Starting from Scratch in Minneapolis (1 Viewer)

thompsgr said:

Hi, all --

I just finished my basement with a family room, office, and game room, and decided to include wiring in the finish for home theater and for music in the game room, as follows:

In the family room:
- Above the fireplace (where the TV will be mounted), wire for LF, C, RF speakers + a tunnel for HDMI to/from the TV and IR kit,
- speaker wire for ceiling mounted LR and RR (surround) speakers over where the couch will go,
- wiring in the rear corner of the room for a subwoofer
Worst place to mount a TV. How high up is this?

In the game room:
- wiring for two speakers (for music when entertaining), plus volume control to control levels in the room (if necessary)

All wiring is routed to the utility room, where I will either put a cabinet and hide away all the gear, or route back into the family room to place the cabinet unobtrusively in the back.

As far as gear, I have a Wii and an old Bose Lifestyle 25 (not sure if I should just junk this or if I can use the Acoustimass speakers), but other than that, I'll be starting from scratch.

I got one recommendation to go Sonos for everything, but it seems a) expensive, b) overkill for my needs, given I have wiring, and c) not able to handle 5.1 correctly for true surround sound (this is from what I'm reading, although I may have this wrong).

I'm leaning more toward this:
- an AV receiver that can handle both HDMI and component in for the Wii (I'm hoping I can also send 'component in' to 'HDMI out' so I don't have to route component wire to the TV).
Every AVR over $500 does this
- In-ceiling speakers in the game room and in the family room for rear surround
- a wired subwoofer
- either a wired sound bar or three smaller speakers sitting on the mantel for up front L/C/R channels (I could also mount L/R on the wall to left and right of TV).
Pinnacle QP, Leon(Michigan), Def Tech Mythos, KEF T and several others make LCR bars/flat panel speakers

My questions are:
- Am I right about Sonos not handling true 5.1? About it being overkill (wifi functionality and cost) given my situation?
Technically yes Sonos is true 5.1. But it isn't DTS or DD. IF wiring there is no point to do wireless.
- What's the best way to handle the (separate) game room? 2nd zone on the receiver? 7.1? Separate receiver?
If you buy a 7 channel AVR that does digital zoning...all you need is wire.
- AV Receiver recommendations for this set-up?
Denon X4000(every other receiver either blows your budget away or is analog zoning)
- Speaker recommendations for this set-up (in-ceiling speakers in back for surround, sound bar or small speakers up front)?
Whatever you can find used.

I want to keep my budget around $2500, if possible.
Figure out what 7 channel AVR you can live with first. The X4000 is half your budget already. IF you can live with analog zoning that drops you down into $500 for an AVR.

Any feedback/recommendations would be most appreciated!

Geoff

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