Hey all. I have been lurking the forums for a couple weeks doing research. There is a lot of good info on these boards. I have been remodeling my entire house for the past couple of years, and it is about time I do something with the living room. I am pretty space limited in the rest of the house so this room will have to do. Here are my plans so far:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/gnfury/livroom003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/gnfury/livroom002.jpg

It's going to be a tight squeeze, but I think it will work out well when it is done. The toughest part of the remodel here is going to be the entertainment center. My house is OLD, and the space where the entertainment center is going is now occupied by a brick fireplace facade that I am going to rip out. Then, I'm going to attempt to build the entertainment center myself to somewhat match the existing woodwork in the house. The room is approximately 12' x 24'. I was originally looking at the Pioneer PDP5080HD for my display, but after looking at this layout, it may be too big considering the seating position will be about 8 feet at the most. I may end up going with a Panasonic TH42PZ700U instead. For a receiver I am looking at the Onkyo TX-SR705. For front speakers, I am looking at Polk R150's, center channel a Polk CSR. I haven't decided on wether to go with a 5.1 or 7.1 setup yet, but I am thinking either another pair of R150's for the side surrounds, or if space looks to be getting to tight - I may try and sink some Polk RC55i into the walls instead. If I do go 7.1, I was thinking of the same RC55i's for the rear surrounds. I am still up in the air on a subwoofer, but I have read good things about the H-100 sub. So what do you guys think? I have been looking for plans or directions or any kind of help in designing and building the entertainment center........any suggestions? Comments? Thanks alot.

Hey Burnout,

Your space is bigger than mine, so don't worry about size. You can make any room sound good. I would skip the 7.1 and spend the money somewhere else. I started out with 7.1 and when I got rid of 2 speaker could not tell the difference. In wall speakers are great when the room is small and IMO sound plenty good for HT. I sit 10' from the my 50" TV and I think it is perfect, so 42" may be good for you.

As far as building the entertainment center it's not that hard. Figure out a way to cut your sheet goods square and you have it made. Router with a spiral upcut bit is my preferred method when sheets are too large for the table saw. There are many books that will explain case construction. Just go to the library and check out 10. At least one will help you. Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Its just 4 pieces with a back and a couple of shelves. Build 3 of those, slap on the face frame and some molding and you are done. Just make sure your cuts are square.

Good luck,
Jason

i dont suppose an hd pj with a 100+" electric/manual drop down screen would interest u, huh?
would provide a much better ht experience!
whatever, good luck. room design looks nice!
:D

There is a raging debate of 5.1 vs 7.1 but at this time I see NO reason to go 5.1. There aren't nearly enough 7.1 tracks for my tastes but newer receivers will have 7.1 anyhow and you HAVE to wire a new system for that eventuality. When you do get a nice 7.1 it is amazing.

Your space is quite large. A 42" is going to look very small. My space is ~1 ft wider and I have a 119" screen. I would go atleast 50" (and if you have light control look into FP).

This isn't really a catch all forum. You will get better advice if you talk speakers in the speaker forum, receiver in the receiver forum, etc. The experts tend to stay in their own areas. I think it sounds fine. I would say that I planned to get an Onkyo 705 but couldn't find one for less than $600 and I ended up getting an 805 for $574. There are a lot of deals on Polk speakers on ************** and slickdeals.net I would check those places out. They are lower end Polk but they might work for you.

i dont suppose an hd pj with a 100+" electric/manual drop down screen would interest u, huh?
would provide a much better ht experience!
whatever, good luck. room design looks nice!
:D

+1