My New theater project, please critique (1 Viewer)

I finally took the plunge and redid my theater system, not a fancy dedicated Home theater, but a viewing system.

I purchased a nice 55 inch Panasonic TC-p55st60 plasma tv to be the center piece.
1 40 inch Cheap LCD Screen that has a great picture.
1 Panasonic HTB 770 SOund bar for just TV viewing
1 Samsung Airtrack sound bar for the 40 inch tv.
Yamaha RXV765 Receiver
LR Klipsch b20 speakers
Yahmaha center speakers
couple back speakers
ps3
ps4
PC
Xbox
and a Bluray player.


I got a wall mount for the both screens, the bigger screen, I modified the wall mount to add verticle bars so that I could add shelves to it for components. I also added a bar horizontally so that I could add the left and right speakers.


This shows basically the two tv's, the speaker set up and the shelving I made.


Some other shots from behind and bottom..



Well I realize some of these pictures are pretty shabby, but if you can sort it out, I would love to hear some comments on anything I could do, or do differently.

Thanks!

A couple of thoughts:

Your room is not large enough for two TVs. Your speakers dont have breathing room, are too close to multiple reflective surfaces and have an inconsistent environment for them to work optimally. Open your front stage by moving furniture from the front of the room to either the back or back side walls. Acoustic performance is a balance between your room and display location, which makes putting your display in the exact center of the front wall the preferred location. Try to avoid anything between yourself and the speakers, including coffee tables directly in front of the seating. The idea is to cut down on reflections as much as possible. Avoid mounting speakers too close to any flat surface, namely side walls, ceiling or floor. If your room and configuration makes this unavoidable this will make acoustic treatments that much more critical.

Replace "Yamaha center speakers" with either a single Klipsch C-20 or a single Klipsch B-20 mounted vertically.

Subwoofer? Critical for a home theater, even a modest one. Ownership is critical but then so is proper placement.

Acoustic treatments. Your room is likely an acoustic nightmare but can be improved drastically without a huge outlay of money or time and with some simple rearranging. Replace furniture in corners with bass traps and treat first reflection points at a minimum. Youtube is a great source for how to create your own acoustic treatments if youre on a tight budget and have very basic skills. Some of these are a little long, and a little slow, but I recommend you watch all these videos on what acoustic treatments can mean to you...

http://realtraps.com/videos.htm

Last, and should be least on your list of priorities, replace "couple back speakers" with a pair of Klipsch B-20. This can wait till everything else is complete (namely your front stage corrections) but should be on the list regardless. Your ultimate goal is the same speakers all the way around. This includes a matching center channel if you can fit a traditional matching vertical-oriented center to match your mains (which are vertically-oriented). A C-20 and four B-20s will be good, and a reasonable compromise, but a five B-20s configuration is technically the best configuration possible.

One final thought...Your room is a challenge but thats mainly because it simply has too much stuff in it which ultimately affects both the look and performance of your system. Try to clear clutter, orient your system to the center of the room and be mindful of reflective surfaces.

What is the point of the twin displays? Really using both at the same time?

I don't get the two soundbars with THAT AVR at all.

If you were going to spend that much money, why not get an AVR with Zone 2 HDMI? (or did you already have the 765 from ages ago?)

Thanks for the replies.. there is a lot to look at here and I will respond ishortly..

Maybe he watches 2 football games at once. If you take the frames off the wall, you can add a third TV !!

blabolat said:

I finally took the plunge and redid my theater system, not a fancy dedicated Home theater, but a viewing system.

I purchased a nice 55 inch Panasonic TC-p55st60 plasma tv to be the center piece.
1 40 inch Cheap LCD Screen that has a great picture.
1 Panasonic HTB 770 SOund bar for just TV viewing
1 Samsung Airtrack sound bar for the 40 inch tv.
Yamaha RXV765 Receiver
LR Klipsch b20 speakers
Yahmaha center speakers
couple back speakers
ps3
ps4
PC
Xbox
and a Bluray player.


I got a wall mount for the both screens, the bigger screen, I modified the wall mount to add verticle bars so that I could add shelves to it for components. I also added a bar horizontally so that I could add the left and right speakers.

IMG_00000079.jpg

This shows basically the two tv's, the speaker set up and the shelving I made.

IMG_00000074.jpg

Some other shots from behind and bottom..

IMG_00000082.jpg

IMG_00000081.jpg

IMG_00000080.jpg

IMG_00000079.jpg

IMG_00000078.jpg

IMG_00000077.jpg

IMG_00000076.jpg

IMG_00000075.jpg

Well I realize some of these pictures are pretty shabby, but if you can sort it out, I would love to hear some comments on anything I could do, or do differently.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I"m trying to figure out all that you say, sounds like you have some points..
I do have a sub-woofer btw.. AVR is sitting on it.

schan1269 said:

What is the point of the twin displays? Really using both at the same time?

I don't get the two soundbars with THAT AVR at all.

If you were going to spend that much money, why not get an AVR with Zone 2 HDMI? (or did you already have the 765 from ages ago?)

Click to expand...

I like to have the tv on and then I will or someone will play games on the other screen.. just evolved to two screens.

1 sound bar is for the smaller tv, the other is just basically for tv as it gives really clear dialouge sound and thought it would be easier and cheaper to use than using the AVR.

Haven't figured out what zone 2 is yet, and it doesn't have a zone 2 hdmi as far as I know. 765 is several years old.

Jim Mcc said:

Maybe he watches 2 football games at once. If you take the frames off the wall, you can add a third TV !!

Click to expand...

games and tv or movies.. 3rd would be a little much even for me, but it's a good suggestion, that I'll pack away somewhere.

blabolat said:

I like to have the tv on and then I will or someone will play games on the other screen.. just evolved to two screens.

Click to expand...

You may be able to get away with this if the room width allows. Any less than 14' wide is going to require compromises.

Heres the numbers you should shoot for, a base line if you will:

Your optimum seating distance for a 55" is 7.3' (for a 30 degree viewing angle).
Assuming that, this makes the optimum spread between your left and right speaker (mains) 7.3'.
In a room 14' wide you have 3.3' on each side between the speaker and the side wall.
Your 40" TV is about 3' wide, counting the bezel. (In general, measure it to be sure)


You would still want to mount the 40" forward, away from the front wall, to allow for bass traps in both the front corners.

A side note...you can compensate slightly for improper mains spread by experimenting with toe. The sharper in on the toe the tighter the sound stage, verses the less toe the wider and more defused the sound stage. The degree of the effect can depend on the speaker employed and, I would suspect, a horn-loaded and very forward-sounding speaker like Klipsch is one of the more drastic effects when playing with toe. But Im just guessing on that one, Ive never owned horns or even experimented with them.

Room fits..
Tv is about the proper distance..

I'm not sure what Toes, or Horns are.. on a google search I get, well you probably know

I'm not sure I can do the Bass traps, unless it can be done inconspiciously.

Thank you for your input, I do appreciate it.

Toe-in. Speaker placement 050(not even 101)Horn means the tweeter is in one. (You bought Klipsch and "horn passed you by")

blabolat said:

I'm not sure what Toes, or Horns are.. on a google search I get, well you probably know

Click to expand...

I cant emphasize enough the importance of understanding the fundamentals. Its not exactly something they teach in high school so dont feel bad that there is a learning curve, even for the fundamentals

Little dry in parts but I highly recommend you read this whole informative article:

http://www.stereophile.com/reference/1008speaks/

Heres info on horns:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_loudspeaker

Once youve read the info dont hesitate to ask questions.