It’s been almost 10 years since I put together my budget college audio system, so I’m looking to do a big upgrade.

Use-case and room layout

What I’m looking for:

• Total budget: $3000~. My idea is to buy the best speakers I can, and electronics with my feature-set with the remaining money.
• This is for a general purpose living room setup, 60% watching AppleTV, 40% listening by time spent, but I care a lot more about music quality than I do about explosions.
• We sit about ~8 feet back from the TV on a couch OR on the floor, and the room is about 300 sq feet. The speakers will be on a media console or shelf around 24” off the floor, with 15” of depth from the wall. So, the speakers shouldn’t be too finicky about placement, and they should have a wide “sweet spot”, and can ideally carry sound a bit farther into the house.
• My most important metric is UI minimalism:
  • I should be able to control the system volume with my Apple TV remote.
  • This seems to necessitate a receiver that supports HDMI ARC and HDMI-CEC volume control.
• Room diagrams (click arrow to show)

Current gear

• Apple TV 4k. This is my primary source for music, via Airplay 2 / streaming apps / LAN fileserver playback (Emby). Right now this feeds straight into the TV, and I’d prefer to keep it that way, so I don’t need to fiddle with an AVR source picker remote.
• Samsung The Frame 55” TV (2019). ARC out, optical out, no eARC.
• Onkyo TX-8050 stereo receiver. No HDMI/ARC input, purchased 2013
• Pioneer SP-FS52 tower speakers (pair), purchased 2013
• I’m looking to change the receiver to something more modern that supports more digital control, and get a big sound upgrade out of a bit more compact and aesthetic pair of speakers.

Speaker ideas

My shortlist of speaker picks. I’m going to put the speakers on top of a shelf, right up against a wall. They should have wide vertical sweet-spot for floor or couch listening.

• Kef R3 ($2200, $800 left over for electronics)
  • I think this is the meme speaker right now, since it’s at the top of the preference scale, but not super expensive.
  • Amir’s review suggests these need a lot of power, but alex-z here does a quick calculation saying I should be okay with just ~70w or so. What do you think I need to drive these?
  • The manual suggests 24” from the ground, and 9” from the wall. Seems like shelf height is fine, but depth is poor. With the port pug, it should be okay? (Expand toggle to see manual screenshots)
• Kef LS50 Meta ($1600, $1600 left over for electronics)
  • They might fit on the shelf better than the R3.
  • I like the modern, minimal look more than the R3.
• Revel M16 ($1000/pair, $2000 left over for electronics)
• JBL Stage A130 ($200/pair), with a great review from Amir with some EQ.
• Active speakers:
  • Genelec 8030c ($1600/pair) powered monitors
    • Too small.
    • Not a serious contender because they require pro-level gear with XLR audio cabling.
    • Not a serious contender because I don’t understand how volume control works.
  • Neumann KH 80 ($1000/pair)
    • Balanced in only (plus digital)
    • Too small? ¯\(ツ)/¯
  • Kali IN-8 v2 ($800/pair)
    • Nice and big, good value
    • RCA in, balanced analog in
    • Poor vertical directivity?

Electronic ideas