Help with unusual living room setup (floorplan attached)

[sac209]

Hello,

I am looking for some advice for speaker placement in our new living room. It is a small townhouse, so we can't have a dedicated home theater room, and this will have to do. My wife is a music afficianado, and I am the movie guy, so both need to sound good. We have an Outlaw 1050 receiver and are buying Orb Audio speakers (6.1, most likely).

Please take a look at the attached floor plan and give me your advice on where to position the speakers. I realize that this shape is not ideal, but this is pretty much the only way to orient the furniture. The television (a 47" Sony LCD) will be on an articulating arm so that it can be angled towards the couch.

The 7'3" and 7'4" openings on the plan are open to other rooms (yes, I know we'll lose a lot of sound). The 4"11" stretch at the bottom is a fireplace. That whole wall is masonry and we cannot realistically run wire through it.

Specific thoughts to address if possible: can we mount the Orbs on or near the ceiling and angle them towards the listening position? Would stands work okay for the rear surrounds? If we put the front speakers on either side of the television, would they be too close together? If we put the left front channel by the club chair in the corner, would it be way too annoying for whoever is sitting in it?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Scott

 

[Bryce_H]

I have speakers mounted on the ceiling (not in-ceiling speakers) in my living room set-up. It was JBL 7.1 in a box system. I have it set up as a 5.1 system. It sounds pretty good. Not as good as the dedicated HT in the basement, but good enough. I did it because I got sick of listening to the speakers from the TV. My living room setup was not condusive to floor or wall mounted speakers.

When I lived in apartments, I would run wire in cable raceways that had adhesive backing. You should be able to buy them at any lighting store (like this. It worked great and it can be painted. Typically I ran them down by the baseboard and then straight up the wall to the rear speakers. In my last apartment, when I was moving out it ripped the paint off - a little repainting and the landlord was none the wiser