Advice for about 2k, large room stereo setup

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Nes19

New Member
Hi! I have now been searching for a stereo setup for few months day and night, trying to find something to suit my room and purposes.

I have a large, 53sqm/570sqft room (open concept livingroom/kitchen) with a high, slant acoustically treated ceiling with lowest part 3.5m (11.5ft) and highest part 4.2m (13.7ft).The ceiling is acoustically treated, for what it's worth. I try to avoid really huge speakers due to the WAF.

The setup would be for music, not for movies. I listen to pretty much all kinds of music (acoustic/old hip hop/80s rock/electronic/hc punk...) except classic.

At the moment I have been considering Wharfedale Linton Heritage, with Audiolab 6000a. Opinions regarding that are welcome.

My local dealer suggested Focal Aria 936, but that would be at the border end of my budget.

And how about a pair of standmounters + sub? Is that a no-go for a room of this size?

Thanks in advance!
 
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rwartner said:
Edit your profile to include and display your location. What is your budget?
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Done. I guess. I just updated them in my status. Couldn't find where I could enable the location, at least on mobile.

But anyway, located in Finland. Budget around 2000e/2300usd.

EDIT: Ah, finally found where to set up location. Be kind for a newbie, please.
 
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sqlsavior said:
For Finland, I would suggest 'warm' electronics, and 'warm' speakers. ;)

Welcome to AK!
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Haha True, true. So are you suggesting that the Lintons would be a good choice?

Anyway, thanks! Hope to get suggestions soon, since my marriage is gonna have some problems soon if I spend few more days browsing suitable speakers.
 
In USA, the Lintons are $1500 with stands and $1200 without. Not including taxes. Likely need a stout amp with them, from discussions I've read. And the large size of your room. Possibly a quality Class D or hybrid Class D amp to get you 200 wpc neighborhood. I've only heard the Lintons at an audio show, in a small motel room.
I'm not familiar with Finland audio market. Is thier a used market available there? If your open to that, maybe your budget could be stretched.
New musical (not home theater) subwoofers can easily exceed $1000 each in USA, for such a large room.
Besides the treated ceiling, are thier soft surfaces, carpet, rugs, furniture and drapes? Or is it a bright room?
 
Old Guy8 said:
In USA, the Lintons are $1500 with stands and $1200 without. Not including taxes. Likely need a stout amp with them, from discussions I've read. And the large size of your room. Possibly a quality Class D or hybrid Class D amp to get you 200 wpc neighborhood.
I'm not familiar with Finland audio market. Is thier a used market available there? If your open to that, maybe your budget could be stretched.
New music subwoofers can easily exceed $1000 each in USA, for such a large room.
Besides the treated ceiling, are thier soft surfaces, carpet, rugs, furniture and drapes? Or is it a bright room?
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Here the Lintons cost 1300usd, and the Audiolab 6000a would be about 880usd. The reason I've been thinking about the Audiolab, is that I saw some videos where Lintons where demoed with it. Also, what I read here under another thread, the Lintons needs an amp that's capable of handling below 4 ohm, since the speakers dip at 3.2ohm.

And about the room. There are couple of rugs, plus one wall rug. I have some acoustic panels left in the storage, and I might put those on the wall of needed (and I get the permission).
 
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Here is a photo of the room. Still far, far away from acoustically perfect. But for my amateur ears, the echoing is pretty much gone with the ceiling panels. The large windows are of course part of the problem here, and the fact that we are avoiding putting drapes at all costs.
 
I'm of little help to you on those specific speakers and amp.
And my amps in my signature, are Rogue, made in USA. I'm familiar with them for 4 ohm loads, but don't fit your budget unless used or location availability.
Your room, house looks very nice. And those ceiling panels should really help. So it's definitely not an accousticly dead room.
 
Open floor plans and sloping ceilings can make for good acoustics. Smart of you to treat your ceiling that way. :)

I haven't heard the Wharfedales. I haven't heard Magnepan LRS speakers either, but I loved their predecessor, the MMG. They might work in your room. They do need at least a meter between them and the wall behind them, preferably more. They are on the front page of your local dealer's website:

http://www.hifiguru.fi

Just a thought.
 
Thanks! The shop that sells them is pretty close to my location. I'll try to visit them for a demo :)

I was actually browsing their site earlier on, and was interested in a demo pair of Audio Physic Classic 5 they now have for sale for 1250usd. I read some really good reviews about them, but when talking with the Audio Physic people, they told me that the Classic 5 would be too small for a living room of this size.
 
