LOH's Home(made) Cinema Install
Discussion
I've promised for ages to write this thread having had a few questions about what I built so I'm going to go ahead and post this up now. A little bit of background to what I've built....
I bought my first projector back in something like 2005 (and still have it!) back when LCD TVs were starting to come down in price to a reasonable level. I initially wanted an LCD but our local specialist showed me what was possible with a good projector and I was pretty much hooked from there on in. I was into movies though not a "superfan" but while living in a bachelor pad (converted church) I figured a cinema room would be a good idea
I'd built up a system over the years that was by no means high end but performed well, a basic 5.1 speaker system (Yamaha) that brought out the most of the DVD technology.
Over the years (and two subsequent house moves) I tweaked the system to improve and fit in with my lifestyle. Personally I found a cinema room didn't work for me as I settled down with my partner, cosy nights in front of a movie didn't have the same appeal when we had to move to another room that probably been heated for a week or so I decided to convert it into something more "living room" friendly.
In our next house I built a system that allowed us to sit on an L shaped sofa, with the main position watching a regular TV and sitting the other way viewing a drop down screen.
Finally (you'll be pleased to read) we get to our present house which we intend to stay in indefinitely. The first job in a long list of updating was getting my home cinema installed
My intentions were for it to be as discreet as possible whilst still performing with aplomb so a hidden electric screen and ceiling speakers was the main idea in order to get rid of floor standing speakers and clutter.
At this point I need to point out I'm not an electrician or expert so I really just got in touch with people and asked advice. Various installers sell speakers and stuff on eBay so I just got in touch with people and asked their advice, I'd used Monitor Audio before so decided to stick with them but the specs and types of speakers were down to listening to advice.
Our living room was a decent size, about 6.5M X 5M with a sun room beyond that, this is the picture from the estate agents ad;
My plan was three sofas set out around the room with a tv above the fireplace. All the sky/AV connectors were in the right hand corner of the room where a traditional TV was supposed to be placed (house designed and built circa 2001/2) so this would be a fresh install. I know people advise against a TV above the fireplace but with the length of the room it would be comfortable enough to watch.
So, hidden speakers and AV equipment, an LCD TV for regular viewing, an amp capable of splitting an HD source to both the TV and Projector and a hidden Screen that could come down for when we want the big screen experience.
More to follow....
I bought my first projector back in something like 2005 (and still have it!) back when LCD TVs were starting to come down in price to a reasonable level. I initially wanted an LCD but our local specialist showed me what was possible with a good projector and I was pretty much hooked from there on in. I was into movies though not a "superfan" but while living in a bachelor pad (converted church) I figured a cinema room would be a good idea
I'd built up a system over the years that was by no means high end but performed well, a basic 5.1 speaker system (Yamaha) that brought out the most of the DVD technology.
Over the years (and two subsequent house moves) I tweaked the system to improve and fit in with my lifestyle. Personally I found a cinema room didn't work for me as I settled down with my partner, cosy nights in front of a movie didn't have the same appeal when we had to move to another room that probably been heated for a week or so I decided to convert it into something more "living room" friendly.
In our next house I built a system that allowed us to sit on an L shaped sofa, with the main position watching a regular TV and sitting the other way viewing a drop down screen.
Finally (you'll be pleased to read) we get to our present house which we intend to stay in indefinitely. The first job in a long list of updating was getting my home cinema installed
My intentions were for it to be as discreet as possible whilst still performing with aplomb so a hidden electric screen and ceiling speakers was the main idea in order to get rid of floor standing speakers and clutter.
At this point I need to point out I'm not an electrician or expert so I really just got in touch with people and asked advice. Various installers sell speakers and stuff on eBay so I just got in touch with people and asked their advice, I'd used Monitor Audio before so decided to stick with them but the specs and types of speakers were down to listening to advice.
Our living room was a decent size, about 6.5M X 5M with a sun room beyond that, this is the picture from the estate agents ad;
My plan was three sofas set out around the room with a tv above the fireplace. All the sky/AV connectors were in the right hand corner of the room where a traditional TV was supposed to be placed (house designed and built circa 2001/2) so this would be a fresh install. I know people advise against a TV above the fireplace but with the length of the room it would be comfortable enough to watch.
