New Home, Big Room = Right System?

[WhupTroy]

Hey all,

I just bought a house and the game room came pre-wired so now I'm looking for a good system. The room is HUGE and I have no idea what type of system I would need to fill it out correctly. I'm currently looking at HTIB options as I'm just not comfortable in pairing receivers with speakers, yet....

Here's my room specs:

It's roughly 20 feet x 30 feet with ceilings with 13 foot high ceilings & carpet flooring. The walls angle up to the ceiling at a 45 degree angle similar to a "barn" look. Here's a 3D Image of the room to get an idea of the sloped walls which is symmetrically on the back too:

I know - there are two 60 inch tv's on the wall...my wife and I can't share so...long story, anyway, moving on.... I found an HTIB system that appears to have good reviews, I just need to know if it's a good match for this size room or if I need to get something bigger.

Here's what I'm looking at:
Onkyo HT-S7800 5.1 HTIB
https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S7800-5-1-2-Theater-Package/dp/B01ESTB1BK

It might be worth noting that the room is pre-wired for surround sound so I am curious if the top firing atmos speakers will be an issue with a slanted ceiling such as mine.

Am I going down the right road with this system? I mostly game 90% of the time here, I don't watch too much tv but I would like it to sound good for movies, though. Thank you all for any input!!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

HTIB is one worst purchases you could make for this room. Somewhat good news is at least with Onkyo HTIB's, you do get a regular receiver which could be used with other speakers if so desired. This is NOT the case with most of htib crap with LG/Samsung/Vizio.

My suggestion (for large room & $700 budget) is to get pair of speakers and a receiver. Add sub/center later.
You could swing for Philharmonic AA bookshelves and a Center. about $360 shipped.
http://philharmonicaudio.com/
This avr: http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/denavrx1300w/denon-avr-x1300w-7.2-ch-x-80-watts-networking-a/v-receiver/1.html

p.s: These Sony Core tower/center is not bad way to go either:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O8YLL8E?tag=bp_links-20&th=1

 

[shadyJ]

I can see your budget is rather strict, but an HTiB is the opposite of what you should be using. You need a pair of good speakers and an AVR. Forget 5.1, you don't have the budget to do any good for a surround sound system in that room. Just get a good 2.0, seriously. These speakers are ideal for your situation. They can get loud enough for that room and they have good enough bass that a cheap sub will not help them at all. They also have very good sound quality. Get whatever AVR you can find on sale. My preferred brands are Yamaha, Marantz, and Denon. You should be able to get a very nice system for under $1k.

 

[WhupTroy]

I'd be willing to spend a bit more, maybe in the $1,200 range? I was just trying to stay modest since I was unsure of what I'd need to fill the room.

With that in mind I'd love suggestions - also, this room is pre-wired really weird. For some reason I'm not seeing the pre-wire speaker access boxes in the normal locations. It's wired for 7.1 but the locations are wacky....for example...

Front facing view of room (red circles are speaker gang boxes)

Rear facing view of room

Maybe the prior owner just had the orientation of the room facing the stairs but that just seems weird. Any reasonable reason to have it wired like this if you were to have everything set up in the direction I currently do?

Also would love suggestions for receiver / speaker options that's in the $1,200 neighborhood...you guys are awesome! Thank you!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Same, Pair of towers, receiver. Keep in mind, decent sub for room your size, humbly starts around $500-600. If you had smaller space, maybe 5.1 would make sense.

 

[shadyJ]

The weird TV scheme make speaker placement difficult. Now that I look at it closer, I don't know where you would put tower speakers where they would not get in the way of one of the screens. The pre-wired points are bizarre, to say the least. It may be a case of the builders or installers did not know what they were doing. If you can not rearrange anything, you might just look at some in-wall speakers, and place them to the immediate left of the left TV and the immediate right of the right TV.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

The weird TV scheme make speaker placement difficult. Now that I look at it closer, I don't know where you would put tower speakers where they would not get in the way of one of the screens. The pre-wired points are bizarre, to say the least. It may be a case of the builders or installers did not know what they were doing. If you can not rearrange anything, you might just look at some in-wall speakers, and place them to the immediate left of the left TV and the immediate right of the right TV.

Position of speakers shady mentions is correct. You may get away with longer speaker cables if their wire jacket matches wall color. Agreed - very unusual location for speaker terminals. It should have been at least near floor.

 

[herbu]

I don't know where you would put tower speakers where they would not get in the way of one of the screens.

That's a good point. The room looks large enough to move the desk somewhere else. That would open up that TV wall for your tower speakers.

At the risk of being indelicate, I'll reiterate an earlier point with the clarity it requires. Your current budget is not nearly enough to "fill the room" with a 5.1 system. In fact, it is weak for even just a pair of Left/Right speakers.

You're getting some good options, but it sounds like your expectations exceed your budget. To really fill that room with OMG! audio, I suspect most of us would say ~$10k would be the starting minimum.

Now that's not to say you can't get good sound. You're getting good suggestions on what to do within your budget. You'll notice we're all leaning toward a basic "starter" 2.0 system that can be expanded as funds become available. An equal amount of $ spent on a 2.0 system will result in MUCH better sound than the HTIB. Plus it's expandable.

So listen to the advice here. We've bought and paid for the knowledge, and hope to spare you the same experience. Just don't expect to duplicate a good movie theater sound for $1200. That's a big room.

 

[2channel lover]

Congrats on the house...you've got a nice entertainment room with a lot of potential.

But...you don't have the budget to do what you want, and do it right...yet.

My advice mirrors ShadyJ to some degree...I like those floor standers he linked...marry those with a decent AVR, use Pandora, Spotify, or a source you already have and call it day for now. I'd move the desk to another area and keep the component up near the TV wall.

When funds allow, continue to build the system with quality pieces that you won't be trying to replace in a 2 yrs.