I'm moving into a new house and I am trying to figure out what to do with the TV in the basement. Its designed to be put above the fireplace, but that is way to high for me to watch TV comfortably. I am hoping that I can store an HTPC in the media closet to the left and drop cables into the wall and mount a Sony XBR5 to the empty space on the wall. I'm debating between a 46 and a 52". The only thing is I am not sure what to do with speakers. Basically its just a giant room with a ton of empty space everywhere so I can't really mount speakers. I feel really silly as for the last few days I have been thinking and spending a TON of time figuring out what to do with this room and I would really appreciate any input from other members. I would like to avoid ceiling speakers, but it seems like I might have to do ceilings for the rears and maybe floor standing or mount some speakers in the front.

Basically its just a giant room with a ton of empty space everywhere so I can't really mount speakers.

Can you explain this comment.

What about In-walls?

If you could sketch a floor plan, it's hard to envision what ALL the walls look like from the photos. You've only showed us about 180 degree view of the room.

Although I'm not a bit fan of gagetry, this might be one case where the the audio systems that have either 3 speakers and trick you into thinking that there are more, or the Yamama/Polk sound bars might be your best bet, coupled with a subwoofer.

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/flatscreens/surroundbar/?reviews=1

I'm confused by that statement too. Why can't you mount speakers to the walls? What's wrong with floorstanding speakers? And I agree with Bigmouth...what about in-walls?

As for the TV, go bigger than you think you need because after you get used to the size you will wish you went bigger. I did when I opted for my 53" RPTV instead of the 65". Now I went as big as my room would allow with an 82" PJ.

I'll try to draw a floor plan later, but I'm not really good at that stuff. Basically from the angle of those pictures there are no walls, its just more living space. Basically when I took the pictures I stood where the couches would go because if I go back any further I'd be blocking the stairs that enter to that room. I know it is hard to visualize so I will try my best to draw something up later.

Floor standing speakers would work in the front because I could hide the cables, but if I had floor standing speakers in the back I don't think I would be able to hide the speakers as they would be located essentially in the middle of the room.

OK, understand your problem.

I can think of 3 solutions, You'll have to determine which is going to work for you.

1) Use one of the front speaker , that use electronic manipulation of the rear surround sound to trick you into believing that you have rear speakers. You need to go to a showroom and sample the effect for yourself. For some people it's just fine.

2) Use ceiling mounted speakers for the surrounds, I did this for my rears but not the sides.

3) Get some mini-surround speakers on stands and position behind your seating position. Run flat wire under the carpet. They do this with BOSE for instance. The speakers are placed kind of like reading lamps behind a sofa in the middle of the room.

I was able to scan a layout of the room and roughly drew out where things will possibly go. The other possible TV location could work but its right next to a big window so it'd be pretty bright and it would be tough getting any cables through that wall so I am leaning toward the other side, but I'm open for any opinions. I like the idea with floor standing speakers in the front and the rear I am just not sure if it will look too out of place being in the middle of the room like that especially since its so close to the stairs. Although I really do want a pair of paridigm speakers. Also I don't really see how I could run wires underneath the carpet. It'd be a huge pain to tear up this brand new carpet :)

I was thinking of the YSP speakers that emulate 5.1 as well, but with no back walls and other surrounding walls so far I don't think it would work well as I know those speakers rely on walls to bounce sound off.

Back to some more research... decisions... decisions...

The HTguys give their thoughts on the sound bars on their most recent podcast. Worth a listen.

Thanks for the tip I will definitely check it out.

Although I really do want a pair of paridigm speakers. Also I don't really see how I could run wires underneath the carpet. It'd be a huge pain to tear up this brand new carpet :)


It's not that big of a deal:

http://www.hometheatermag.com/customaccessories/124/

Thanks for the article it was helpful. I'm going to go poke around the photo gallery and see if I can find any good pics of other room setups that people have. I'm leaning toward using speakers and stands, but in ceiling would be much cleaner.