Downsizing .... good bye home theater
 

Retirement and grand children - Looks like it's time to down size the house so good bye home theater room... on the bright side hello tee ball

With Covid in Florida getting to audition speakers is still a challenge so I am hoping I can get some of the usual excellent forum perspective

Looks like the new house will have an open floor plan 23 wide x 26 deep including kitchen - 9 foot ceilings - For an amp I'd use my Mc205 - The speakers would have to be placed close to a rear wall .... plenty of space to side walls - Any thoughts?

:confused-29::confused-29::confused-29:

We recently moved to Florida, downsizing, and have an open floor plan that opens into the kitchen and dining area. If you're building on a slab and haven't poured the slab yet, you could do as I did and put a conduit under the floor to accommodate rear speakers should you want the option. Why not keep the Revel's and the MC452 for stereo listening of music and your movie viewing?

What is your current setup?

Thanks for the replies - Currently I have a dedicated theater room but we are reducing the house size by 1,000 sq ft so in the "Retirement Home" the kitchen, dining room and "gathering room" are all open to each other so the actual distance from the TV wall to the back of the sofa is 12 1/2 feet - Behind that is a 2 1/2 feet walk way and then the kitchen island ... Surround speakers will have to be in the ceiling

Mu current set up is in a dedicated room - Upfront are Revel Ultima 2 Towers powered by an MC452, Revel Voice 2 Center powered by an MC301 and surrounds and zone 2 powered by an MC205 - For source components I have an MT10 Turntable, D150 DAC, Auralic Aries, Oppo Blu Ray etc etc.... all stacked up they come to 40" high which works in my current theater but I'll be sitting to close to use that setup in the retirement home

I plan to replace the three Revel Speakers, the MC452 and the MC301 and get three front speakers that can be powered by the MC205 - That reduces the stacked equipment height to 27" so I can put an 80" Television on the wall - That should be ok when the grand kids are over sitting on the floor and casting Minecraft from their iPads ..... priorities - LOL

The challenge is finding speakers that work with the MC205- Another few weeks covid restrictions will loosen so I can start auditioning candidates ... curious what other members might pair with that amp

80" TV? That'll surely dominate your wall. :D Why not an MC303 or MC255? Or, if you want to save even more space and don't mind class D amps, an MI254 might be your best bet. The new MX100 a/v processor would pair nicely with the MI254 because they both have the same compact dimensions. The only problem is you'd give up your turntable.

I think you’ll like having a great system in the common area of your home. I went from separate HT and 2 channel systems to a combined system in an open area of our house. We use it a lot more than we did the dedicated rooms.

Your current speakers at 14” wide and 20” deep are not huge by any means. Maybe you could go to a stand mount setup, but anything really worthwhile will be about the same footprint anyway, so why not keep them? I sit 12’ away from my Amati Futuras and have no issues with being too close.

Great article in The Absolute Sound over last two issues about down sizing high end audio. Only great speakers they found made to be against the wall were ones from the Wilson family.

Also open plan can make for good acoustics... I guess provided your spouse leaves the house a lot.

AGH !!!! The turntable stays ... a man has his limits :nono:

I attached a photo of my existing theater room (the MC601 is gone and the Fosgate preamp is now an MP100 but you get the idea) - The empty space in the middle is where the Revel Voice 2 center goes .... I have it sitting on top of a 24" rack

What I need is a speaker that matches an MC205 amp .... I can get the speakers 8" to 10" apart and 2 1/2' off the back wall ..... anyway I'll start auditions week after next

PS --- I have no worries about the 85" monitor size (other than I will miss my 105" screen)- Here's the TV size vs seating chart in case anyone is interested

TV Size Seating Distance
65" ----- 8.19 to 9.11
70" ----- 8.82 to 9.82
75" ----- 9.45 to 10.5
80" ----- 10.08 to 11.2
85" ----- 10.71 to 11.9