First post, listing current system and ideas for new system along with questions

[Red Barron]

Fist off - great forum, but a little overwhelming. I have been browsing through but there is a TON of info on here so it will take a while (read: years) to learn everything I want to.

I will list all my current 'stuff' and then the 'stuff' I want to do, along with a couple questions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I am 'cost conscious' (read: cheap), but I have been lucky so far and gotten a whole lotta bang for my buck.

1. TV: Mitsubishi 65" Diamond DLP - BEAUTIFUL picture, all formats supported and I picked it up, along with the stand, for $1k about 2 years ago. I control it (and everything else listed below) with a Harmony One remote.

2. Sources: DirecTV, 60GB PS3 (for the Blu Ray), Roku box for Netflix streaming and an Acer R3610 HTPC to stream from my media server, which is an Acer H340 with 6TB of space. I am using My Movies for Windows Home Server to play the ripped DVD's (absolutley LOVE not needing to swap out DVD's when we want to watch movies at night).

I have ripped all of my DVD's to the home server and am currently trying to figure out how to rip my Blu Ray's to it. I can't seem to get them to play properly in Media Center, or if they do play there is no audio.

3. Audio: I run everything through an HDMI switch (monoprice) into my Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver. My speakers are Fluance (don't laugh) and my sub is a Polk PSW10. Total cost for the speakers: $350 and they sound amazingly good.

4. Room: Bascially, it is a 17' x 21' rectangle, but not quite perfect. It actually has almost a 10' section that is 19' wide, but that space is by an attic door so it is mostly unusable.

When we built the house, I had them wire it for 7.1 surround (built 10 years ago - couldn't afford a 7.1 receiver back then, but I was trying to plan ahead), but the TV is on the long wall, so the rear surround channels are right above the listening area (approximately 15 ft from the seating area). The right surround speaker is about 6 feet from the sweet spot and the left is 15 feet away. We also had them insulate all interior walls and the floor to help keep the sound in the game room. The ceiling is 9' tall, but on the 17' wide section, there is a 45 degree slant on the top foot because of the roof.


Finally, here is what I would like to do. Keep in mind that this has to pass the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), so it must be clean and easily usable.

1. Turn the room 90 degrees and put a 120" screen on the 19' wall.

2. Mount a 1080p projector (I have a couple in mind, all $2200 or less at Visual Apex) on the 'new' back wall. That would put the lens right at 20' from the screen.

3. Put a 12 inch pier on the back 6' of the room so that I could have 2 tiered rows of seating.

4. Purchase a cabinet (looking at one 50" wide, 30" tall) to hold all of my equipment and to set the center channel on. That would place it at almost exactly the same height as the mains and it would be directly below the screen.


So here is what I see:

1. I will have to yank out all of the current speaker wire and run all new wires, along with punching a few new holes for surround speakers. Obviously there will be some sheetrock repair and painting. I need to repaint the room anyway if I do this.....

2. Blackout curtains on the back wall (4 windows) and a wall mount for the projector. I am a little worried about the location though, as I thought I would be able to place it in the middle of the wall between 2 windows, but the screen will not be perfectly centered. I will also have to run an HDMI cable to the projector from the receiver - probably about 35 feet long, and another hole in the sheetrock for it.

3. To keep everything clean, I was going to get a 3 gang 7.1 plug from monoprice and run all the cables to it.


So here are the questions I have at the moment.

1. I want to have 2 rows of surround speakers. I was thinking that I could run the 2 sets through a speaker selector and just turn on the 2nd row if we had people over. As I understand it, that should keep the receiver from freaking out because of impedance. Thoughts?

2. I was thinking about putting the 6th and 7th channel speakers in the small sloped wall at the back of the room (in wall speakers...Polk, maybe). That would angle them right down at the listening area, except for the very back row, which I think might be too close to them to get the full effect.

3. I understand that I can add a second subwoofer by using an RCA Y cable and just attaching both subs to it. If that will work (and will not cause any other issues) I would probably get a 2nd sub like the one I have. I like it well enough, but I think once the room is moved around it may not be quite enough any more.

