New house... New design dilemma! Plz help!! (1 Viewer)

[bsiegert9]

Comin to the gurus on this issue...

In about a month I am moving from a townhouse to a single family home. My current townhouse has a nice rectangle room which made my audio surround easy to run under the carpet etc.

Now... I am moving into a house that has a corner fireplace with TV shelf above the fireplace. Cable and power outlets are located above the fireplace as well.

I have 42" Samsung LCD and 5.1 Sony surround sound system (Yamaha receiver, HD cable box, and PS3 are all connected to each other).

The 42" TV will easily fit on top of fireplace, but now I am just lost on a plan to make my surround sound work! :frowning: :frowning:

There would enough room behind the TV, in the corner, for the component pieces to fit stacked (the TV would block everything sitting behind it)

I am lost on how to make the surround sound work!! Since you just can't run speaker cable down along the outside of the fireplace to the floor baseboards.

To paint a better picture of what I am working with... here is a pic of the actual living room from a real estate listing (sorry it isn't any bigger)

i11.tinypic.com/80y0jtd.jpg

It doesn't show the wall to the right of the fireplace... but the back wall is 13.7" wide. (It is 9' from the corner of the fireplace to the right wall corner)

Here is a simple diagram of the new living room layout.

i4.tinypic.com/80noqiq.jpg

I've never had to think about paying someone to run the speaker wire in a house before... can that be expensive? I am sitting with all my components... just trying to figure out my options to make it work in that above room layout.

Can the receiver sit hidden behind the TV, above the fireplace, and still connect to the sub and 5 surround sound speakers (wire going behind a wall and/or above the ceiling)?

Just tossing out some wishful thinking... would it be possible to have this sort of configuration??

i5.tinypic.com/6y0if01.jpg

Please offer any thoughts and ideas. I really had a simple room to setup in my townhouse... but this new room layout is worrying me.

I am not sure if something wireless would be effective? Just looking for some guidance!

Thanks a ton!!

 

[JeremyErwin]

This may be heresy, but perhaps mounting the television on the flat wall adjacent to the fireplace, rather than above the fireplace might be a better solution...

 

[zpdrummer]

I am lost on how to make the surround sound work!! Since you just can't run speaker cable down along the outside of the fireplace to the floor baseboards.

why not?
just curious but maybe you can do what he said^^ and just a thought, if youarent planning on ever using the fire place, you could clean it out and refurbish it a bit to be the component shelf

 

[JeremyErwin]

Some surround speakers (e.g. these) can be mounted on the ceiling-- and aimed appropriately.

 

[bsiegert9]

Much thanks for the messages fellas!!

I am not too keen on the idea of it over the fireplace either!! But I gotta "listen" to the wife's thoughts... lol But she isnt goin to understand it from the surround sound point of view... since she would be perfectly happy with the tv and cable box on top of the fireplace and only use that.

I am hoping my other plan will work for her. I would like to center the tv on that back wall... but the 3 shelf glass stand (I currently have) is the same width as the 42" LCD tv. In our bedroom I bought a component case that has worked well... and I might be able to use in our new living room.

Here is a pic of the stand I use in the bedroom with out 32" LCD on top...

i1.tinypic.com/6t452mq.jpg

The glass on top will handle the base of the 42" tv, and the slim body will save some room.

Ideally I would like a simple setup like this...

i8.tinypic.com/8auq348.jpg

I am hoping by having a slimmer stand that I could minimize the area used on that back wall, and keep the wife content.

Something like this might work...

i10.tinypic.com/8fv2sdu.jpg

I would try to keep the overall base + speakers as thin as possible (preferably to the width of the tv) and not overwhelm the size of the back wall.

Although the width of the family room is over 13 feet... the corner of the fireplace takes up some back wall space, so I am really working with 9 feet of free back wall space.

The sectional is pretty big... 5 pieces total, but I don't have to use them all, and since they are all different sizes I should be able to figure out some size combination.

With the above configuration I can run the speaker wires under the baseboard... making life easy.

Only remaining issue would be to get a cable outlet to the center of that back wall. Currently above the fireplace is the only outlet.

On the other side of the back wall is the outside of the house... but crawl space is under the floor which could help with getting a new cable outlet in?

Thanks for any other thoughts!!

 

[JeremyErwin]

Mention neck strain.

 

[bsiegert9]

haha... will do

 

[mylan]

Seriously, ask her to sit and stare at the spot where she wants the tv to go and have her envision holding her neck like that for a two hour movie, that should at least get her thinking more about the ergonomics vs. design issues.

 

[nolesrule]

mylan is right. Ideally, you want the center of the screen approximately at the center of your field of view of your most natural sitting position or else neck and shoulders will feel the strain. That goes for horizontal position as well as vertical.