After moving into my new home, I found the 5.1 speaker package I’ve had since uni wasn’t up to the task of filling the larger living room. This came as no surprise, and I’d been looking for an excuse to upgrade for quite a while anyway.
The hunt was now on to find something appropriate for my living space which also didn’t cost the earth. Given the size of my TV (65″) and TV unit, I had a bit of a restriction as to what would fit. You can see what I mean in the picture below.
Floor-standers were out of the question, and crucially the height for the centre-speaker was also limited (to around ~13cm). Left and right channels had ~17cm of space which is fair enough.
Not being an avid follower of the home cinema scene, I headed over to AVForums for advice. They have a dedicated sub-forum “What Speakers Should I Buy?” where I duly posted my room restrictions and budget.
The shortlist came down these, with a strong recommendation for the MK sound-bar.
- Kef T-Series
- M&K Sound Bar
- Monitor Audio Apex
However, while browsing the MK Sound website, I noticed some on-wall speakers that also seemed appropriate (similar to the Kef T-Series). After enquiring it turned out they were not recommended as the were discontinued and being replaced by new models which weren’t available yet.
I did eventually get details and prices on the new M-Series range, and given the sizes worked out perfectly, and they were just about in-budget – I picked out the following package:
- 3 x M&K Sound M70 – Left/Centre/Right (black)
- 1 x M&K Sound M40T – Surround Pair (white)
- 1 x M&K Sound V10 – Subwoofer (black)
Miller & Kreisel are well-known for professional, accurate speakers and in fact have become the reference standard in the finest music and film studios. I was told they have stunning sound for the price-point and given they’re not cheap, my expectations were well up-there.
I went for white surrounds as I had been researching best speaker placement and decided to ceiling-mount them. This was not only a “better” position, but also greatly aided tidy wire-management as I could run them inside the ceiling rather than along the floor. Here is an excerpt from the M&K Sound Satellite Operation Manual:
The surround speakers should be located relatively close to the ceiling. Placement above the listeners’ heads is important, preferably with the cabinet’s bottom at least two feet (60 cm) above a seated listener’s head.
Being a new model, it took a good three weeks to get my hands on them after making the decision and I can thank Rich at SeriouslyCinema for getting them to me as soon as possible.
Read my review of these speakers in my next post.