So, hidden speakers and AV equipment, an LCD TV for regular viewing, an amp capable of splitting an HD source to both the TV and Projector and a hidden Screen that could come down for when we want the big screen experience.
More to follow....
So seeing the chance to upgrade I purchased the following....
Yamaha Aventage AV2030 Receiver
Yamaha Aventage Blu Ray Player
Monitor Audio Install Series Ceiling Speakers
These would be connected to my trusty old Yamaha LPX-500 Projector and a 42" Sony LCD that we bought for our old house. Not the biggest TV but we figured having used a 32" TV for our main living room viewing this would suffice.
As I said previously I'm not an electrician or anything so the first job was to get a sparky in to fit some 240v sockets above the fireplace for the TV, Sound Bar, Screen and Lights and some in the attic for the Projector at the opposite end of the room.
The wall construction is all blocks with dot and dab plasterboard covering so there was at least a chance of feeding cables behind to reach everything. Getting HDMI to the TV (from the amp) was a bit of a stretch as it needed a 10m run plus the thinnest cable I could get-in order to feed behind the plasterboard.
It was a faff but it meant no patching and we eventually managed it with copious amounts of fairy up liquid to help it along!
Set up would be as follows....
Sky HD box
Google Chromecast
Yamaha BluRay
All fed into the Yamaha Receiver. This would then feed;
HDMI 1 OUT to TV & Soundbar
HDMI 2 OUT to Projector
The Receiver has pass-through so in normal use its just switch on and watch the TV although everything was going to be controlled by a Harmony Hub Remote so I could have customisable features for each function.
Once we got the TV up and running it was time to begin.....
We mounted the electric screen (110") that I already had from my previous house to the ceiling above the fireplace and fed the power cable back to behind the TV (so it could be switched off easily if the house was to be left alone for example). Then a frame was built around it to hide it away using CLS and MDF.
I went for a modern look to the pelmet/boxing as I couldn't (at the time) find out what the coving was to match it, I decided (much to my mates amusement) to install some led colour changing strip lights to make a feature of it. Even though people thought it looked a bit '80s nightclub I'm glad I did as we use it all the time as it casts a warm glow whenever the lights are low (we use a nice warm amber colour most of the time).
With the screen lowered it looks like this;
Yamaha Aventage AV2030 Receiver
Yamaha Aventage Blu Ray Player
Monitor Audio Install Series Ceiling Speakers
These would be connected to my trusty old Yamaha LPX-500 Projector and a 42" Sony LCD that we bought for our old house. Not the biggest TV but we figured having used a 32" TV for our main living room viewing this would suffice.
As I said previously I'm not an electrician or anything so the first job was to get a sparky in to fit some 240v sockets above the fireplace for the TV, Sound Bar, Screen and Lights and some in the attic for the Projector at the opposite end of the room.
The wall construction is all blocks with dot and dab plasterboard covering so there was at least a chance of feeding cables behind to reach everything. Getting HDMI to the TV (from the amp) was a bit of a stretch as it needed a 10m run plus the thinnest cable I could get-in order to feed behind the plasterboard.
It was a faff but it meant no patching and we eventually managed it with copious amounts of fairy up liquid to help it along!
Set up would be as follows....
Sky HD box
Google Chromecast
Yamaha BluRay
All fed into the Yamaha Receiver. This would then feed;
HDMI 1 OUT to TV & Soundbar
HDMI 2 OUT to Projector
The Receiver has pass-through so in normal use its just switch on and watch the TV although everything was going to be controlled by a Harmony Hub Remote so I could have customisable features for each function.
Once we got the TV up and running it was time to begin.....
We mounted the electric screen (110") that I already had from my previous house to the ceiling above the fireplace and fed the power cable back to behind the TV (so it could be switched off easily if the house was to be left alone for example). Then a frame was built around it to hide it away using CLS and MDF.
