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Odd room speaker placement

post #1 of 5
4/6/09 at 4:13am
Thread Starter 
Hey guys I need some help! I am going to be wiring my living room in my new construction house this Saturday before they start to dry wall. My living room is a very odd shape for speaker placement. Below is a link and picture to my floor plan: I am looking to set up a 6.1 system might go ahead and wire for a 7.1



http://www.jcwconstruction.com/pdf/C...ina_Santee.pdf








My surround sound will be in the Family Room and my couch will probably be exactly where it is shown in the plan



Any help is greatly appreciated. I am thinking of using electrical outlet boxes to hold the speaker wire with wall plates to cover the box once it is dry walled. Do I need to use three separate boxes on the front wall?



Thanks again for your help
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post #2 of 5
4/6/09 at 7:13pm

Re: Odd room speaker placement


No need for separate boxes - you can bring all the speaker wires into the same box, as well as any other low-voltage cabling you might need - CATV or antenna feeds, phone, etc.

As far as the locations, that's trickier. It's difficult to tell much from a one-dimensional floor plan because they don't tell anything about what's above or below windows, what it looks like above the transition between the family room and kitchen/dining room, not to mention you didn't tell us if you wanted the speakers on the floor on stands, hanging on the wall, etc.

I assume you're most worried about the rear speakers. The picture shows my recommendation for the rear speakers in a 5.1 set-up, assuming you can get a speaker wire to those locations (red X's). Can't make a suggestion for 6 or 7.1 because based on your floor plan picture alone.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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post #3 of 5
4/7/09 at 9:14am
Thread Starter 

Re: Odd room speaker placement

Thanks for your help. Those were the locations I had in mind. I was told on another forum that mounting the speakers on the ceiling would be a good place for the rear speakers as well. What are your thoughts on that?

I do have vaulted ceilings but They told me as long as I got proper ceiling mounts I could aim the speakers down. I was also told to locate them about 6-8 feet apart right behind where the couch will be. Does this sound like a good solution? I was going to run stands but I am a bit confused on where I could run the speaker wire so that it doesn't show (the wife is very adamant about not seeing wires!).

Thanks again for the help!
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post #4 of 5
4/7/09 at 11:17am

Re: Odd room speaker placement
Quote:
I do have vaulted ceilings but They told me as long as I got proper ceiling mounts I could aim the speakers down. I was also told to locate them about 6-8 feet apart right behind where the couch will be. Does this sound like a good solution?
Strikes me as curious why a wife who doesn’t want to see any speaker wire would tolerate speakers hanging from the ceiling! Regardless, don’t see why it wouldn’t work, provided you can get the proper ceiling mounts and in turn properly secure them to the ceiling. That will probably require toggle bolts. Depending on how the vaulted ceiling is configured @ the kitchen and dining room, you might do something like I did in the house where we previously lived:

Quote:
I was going to run stands but I am a bit confused on where I could run the speaker wire so that it doesn't show (the wife is very adamant about not seeing wires!).
Asking for the wire to be hidden with a speaker sitting on a floor stand is like expecting to go swimming without getting wet. Wall mounting is the only way to fully hide wiring, and even then only if the speakers are mounted directly to the wall (i.e, not on a bracket of some kind).

If you have carpet you could pull it off, using some of the tips mentioned in Part 4 of my in-wall wiring article (see link in my signature). In our previous house I ran the speaker wire around the baseboard and tucked it down behind the carpet, then at the speaker location went under the carpet and up through a hole I cut in the carpet so that the wire came out directly behind the speaker.

If you don’t have carpet, you might look for some tech-flex that you could cover the speaker wire with in a color that matches your floor covering so as to minimize its visibility.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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post #5 of 5
4/8/09 at 3:31pm

Re: Odd room speaker placement

I'm not sure if you even have this option available but I personally did built-in ceiling speakers for my surrounds. I personally think they sound excellent and nothing is showing whatsoever. When it comes to the tradeoff of between hidden speakers and a little better sound quality, I go the hidden route every time.
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