4. Total coolness factor question here. I have seen videos of people using a Harmony One remote just like mine to control their lights. You know, when they play a movie, the main lights go down and the back light to the screen comes on....very slick and would definitely meet the WAF.

Alright, that was quite long and I hope you read it all.

I am more than willing to entertain any suggestions, comments, question etc. I am trying to plan it all out now so that I can budget and pay cash for everything when I flip the switch.

Thanks!!

 

[GranteedEV]

Hi there, nice ta meetcha!

My speakers are Fluance (don't laugh) and my sub is a Polk PSW10.

hahaha! Just kidding, but I hope you've got some upgrade plans in the future, you'd be surprised how much better you can get. Dynamics, clarity, musicality, impact.

1. Turn the room 90 degrees and put a 120" screen on the 19' wall.

2. Mount a 1080p projector (I have a couple in mind, all $2200 or less at Visual Apex) on the 'new' back wall. That would put the lens right at 20' from the screen.

Have you considered a DIY acoustically transparent screen mounted over some on or in-wall speakers? This will make your room look more spacious and have the added benefit of matching mains.

3. Put a 12 inch pier on the back 6' of the room so that I could have 2 tiered rows of seating.

IIRC some people use a bass trap material under the riser, definitely consider that. Maybe make the rise the back 8' instead of 6', although that may put your front row a bit far forward. I think you want to push your back row forward just a bit.

4. Purchase a cabinet (looking at one 50" wide, 30" tall) to hold all of my equipment and to set the center channel on. That would place it at almost exactly the same height as the mains and it would be directly below the screen.

If you can get an acoustically transparent screen, the speakers can go behind the screen as I suggested earlier!

1. I want to have 2 rows of surround speakers. I was thinking that I could run the 2 sets through a speaker selector and just turn on the 2nd row if we had people over. As I understand it, that should keep the receiver from freaking out because of impedance. Thoughts?

Two rows of side surrounds in parallel? No need and that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Just get a quality pair of dipole/bipole surround speakers like the emotiva ERD-1s. Really, it's a waste of money to get two rows and it sounds like there's way better places to spend yours. It won't give you a better effect for sound if that's what you were thinking. That's what rear surrounds are for anyways... to help with multiple rows.

2. I was thinking about putting the 6th and 7th channel speakers in the small sloped wall at the back of the room (in wall speakers...Polk, maybe). That would angle them right down at the listening area, except for the very back row, which I think might be too close to them to get the full effect.

EMP has some quality on-walls to consider. I'd even Sell the polks and get 3 of the biggest ones to use as mains. Mount these on the wall, all vertical, behind the screen and behind you!

Overall the idea of slopped rears sounds good though, although it seems like your back row may be too close to the wall, which can also make bass feel anemic.

3. I understand that I can add a second subwoofer by using an RCA Y cable and just attaching both subs to it. If that will work (and will not cause any other issues) I would probably get a 2nd sub like the one I have. I like it well enough, but I think once the room is moved around it may not be quite enough any more.

This is true, however a polk sub just won't cut it if you want the pride of calling it a home theater! Even an Emotiva Ultrasub 12 or Lavasub 12" at the very least(I recommend a big bad DIY sub lol!)! You'd be surprised how much low frequency content you're missing or getting comrpessed. The other problem you run into with two subs is phase.. if you do it wrong the subs could cancel each other out to an extent.... you should look into a behringer feedback destroyer or something. I'd honestly sell that Polk for starters.

4. Total coolness factor question here. I have seen videos of people using a Harmony One remote just like mine to control their lights. You know, when they play a movie, the main lights go down and the back light to the screen comes on....very slick and would definitely meet the WAF.

I think even a receiver remote can do this via 12v dc trigger if you set it up right! Just look for a dc trigger light switch.

Anyways good luck! I hope you end up with an awesome system!

 

[jostenmeat]

So here are the questions I have at the moment.

1. I want to have 2 rows of surround speakers. I was thinking that I could run the 2 sets through a speaker selector and just turn on the 2nd row if we had people over. As I understand it, that should keep the receiver from freaking out because of impedance. Thoughts?

