Father's Day present (TO ME)

[Darksky]

I had a minor windfall lately of about a grand. It definitely falls into the Pennies from Heaven category, I have decided to get myself a little treat.

I have wanted to buy/build a bedroom setup. I currently have a spare Focal SW800V sub that was not enough for the main room, but is too nice to dispose. I think it would nicely compiment a little bedroom stereo.

In the main room, I currently have:

Focal 836V as mains. They are 3-6.5 inch woofers, 1-6.5 midrange and an aluminum tweeter. They are ported on the front and downward through the plinth.

Focal 814V as L/R surrounds. These speakers are kind of an enigma. They were a special edition speaker made for a single distributor that is now defunct. They are actually a 716V that has been dressed up with piano black finish.
They are 1-6.5 inch woofer, 1-6.5 inch midrange and an aluminum tweeter. They are ported on the front, but do not have a plinth, so no downward port.

Other pieces:
Center Focal CC800V 2-6.5 mids and an aluminu, tweeter
Subs Rythmik F15HPCI two of them flanking the mains

Pictures:
from rear

RF to LR

LF to RR

You can see the surrounds way off in the corner by the fireplace and in an alcove under the stairs. I know that they are not actually surround speakers and that they may no give me the surround experience to the same degree that a set of bipole/dipole speakers could. But for me, the towers work. Thye fit the space and don't require complex mounts or stands.

Here is what I am thinking: I move the current surrounds that do not exactly match the fronts and center to my bedroom, where they will accompany the Focal sub and live harmoniously.

I can then replace them with a set of towers that will match "better"
The choices:
816V- 1-6.5 woofer 1-6.5 mid and Al tweeter. Both the front and down port. Probably no audible difference (to me)

826v 2-6.5 woofers 1-6.5 mid and Al tweeter Both ports
new $1,900 used $1,200 +/- on Audiogon right now as 1,500 OBO

836V 3-6.5 woofers 1-6.5 mid and Al tweeter Both ports
new $2,300 used $1,500 +/- on Ebay 1,500 bid now

I drive the fronts with my XPA-2
I drive the center and surrounds with my XPA-3

So the surrounds are only @200wpc vs the fronts @300wpc

I listen to music most of the time we are home and while moving about the house I have the AVR in AFD or PLII which splits the signal up and sends either full or pretty much full stereo signal to each channel. I think having more drivers will help to fill the space a little more. The additional drivers in the surrounds may also make the 5.1 experience a little better.

I think it is money better spent than buying something for the bedroom and leaving the living room as is.

So I guess the point of this diatribe is:

Match the fronts by adding two more woofers per side and drive them with less power than the fronts or only add one more woofer per side.

Another small advantage to either upgrade is that the speakers are slightly taller 4 or 4.5 inches. This will help to get the sound up over the couches and other obstructions without raising the tweeters too high.

I realize this is a lot of ado over a small change. Anyway, any ideas?

[audiohead]

Nice Home ya have there.

[Darksky]

Thank you, it is not all that though. It is a lodge style home, just one big room with bedrooms and bathrooms off to the side. I think it is a very functional way to live. No-No rooms are just a waste IMHO

[Darksky]

Lots of views, but no one has an opinion?

[indyscammer]

Depends on your listening habits/sources. For all but the "best" mixed multi-channel music the 816's will be overkill. If you have multi-channel music favorites with an abundance of rear channel music available I could see moving up but still not required.

[Darksky]

I am leaning to the 826.

[Darksky]

No body else have any thoughts? I thought it would be a good idea to go up to the 826V for my surrounds. But no one seems to think it is wise at all. I just think the lower grade of speaker (700 line) would be better on it's own in the bedroom with the little sub.

I seem to be alone in that thought. Someone else suggested instead of going that way, that I move the 836V to the bedroom and purchase the 1038be series for the great room. Those are $10K speakers though. I don't have this addiction that badly yet.

[Darksky]

There is a guy on Agon with a set of 836V that are a little rough. He will ship them to me if I send him my boxes. I could probably get them from him for less than twelve hundred. Am I wasting money to go to bigger surrounds?

I really thought the 826V would be a good compromise. One less driver than the mains running off the XPA-3 as opposed to the XPA-2 on the mains. But maybe the 836V is better choice.

I don't know...

[paintedklown]

I am sorry that I cannot help you answer your questions DarkSky, but i wanted to chime in to say that I LOVE your house and those Focal speakers. ;D

When I first got into hi-fi audio, I auditioned as many different speakers as I could, and I absolutely fell in love with the Focal Chorus series towers. So great and transparent sounding...and the sound stage they throw "walks all over" my B&Ws sound stage...and I consider that one of their stronger points. ;D

Still to this day, I will occasionally drive to American with a handful of CDs to listen to those Focals. They have a higher end Cambridge Audio CD player and a Cambridge amp in front of them. I would LOVE to hear them puppies with XPA-1s pushing them, and in a "properly" set up room.

Congrats on the cool digs and nice setup.

[DYohn]

Match the surrounds with the fronts, move current surrounds to the bedroom. Don't worry about the power difference per channel, it will not be an issue. You may also want to reduce the degree of toe-in on your mains. And ditto to the nice home comments.

[Darksky]

I have found a matching set of Focal 836V to use as surrounds in my living room. They will match my front speakers exactly. They are even the correct color (ebony). I think this will be a good upgrade for me.

I will now have four idnetical speakers for my fronts and surrounds. Now I ac do all kinds of experimenting with them as centers and whatever else comes to mind.

I know that many of you are dedicated critical listeners, but I spend a lot of time with the stereo playing while I am not in the "living" room. While I am in the laundry, kitchen, office or even taking a shower, I have the music playing through Multi Stereo of PLII.

I know that it sounds fake, if you are standing in the center of the speakers and the imaging is weird, but when you are completely out of the "stage", then the imaging issue does not bother me. Having the additional drivers moving air will make it work "better" for me in that scenario.

I also think that having the additional drivers will make the surround signal more dynamic when in HT mode. In my room I sit 14.5 feet from each surround speaker. I am happy with this new development.

It also allows me to move the 814V speakers to my bedroom to work with my existing SW800V subwoofer as a good bedroom set up. Right now I am looking at the Mini X A 100 amp I bought for this setup during the summer sale.

I fixed the Toe in when I built the new subs. I will post newer pictures when the "new" surrounds arrive.

-Brad

[harri009]

Good deal, glad to hear you found something that would work for you. I know you say that house is not all it looks to be, but even so its a pretty sweet looking place in Colorado non the less. Do you have a view to go with those big windows?

[carlp336]

huge room! looks great

[Darksky]

The view is what makes the house. I will post up pictures when I get the towers installed. I am awaiting a call back now. I have my boxes out to send to the seller.

It costs almost as much to send empty boxes as it does to send them when they weigh 66 lbs.