My system & my patio doors!

[admin_exported]

Over the years I've struggled with how best to fit my system around this room - what would you do in my position? http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/4835035633_77c227047f.jpg The room has many positives - sunny aspect from 12noon to 10pm in summer, the house is detached so the volume can be cranked up without upsetting the neighbours......but the one major drawback - those darn patio doors are so in the wrong place for AV/Hi-Fi positioning! I started six years ago with the system I had from our previous house that consisted of a pair of Mission M73 floorstanders as front speakers - one on either side of the patio doors with the TV in the corner. It looked terrible and totally out of place in the room. It didn't sound too pretty either with the rear vents pushed hard up against the wall and the major compromise being that the TV sat in the corner outwith the front 2 speakers. Not a problem for Hi-Fi but absolutely useless for movies. I sold the M73s and replaced them with a couple of Mission M71s bought on the cheap from Richers when money was tight and being channelled into B&Q and Homebases' coffers rather than B&W and Harmon Kardon. They looked much better sitting on their stands than the M73s but still didn't sound too good and still didn't solve the problem of the TV sitting outside the front 2 speakers. Finally I decided that the only solution was to go down the style speaker route to fit the room and purchased the KEF3005se package a couple of years back. I think they sound pretty good and are excelllent for movies. I can also just squeeze the TV between the 2 - although the front right speaker is obviously much too close to the TV in comparison to the front left. Not an ideal set up but the best solution I've found. Hmmmm - struggling to get the picture to appear - any ideas?

 

[matengawhat]

 

[matengawhat]

i'd mount the tv above the fire place then center everything on that - you would just have to watch the fire temp to make sure you don't melt it

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers matengawhat - much appreciated mate. I can't seem to find the elusive toolbar with the tree button on it that people refer to. Otherwise I'd post a couple of other pics.

 

[Anonymous]

lose the fireplace ? put the tv there ,front speakers either side ? better for sound maybe but not for picture .. or sell the kefs and get a soundbar and sub ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

maxflinn:lose the fireplace ? put the tv there ,front speakers either side ? better for sound maybe but not for picture .. or sell the kefs and get a soundbar and sub ?

...Brick up the windows, rip up the floor and put the subwoofer where that is...

 

[Anonymous]

well putting the tv above the fireplace will mean its a bit high , plus where would the op put the centre ? its a bit of work putting the tv where the fireplace is ,but would probably make for the best 5.1 setup ..

although , isnt there a soundbar with sub and rears on the market ? im sure ive read about one , that might do a job ..

the kefs , even with their weird arrangement would probably still sound better though , its a room shape thats going to mean some compromise ..

 

[dave_k]

What's more important: having a fire place or an optimum home cinema set-up? I think the only way you're going to get optimum 5.1 is to lose the fireplace and put the TV there, then shift a sofa to oposite wall.

Would be a bit of work but the end result would be worth it IMO.

Failing that, a smaller sofa arranged diagonally in the room parallel to the TV as placed currently would allow better viewing angle and better speaker placement WRT the viewing position. Depends how much space there is in the bit of the room not shown in the picture.

 

[Anonymous]

A bit wild perhaps, but an option nonetheless:

Cartridge with projector screen mounted above patio doors, projector mounted above couch.

 

[Anonymous]

its gotta be the fireplace bud. It doesnt look like a proper chimney breast though so you could just rip the whole thing out if you wanted to, i doubt the work and damage would be that lengthy, you might be able to flog that fireplace to make up some of the cost as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies guys. All good answers and ones I've pondered myself from time to time over the years.

I should have said from the outset that this placement actually sounds ok (at least I think it does)and I'm happy for it for movies. I do hanker after something a bit more musical though when I get all misty eyed thinking of my old M73s and how they sounded in the last house!

I guess that's the beauty of the KEFs though in that they're really easy to place and very small in comparison to the size of sound that comes out. Even with that speaker on the front right crammed up close to the wall in the corner they don't sound boomy at all.

I guess that's because very little of the bass is actualy coming through them and the sub is doing all the work. So for movies it's ok, accepting the compromise that hard sound effects from front left to right or vice versa are perhaps not for the purist in a film. You get used to these types of things though, but they do niggle away at you from time to time.

What the picture doesn't show is that on the left of the room this is actually an open plan wall through to the dining room. Unfortunately that means the removal of the fireplace isn't really an option as the rear speakers would be placed in the middle of the room and the sofa couldn't be placed there as you need access to the other room.

I do like the projector/screen idea but may be a tough one to convince my wife on its merits! I would also need to run a fairly lengthly HDMI cable from the receiver in the corner to the back wall which could be problematic. To lift the floor to do this would be a right a pain and it would be messy to hide the cable through the walls and ceiling I fear.

I've even spent ages researching TV brackets to see if there is some form of moving cantelever bracket that would allow me to attach the TV closer to where the sub is at the moment and swing it round into the middle of the doors when I want to watch a film and swing in back to the normal position when I don't. I've not found anything that I could confidently say would work though to date.

So all in all I guess I'm probably just going to have to live with this for the moment. I guess it comes back to a question of priorities (music/movies) and the compromises that have to be made in any room/system. I could ditch the 5.1 and go for a higher end 2.0 system incorporating larger speakers in this room but I think I'd miss my movies too much.

In the end, at the weekend just past I ended up ordering up a Fubar iv headphone amp and eagerly await its arrival from the East. I'm going to give head-fi a try in my computer room upstairs with this to see if I can satisfy my desire for better musical playback through that route in the short term.

Thanks again for thoughts on this - its appeciated.

PS Next time we move things will be different!

 

[Anonymous]

mrmrj:I've even spent ages researching TV brackets to see if there is some form of moving cantelever bracket that would allow me to attach the TV closer to where the sub is at the moment and swing it round into the middle of the doors when I want to watch a film and swing in back to the normal position when I don't. I've not found anything that I could confidently say would work though to date.

Put the tv on a rack or cart with wheels? Bigger rubbery wheels I mean, those tiny plasticky office chair things will ruin your floor. I 've seen racks with that, probably at Ikea.

 

[JoelSim]

Just put new bookshelf speakers on brackets on the wall either side of the fireplace. AVI are good for this.

 

[RCduck7]

KevinOK:

A bit wild perhaps, but an option nonetheless:

Cartridge with projector screen mounted above patio doors, projector mounted above couch.

I also was thinking that the moment i saw the picture, best solution i think. And let the TV there where it is for the daily broadcast stuff, as it is difficult to live with only a projector. Use the projector for movies, music,...