I had an audition at the closest dealer (about 2 hrs drive) for the following setup: Triton 2 as fronts, SuperSat 3 as centre and Triton 7 as rears.

I came away with mixed feelings in due part:

- music

Nice imaging and bass was sufficient to bring out the various music I was demo-ing.

- HT

The centre I felt was weak and overpowered by the Triton 2. Bass is also not enough to bring out the oomph in your chest.

I felt it could do better and after I did more research and now come to a better understanding of the following:

(a) the dealer may not have not tweaked the bass plus I did not note what position it was set at.
(b) Placement of the Triton 2 could have been spaced further apart and toe-in better (perhaps).

I may do another audition for the GE this coming weekend again and spend a bit more time with the Tritons again before confirming my purchase with the dealer.

(a) My living room dimensions where I will be setting up for now is as follows:

Width: 6.32m / 20.73ft
Length: 6.7m / 21.98ft
Listening position: 3.55m / 11.65ft

I have attached a rudimentary layout of my living room. This room will suffice me for the next 1.5 to 2 years before I move again and can finally have my very own HT/music room (!).

(b) The setup I am looking at is as follows:

Fronts: Triton 1
Center: Supercentre XL
Rear: Triton 7
AVR: Pioneer SC-LX-58 (in EUR/ASIA) or Elite SC-85 (in US)

For the rears I have noted that the Triton 5 are out and the tech is trickled down from the Triton 1.

Query 1: Would this be better matched to be paired up with the Triton 1 instead of my orig config of Triton 7?

For the bass, I am looking at the Forcefield 5 but also understand that the SuperSub XXL has also been released. I may look at obtaining 2 x Forcefield 5 but this may be replaced by the SuperSub XXL.

Query 2: What kind of difference and impact would this have going with the SuperSub XXL versus the Forcefield 5?

I note that perhaps the above setup *might* be considered overkill for the room dimensions I have but I hope to be able to implement this within the room constraints that I have for now.

Additional info: My listening habits are split into 60 - HT / 40 - Music.

Look forward to any comments/feedback on the above

I hope I made the right selection!

Have updated the room layout to reflect the following:

(a) potential woofer placement
(b) AV rack placement


Cheers
Fred

Ok.....going to chime in here with at least a few things I have noticed in the advice combing through all the information and advice here on the site.

1. Placement of your speakers. Wider is better as far as imaging. I would especially move the front speakers out wider with a slight toe in to the listening position. (based on your drawing) If that information is good for the fronts, I am guessing that will follow suit for the rear ones as well. (I am sure someone more familiar with your setup can confirm if that is correct or not)

2. ALWAYS go for the bigger sub if your feeling you need a sub. I have to say I was listening at the dealer the other day at their surround setup with Triton 1s and Triton 2s in the back with no subs and there was enough bass being moved around that the couch I was sitting in was vibrating like I had put a quarter in it. And they obviously had some tuning work to do as the bass was interacting with "In Wall" subs that were in the room. Were the subs (in the triton 1's) connected LFE in your listening tests? I am thinking the setup in the dealers room might not have been optimized based on what I have heard in the setup that I listened to. So if the Sub still comes out weak to you (hey, we all are different....you might have different expectations than I) I would wait for the XXL and that should solve your craving.

3. Amplification...One thing I noticed when auditioning my smaller setup is that amplifier makes a HUGE difference in the quality of the speakers. I auditioned a Denon, a Rotel, Anthem and NAD setup with the Golden Ears I was listening to. The Rotel, Anthem and the NAD all had minor differences but gave a very pleasing warm detailed sound on the Golden Ear speakers. When they plugged in the Denon to the equation it almost sound like they plugged in some K-mart speakers and were trying to fool with me. Point being that the quality of amplification made a believer out of me. I went with NAD, and here in the forums I have heard the same advice given. You are putting a LOT of money into some extremely nice speakers. If your budget can handle it I would consider a better AV head unit, or even separates depending on how far you can stretch your budget. If the Triton 1's are as good (if set up properly) as I have heard they are. I cant imagine someone thinking they need extra subs as well. If the money is tight based on the speakers your getting I would consider getting everything BUT the subs, get better amps, and if you still think it is missing in bass....add the XXL later. This will give you time to dial in your setup at home. Play with different configurations and if you don't get the bass you like....in a month or two you can get the XXL when it finally shows up at the showroom. If you are looking for a headunit that is an all in one, the Anthem 710 or the NAD T777 both are rated very conservatively in their amplification. You might not have every bell and whistle as the money is put more into the quality of amplification but your ears will enjoy the upgrade. Check it out at the dealer before spending the money. If you are spending that much they should be able to take the time and set things up properly for you. I was spending considerably less and they were moving speakers, subs, changing amps...etc for me into place so I could get the proper understanding of the units I was purchasing. Expect the same quality of service from your GE dealer.

