHD]

Yes on the Ascends. If anything, you may wanna go bigger on the sub for such a large room.

[shane55]

Well... I'm probably going to be shouted down for this, but I say most likely... yes.

I have that exact setup... even the PB-10. It is serious overkill for my room at 17x12x8.

Now for the caveat: I'd think that a lot of it depends on what you have in your room, how it's layed-out, carpeting (or bare floors)... where you are planning to put the speakers, and the rest of your equipment.

What are you planning to drive these with?

shane

[sonnyt]

and on top of it there is an interconnecting hallway + kitchen adding further to the largness of the room.... probably 3800 cu ft.

You are sure that the combo of (3) 340's and (2) 170's will "fill the whole space" 3800 cu ft with "a big sound". Loud, accurate, and detailed sound with precise imaging?

I dont want to get them and feel as if they are small speakers in a big room. That is my fear. I do not like a small speaker sound. I might be underestimating the 340's/170's??

I can always go for a larger sub....(i.e. SVS 12" or even 2 PB-10's mabye 3 I LOVE BASS- BUT ACCURATE BASS)

But I am worried about the 340's filling the room since the speaker size might be kind of small for this space.

When I was younger (a few years ago) I was into car audio... I made a custom built system in my Trans-Am consisting of 4 amps/1 farad capacitor/parametric eq....ect.... (4) KICKER 8" subwoofers mounted into the rear seat firing into the back of the seat. (2) 10" Kickers on the back deck below the rear window. along with (2) 1" inch tweeters on the back deck. and in the front (2) 5 1/2 inch mid basses with 3/4 inch tweeters in each door. I padded the trunk with rubber insulation pad (used this stuff called dyna-mat) also used it on the doors.... and ceiling of the car... anywhere there was flat metal...I was into rap at the time so i built the system around rap music.....(now into jazz/classic rock/alternative). It took me 4 months to build that system... and i loved it! the rush i would get when i turned it up was incredible.

well.... when i put in a CD that was recorded/mixed properly.... the sound was awesome. To be brutally honest. the bass was incredible. It would vibrate your eyeballs at certain frequencies....and you would get that hard kick in the chest from the 8" subs in the back. the system cost me 5,000 to do myself back in 1986. There was really no distortion when turned up. My ears would hurt before it would distort. it was incredible....

I want to simulate that sound in my home - I am looking for that kick in the chest you get from a powerful system...

basically just want some opinions on what I would need to do to achieve
that kind of sound in my home. any recomendations would be appreciated....


thanks, rp

[bikeman]

I can't think of a reason the 340's can't handle your situation.
You may want to read Nicholas Mosher's journey concerning subwoofers if you haven't already.

http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=851

http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=905

Also, a call or an email to the guys at Ascend is always a good idea when we have questions about their speakers.

David

[Quinn]

No problems filling a room that size. Mine is 20 x 20 with an 18ft cathedral ceiling and open to a 20 x 11 kitchen/breakfast nook as well as an 6ft wide "gallery" hallway which is open to two more rooms.

If it concerns you that much just order a pair of 340s to test for yourself. That will keeping the shipping cost down if you decide they don't give you what you want. If you keep them and order the rest with-in 45 days you still get the package price.

[Eddie]

sonny,

the question here is not whether the speakers are up to the task, but whether your receiver/amp is...what are you running?

I have a 6000 cubic foot room with 18 foot cathedral ceilings including a stairwell downstairs, and my L/C/R 340s handle it with ease.

As for the sub, if you can put it in a corner just one of them might suffice but two certainly would.

[sonnyt]

Another ? that just came to me??

I have read in several places that the Ascends "sound great" with HK recievers....

Is this to say that they would not "sound great" or better with other companies recievers? (i.e. Mcintosh, Rotel, Yamaha, Panasonic, JVC, Audiosource, Audiovox)

I guess what I am getting at is this...

Were Ascend speakers built specifically to "sound great" with HK? (i.e. designed around specific HK specifications)....

Or is it just that Ascend developed a relationship with HK because
Ascend speakers "just happen" to "sound great" with HK recievers?
(After lots of testing) and Ascend then developed the HK relationship...

Or for many other reasons?

Can Ascends sound better with another reciever besides an HK? (at this point in time)

And are there some recievers names/models that you would def NOT recomend using with the 340's?


Thanks, st

[sensibull]

Were Ascend speakers built specifically to "sound great" with HK? (i.e. designed around specific HK specifications)....

Or is it just that Ascend developed a relationship with HK because
Ascend speakers "just happen" to "sound great" with HK recievers?
(After lots of testing) and Ascend then developed the HK relationship...

The latter.

And are there some recievers names/models that you would def NOT recomend using with the 340's?

Ascends are very efficient, so most any decent receiver would probably do them fine, but if it were me I'd shy away from anything overly bright or sterile, as the speakers are very revealing and such a combo might end up sounding a little too sanitized. FWIW, YMMV, yadda, yadda, yadda...

[JeffD2]

Have to agree with Shane55 on the room layout issues but also have to agree with BGHD about going larger.

The URLs posted by bikeman about Nicholas Mosher's subwoofer journey should be archived as reference material and made required reading for anyone considering SVS.

You will never duplicate the extreme eyeball popping SPL you get with car subs in a home theater environment, since in your car, you are basically in a pressurization chamber. However, the accuracy of the bass will increase tremendously. You can still get punched in the chest, prolly just not as hard. There's a couple of recent threads in the AVS subwoofer forum discussing this.

I've never heard 340's but anything I've ever read leads me to believe they should fill your room quite nicely.