New house - new set-up

[darien87]

Hey dudes,

The wife and I finally got off the renting treadmill and bought a house last August. With all of the craziness that comes with moving into a new house, I finally got around to snapping some pics. It was new construction so I got to have the living room pre-wired and had the electrician install two 20amp circuits. The room isn't huge but I think I laid the system out about as well as I could with the space constraints. The whole downstairs living/dining/kitchen is just one big room. The dining area and kitchen have tile flooring, but I left the living room carpeted to minimize sound reflections and because I just like the feel of carpet under my feet when I'm relaxing.

The best thing about buying a new construction house was being able to plan out where the speakers would be and having the wiring done accordingly. I gave the electrician 12 gauge speaker wire and plates from Monoprice to wire the whole room. All speakers connect to speaker plates other than the surrounds that are mounted directly to the walls.

Here is the front wall that the TV is mounted to. I gave the installer 2 HDMI cables to run up the wall behind the TV. Power plug is also behind the TV for a clean install.

Here is the same wall after the drywall went up.

And here is the wall again after speaker plates were installed and the wall was painted.

Closer view of speaker plates.

And here is the front wall as it looks today with TV mounted and system all set up.

This is the 12" Rythmik sub that is at the front left of the room. Power plug and RCA jack are next to each other in the wall so no wires are showing.

 

[darien87]

Here is the seating area from the right side. I am standing in the dining area.

This is looking at the seating area from where the TV is. Notice the Boston VRX surrounds in the left and right walls. The rear surrounds are Boston CR9's. You can also just see the 15" sub that is in the right rear corner.

Left rear surrounds.

Right rear surrounds and 15" sub.

Sexy cables that I made last week.

I love the sleek look of plugging the speakers directly to the wall.

Unfortunately I couldn't do too much about the mass of wires behind the cabinet. But no one will see that anyway.

 

[sawzalot]

I think all of your efforts paid off quite well as everything looks stellar, excellent room, looks very comfy and relaxing, congrats on your new digs and a great room.

 

[walter duque]

Great looking set-up, very nice. You did a good job.

 

[Kai]

Wow, really nice setup...well done.

 

[darien87]

I think all of your efforts paid off quite well as everything looks stellar, excellent room, looks very comfy and relaxing, congrats on your new digs and a great room.

Thanks a lot. I still need to do some tweaking and EQ'ing as I haven't gotten around to that yet. I may also do some rome treatments if I can find some cost effective ones that are unobtrusive. There is a lot of echo in the room, hopefully some curtains along the back wall will help.

By the way, good luck to your Eagles. At least one of us can continue to enjoy football. Season's over for me. I'm not even watching the game today. I know Rivers wants to win it and have a winning season, but I say what's the point? Why risk the starters getting hurt. Just play the scrubs and look to next season.

 

[darien87]

Next upgrade is a bigger TV. It was fine in our condo but now that it's wall mounted and we sit farther back it looks tiny. Maybe I'll see about getting a 60" or 65" and moving this one up to the bedroom. You know how it goes, the system is never really finished.

 

[Davemcc]

That's a super nice install. It looks like it took a lot of planning to make sure it's right before the walls go up.

 

[just-some-guy]

looks REAL NICE, cozy like. enjoy..

 

[Nestor]

Here is the seating area from the right side. I am standing in the dining area.

This is looking at the seating area from where the TV is. Notice the Boston VRX surrounds in the left and right walls. The rear surrounds are Boston CR9's. You can also just see the 15" sub that is in the right rear corner.

Left rear surrounds.

Right rear surrounds and 15" sub.

Sexy cables that I made last week.

I love the sleek look of plugging the speakers directly to the wall.

Unfortunately I couldn't do too much about the mass of wires behind the cabinet. But no one will see that anyway.

Nice. I love a clean set up!

Did you consider installing a recessed stereo cabinet into the wall under the stairs? It looks like you have access from the other side.

 

[its phillip]

Looks great! Very clean

 

[adk highlander]

Congrats on the new home and setup. Looks very good. Slick cables.

 

[darien87]

That's a super nice install. It looks like it took a lot of planning to make sure it's right before the walls go up.

Yeah, I drew it all up with distances and everything and gave the specs to the installer. I was kind of freaked out that something was going to be wrong. After all once the walls are up there's nothing you can do. But everything came out great. The first time I went to fire the system up though a couple of the speakers were incorrect, (surround left playing as back right and so on), so I had the guy come back out and fix everything. All he had to do was switch a couple of connections on the main wall plate.

 

[darien87]

Nice. I love a clean set up!

Did you consider installing a recessed stereo cabinet into the wall under the stairs? It looks like you have access from the other side.

Actually no I never thought of that. I'm not sure if that would have worked though. I might have had to have the cabinet more to the left than I would have wanted. It might have worked though. Where were you 6 months ago?

 

[avliner]

Hey man,

congrats on your super nice setup; pretty neat and comfy!
Time to enjoy it

 

[darien87]

Just for comparison, here are some pics from the system in our old condo.

I like the set up a lot better now.

 

[DaJuice]

Congrats on the new house. I like the setup really nice and clean

 

[Guavamanh]

congrats on the new house and the clean install definitely going to use this as inspiration for when I move into my new house in July. I'm in a similar situation without a dedicated HT room. Also have WAF issues but thats a whole other ball of wax =p Thanks for the photos!

 

[zildjian]

Looks good. I like the swords & your big couch personally!
-Brad

 

[picture_shooter]

Very nice setup indeed!!!