Living Room layout

[Randomshat]

HI

I am buying a new house that has a rectangular living room where my projector will go nicely, with the stack to the right or left at the front.

i have B&W 600 series speakers with floor standers at the front and rear and a centre.

My wife insists we have a fireplace. In my current house we have this so the centre is standing to the right of it.

i want to get the centre back in the middle, maybe between the screen and the mantle? The current B&W is very deep though so I might need to replace it.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to lay it out? And if new equipment is needed then what will pair well with B&W 600s?

Cheers

 

[jonathanRD]

Are you building a fireplace or is it there already?

If building one, can you accomodate your centre speaker in the fireplace?

 

[Randomshat]

The house is a new-build so the builders will be putting it in as an optional extra. The problem with my current speaker is that it is very deep, if it were slimmer I would wall mount it under the screen, but as it stands even if built in I think its too big.

The more I think about it the more I am certain I will need a new centre speaker. Any recommendations as a good pairing?

 

[simonlewis]

It's usually best to keep the front three speakers the same or you will end up with tonal imbalance, meaning dialogue will sound wrong.

 

[Randomshat]

That's what I thought :/

The easiest solution is probably to buy my wife a load of presents and ask her to reconsider the fireplace....

 

[jonathanRD]

Ok - so does the screen have to be above the fireplace? Can it go on another wall?

A fireplace will enevitably raise the screen possibly higher than the ideal, and will it force the centre speaker higher than your ears height?

The problem is that a fireplace usually is the centre point of your room, and ideally you want your screen and centre speaker as the centre point.

A difficult one :?

 

[Glacialpath]

Is the fire place going to be on an end wall or side wall of the room. If it's on the side then set up your HT lengthways. If the fire place hasn't been put in yet could I go at one end on a side wall so you can put your seating round the fire place then have the HT the other end set up how you want it?

What are the dimentions of the room and where would your wife be happy to have the fire?

Of course you want it all simetrical idealy but you might have to compremise the setup. Either that or you pick another room for the HT.