Need advice on a setup for our new place...

[jvoorhees]

We're gonna be moving into a new place in November... and my major project is gonna be the theatre room in the unfinished basement... but for the meantime I wanted to get a decent set up upstairs in our living room for when company is over...

Ive included a pic at the bottom of what the room looks like in the show home... we will be mounting our tv above the fireplace. Ive been going back and forth with setting up a soundbar above the fireplace... to doing just 2.1 surround... then to doing 5.1.... if Im gonna be doing 5.1 I wanted to get small speakers... something small in terms of Bose's stuff... since the basement is unfinished... we'd be able to fish the lines down through the walls into the basement... then back up to the amp/recvr

So Id love to hear what you guys think would be a decent setup... I just dunno where to start

Cheers in advance!

[solarrdadd]

if & when I move into another house, I will do two things, one will be to just have a nice flatscreen in the livingroom with a nice soundbar speaker under it and that's it. The other thing will be to have a real kick ass home theatre in the basement or in a nice large room. with the basement i'd have to build a platform to compensate for the concrete floors (carpeted or not). I'd go as all out as my money would allow. I'd put 75% of my money into equipment and 15% into the room to include soundproofing and appearance and the last 10% into furniture i.e. theatre chairs. things I'd plan for later would be a bar with a small fridge and something for popcorn. I would want the hometheatre to be the A/V focal point and put my real money into it and just have a nice small setup in the livingroom; it should almost be invisible. That's my idea, don't really know how much you can do with that as a suggestion!

[jvoorhees]

Thats pretty much what Ill be doing, when I start building downstairs... but that wont be till December/January

Are soundbars good enough to simulate that 5.1 sound? I mean only time we'll be watching anything there... cept maybe until the basement is done is when we have company over... watching a hockey game or something... and Ill play XBOX360/PS3 there until the basement is done...

[solarrdadd]

Yeah, i think that it's fine. I think that tv watching in the livingroom should be incidential. I think the livingroom is for talking. now, i will say that a nice 2 channel amp and speakers for stereo music would hit the spot in the livingbut not for gaming or movie watching, just a nice two channel amp and believe it or not, I'd get some bookshelf speakers (real nice ones too) a nice cd player (like the new one from emotiva and their two channel amp won't hurt) for some nice music in the living room. other than that, i wouldn't have any a/v equipment, no gaming or anything like that. The livingroom in my house was always for grownups, talking and listening to music; there was actually no tv in my parents livingroom for a long time.

[jvoorhees]

I hear ya... but for the time being.... the video games will be there... just until the basement is done... after that... Id like to just have a blu ray play in there... the tv... and an amp/recvr... we will also be streaming music from our computer to this system too... so maybe just a simple 2.1 set up will suffice??? Just a couple book shelf speakers on the left/right and a nice little center... def. wont do anything huge for a center... as it need to sit on the mantle there and its not that big

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

Yeah, i think that it's fine. I think that tv watching in the livingroom should be incidential. I think the livingroom is for talking. now, i will say that a nice 2 channel amp and speakers for stereo music would hit the spot in the livingbut not for gaming or movie watching, just a nice two channel amp and believe it or not, I'd get some bookshelf speakers (real nice ones too) a nice cd player (like the new one from emotiva and their two channel amp won't hurt) for some nice music in the living room. other than that, i wouldn't have any a/v equipment, no gaming or anything like that. The livingroom in my house was always for grownups, talking and listening to music; there was actually no tv in my parents livingroom for a long time.

I agree....a nice 2-channel amp, a CD player and some bookshelf speakers is the way to go. I personally wouldn't even bother with the TV, but I suspect that's the only place right now (until your basement is done) where you can watch it.

We never had a TV in the LR either when I was growing up. Hell...there were 8 of us and we had one television in the basement! I still only have one TV (my Panny Plasma) and refuse to get one for bedroom....

John

[solarrdadd]

I hear ya, i don't have one in my bedroom either, it's only for two things sleeping and...hmm been together for 20yrs and can't think of anything other than sleeping

Yeah, just go with a nice 2 channel amp, nice cd player and some good bookshelf speakers (with nice wood tone to match your stuff) and you'll be set. don't forget the dimming system for the lights, you wanna set the mood with that nice jazz playing softly in the background and a nice bottle of wine, HEY I just remembered what that other thing was!!!!!!

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

I hear ya, i don't have one in my bedroom either, it's only for two things sleeping and...hmm been together for 20yrs and can't think of anything other than sleeping

Yeah, just go with a nice 2 channel amp, nice cd player and some good bookshelf speakers (with nice wood tone to match your stuff) and you'll be set. don't forget the dimming system for the lights, you wanna set the mood with that nice jazz playing softly in the background and a nice bottle of wine, HEY I just remembered what that other thing was!!!!!!

Enjoy! See ya later!

John

[jvoorhees]

HAHAHAHA!

Well I guess this room classifies as our liv room/fam room...

Now in terms of decent little speakers to get... a few people I talked to mentioned Bose... since they are tiny things... I figure upstairs I do not need anything super expensive and will save the big spending for downstairs....

Any thoughts on say a Bose VCS-10 for a center speaker... as I need something thats tiny to fit on our mantle...

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by jvoorhees

HAHAHAHA!

Well I guess this room classifies as our liv room/fam room...

Now in terms of decent little speakers to get... a few people I talked to mentioned Bose... since they are tiny things... I figure upstairs I do not need anything super expensive and will save the big spending for downstairs....

Any thoughts on say a Bose VCS-10 for a center speaker... as I need something thats tiny to fit on our mantle...

There are much better speakers you can buy than BOSE for the same or less money. You might want to look at Mirage speakers..I believe they're called the OMNISTATS. They have a different sound, but are very very nice. Check out the BOSE and MIRAGE threads in the SPEAKER forums....you'll get lots of ideas and opinions.

John

[jvoorhees]

Alrighty Ill do that.... but yeah def. just need something small in size... I do not want to mount the center speaker above the tv... and would prefer to just keep it on the mantle...

Cheers