Project for new home (1 Viewer)

[Calibus]

When I say new home, I mean I am at the framing stage now. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to setup a new system but I am continually coming up with questions. I have included pictures for reference. The LCD TV will hang above the fireplace. I will build a cabinet into the wall to the left for components. I would like to have speakers flush mounted into the walls. I really want a receiver that has at least 3 outputs for multi-room capability. My budget is no more than $1500 (not including TV). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.


Pics of home
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34197271@N04/sets/72157622948970060/


All pictures taken standing in same location. Fireplace first, then turned right 90 degrees to show right side of room, then turned 90 degrees to show opposite side of fireplace. Notice the living room has a vaulted ceiling.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Are you looking to do a complete 5.1 surround system?

Does the $1500 include both the receiver and the speakers?

There are a number of other things that should be considered before anyone can really make any recommendations:

First of all, are you sure you want to put the TV over the fireplace? A lot of people try that, only to find afterwards that the strain on their neck from extended (anything more than 30 minutes) viewing is not worth it. If the TV over the fireplace is a must-have - then you need to make sure to route both power and an HDMI video cable to that location - since trying to work around a fireplace after it's been drywalled is tricky. Again, a lot of folks recommend against mouting a TV that high - so be sure that's what you want.

Secondly (and partially related to the first point) is that setting up surround sound for a display located in a corner is notoriously difficult. You won't be able to get a very wide front soundstage (especially with the door just to the right of the TV) and correctly placing surround speakers (which should be to the sides, and slightly behind the sitting position) is often hard to do. Correct speaker placement will depend on the seating arrangement. Do you have any thoughts on seating? An overhead plan view drawing might be helpful in looking at speaker placement options. If you can throw something together in MSPaint or a similar drawing program, that would help a great deal.

Thirdly - inwall speakers. Another common piece of advice around here is if sound quality is important to you, re-think the use of in-wall speakers. The ultra-clean look of a flush install comes at a price - both monetary and performance-wise. Dollar for dollar, you'll get better performing speakers that are much easier to move and reposition by going with standalone speakers. Using in-walls requires (as you already know) a lot more pre-planning.

I suppose it all comes down to what your actual goals are. If you're seeking a high-performance 5.1 home theater, then I think your better bet is using the wall to the left of the fireplace as your main (display) wall and tweaking your layout/design for that.

However, if the compromises above are requirements that must be met, then that's fine - we can try and make recommendations that fit the bill.

 

[acousticinnovga]

Sony and Marantz are the two units I have worked with that have the capability to do three zones and work correctly. I'm sure others are avialable such as Denon, Onkyo "Integra". Keep in mind you will be limited on the number of speakers you can run off of a single zone unless you have a seperate amp. If you choose in-walls look at Monitor Audio. There are specialized speakers with built in back boxes that will dramatically improve performance. T.

 

[Calibus]

Awesome! Thanks for the replies. Didn't know if I would get any. Here's a sketch I made up showing what I might go with. I can email it for more clarity. I didn't mention that my electrician on the job will be wiring speaker cables and audio/video cables into the walls for me. I didn't show in my sketch but where I have the sub, right next to it, I plan on building a fixed cabinet into the wall for all components. I will then run audio/video cables to the fireplace where there will be an access panel to, well, access stuff. Suggestions are greatly appreciated. Equipment is mostly where I need the help. My budget can and probably will be higher than $1500 but I am really trying to keep cost low while still getting what I want. My thought was $500 for a receiver and $1000 for all speakers. As far as the multi-room audio goes, I am trying to get 2 speakers into the kitchen for low music, 2 in the dining room, and 2 on the patio. I can live without the dining room having music so 3 channels will do. I can also reconsider the flush mount speakers. I would like to recess the two front and center speakers but the rear can be mounted to the wall. Ok, enough rambling. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Well, for a corner setup, you've got things laid out pretty well. You're fortunate to have surfaces for mounting the surrounds, and based on the seating arrangement you have depicted, it's about as symmetrical as you can expect to get.

Your budget breakdown seems reasonable. $500 will get you a very nice receiver. Amazon.com has a great deal on the Onkyo 607. It has 5 HDMI inputs, does analog video upconversion, decodes all the lossless Blu-Ray audio codecs, and has Audyssey - a very effective setup and calibration tool that can easily optimize your speakers for your particular room.

Whoops - I just remembered your 3-zone requirement, and this is only 2 zone. A cursory search online seems to indicate 3-zone receivers at or near the top of the line. It may be tricky finding a 3-zone for your $500 budget.

For the rough-in wiring, try to use 14 gauge speaker wire (some folks use 12, but it's not totally necessary and the 14 gauge will save you some $$). You should only need 1 HDMI cable running from the equipment area to the TV - make sure it's HDMI 1.3a compatible. There are nice wallplates available for HDMI cables from PartsExpress.com.

As for the speakers, I don't have any direct experience with in-walls. Until you make a choice, there's probably little more you can do other than get speaker wire to the general area and close in the drywall. You won't know exact placement or the size of the holes until you've got the speakers in hand.

Hopefully others can chime in with suggestions, but I know there have been a number of other threads on the subject - you could search the forum and see what answers are out there.

 

[Calibus]

Thank you so much for your help. I talked to a neighbor who had his whole house wired for everything. The stand out option that he has is a type of panel in a wall where all his wiring originates. I checked it out and it's pretty awesome. Do you have any experience with these panels? He paid a pretty price to have this done and I can probably do it myself if I knew what stuff to buy.

I will just wire everything, including ethernet and coax, to every room with wall plates terminating in the room . I will even put plates for HDMI, ethernet, and speaker wire in the access room above the fireplace.

Once I get the speaker wires to where I want them, then I can choose the actual speakers.

When I mention 3 zones, I don't actually need 3 different audios in 3 different places. Whatever is coming out of the receiver is ok to be in all 3 places if you know what I mean. I just want to be able to select which room is playing the audio from the receiver.

Thanks again.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Running whole-house systems is beyond my expertise. I've only done systems that are self-contained to the theater. I'm not sure you'd really want to bunch the HDMI video with something whole-house, anyway. There are limitations to the length of runs for HDMI, so it's probably better to keep that isolated to the receiver->TV connection.

For home theater-only systems, there are wallplates available that have all the typical connections for 5.1 or 7.1 systems as well as HDMI video. Here's an example of a 5.1 wallplate, and a 7.1 wallplate.

 

[Calibus]

The HDMI will only run from the cabinet to the fireplace. Ethernet wires will be run through the house. I just want everything to come together in the same place.

 

[marisalexia]

First of all why are you running through your dvd player and how. dvd players dont have the ability to broadcast tv signals so how are you doing this. your picture quality will not be truly realized until you start using an hd signal. that is the purpose of having an hdmi cable. get hd from dish with dvr. lose the tivo and you picture will jump off the screen for you.
Home theater

 

[marisalexia]

First of all why are you running through your dvd player and how. dvd players dont have the ability to broadcast tv signals so how are you doing this. your picture quality will not be truly realized until you start using an hd signal. that is the purpose of having an hdmi cable. get hd from dish with dvr. lose the tivo and you picture will jump off the screen for you.
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