I went for a modern look to the pelmet/boxing as I couldn't (at the time) find out what the coving was to match it, I decided (much to my mates amusement) to install some led colour changing strip lights to make a feature of it. Even though people thought it looked a bit '80s nightclub I'm glad I did as we use it all the time as it casts a warm glow whenever the lights are low (we use a nice warm amber colour most of the time).
With the screen lowered it looks like this;
The lights in the above images obviously weren't stuck down yet and as we updating all the decor in the house don't judge us on the curtain pelmets! Everything was given a quick going over with undercoat to blend it all in before we ripped everything out and thoroughly redecorated.
The View from the hot seat
The View from the hot seat
That's really cool. I like the screen install, I could use something similar with my kit at home, but I can't get the projector far enough away unfortunately. I can set things up with the projector in the bay window, but can't install a screen on the opposite wall, it involves moving a sofa too, so it's not ideal.
I think the TV is too small and too high (you could have mounted it lower), but you have to make compromises in that room. I wonder if a bracket that lets the TV swing forward and down exists? Something like that could work well when the fire isn't on, though I've no idea if it's a thing or not.
I'm in a similar position to you, I have projector etc, but there's no point setting it up in the only space I have for it as that's my workshop and I can't supervise sleeping children from there, which is primarily when I can watch TV. Currently projecting from the bedside cabinet in the spare room onto a light brown wall and hooked up to my PC as a interim install. It's so bad, I tried a bluetooth speaker hooked up to the PC for sound, but the range of my PC bluetooth is under 1m, so I'm stuck using the monitor speakers that are on the landing. Works OK for the football and it's comfy lying in bed watching.
I'm supposed to be doing a loft conversion over the winter. The first job once the floor is in and the king truss is gone is to get the projector setup up there, but that's a way off yet.
I think the TV is too small and too high (you could have mounted it lower), but you have to make compromises in that room. I wonder if a bracket that lets the TV swing forward and down exists? Something like that could work well when the fire isn't on, though I've no idea if it's a thing or not.
I'm in a similar position to you, I have projector etc, but there's no point setting it up in the only space I have for it as that's my workshop and I can't supervise sleeping children from there, which is primarily when I can watch TV. Currently projecting from the bedside cabinet in the spare room onto a light brown wall and hooked up to my PC as a interim install. It's so bad, I tried a bluetooth speaker hooked up to the PC for sound, but the range of my PC bluetooth is under 1m, so I'm stuck using the monitor speakers that are on the landing. Works OK for the football and it's comfy lying in bed watching.
I'm supposed to be doing a loft conversion over the winter. The first job once the floor is in and the king truss is gone is to get the projector setup up there, but that's a way off yet.
paulrockliffe said:
I think the TV is too small and too high (you could have mounted it lower), but you have to make compromises in that room. I wonder if a bracket that lets the TV swing forward and down exists? Something like that could work well when the fire isn't on, though I've no idea if it's a thing or not.
Every person who comments on the internet says this, all I can say is we've now lived with it for a year and not once have we thought it's in the wrong place. I think what isn't apparent in the pictures is that as the room is so long you naturally relax in a position that puts the TV in your line of site so you don't look up or down, just straight at the TV.That it's too small, well that's another question
However if/when we do upgrade to perhaps a 55" (maximum) the Sony will go back in the kitchen where it was originally bought for. In our defence we moved from a small 3 bed 1960s property (which we absolutely loved) to a huge 5 bed, a new TV was not top of the list (people suggested a new home cinema shouldn't be either!). The amount of furniture we've had to get hold of is mind boggling, something I didn't consider when I decided to go for the place.So onto the speakers....
(yes we really inherited carpets like that with the house-see why a new TV wasn't top priority?!)
Interestingly the supplier who advised me on what to buy suggests the different speakers for the front left and rights, that's the 265 IDCs...
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/products/trimless-2...
The rest of the 5.1 speakers were the 265FXs...
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/products/trimless-2...
