bad room layout for HT... is there any hope?

[Packy]

small living room + walls and windows = ??... is there any hope for a good layout?

Hi all!

I spent a few hours reading through this forum trying to get any ideas, but our room is pretty unique.

We have a small house (640sq ft) so having a room dedicated to anything is impossible Our living room / entry room / home theater room is 14x10, has our front door, two windows, a doorway, and will eventually have the west wall pretty much removed so it opens into the kitchen (squigly line).

Anyway, here's a quickly drawn pic of the current layout. It's the best I've been able to do for now.



The front speakers and sub work out fine, but the issue is with the surrounds. Is there any other possible way to lay this room out? My wife and I don't want to block the windows or have the couch look onto the wall it's against now, since then we wouldn't have a view. We also don't like the idea of pointing the couch at the TV since it's one of the ones that has ratcheting back pieces that fold flat to turn it into a bed so it's ugly from the rear WAF is a big issue here. Eventually she wants to put the TV in a cabinet, which would have to be custom built because of size and space.

The surrounds are spaced badly now, and I'm not sure if I should just ceiling-mount them and run the wires in the attic? We have full access to the attic if needed.

Our main and surround speakers are Cambridge Soundworks MC50's, so we can mount them pretty much anywhere. The sub is a Velodyne VX-10, and the TV is a Sony 42" rear projection LCD.

Let me know if you need more info or have any ideas?! Thanks!

Darin

 

[Jack Hammer]

Why not just point your couch at the shorter wall and put something on/over the back of it so it meets WAF. That would help your layout and give you a little more room to play with.

Or move the chair to the other side of the couch and slide the couch toward the door. That might give you alittle more room to play with. You can also wall mount your surrounds above the couch and have them fire upwards to reflect sound off the ceiling. Or use a heavier rated wall mount and try to aim them across the couch while sticking out from the wall a bit.

Just ideas

Jack

 

[Packy]

Thanks Jack! I think I'll do the wall mount for the speakers. I don't like having the speaker to the left in the drawing on our wine rack

Actually, after you mentioned moving the couch, I started thinking about other ideas... eventually I'd want to get something that supports 1080p, but I can wait another year or two. Maybe I'd get a 37" LCD, and I was thinking we could get an entertainment cabinet that is shorter than the south window (the one the couch faces), have it right under the window, and have a way it could rise from the back of the cabinet when we want to watch it.

I have a feeling those kind of cabinets are expensive, but are there any manually-raised tracks or LCD mounts that could be added to a cabinet?

If we did that, at least all of the speakers could be centered, the TV could be hidden, and the view wouldn't be compromised. Probably just a dream!

Hmm.....

[edit] well, I just checked prices for a flat panel lift system for a 37" LCD. Looks like it would be around $1500 for a cabinet with a built-in lift! Ouch.