Help needed with new 7.1 setup

[admin_exported]

Hi All.. I'll be moving in to my condo in a couple of months and plan to convert one room (12ftx10ftx10ft) into my HomeTheater/Music/Games room. I plan to use a 50" Full HD LCD as the display + Onkyo-875 Receiver + Velodyne SPL1200 Sub but haven't figured what would be a good fit for the speakers. I would appreciate your advise and you can be brutally honest if you think my preferences on the others aren't good. Thanks..

 

[Big Chris]

Right. If you're TV is set-up on one wall, and your chair/setee is up against the opposite wall, 7.1 may be tricky. For 7.1 you really need a bit of space behind your listening position.

Now. If you have your chair/setee farther forward from the rear wall, this will help with your desire for 7.1, but will probably mean your choice of a 50" TV will be too big. Personally, I'd go for a 40"/42" TV and have your listening position about 3/4 ft forward of the rear wall. (Assuming you're using the length of the room and not the width) This'll mean you'll be about 8' from the TV and will give you just enough space behind to incoroporate the surround rear channels.

Conversely, stick with the 50" and scrap plans for 7.1, just stick with 5.1. If you sit too close to an LCD, you start noticing blockiness. I'd rather have a slightly smaller, but much more detailed/smoother image than risk a bigger TV from too close a viewing position.

Good choice of receiver BTW, (I can vouch for it). Any reason you're not interested in a Plasma? LCDs are typically brighter, and some would say more suited to TV type duties in a lounge. But in a dedicated home cinema room, with blackout curtains and such, you may find a plasma a better bet. Try demoing some if you can. The new Pioneer 428/508 range are meant to be out-of-this-world.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your comments & advice... i do appreciate them and it's very helpful. To be honest, I do love the Pioneer Plasma displays, love the brilliant colors, the deep black levels, the unit is even physically sexy but it was just too pricy for the full HD ones and also, Pioneer's decision to stop making their own Plasmas didn't help. But if I do stick with the 7.1 setup then maybe I can afford the 42" from pioneer.. just maybe.

By the way, are you familiar with speakers & subs? Wonder what you'd recommend for the size of my room.

Cheers.

 

[Big Chris]

Again, as it's a dedicated home cinema rather than a regular living room. I'd go for a full size speaker package, but your room isn't huge, so not sure you'll need to go with large floorstanding speakers. It all depends on your budget. You could check out the B&W 685 home theatre package which was favourably reviewed not that long ago and just add an extra pair of 686s for the surround back channels.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok I will check out the 685 package but they're a bit hard to source from where I come from.

I also intend to checkout the Tannoy Mercury F series + Velodyne SPL1200 sub + Onkyo 875.. think that'll work? Thanks.