150K Baht Budget For 7.1 Speakers - What To Shortlist?

[IMHO]

I'm looking to replace the AV system in the kid's TV room with something a little more decent..

The current equipment is the Jamo S600 series towers/center/rears with a Klipsch 12" powered sub and a Harman AVR. It was fine a few years ago for playing Dora and Mickey Mouse, but the kids are now getting a little more serious about music, and frankly, while it's OK for TV/Surround, the system really lacks when it comes to music.

For AVR I'll likely be looking at one of the new mid-range Denon or Marantz AVR's (one of the req's will be Airplay support for the kids iPads), so power will be in the 7x 100W+ range. I'm figuring a total budget (including AVR and a new BD player) of around 200K, so that leaves around 150K for a sub, fronts, center, surround and surround backs.

The room this is all going in is 4M (wide) x 8M (long) and has 3M high ceilings, with an additional open dormer ceiling area that extends to ~5M high.

Being a kids system, it's going to play pretty much all flavors of music - so long as it ends with 'pop' It will also do some double duty as a party system, as the room it's in opens out to a terraced area ~21M wide and 10M deep, so it needs to be able to deliver when friends are around too

I'm thinking of towers for the front, so they don't look too small alongside the kids 65" plasma, and don't get too stressed out when the volume is wound up. Rear surround and surround-backs are prewired for wall mounting @ 2M high.

From a quick look at the Piyanas website, it appears these are some of the options:

KEF Q900 based system

Mission MX6 based system

Jamo C607 based system

(none of these auditioned yet though)

Any suggestions?

[IMHO]

Actually, the room it's in is 5.5M wide by 8M long - the wall the hifi gear goes against is only 4M wide though.

Anyways, looks like I'm fishing in the wrong pond here though..

Anyone know of some active English language AV/HiFi forums in TH?

[astral]

Looking at reviews of Jamo speakers, they tend to be good,

so unless the speakers have been damaged by small fingers

I would leave them in place.

Look for a new AVR with a more musical presentation and take

the upgrade in stages

I am very pleased with the way my Yamaha A1010 plays music

which I souce from a hard disk plugged in the USB socket.

The AV side is also excellent

[IMHO]

Looking at reviews of Jamo speakers, they tend to be good,

so unless the speakers have been damaged by small fingers

I would leave them in place.

Look for a new AVR with a more musical presentation and take

the upgrade in stages

I am very pleased with the way my Yamaha A1010 plays music

which I souce from a hard disk plugged in the USB socket.

The AV side is also excellent

The Harman Kardon AVR is perhaps more of a 'warm' sounding AVR, agreed. But for the base model Jamo S606's it's running that was a conscious decision on my part though, as the S606's top-end sounds gritty/harsh when driven by more 'bright' electronics. At the time I was only looking to spend 50K'ish for a full 5.1 system (the kids were much younger then), and after 3 days of listening HK/S606/Klipsch system it seemed to be the best overall compromise..

I feel like I've already done everything to make these current speakers sounds as good as I can.. As noted they do a very reasonable job on surround material - their only real failing point there is that the center is not very well timbre-matched to the towers. But without a DTS-MA soundtrack behind it, everything I like about them just seems to disappear Even the kids agree..

Bottom line is, it's time to spend more money I think

I'll give the higher end C600's and C800's an audition for sure. I've spent almost an hour playing with the Kef Q300 bookshelf's and was mighty impressed, so will also be listening to a Q900 based system for sure..

I'd be prepared to spend maybe 60-70K Baht/pair on the main towers (which should land me close to the overall system budget) - any suggestions or experiences in this price range?

[IMHO]

Current auditioning shortlist:

Wharfedale Evolution 2-50 (Thanks to Will via PM)

KEF Q900

Mission MX6 (a little under budget, but get decent reviews)

Jamo C807 (expecting I can squeeze a better deal on these)

Feel free to add to this, hehe