Cinema room surround system
Cinema room surround system
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Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Friday 10th April 2020
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Any recommendations? Budget < £1000

Area is about 350 square feet, needs to be small speakers ceiling mounted but happy to have a bass bin hidden somewhere.

Tony1963

5,808 posts

185 months

Friday 10th April 2020
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You’ll need to let everyone know what you already have before anyone can start throwing their opinions onto the thread smile

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Friday 10th April 2020
quotequote all
I have nothing, does that help hehe

Gota buy, amp (if not inc. in system) & projector

I’ll be running an optical cable from projector as theres multiple sources going to it, i assume thats the right way..

Eta: looks like projectors dont have optical out so i guess its a case of source to amp / surround system, which means selecting source on amp / surround system each time or do they auto detect now?

Edited by Pvapour on Friday 10th April 17:38

stevoknevo

1,751 posts

213 months

Friday 10th April 2020
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You can get a 1080P projector, Pioneer receiver and Wharfedale 5.1 speaker package for £1040 (and you'll need some cables on top of that) from Richer sounds - I doubt you'd get in-ceiling speakers/amp/projector for anywhere near £1k if you're buying well known brands.

You could easily pick up older gear second hand within budget provided you're not looking for 4K ultra and 11.4.4 Atmos surround sound!

I'm not sure you'd get a very good cinema effect with all in-ceiling speakers either? But you're correct that all sources plug in to the receiver which sends the image to the projector, and you choose the source via the receiver to swap between them.

VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Friday 10th April 2020
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It is surprising what you can achieve with in-ceiling speakers if positioned right and using speakers with directional tweeters at least.

It all depends if you have had a system before, if not, you’ll be amazed and pleased with it, if you have, then it is more surround sound than cinema.

Happy to advise further if needed, but £1000 is very tight.

V

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Saturday 11th April 2020
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Happy to up budget, was thinking 2-3k for projector + 1k for sound system but happy to play with that if needs be..

It is important we have small discreet speakers overhead (we’ve got an old bose system in our gym with cube speakers and bass bin which we love)

But also the front stud wall by the screen is yet to be built so i could build in speakers quite easily if needs be and mesh cover?

Not had a cinema room before so expect we’ll be impressed, we’re not massively fussy on quality but know good sound when we hear it, we can hear the differences between the Surround sound systems in our cars (Meridien, Burmester, Bose) and i used to install ice systems for sound offs in cars many many years ago (so quite a bass head)

But not a hi end aficionado by any means.


Spunagain

772 posts

281 months

Sunday 12th April 2020
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There are some great bargains to be had on eBay! High end HiFi and AV lovers seem to like to regularly upgrade. I made an AV room in my loft a few years ago and got 5 nearly new Bowers And Wilkes in wall speakers for £250. They are fab. I also got a pair of very early Kef in-walls for my 2 rears which were not so great even though they had never been used.

Another way to keep costs down is to make your own screen. I made mine out of off cuts from the loft conversion. Originally I had a trial setup with 1 layer of black and 2 layers of white lycra to safe more cash, then after a couple of years I bought some proper “ Center Stage UF screen material” from Seymour AV in the USA, which for an 88.5 inches wide and 49.25 inches high screen cost me just under USD300 with shipping to the UK. Th AF material is acoustically transparent as my centre speaker is behind the screen.
The improvement to the picture was fantastic and has made much more of a difference that I expected. The sound improvement was more subtle but definitely there.

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Sunday 12th April 2020
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That sounds very cool, I’ll look at the fabric but the centre part where screen is are balcony doors so I have bought an electric screen that comes down out of ceiling, walls to side of screen I can cover though, I like bower Wilkins stuff, sounded great in Jag XF I had.

I’m not looking to save cash tbh so any recommendations on new stuff is welcome

VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Monday 13th April 2020
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I would consider packaging up something like the following for you.

Optoma HD or even Pseudo 4k projector
Yamaha 5.1 or Atmos Amp
Monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers and sub.
Associated cabling

Let me play with some figures and see what falls out.

How easy can you get cables through the ceiling to speakers and projector?

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Monday 13th April 2020
quotequote all
VEX said:
I would consider packaging up something like the following for you.

Optoma HD or even Pseudo 4k projector
Yamaha 5.1 or Atmos Amp
Monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers and sub.
Associated cabling

Let me play with some figures and see what falls out.

How easy can you get cables through the ceiling to speakers and projector?
Thanks, very easy for cabling, pretty much no seperate audio cable needs to go to projector then.. i would prefer a projector that outputs optical if possible as it would negate the need to change input on amp constantly but understand if not possible.

justin220

5,666 posts

227 months

Monday 13th April 2020
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It's not really normal for a projector to output optical.

It tends to be an AV receiver which takes all the inputs (Sky, PS4) and outputs the picture to a projector, and the sound to the speakers

anonymous-user

77 months

Monday 13th April 2020
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I used Monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers a few years ago for my cinema system (purchased from Vex) and they sound superb. Once my new project is underway I’ll definitely be using them again.

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Monday 13th April 2020
quotequote all
Thx gary..

justin220 said:
It's not really normal for a projector to output optical.

It tends to be an AV receiver which takes all the inputs (Sky, PS4) and outputs the picture to a projector, and the sound to the speakers
No, not normal but something i’d like though i’m guessing the projector would have to process the sound from the hdmi to optical and thats a fair bit of tech thats quite quality sensitive.

Is there possibly a separate box i can put inline before the projector that’ll take three hdmi inputs and then output 1 x hdmi and 1 x optical (hdmi to proj. Optical to amp) preferably one that i dont need to switch between the three inputs, it just prioritises one of the inputs? Hope that makes sense.

an av receiver you’d have to keep changing to whichever input you were using

Tony1963

5,808 posts

185 months

Monday 13th April 2020
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In my Limited experience the AV amp or receiver will change to whichever component has just been turned on.

NorthDave

2,528 posts

255 months

Tuesday 14th April 2020
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Go second hand for sure. Source the kit through ebay or avforums. Loads of people have to have the latest and greatest so you can get stuff a couple of years old for good money.

For your budget you will struggle to buy new and get a decent result.

There are a few of us on here who are in the industry. Feel free to run any kit choices through us. I for one would be happy to help you develop a wiring scheme.

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

276 months

Thursday 16th April 2020
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Appreciate your thoughts around saving money but think i’d like new, we wont be changing yearly for latest equipment but i want it to last and dont want hassle of problems with secondhand.

VEX - did you manage to put something together as i’m boarding currently..

VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Thursday 16th April 2020
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Playing now!