I sketched out he room and sizes for the supplier and this is what he recommended including the speaker cable in the fetching pink colour. The speakers themselves are total simplicity to fit, especially as it's easy access loft above our living room (albeit we had celotex and foam insulation above to cut through), you get a self adhesive template with each speaker so you just drill a pilot hole in your chosen location to make sure you don't hit any noggins than pad saw around the template.
This leaves the perfect hole that you simply push the speaker into and tighten three grub screws to secure it using their TR-FIX Dog Fixings. Easy. Speakers cables were then ran back to where all the AV equipment was going and hard wired into a wall plate form amazon;
We initially started with a 5.1 set up (more on this decision later in the thread) with the ability to go to 7.1 at a later date. The centre was situated about a foot in front of the screen and the front left and rights around one foot behind it either side. The surrounds (or rears if you prefer) were about two foot in front of the seated position left and right. Again, this was with advice and after a bit of internet research, not where I'd initially thought but there you go. Fronts are shown here...
For sub bass, I went with a free standing monitor audio 10" in oak to match in with the furniture;
http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/products/past-produc...
I wanted some in wall ones really but the extra expense couldn't be justified, when we replace the awful fire and fireplace I'm going to do them then as I'm going to build them into the chimney breast but until then the free standing one will do, plus it's hidden away behind a sofa so not too intrusive.
So that's the sound system I'll go into a bit more detail on the projector next....
(yes we really inherited carpets like that with the house-see why a new TV wasn't top priority?!)
Interestingly the supplier who advised me on what to buy suggests the different speakers for the front left and rights, that's the 265 IDCs...
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/products/trimless-2...
The rest of the 5.1 speakers were the 265FXs...
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/products/trimless-2...
I sketched out he room and sizes for the supplier and this is what he recommended including the speaker cable in the fetching pink colour. The speakers themselves are total simplicity to fit, especially as it's easy access loft above our living room (albeit we had celotex and foam insulation above to cut through), you get a self adhesive template with each speaker so you just drill a pilot hole in your chosen location to make sure you don't hit any noggins than pad saw around the template.
This leaves the perfect hole that you simply push the speaker into and tighten three grub screws to secure it using their TR-FIX Dog Fixings. Easy. Speakers cables were then ran back to where all the AV equipment was going and hard wired into a wall plate form amazon;
We initially started with a 5.1 set up (more on this decision later in the thread) with the ability to go to 7.1 at a later date. The centre was situated about a foot in front of the screen and the front left and rights around one foot behind it either side. The surrounds (or rears if you prefer) were about two foot in front of the seated position left and right. Again, this was with advice and after a bit of internet research, not where I'd initially thought but there you go. Fronts are shown here...
For sub bass, I went with a free standing monitor audio 10" in oak to match in with the furniture;
http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/products/past-produc...
I wanted some in wall ones really but the extra expense couldn't be justified, when we replace the awful fire and fireplace I'm going to do them then as I'm going to build them into the chimney breast but until then the free standing one will do, plus it's hidden away behind a sofa so not too intrusive.
So that's the sound system I'll go into a bit more detail on the projector next....
The projector part of the install was supposedly the easy part of the job.
As I mentioned I was all set to buy one of the LCD Sony TVs at the time when the owner of our local specialist advised me that a cinema room would be more in keeping with my house and we spent an afternoon demo'ing the options. Long story short, a Yamaha was the most expensive option but after watching a star wars dvd I was blown away, and here it is still with me 10+ years later;
As I'm not a gamer the hours on the (still original) Yamaha Lamp are a pretty low 1300!
I and pretty much every person I'd shown the PJ to have been similarly impressed over the years, my installs (the Yamaha has now been in 3 separate houses over the years) have been responsible for 4 friends moving into projector installs. I can't figure out just why this PJ is so amazing, maybe the Faroudja Chips that power it?
The specs don't lie I'm sure but while a cheapo amazon PJ can on paper pump out figures that will shame this old model the picture needs to be seen to believed. In a darkened room the picture quality is on par with my local Vue Cinema, with just enough grain to give that authentic cine feel and fast motion to shame any brand new machine.
