Another speaker selection query

[TimT]

My system has been down for a couple years due to moving/building. Now that I'm unpacking the home theater, I've discovered 2 wonderful surprises. My old center speaker is damaged and my 2 rears are missing altogether. Sweet!

I suppose it's not that bad, I knew the center needed to be upgraded anyhow.

Existing equipment;
Yamaha RXV995 5.1 receiver
Cerwin Vega AT-15 mains

Room layout;
Basically, there's a 20x27 room. One half of the room is the game area, the other is the theater. So, there's an area of about 13.5x20 for the theater. The challenge, I'm sure, is that the right side of the room is wide open. Another challenge is that the back wall, where the rears will go, is not a full wall either. It's actually where the stairs are coming down. In fact, there's a long hallway directly behind where each rear will be placed.

My other rooms in the past were nearly square and had 4 walls (14x15 and then a 17x17).

I've never had a sub hooked up, as the at-15's really did a great job. Now that we're in a basement, with carpet over concrete and acoustic ceiling tile, I don't know how well they'll perform.

It's hard to say what the budget is, but I will say that I get pretty excited when I read positive reviews of $180 rears.

What should I have on the short list? Should I expect to add a sub to the shopping list?

 

[3db]

My system has been down for a couple years due to moving/building. Now that I'm unpacking the home theater, I've discovered 2 wonderful surprises. My old center speaker is damaged and my 2 rears are missing altogether. Sweet!

I suppose it's not that bad, I knew the center needed to be upgraded anyhow.

Existing equipment;
Yamaha RXV995 5.1 receiver
Cerwin Vega AT-15 mains

Room layout;
Basically, there's a 20x27 room. One half of the room is the game area, the other is the theater. So, there's an area of about 13.5x20 for the theater. The challenge, I'm sure, is that the right side of the room is wide open. Another challenge is that the back wall, where the rears will go, is not a full wall either. It's actually where the stairs are coming down. In fact, there's a long hallway directly behind where each rear will be placed.

My other rooms in the past were nearly square and had 4 walls (14x15 and then a 17x17).

I've never had a sub hooked up, as the at-15's really did a great job. Now that we're in a basement, with carpet over concrete and acoustic ceiling tile, I don't know how well they'll perform.

It's hard to say what the budget is, but I will say that I get pretty excited when I read positive reviews of $180 rears.

What should I have on the short list? Should I expect to add a sub to the shopping list?

If your focus is strictly HT and you never plan on going with multichannel audio formats, then any pair of rear speakers will do. You have two options available to you to get around the limitations of your rear speaker locations. They are 1.) in ceiling speakers, or 2.) surround speakers placed on stands out of the games area. I think this will cost you more than a $180 budget you are aiming for.

As far as the subwoofer goes, I would wait till you played with your CVs (after tweaking the physical location of them with respect to the listening location) before purchasing a sub. My greater worry would be finding a center channel that would match your CVs.

 

[TimT]

For what will be the right rear speaker, I do have a 7" square wood column that can be used for mounting either a bracket of some sort or even a shelf. For what is the left rear, I was thinking an actual bookshelf would suffice.

Does this site allow pictures? I'd post a couple if it was a help.

Matching a center channel.... I have to admit, as much of a nerd as I am, and as much time as I spent several years ago reading on the subject, I really don't know what I should be looking for there, or more to the point, I don't know what would make a good center channel matched to begin with.

Thanks for your help.

 

[3db]

For what will be the right rear speaker, I do have a 7" square wood column that can be used for mounting either a bracket of some sort or even a shelf. For what is the left rear, I was thinking an actual bookshelf would suffice.

Does this site allow pictures? I'd post a couple if it was a help. .

yes this site allows to post pics. Check under the additional option section when posting a message (directly below the message box)

Matching a center channel.... I have to admit, as much of a nerd as I am, and as much time as I spent several years ago reading on the subject, I really don't know what I should be looking for there, or more to the point, I don't know what would make a good center channel matched to begin with.

Thanks for your help.

matching a center channel implies matching the tonality of the center with your left/right speaker so that when/if sounds pans from left-center-right or visa versa that the tonality (timbre) of the sound doesn't change. You don't want to hear a pan sound like its coming from 2 different sounding speakers.

Maybe your CVs throw out a good stereo image that you may not even need a center channel for most of the viewing angle in your HT room. I'd setup the system and see how it sounds 1st before making any decisions.

 

[TimT]

No easy answers, huh?

I'll post pictures this evening to try and paint a clearer picture. I suppose matching tonality would require listening to multiple centers, possibly even bringing them home. I don't recall ever trying my system without the center, as I've had a center since pro-logic came out and just naturally hooked it up when I bought the 995. I'm still going to need rears. I still cannot believe we can't find them. I swear I had seen them just a couple months ago.

 

[TimT]

And a four.

 

[TimT]

And a five.

 

[TimT]

Sorry for the two posts above. Needed 5 to post pictures. Please delete this thread if it violates any rules.


Here's a corner closet I built to house the electronics;
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/landingview.jpg>

Here's a view toward the column that will have the right rear mounted.
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/Stairarea.jpg>

And the left rear will be above and behind the cheap rocker.
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/leftrear.jpg>

I guess the point of all this is that I'm looking for help in narrowing my search. Like anyone else, I'm looking for performance and price. As you can tell, though, we did not build a specific theater room with tiered seating or anything.

 

[3db]

Sorry for the two posts above. Needed 5 to post pictures. Please delete this thread if it violates any rules.


Here's a corner closet I built to house the electronics;
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/landingview.jpg>

Here's a view toward the column that will have the right rear mounted.
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/Stairarea.jpg>

And the left rear will be above and behind the cheap rocker.
<img src=http://www.iamtelecom.com/stuff/leftrear.jpg>

I guess the point of all this is that I'm looking for help in narrowing my search. Like anyone else, I'm looking for performance and price. As you can tell, though, we did not build a specific theater room with tiered seating or anything.

Thanks for the pics. It clarifies your description alot. I'm just tossing out ideas here, some good some dumb.

Option1.
If the wall adjacent to the pillar is finished in drywall, you could try using a speaker bracket and mount the surround to it. I would recommend something like this;

http://www.btech-usa.com/bt77.html

I am worried about the pillar. I don't how much clearance you'll have beforer the screws hit the steel support post.


Option2.
Since its a drop ceiling, it would easy I think to install in ceiling surround speakers.


Option3.
How about placing your system centered on the long wall starting from the staircase and using the wall to the left hand side of the pillar (looking from your tv stand to the stairs) for your surrounds. How much distance is there between the pillar and the right wall looking from the TV to the staircase?

 

[bandphan]

id say the steal beams are 4x4. Use thhe smallest drill bit you have and tap the would till you hit the beam.

 

[TimT]

The columns are 7"x7". They're just 1" pine covering a 4" round metal post. I fully expect to be able to safely mount anything to them.

The column near the stairs is probably only about 4 or 5 inches away from the wall.

We installed power and cable with the idea that we could either have the tv; 1. under the window, 2. in the corner, or 3. on the long wall. Obviously, having a corner-set tv would produce some serious speaker placement issues.

We have outlets on the middle column that could even allow placing the tv with the back toward the game area.

I think for sanity's sake, though, we'll probably just plan on mounting a right rear to the column at the steps and placing a bookshelf on the long wall for the left rear speaker. If I move the tv to the long wall, I'd still be using the column but now as the left rear mounting point.

I believe the current layout with my now antiquated television set is the most comfortable for viewing, as we're about 13' away from the screen. Turning it the other way would put us more like 9'.

I'll definitely consider drop-in surrounds. Any good brand/site to look at?