The SVS sub changed everything. Now I’m debating my final speaker upgrade.
Finally redid my family room after running basically the same home theater setup for over 20 years.
Started with an old HTIB-style setup and slowly upgraded things piece by piece over the last few months. New floors, media console, lighting, 85” Samsung, properly repositioned speakers, added an SVS SB-1000, etc. The difference compared to where I started is honestly insane.
Current setup:
- Onkyo TX-SR494
- Polk ES35 center
- 4x Polk ES10 (fronts + surrounds)
- Sony speakers as Atmos heights (pictured with arrows)
- SVS SB-1000
- 85” Samsung QN80
The ES10s absolutely shocked me. Once crossed over with the SVS, they sound WAY bigger than I expected. The detail and imaging are incredible for their size. Atmos music, gaming, and movies all sound awesome now.
Funny enough, my wife and daughter actually love the look of the ES10s with the grilles off, so I’m trying not to push my luck too hard with giant towers taking over the room.
The biggest thing I learned through this whole upgrade: a GOOD subwoofer completely changes a system. I upgraded from an older ~$200 Yamaha sub to the SVS SB-1000 and finally understood what people meant by “clean bass.” It fills everything in without sounding muddy or boomy.
The Yamaha actually got moved into my home office with a pair of Edifier speakers and even there it made a massive improvement for music and gaming. So nothing went to waste.
At this point the weak link is obvious: the old Sony Atmos height speakers. When Atmos content gets active overhead, I can hear the tonal mismatch immediately. They sound thin compared to the Polks.
So now I’m debating the final upgrade path:
Option 1:
Replace the Sony heights with 2 more ES10s for a fully matched 6x ES10 setup.
Option 2:
Move current ES10 fronts to heights and upgrade fronts to ES55 towers.
Room is not huge, and honestly the compact setup fits the room really well visually, so I’m leaning toward just doing 2 more ES10s and calling it done for a while.
Curious what you guys would do.