I only hit on a few points and hopefully people and the moderator will echo my thoughts (or correct me where I might have gone astray).

Good luck either way...

Roman

Fred,

Roman brings up some great points. In addition, I would add a few more.

The SuperCenter XL would be a far better match with the T1s and T2s. You won't get bass slam but they are better suited to be matched with those towers than a SuperSat3. You can get center bass by adding a sub or setting up your Triton towers to act as a "phantom sub" as has been described many times in the forum.

One thing you may want to consider is the Triton Ones up front and Triton Twos in the rear. That set up has been used at trade shows, dealers, and by forum members with great success. The Triton Ones are reported to have more bass than a ForceField5. If you are properly set up, you will have LFE all around you and the results are reportedly spectacular! If that doesn't work, you can buy the new SuperSub XL when it hits dealers.

There is a lot of info on set up once you decide which way to go. No matter which towers and/or subs you choose, I'm confident you will not be disappointed. It should all sound great! Let us know what you decide and how it sounds, please.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Hi Roman and T Cobe

Thanks to the both of you for the tips given.

Just to add on from the info provided:

- Amplification. Forgot to mention that the Pioneer AVR has already been purchased as I had a good deal on it. In any case, I can always shift it to another location the next time round when I move again. I have a Wyred4Sound ST-500 2-ch power amp (which is supposed to be paired to a Dynaudio Focus 140) I have to dig out from the store when I move in and see how that sounds with the Tritons. As is the norm, we all get the upgrade itch so who knows, pipeline in the works for a NAD/Anthem? (Thanks Roman for the suggested pairing)

- Layout. The layout is as-is for now as this was meant to be a simple layout (living room+bedroom) for 1 person when it was designed a year back. As that is no longer the case and I have to fit the missus somewhere, I will be building up another house and finally have a dedicated HT/music room just for me, myself and I *grins*.

- Placement. Noted on the suggested placement of the fronts and will play around with this once I can move in. That is what I have observed from the forums in here and my suspicion for the underwhelmed first audition I had of the Triton 2s. Not too underwhelmed, mind you, as my ears perked up when music was played and the bass finally kicked in and the vocals of the singer was lifted up.

- Subs. Agreed, Roman and T Cobe. Once the Tritons are in, do the suggested tips on moving them around til I am happy and go from there. If LFE is *still* insufficient, then here comes the XXL!

- Triton 1/2. T Cobe, yes I just noticed this setup of the 1s as fronts and 2s as rears and especially all the more in regards to Atmos demo recently by GE. This gives me food for thought also and am very tempted to replace the 7s to the 2s. Then I realise that this is afterall still a living-room environment and I may not have sufficient power points to hook up the 2s at the back. The 1s at the front I can still get away with but for the rears, best to keep things tidy. So now the decision still boils down to either the 7s or the 5s. I will revisit this again when I am ready to do the whole Atmos/Auro3D environment (and at that time, Invisa's to come into the picture).

- Center speaker. T Cobe, saw in your other post regarding the usage of Triton 1 as the centre. That was my exact thought initially! Similar to your setup, I won't be able to use another Triton 1 as the centre due to the height of the projector screen that will be in-place. Had me thinking if there was a way to place it horizontally but would it even work in this kind of setup as the Triton 1 is designed to be heard in a vertical position.


I'll update again once I have knocked down on the final list to place my orders but it looks like I'll stick more more or less to the original plan barring the rears of either the 5s or the 7s.

Can't wait for the weekend to come soon enough!


Cheers
Fred

Hi Fredting,
All the advice you are getting sounds GREAT to me, well done T Cobe and Roman!!!!! It looks like you will make a SUPER listening room and home theater!!!!
I would just add that I think IF you can swing the Triton Ones in the front, then the T 7s or especially the T 5s in the rear should sound absolutely wonderful!!!!
I have T 3s for surrounds and T 7s as rear surrounds for 7.1 and honestly, the T 7s would do fine instead of the T 3s, I just get a bit more bass with the T 3s and I am a bit of a basshead!
Whatever you decide (I have the T 2s up front and I think if you have them set up correctly they sound WONDERFUL, but I did add a FF5 for more deep bass on movies) you are looking in the right place and will find and design a GREAT system!!!!!!
Have fun in the process, happy listening, God Bless, Wayne