I ran the PJ with component connections for the first few years but with the advent of Blu Ray I wanted to move to HDMI to increase the resolution from 720 to 1080i. With this in mind I purchased a HD Fury way back when and have ran it ever since without issue. This means the projector can produce 1080i via it's DVI socket. That's the same resolution as Sky HD and as an avid F1 fan I can honestly say watching Sky F1 HD is an absolute pleasure, even to the point where the drop in quality of the onboard shots broadcasted is noticeable as the feed is not as good as the wide angle shots.
I've yet to see a sub £5k PJ that can improve the picture the Yamaha gives in the right conditions.
So in order to join it up to the new system I needed to run an HDMI cable to the other side of the room, which allowing for runs up and down walls meant a 10m cable joined to a 5m one! Speak to any expert and they'll tell you this can't be done
Wanting the easiest way possible to do this I simply ordered a couple of cheap cables off Amazon or eBay and plugged them in to see what would happen, low and behold it seemed to work perfectly.
In honour of my terrible plastering and patching skills I did the whole running the cables behind the dot and dabs thing again and managed to make it work. I have to say the picture was utterly fantastic and I was really chuffed but on switching the amp over to the blu ray input we soon ran into problems.
The Yamaha was produced in HD's infancy and although it can display 1080i with no issue (and 1080p in some circumstances) it does not have an HDMI port, this means no HDCP and equipment not talking to it. It was never an issue back in the day as my DVD player was connected up via component cables but with the advent of blu ray and 1080p True HD I started looking into things and found the HD Fury guys. These guys saw the market in people like me who had high end kit that was becoming obsolete and made this magic box of tricks that put an HDMI cable in one end and sent a handshake signal back to the source.
Everything worked wonders right up until I tried to send the signal over 15m of HDMI cable! 1080i was fine (Sky HD) but 1080p (Blu Ray) would drop out. Now this wasn't actually too much of an issue as the Aventage range of stuff I bought was easily configurable to output in 1080i only so it worked fine....
....But....
We all know what it's like when you know your equipment could be performing better
However that's for the next update, we bought the house in August 2015 and had a great system installed before Christmas and working Just in time for the late January deadline I'd set as one of these little things was scheduled to arrive February and turned up early;
(appologies for all the crappy iPhone pics)
As I mentioned I was all set to buy one of the LCD Sony TVs at the time when the owner of our local specialist advised me that a cinema room would be more in keeping with my house and we spent an afternoon demo'ing the options. Long story short, a Yamaha was the most expensive option but after watching a star wars dvd I was blown away, and here it is still with me 10+ years later;
As I'm not a gamer the hours on the (still original) Yamaha Lamp are a pretty low 1300!
I and pretty much every person I'd shown the PJ to have been similarly impressed over the years, my installs (the Yamaha has now been in 3 separate houses over the years) have been responsible for 4 friends moving into projector installs. I can't figure out just why this PJ is so amazing, maybe the Faroudja Chips that power it?
The specs don't lie I'm sure but while a cheapo amazon PJ can on paper pump out figures that will shame this old model the picture needs to be seen to believed. In a darkened room the picture quality is on par with my local Vue Cinema, with just enough grain to give that authentic cine feel and fast motion to shame any brand new machine.
I ran the PJ with component connections for the first few years but with the advent of Blu Ray I wanted to move to HDMI to increase the resolution from 720 to 1080i. With this in mind I purchased a HD Fury way back when and have ran it ever since without issue. This means the projector can produce 1080i via it's DVI socket. That's the same resolution as Sky HD and as an avid F1 fan I can honestly say watching Sky F1 HD is an absolute pleasure, even to the point where the drop in quality of the onboard shots broadcasted is noticeable as the feed is not as good as the wide angle shots.
I've yet to see a sub £5k PJ that can improve the picture the Yamaha gives in the right conditions.
