Wiring for new basement Home Theater (1 Viewer)

[westerbamos]

Hey everyone,

I'm in the process of finishing my basement and planning out wiring for surround sound. Some basics about the space and what I'm trying to do:

• Room is partially open to the rest of the basement (yes, I know this is less than ideal, but the wife won't budge on letting me fully wall it off). Pic of proposed layout below. Dimensions are 12 ft. 9 in. by 18 ft. 5 in. Planning to eventually add a bar at the back of the room.
• I currently have a 5.1.2 system (details below), but want to pre-wire for potential future expansion of the system
  • Denon AVR-S910W
  • Front: Klipsch RF52
  • Atmos (sitting on top of front speakers): Klipsch RP-140SA
  • Center: Klipsch RC10
  • Surround: Klipsch RS42
  • Sub: Klipsch RW12D
• Planning to mount an 85-inch TV (looking at the Sony X900H, but not planning to purchase until later this year) on the wall for display

What I could use help/advice with:

• Does my speaker positioning make sense for my setup? I'm planning to keep the receiver and any input sources (Xbox, Plex Client) in the utility room just behind the theater area and wiring through the walls/ceiling to speaker locations, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has different thoughts.
• Should I keep the Atmos speakers as upfiring on top of the floorstanding front left/right speakers, or would I get better sound quality mounting them either at the top of the wall or in-ceiling?
• Any other speaker positions I should pre-wire for future-proofing?
  • I'll likely eventually add rear surrounds, but I can wire those after the fact since the utility room behind the home theater area will be unfinished
• Will I run into any issues running a ~30 foot HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV through the walls/ceiling (i.e. will there be signal loss)?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[filper]

I use a 35' HDMI cable to connect my receiver to the projector without any apparent signal loss. Having the receiver in another room will sure give you some very long speaker wire runs and if you have a remote requiring line of sight you may have challenges.

 

[Wayne_j]

Yes, the biggest problem I see is having the receiver in a different room.

 

[Dave Upton]

• Does my speaker positioning make sense for my setup? I'm planning to keep the receiver and any input sources (Xbox, Plex Client) in the utility room just behind the theater area and wiring through the walls/ceiling to speaker locations, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has different thoughts.

This should be fine - you can use an optical HDMI cable to avoid most of the issues you'd need to worry about. Long speaker wire runs aren't terribly problematic.

• Should I keep the Atmos speakers as upfiring on top of the floorstanding front left/right speakers, or would I get better sound quality mounting them either at the top of the wall or in-ceiling?

In Ceiling will sound far better for Atmos - I would do this if at all possible.

• Any other speaker positions I should pre-wire for future-proofing?
  • I'll likely eventually add rear surrounds, but I can wire those after the fact since the utility room behind the home theater area will be unfinished

Just make sure you wire 4 in-ceiling speakers if you do prep for Atmos, as that's optimal.
I'd also run a subwoofer cable to the rear wall/corner somewhere so you can easily add another.

• Will I run into any issues running a ~30 foot HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV through the walls/ceiling (i.e. will there be signal loss)?

Not if you use a good optical HDMI cable. Try one like this. It costs a bit more, but is totally worth it. You can check out my review of it here: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/monoprice-slimrun-8k-optical-hdmi-cable-review/

 

[John Dirk]

Same here. Mine is about 25 ft and works fine. I did buy a good quality cable at the time but it is not optical.

 

[Dave Moritz]

That HDMI cable run is way to long and what will most likely happen is you will burn out the HDMI port on your receiver. And even at 20' you risk burning out the port. Others may not have gone optical HDMI but that is the way to go IMHO on long HDMI runs.

 

[Dave Upton]

That HDMI cable run is way to long and what will most likely happen is you will burn out the HDMI port on your receiver. And even at 20' you risk burning out the port. Others may not have gone optical HDMI but that is the way to go IMHO on long HDMI runs.

Not the case at all now that optical HDMI is available. One of these will work great up to 330 feet: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38629

 

[Dave Moritz]

Not the case at all now that optical HDMI is available. One of these will work great up to 330 feet: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38629

I was recommending the optical. If I can get a projector I will be getting an optical HDMI.

 

[Frankie_A]

Just a general rule of thumb that has served me well over the years and thru many theatre installations: whenever you are pulling cable thru tough places, behind walls or in conduit, in ceilings, etc., we ALWAYS pull double lines on speaker cable, CAT5e, 6, and even some low voltage cables. Those types of cables are cheap enough compared to labor costs, so we always pull a spare. Let me tell you, it will be a godsend should a cable crap out for whatever reason -- in more than one theatre installation mice had decided CAT5e cable was a gourmet dinner. You will be happy you have a spare right there already waiting to replace the damaged cable without so much more than switching terminal connections. Or how nice if configurations change, (and how fast does THAT happen in this crazy industry) and how nice for you that there are spares already run!

Also a note, we run a 50ft HDMI cable from an HDMI switcher to a flat panel monitor and never had anything burn out in either piece of equipment. With digital, either the cable carries the signal reliably enough that the image is pristine or it isn't there at all. You will know right away if the run is too long. I believe Monoprice used to make a transmitter and receiver combo that ran HDMI thru CAT5e for runs up to about 300ft if memory serves me. That might be as solution were really long runs are a fact, although I don't know that specs are for that setup (will it carry HFR, 4K, 3D? do not know).