Home Theatre

Hi guys! So for quite a bunch of years, my main home cinema setup has been a Pioneer amp VSX-823K, paired with a couple of Mission MX2 speakers...and a 55inch Sony TV. No subwoofer, no central channel either. Nothing too special, but since the room I watch from is rather small, it does the job pretty well. This is my home cinema/gaming station, and it's all hooked to a gaming PC.

So, I'm considering to add maybe a couple of tiny rear speakers to provide surround sound (ish? 4.0, I guess). Now the problem is, I literally have no space. I have an L-shaped Ikea sofa that takes one corner completely, and leaves not much space at all on the other. I was thinking maybe tiny satellites hanging from a pole that goes straight into the edge of the corner, behind the sofa's corner...So something small anyway, as they'd be rather close to the head/ears of the viewers (me/parner's/friends). I'm not sure what to look for...I'm looking for something small that can deliver decent sound quality without having to be too loud. What would be your advice?

Thanks!

I've got an old Yamaha YST-SW320 which has a 10" downward firing speaker, active servo tech, and puts out 250W and weights in at 18kg. It's putting out the bass just as well as it did in 2001 when it was new. Its a pretty good sub for a living room setup and rattles the walls and doors in that low 30Hz or less range. It hides beside a sofa the sits on the right hand wall in a relatively small room.

I would be especially interested in knowing how people that have added a sub in a living room home theatre setup feel after running another sub for a time. Was it worthwhile?

I'm wondering how something like the SVS PB-2000 sub would pair with this? Do I really need to worry about matching subs? Is it a thing? I assume I'll place them diagonally opposite one another, angled to avoid standing waves.

BTW, not my gear in the pic, its just a pic of the subwoofer. I've got 5.1.2 and elac speakers, with Energy rears.

EDIT: Thanks. I'll see if anyone's got an option to try before I buy. If not I'll probably stick with the single sub for the foreseeable future.

I use a lot of media sourced on the internet, mostly .mp4 or .mkv files. For example, one source that gives me problems is Youtube "surround sound" test videos. I often feel the surround sound is not as "advertised" in the media title. The surround sound does seem to output to the different channels but it feels more like a virtual or All Channels fake-surround to me.

My downloaded files from demolandia.net sound far better and convince me my setup is good. My kids think the Atmos file 'Audiosphere' is great. The audio clearly bounces around my 'audio sphere' and I've had more entertainment from that video file than many others I have. Is this a case of the media not being what is advertised, or a codec issue that my Receiver can't handle? Or something else? Any thoughts?

I went to my local theater for Oppenheimer and was shocked by how bad the experience was. I hadn't been there in 10 years with the only other theater experience being Dolby Cinema Laser a few times which is great. This dated local theater with Christie DLP projectors was shockingly bad compared to what I have become used too. The "blacks" were more of a bright whitish grey and the entire picture looked ridiculously washed out. The audio was subpar and bass almost non existent.

This is the same theater that looked great to me years ago. My budget 5.3.2 Atmos and S95B blow it away now.

Has anyone else been shocked by an unexpected bad experience due to being unknowingly spoiled by newer tech?

An invaluable guide from Dolby to setting up Dolby Atmos in your home. Even if you don't have Atmos there is good information for setting up other configurations.

I'm currently trialing a couple of hi resolution music streaming services - Quobuz and Tidal and I'm interested in Atmos music releases which are becoming more and more common. Tidal definitely has the edge of Quobuz for atmos releases but its also pretty expensive at NZD$30 a month, slightly more than Quobuz and about the same as Spotify premium (which doesnt have atmos afaik). Any one using any other services? Do you feel you're getting value for money?

The title says it all really. I going to upgrade to a RX-A4A. I use my home theatre everyday as the main TV in the living area. The living area is a rectangular 4m x 5m room, carpeted, and fully open to the rest of the open plan living area on the lefthand side. I've been using Energy floor standing speakers as my mains but I intend to move them to the back to replace a couple of Energy bookshelf speakers. I have a Yamaha downward firing sub front right that I run fairly hot.

Any thoughts on the match? Any thoughts about the speakers? They'd be close to the top end of my budget.