So in order to join it up to the new system I needed to run an HDMI cable to the other side of the room, which allowing for runs up and down walls meant a 10m cable joined to a 5m one! Speak to any expert and they'll tell you this can't be done
Wanting the easiest way possible to do this I simply ordered a couple of cheap cables off Amazon or eBay and plugged them in to see what would happen, low and behold it seemed to work perfectly.In honour of my terrible plastering and patching skills I did the whole running the cables behind the dot and dabs thing again and managed to make it work. I have to say the picture was utterly fantastic and I was really chuffed but on switching the amp over to the blu ray input we soon ran into problems.
The Yamaha was produced in HD's infancy and although it can display 1080i with no issue (and 1080p in some circumstances) it does not have an HDMI port, this means no HDCP and equipment not talking to it. It was never an issue back in the day as my DVD player was connected up via component cables but with the advent of blu ray and 1080p True HD I started looking into things and found the HD Fury guys. These guys saw the market in people like me who had high end kit that was becoming obsolete and made this magic box of tricks that put an HDMI cable in one end and sent a handshake signal back to the source.
Everything worked wonders right up until I tried to send the signal over 15m of HDMI cable! 1080i was fine (Sky HD) but 1080p (Blu Ray) would drop out. Now this wasn't actually too much of an issue as the Aventage range of stuff I bought was easily configurable to output in 1080i only so it worked fine....
....But....
We all know what it's like when you know your equipment could be performing better
However that's for the next update, we bought the house in August 2015 and had a great system installed before Christmas and working
Just in time for the late January deadline I'd set as one of these little things was scheduled to arrive February and turned up early;
(appologies for all the crappy iPhone pics)
I disagree with you, Paul, on screen and sizes.
I have had a number of clients that we have worked with that had a daily use screen and then a larger cinema screen for 'event' use.
One client has had a large screen with a drop down screen overlaying for events, the problem with it was that the 65" Tv screen was big enough to use as the event screen so the projector was never used.
So we now recommend that we go with smaller 'day' Tv and then the larger 'event' screen.
This is what we have done in our demo, 49" Tv and a 104" Projector and Screen.
V.
I have had a number of clients that we have worked with that had a daily use screen and then a larger cinema screen for 'event' use.
One client has had a large screen with a drop down screen overlaying for events, the problem with it was that the 65" Tv screen was big enough to use as the event screen so the projector was never used.
So we now recommend that we go with smaller 'day' Tv and then the larger 'event' screen.
This is what we have done in our demo, 49" Tv and a 104" Projector and Screen.
V.
You say you have access above to easily install the speakers, seems like the screen installed above the ceiling would have been neater.
Also how does it sound? Are you happy with the ceiling speakers? I know they have moveable tweeters but does it sound like its all coming from above, epically when its just dialogue.
Also how does it sound? Are you happy with the ceiling speakers? I know they have moveable tweeters but does it sound like its all coming from above, epically when its just dialogue.
Correctly set up in ceiling speakers that are of good quality (which these are) will not sound like they are in the ceiling. Also I imagine the joists run towards the fireplace so putting the screen in the floor void would be a huge job. If they ran the other way then yes, up in the void would be better.
A one year update to this thread which I shamefully ignored since I wrote the first few posts, prompted by some interesting questions somewhere else on the forum.
In order to answer some questions, we could have installed the screen in the attic above the room but didn't mainly due to time . It's actually roof trusses above there and they run parallel to the fireplace but in the location above, it's actually built up in the attic and heavily insulated around our solar panel gubbins. So yes we could have but it would have been much more work (£££) and with a wife ready to drop it want going to happen. One for the future though.
As for the sound, it's simply amazing. You just can't figure out they're ceiling speakers even in heavy dialogue scenes. If we can sit two foot further forward it would be even better for the surround effects but I'm more than happy with it.
There's actually lots more that's happened since we did the install and we've moved things on a lot since then so more updates to follow...
In order to answer some questions, we could have installed the screen in the attic above the room but didn't mainly due to time . It's actually roof trusses above there and they run parallel to the fireplace but in the location above, it's actually built up in the attic and heavily insulated around our solar panel gubbins. So yes we could have but it would have been much more work (£££) and with a wife ready to drop it want going to happen. One for the future though.