2. I was thinking about putting the 6th and 7th channel speakers in the small sloped wall at the back of the room (in wall speakers...Polk, maybe). That would angle them right down at the listening area, except for the very back row, which I think might be too close to them to get the full effect.

3. I understand that I can add a second subwoofer by using an RCA Y cable and just attaching both subs to it. If that will work (and will not cause any other issues) I would probably get a 2nd sub like the one I have. I like it well enough, but I think once the room is moved around it may not be quite enough any more.

4. Total coolness factor question here. I have seen videos of people using a Harmony One remote just like mine to control their lights. You know, when they play a movie, the main lights go down and the back light to the screen comes on....very slick and would definitely meet the WAF.

Alright, that was quite long and I hope you read it all.

I am more than willing to entertain any suggestions, comments, question etc. I am trying to plan it all out now so that I can budget and pay cash for everything when I flip the switch.

Thanks!!

1. I would see if you can get a receiver with preouts, then add another amp. The receiver powers one set, then the amp powers the other set. You will have to level match. IMO, if you are cheap, just use one set. You can get bipoles (I wouldn't do dipoles personally here) for more coverage, but in my experience, it's sorta subtle. But they cost a lot more, after all, double the drivers. IOW, if you're cheap, I think you should take those precious couple hundred dollars or whatever the cost is towards other things.

2. I don't understand what the question is. And it's not helping that I don't understand the issue exactly.

3. The main reason to add another sub is to even your room modes. There are many single subs, otherwise, that can output more than two of a different model. Like mine for instance, it's typically somewhere in the range of 14 db down from say my center speaker, it's so ridiculously efficient and large. Anyways, two subs is a great thing, but if it's output or extension you want, you might** be better off following the advice previously given by the poster above.

4. I don't see a question. Check out Lutron products. I'd want RF capability for this, if it isn't a requirement to begin with (I honestly don't know).

 

[Red Barron]

Thanks for the responses....I have soooo much to learn. It stinks being such a n00b.



Any other thoughts on a good (inexpensive) sub to replace the Polk with? I looked at the 2 you mentioned, but if there are any other good one's you can think of that would be great. I originally had a JBL sub that sounded really good (the first time I heard Sauron's implosion from LOTR: FOTR move through the room I was hooked), but a lightening storm took it out and I bought the Polk mainly because it was so inexpensive, and some bass is better than no bass.

Incidentally, losing that sub also got me to buy a really nice UPS (several, actually) to protect against such nonsense in the future. We can have a complete power outage and I can still watch TV and surf the net.



As to the screen - I really like the idea of a screen I can have the speakers behind, but DIY is not something I have been good at in the past. I am great with computers, good with electronics and terrible with anything handy. That type of thing seems really interesting, but I am a perfectionist, and if I make it and know it's not perfect it makes me crazy.

I wonder if I could buy the screen building kit that Visual Apex sells and then just swap material....that might be an idea.

Of course, doing that would involve me spending a lot of extra money on new speakers, so it may just be something I can do later on down the line.



The bass trap material - I actually was thinking about that already, I just forgot to mention it. I think I may have actually read about it here when I was researching on how to build the pier.



On the pier itself, are you suggesting making it 8' for a particular reason? I am open to any ideas, the only issue with that is then the next row is almost out into that 19' ft wide 'void', and I kind of want to keep the viewing area confined to the 17' section if possible.



The second row of surrounds - I wanted to add it 'thinking' that it would give the same sound experience to people on both rows. I actually thought the rear surrounds would flesh out the surround sound a bit more, but that it would not be a replacement for the regular left and right surround channels. I don't even have rear surrounds right now, but I figure if I am going to do all this swapping and wiring, I might as well finish it all off.

On the lights, it isn't a necessity, but it would be nice to complete the 'experience'. I will check out the information the two of you mentioned.

Thanks again!

*EDIT* Just for clarification, I am not cheap for the sake of being cheap, I just firmly believe in paying cash for everything, therefore whatever I decide to do I either have to pace or save up for.

 

[Red Barron]

Hey, I can post pics now!

In case it helps, here is a layout of my room I did so that I could plan...