New house- setting up media room
Discussion
We have a new house build completing later this year and I'm having fun dreaming of how to setup a good TV/Movie room, without turning it into solely a cinema room.
I'm thinking of going for a 7.1.4 setup, with in ceiling speakers. I've got two floor standing speakers and a central, along with decent Sony amp but the amp will need updating to something newer for Atmos.
I'm not sure about in wall units for the sides and rear. I think it will partly come down to the orientation and which room gets used for it.
The right hand Snug has great views and higher ceilings of 3m and was my first choice, with the tv on the north wall. But blocking walk throughs and limiting furniture placement with speakers is going to annoy the other half.
I'm leaning towards an 85" oled screen. But a projector with retractable screen is an option for a bigger picture. There's a lot of full height windows though and we wouldn't want to always have them blacked out for viewing normal tv.
I'm wondering what others would suggest, I've only started researching this and very much an amateur, so I'm sure there's things I'm not considering.
Here's the plans, two good sized options. Neither room will have the stove indicated.
I'm thinking of going for a 7.1.4 setup, with in ceiling speakers. I've got two floor standing speakers and a central, along with decent Sony amp but the amp will need updating to something newer for Atmos.
I'm not sure about in wall units for the sides and rear. I think it will partly come down to the orientation and which room gets used for it.
The right hand Snug has great views and higher ceilings of 3m and was my first choice, with the tv on the north wall. But blocking walk throughs and limiting furniture placement with speakers is going to annoy the other half.
I'm leaning towards an 85" oled screen. But a projector with retractable screen is an option for a bigger picture. There's a lot of full height windows though and we wouldn't want to always have them blacked out for viewing normal tv.
I'm wondering what others would suggest, I've only started researching this and very much an amateur, so I'm sure there's things I'm not considering.
Here's the plans, two good sized options. Neither room will have the stove indicated.
Personally I wouldn't get a projector.
I'd also suggest that an 85" will inevitably dominate any room you put it in. Once you go over about 55" all that happens with bigger screens is you pay more money and sit further away from them.
Another of my personal things is don't put the screen any higher on the wall than absolutely essential, otherwise you'll either be staring up at a big screen or sitting further and further back from it to overcome the problem.
Beyond that I'm firmly convinced overall sound quality is more important than the number of channels, at least until you get to the mahoosivest Dolby Atmos systems. Even a decent stereo pair can produce a wide sound-stage, including filling the centre.
I'd also suggest that an 85" will inevitably dominate any room you put it in. Once you go over about 55" all that happens with bigger screens is you pay more money and sit further away from them.
Another of my personal things is don't put the screen any higher on the wall than absolutely essential, otherwise you'll either be staring up at a big screen or sitting further and further back from it to overcome the problem.
Beyond that I'm firmly convinced overall sound quality is more important than the number of channels, at least until you get to the mahoosivest Dolby Atmos systems. Even a decent stereo pair can produce a wide sound-stage, including filling the centre.
Panamax said:
I'd also suggest that an 85" will inevitably dominate any room you put it in. Once you go over about 55" all that happens with bigger screens is you pay more money and sit further away from them.
I'd look at it the other way. Size the screen for the viewing distance. For work I'd divide the viewing distance in millimetres by 75 to get the diagonal in inches. Did the same for home and that looks decent.Having been through this process with a new build house, I suggest planning where everything is going to be in your main rooms, then putting as much of the cabling as possible inside the walls. In both our living room and kitchen we have a 5.1 system with all the cabling in the walls, and in the living room a ceiling mounted projector with an HDMI cable going through the ceiling and down inside a wall, as well as a power socket hidden in a small opening in the ceiling. It looks so much tidier and is simple to do before the plaster board is screwed on and then plastered.
Good point re cabling. I would say the rear speakers in a surround set up are the ones that will benefit most from concealment. If you have specialist hi-fi type cables for the main speakers you may not want it buried. A wall mounted power socket for the TV will help as well as a pull through duct for HDMI and other interconnects plus anything else including satellite and terrestrial aerial feed if you have one. The three will be nothing dangling below the TV if it’s wall mounted.
As an earlier poster suggested don’t get too bogged down with Atmos style ceiling speakers as a well designed and specced 5.1 with decent kit will be perfectly adequate.
I have a nice little system based around the Audiolab 6000 digital amp and CD transport and coupled that with the slimline Marantz processor (driving the centre and rears) and a Yamaha Blu-ray.
As an earlier poster suggested don’t get too bogged down with Atmos style ceiling speakers as a well designed and specced 5.1 with decent kit will be perfectly adequate.
I have a nice little system based around the Audiolab 6000 digital amp and CD transport and coupled that with the slimline Marantz processor (driving the centre and rears) and a Yamaha Blu-ray.
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