dped90

I've never heard any AR speakers except the AR4's which were the only speakers I ever bought brand new. Perhaps due to very bad placement (on bookshelves), driving them with only 50 wpc, though in a small room and/or mis-adjusting their crossover level controls, they sounded thin, directional and lacking any palpable soundstage. I returned them and remember badly kicking myself for selling the Bozak 300s my Dad gave me. So he built for me a pair of floor standing kits speakers. This old "model 99" kit was likely designed without regard to Thiel Small parameters, driver time alignment and cabinet diffraction considerations, and yet those 8,160 cu in 4 way/15" woofer speakers still sound amazingly good. I use them as TV speakers driven by a 25wpc Class A amp in a large bedroom. Perhaps I like their overall sound for the same reasons I did the Bozaks; both are acoustic suspension speakers with clean undistorted midbass. And the highs and mids sound very natural in most respects. Maybe this is why I would have loved the AR3a’s-and especially the AR3’s-if I ever had the chance to hear them. Has anyone here ever considered building a 5.1 surround system with the pairs of AR3’s and/or AR3a’s? Which, if any, subs might you use to with them? Some like these, perhaps? https://jamesromeyn.com/speakers/subwoofers/debra/ https://www.rythmikaudio.com/F12SE.html https://gr-research.com/product/sub-series-double-trouble-with-flatpacks-copy/ What would you use for a center speaker? And what amps drive those five speakers? My goal is to find speakers which closely resemble the A3 sound, plus delivering with a large 3D soundstage, airy highs with great dispersion and lifelike superbly textured midrange and midbass. But bass response of these speakers need only extend to the low midbass, while subs like the Rythmik sealed and/or GR Research open baffle servo subs will handle below content ~65Hz. My room is 20 ft x 16 with a triangular ceiling from 11 ft down to 8 ft. So as my room is only ~ 2850 cu ft I doubt that my ears could safely tolerate SPLs over 50db @ 6 ft from ~ 2kHz to 700Hz, especially with 5 main speakers playing, assuming properly mixed recordings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour Thus, the mains would not have to be designed to play at high volume nor to conform to any such THX standards. Any "modern" brand/models recommendations for such speakers in a 5.1 system? And for the center speaker?