I'm in the process of finishing my basement and thought I knew what I wanted to do with my AV setup. After debating and searching for information I decided it was time to reach out for help when I ran across the Audioholics youtube video on home theater do's and don'ts. That lead me here and I hope to get the help I need to finalize my AV setup before we sheetrock our room.
As most, I have enough knowledge to get me into trouble. What I'm looking for in the way of help is potential position issues, additional layout options/ideas, science/technical information about speaker positioning, and maybe even product ideas. My budget is fairly small for audioholic standards, but I want to set things up in a way to allow component upgrade when the time comes.
I've attached basement layout. Framing is complete but can be modified (depending on my level of motivation). Total basement area is 1420 sq/ft with the main living/entertainment room being 37'x12' (framing cut into the allotted diagram a bit). The TV will be hung on the wall on the right between the main room and Bedroom 1 which has a 2nd framed wall and been insulated with R13. The ceilings have been insulated with R19 and the walls with R13 for sound. Planning on single sheetrock walls and ceilings (reason: cost).
The
main room is a multipurpose room for entertaining & tv watching. Our computer will be located in the far left corner between the two windows. The middle area will be open with a fold out ping-pong table. And the right side will be for Media. The plan is to maintain a 3 ft walkway along the bottom wall. There is also a 10"x10" box in front of the maintenance closet covering ducts and such.
The
main seating area will be next the closest window and puts the front of the couch at 10.5 ft from the TV. The couch is the same length as the media wall (112" how did I get that lucky?) and will be placed directly in front of it.
Media wall (112 inches wide) will have a 3 gang inset box for cables & power behind the TV. Below TV will be a small media cabinet and behind will be boxes for power, coax (sub), LCR x 2 (floor standing & in-wall/ceiling), optical return, 2 hdmi to tv, multiple ethernet. Also, 2 gang box between the door and the av wall for power & coax for sub. Plan is to use my existing floor standing equipment and eventually transition to in-wall/ceiling equipment. Have arranged things so I can upgrade to a large 4k TV in the future (room for up to 85", overkill I know).
Questions about the
media wall:
- Do I center my TV on that partial wall, or in the room. Wall is 112" room is just over 12'.
- Do I center the speakers around the TV or in the room?
- Compared to my current equipment how bad will the sound from in-wall/ceiling speakers be?
Questions about my
room:
- I would like to leverage in-ceiling speakers for surrounds...
- What arrangement will work best (5.1/6.1/6.2/atmos/60's hi-fi)?
- Do I extend the sound stage for music by adding more surrounds further back in the room?
- Do I connect sound to the bathroom/craft room/back patio?
My
current AV equipment consists of the following (circa 2008):
TV - Panasonic 50" Plasma
Receiver - Pioneer VSX 01TXH
Sub - Velodyne MiniVee 8"
Left & Right - Yamaha NS-555
Center - Yamaha NS-C525
Surround - None currently
Bluray - Panasonic ???
Other - Roku, Nvidia Shield TV, Xbox 360
Cables - Optical for TV audio return channel, HDMI & ethernet to everything else.
Recently purchased but returnable (don't hate on the choices please):
Monoprice 300ft 12AWG Copper Speaker Wire
Monoprice 1000' 23awg cat6
Monoprice CL2 coax cables
Monoprice CL2 hdmi cables
Monoprice optical (as my TV uses optical for the audio return channel)
MP in-celing speakers x 6 (
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=7605)
MP in-wall center x 1 (
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4881)
MP in-wall sub x 2 (to augment velodyne (
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4928)
Questions about
equipment:
- Do I just bag the idea of in-wall/in-ceiling sound?
- Can I augment the sound of my velodyne sub with the passive in-wall subs?
- How can I plan placement to allow upgrades in the future without breaking the bank?
Other suggestions/comments are appreciated but please keep them constructive. My current equipment was the best I could afford at the time and I'm trying to finish a basement. 5 year plan is to do some serious audio/video upgrades so I'm looking for advice on how to best prepare for upgrades.
Thanks in advance!
-Nate R