Nes19 said:
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Here is a photo of the room. Still far, far away from acoustically perfect. But for my amateur ears, the echoing is pretty much gone with the ceiling panels. The large windows are of course part of the problem here, and the fact that we are avoiding putting drapes at all costs.
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The windows are just part and parcel. Even if you did use drapes you wouldn't cover the walls with them. People cover windows with drapes and say wow, it was the windows. No, it was a hard surface, any hard surface. And for that drapes work as well on a wall as a window. Just another sound trap on a hard surface.
It's impressive that your ceiling traps suck up the sound well enough that you need nothing else. If not, then some more wall art might be nice.
 
Nes19 said:
You're right, they cost 2699e/2995usd here, taxes included.
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Awesome then! I love my 936's. With the right power behind them they punch way above their price point. I use a Pass F5. Yeah, they've got a 2.8 ohm low point and it little phase angle mischief going on, but that amp doesn't flinch in driving them. It's about 60 watts and my room is about 2/3rds your size. I've certainly heard much more expensive speakers not sound as good. They're one of the very few completely regret-free purchases I've ever made. They just get out of the way and disappear when the music happens. Phenomenal wide, deep, enveloping, focused imaging. Tight, articulate bass. Very smooth all around. They're transparent enough I can hear some pretty small changes when I play with the distortion of the F5. They've been very useful in learning what types of distortion sound like. Therein lies the crux, however. You will hear exactly what they're connected to, for the good and the bad. Ain't no mystery to me why they were on Stereophile's Recommend Gear list of speakers as Category B until they aged out. They do everything right no matter what I throw at them. Plus the things look great!
 
ReactiveLoad said:
Awesome then! I love my 936's. With the right power behind them they punch way above their price point. I use a Pass F5. Yeah, they've got a 2.8 ohm low point and it little phase angle mischief going on, but that amp doesn't flinch in driving them. It's about 60 watts and my room is about 2/3rds your size. I've certainly heard much more expensive speakers not sound as good. They're one of the very few completely regret-free purchases I've ever made. They just get out of the way and disappear when the music happens. Phenomenal wide, deep, enveloping, focused imaging. Tight, articulate bass. Very smooth all around. They're transparent enough I can hear some pretty small changes when I play with the distortion of the F5. They've been very useful in learning what types of distortion sound like. Therein lies the crux, however. You will hear exactly what they're connected to, for the good and the bad. Ain't no mystery to me why they were on Stereophile's Recommend Gear list of speakers as Category B until they aged out. They do everything right no matter what I throw at them. Plus the things look great!
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They seem like they would be a nice fit here. The only problem is that I'd still need an amp, and that would put the total price way over my budget. Unless maybe if they would work with some vintage amp.
 
Nes19 said:
They seem like they would be a nice fit here. The only problem is that I'd still need an amp, and that would put the total price way over my budget. Unless maybe if they would work with some vintage amp.
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I used mine with a restored Marantz 2252 for a good year before I built the F5. It got the job done without any offensive defects in sound, but the F5 made it clear that there was real room left for improvement. The biggest problem with the 2252 was it couldn't drive them too well at 90dB+ from 12 feet away. The soundstage just flattened out and the punch from the bass hit a wall. The F5 changed that and then some, and the Adcom pre-amp took it up yet another notch. I always planned to upgrade gear upstream when I bought them and I like knowing that if I throw an XA25 at them I'll hear the improvement; the speakers are that transparent and capable. That was one of the big draws for me to them.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

I'm now considering between Wharfedale Evo 4.4, and the Linton Heritage. Both have been getting lots of positive reviews online. What Hifi actually stated that the only negative thing about Evos is that they need a large room. So they might work well for my living room.

If I decide to go with the Evo 4.4, what kind of amp (sub 1100usd) would you guys suggest to go with it? Two different dealers actually suggested Yamaha R-n803d, but for some reason I'm not too keen about that one.
 
Nes19 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

I'm now considering between Wharfedale Evo 4.4, and the Linton Heritage. Both have been getting lots of positive reviews online. What Hifi actually stated that the only negative thing about Evos is that they need a large room. So they might work well for my living room.

If I decide to go with the Evo 4.4, what kind of amp (sub 1100usd) would you guys suggest to go with it? Two different dealers actually suggested Yamaha R-n803d, but for some reason I'm not too keen about that one.
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Don't blame you. I wouldn't be too keen for a Yamaha receiver for the kind of performance you want, either - for the speakers you are considering... A Yamaha integrated amp would seem to me what a dealer would recommend from the Yamaha brand in this case. But really, I'd want something beefier for that size room with any of the speakers mentioned.

Any chance you'd beef up the budget a bit? I started with more affordable amps, but didn't like them for one reason or another until I anteed up a bit more. For me, the budget was more an arbitrary figure pulled from my ass than a necessity - I was able to swing it once I decided it was worth it to me. If I'd just begun that way, I'd have saved some money.

I'm not alleging that you can't find a decent amp within your budget, just suggesting you might well save in the long run if you can upgrade now rather than later.
 
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