Home Theater Details

I love watching movies and listening to music. I think I can trace my love of music easily back to my dad who loved to listen at unreasonable volumes even when I was young. He used to have 4 large Kenwood speakers that were just amazing to me as a kid. It was all late 70s early 80s stuff that he spent hours cranking out AC/DC, Foreigner, Boston, Pink Floyd etc and ever since I moved out on my own I have continued that tradition with my own equipment. 

Over the years I have had a few different setups. My first "big boy" stereo was a Kenwood Receiver with 4 Infinity Studio Monitor speakers and an 8-inch Infinity subwoofer. Years later those speakers got a bit worn (foam surrounds went) and I started upgrading to a newer 5.1 setup which supported newer audio formats that movies were using. I have also had a 6 disk Onkyo CD changer for quite awhile, though with streaming (Spotify/Plex) it gets used a lot less than it used to. 

That upgrade (not quite all at once) went to an Onkyo TX-NR414, Polk Monitor 70s Series II, Polk PSW505 12 inch Subwoofer, Klipsch KSC-1 (old center), and Polk T-15s for the surrounds. That was my mainstay stereo for approximately 10 years and overall I was incredibly happy with it. 

https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/product/subwoofers/psw505

https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/product/floor-standing-towers/monitor-70-series

https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/product/bookshelf-speakers/t15

https://av-receivers.net/onkyo/onkyo-tx-nr414-review/

https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-DXC390-Disc-Changer-Renewed/dp/B07LFJP1BB

Though thanks to COVID like most I have been home a lot more like most people and decided it was time to make more upgrades to add-in Atmos/DTS-X and support for a 5.2.2 setup or 7.2. As part of this I upgraded the Onkyo to a Denon X3500H that was gently used to provide the extra channels/audio formats as well as Bluetooth. 

https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/av-receivers/avrx-3500h

Like most AVRs while they provide good power in 2 channel mode they are often lacking when powering the full 7 channels. It was good I would be lying if I said even with the reduced power that I thought it didn't sound great but I felt the dynamic punch in movies etc when there were a lot of explosions etc was lacking. 

This lead to the next wave of upgrades. 

First and foremost the PSW505 subwoofer was still going strong, but when it got to frequencies below say 40Hz it just didn't dig deep enough. I took advantage of some of the recent crypto boom and upgraded my TV from a 55 inch 4K LG from around 2016 to a 2020 65 inch Vizio TV that supported HDR/Dolby Vision and 120Hz refresh rate. While there have been some Firmware issues (VIZIO fix it!) I am dealing with between the TV, AVR, and PS5 for the most part it looks fantastic. I also added some various Govee LED lights to add some mood lighting. 

https://www.vizio.com/en/tv/p-series

I also bought a Monoprice Monolith 12-inch THX subwoofer. It is a beast.. it goes so low and just shakes the whole house during movies. I just wish I had room for a 2nd. The PSW505 is still providing some bass as well and I moved it behind the couch to shake the back etc a bit. 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24457

I also decided to add a couple separate amps to power my surround channels so that the Denon could be dedicated to the front 3 channels. I managed to get a couple Adcom 535 II 60X2 RMS amps off eBay that were in great shape to move those off. I just went with a couple 2x2 chunks of wood painted black to separate them. 

https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/adcom/gfa-535-ii.html

With this, I also added a second set of Polk T-15s to act as the rear surrounds. I have done some experimentation with placement and actually set the Denon to use them as Atmos height channels as they are above my head in my room and behind me which I think gave better results. Unfortunately, my living room is not an ideal location for a theater but it's the best I could do. 

At this point, the center was still the Klipsch KSC-1 that I replaced in my last post with an SVS Prime Center and I am keeping my main speakers as the Polk Monitor 70 Series IIs. Overall for the price, I am still very happy with them as my mains but I hope to eventually replace them with some SVS Prime Pinnacles when the funds are available. I have also placed some acoustic panels around the space to try and limit some echoes including some corner bass traps. Not the prettiest looking, but they do help. 

So as of this post (including my last post about my center channel) my theater contains

AVR - Denon X3500H

Amplifiers- 2x ADCOM 535 IIs

Mains - 2x Polk Monitor 70 IIs

Surrounds - 4x T-15 Bookshelf speakers

Center - SVS Prime Center

Subwoofers - Monolith 12in THX 500w RMS 

Polk 12 Inch PSW505 260w RMS

65 inch Vizio P series TV

I have a couple more upgrades incoming, but I only wanted to cover where I am at now in this post.