As for the sound, it's simply amazing. You just can't figure out they're ceiling speakers even in heavy dialogue scenes. If we can sit two foot further forward it would be even better for the surround effects but I'm more than happy with it.
There's actually lots more that's happened since we did the install and we've moved things on a lot since then so more updates to follow...
Nice install
Out of interest, where are the surround speakers positioned in relation to the rear corners of the sofa?
I have the same surround speakers and I've not managed to work out best positioning of the sofa yet.
Some say set them up to the side of the listeners and some say they must be behind them.
Out of interest, where are the surround speakers positioned in relation to the rear corners of the sofa?
I have the same surround speakers and I've not managed to work out best positioning of the sofa yet.
Some say set them up to the side of the listeners and some say they must be behind them.
Edited by Driller on Saturday 7th October 18:49
Nice install
Out of interest, where are the surround speakers positioned in relation to the rear corners of the sofa?
I have the same surround speakers and I've not managed to work out best positioning of the sofa yet.
Some say set them up to the side of the listeners and some say they must be behind them.
Out of interest, where are the surround speakers positioned in relation to the rear corners of the sofa?
I have the same surround speakers and I've not managed to work out best positioning of the sofa yet.
Some say set them up to the side of the listeners and some say they must be behind them.
Edited by Driller on Saturday 7th October 18:56
legzr1 said:
In a 5.1 set up the rear speakers should be at the side firing towards listeners.
7.1 adds extra rear speakers which sit behind the listener.
Well yes of course I know this but:7.1 adds extra rear speakers which sit behind the listener.
1) These are in ceiling speakers (firing down from a height of 3.2 meters in my case), albeit specialised ones in the case of the 265FXs.
2) The practice is not always the same as the theory.
I have found that when sitting so that the speakers are to the sides, the surround sounds seem to come from the front rather. I have tried moving the listening position forwards so that they are level with the rear of the sofa and this seems more satisfactory.
Obviously with speakers on stands at head height it's a different story but as I have a passage to the right this is not an option for me.
1) Yes, I guessed that.
2) Totally agree but thought I should mention where convention states positioning should be.
It seems you've answered your own question - downward firing surround speakers placed slightly further back than 'recommended' works for you so that's what I'd go with.
I haven't had much experience with ceiling mounted speakers but I understand they work well where placement of conventional speakers is impossible.
However, I'm happier with the sound of conventional dipole surround speakers placed higher than ideal because of room set up (mounted on the wall above doors or windows for example) rather than ceiling speakers.
It's all compromise though. Good luck with it.
Ceiling speakers are impressive with well set up Atmos systems.
2) Totally agree but thought I should mention where convention states positioning should be.
It seems you've answered your own question - downward firing surround speakers placed slightly further back than 'recommended' works for you so that's what I'd go with.
I haven't had much experience with ceiling mounted speakers but I understand they work well where placement of conventional speakers is impossible.
However, I'm happier with the sound of conventional dipole surround speakers placed higher than ideal because of room set up (mounted on the wall above doors or windows for example) rather than ceiling speakers.
It's all compromise though. Good luck with it.
Ceiling speakers are impressive with well set up Atmos systems.
Thanks for the pointers although I don't think I've satisfactorily answered the question myself because even with the speakers behind, the sound can still be identified as directionally coming from above rather than "around".
But, as you say, it's a compromise and I personally don't watch enough TV to make it worth worrying much more about.
But, as you say, it's a compromise and I personally don't watch enough TV to make it worth worrying much more about.
Sorry when I mean passage I mean open plan. Wall to the right of sofa as you are sitting is about 6 meters away so no wall mounting possible for RHS.
Money isn't an issue and I've thought about adding one or two rear surrounds but as I said I don't watch enough rv to justify the effort.
Still keen to know how OP has got on with his speaker placement!
Money isn't an issue and I've thought about adding one or two rear surrounds but as I said I don't watch enough rv to justify the effort.
Still keen to know how OP has got on with his speaker placement!
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