Have $1500US , an Onkyo 801, want 5.1 speakers

[giantfan]

I have a bugdet of $1500 for a 5.1 set of speakers.

My family room is moderate in size 2,300 cubic feet, rectangle open on one long side for the staircase that area adds another 700 cu.ft.

Any suggestions on what to mate with my Onkyo TX-NR801. My CSW Ensemble III's that I used in college just wont do.

Thanks

[prash]

They fall perfectly in this price range and tons of happy users on this and other forums (myself included) will swear by them.

www.ascendacoustics.com

-prashanth

PS: I also use an Onkyo to drive them

I have a bugdet of $1500 for a 5.1 set of speakers.

My family room is moderate in size 2,300 cubic feet, rectangle open on one long side for the staircase that area adds another 700 cu.ft.

Any suggestions on what to mate with my Onkyo TX-NR801. My CSW Ensemble III's that I used in college just wont do.

Thanks

[Woochifer]

You're right in the price range for the Energy Encore, which is one of the better 5.1 packages that I've heard. But, you're also in a price range where you can opt to buy a much better set of speakers up front, if you're willing to exercise a little patience and add on more gradually. The best thing about home theater is that you can add speakers one pair at a time and build the system gradually.

In general, the 5.1 home theater packages in your price range have some flaw in the integration between the sub and the satellite units, because most of the 5.1 packages either use satellites that cannot handle the full frequency range above 80 Hz, or they force the subwoofer to handle some portion of the lower midrange. With larger bookshelf speakers up front, you have much better coverage of the frequency range, which allows you to use the subwoofer as a true subwoofer.

With $1,500, you can budget $1,000 for the L/R mains and center speaker, and about $500 for a subwoofer. This gives you a much bigger assortment of choices. Best thing to do is to audition as many bookshelf speaker pairs as you can, and build your system around the ones that you like best. Since you already have the CSW Ensembles, you can use those temporarily as surround speakers, and add the matching surround speakers once funds become available.

[enrique]

check out the definitive technology procinema packages.They can be mixed and matched between the 80's,100's and 200's.I had the 100's with the c2 center and the 200tl sub for over 4 yrs and they were great for music as well as ht.