Ok, I am still working toward building an independent theater room. In the meantime my wife wants to take over the living room and she doesn't want any huge speakers to be seen. I have a 50" plasma. She wants to get one of those AV racks that look like they are "floating" under the TV. This means I will need minimal av equipment in the room. Well, she doesn't care about surround either.

This is what I was thinking:

Get something like the Yamaha YSP-800. It is pretty cheap and it combines LCR into one box with it's own receiver. I figure I can run audio from my DVD player and cable box direct to this speaker. Then I will just run a small switch box going to the TV for the picture for both the cable and DVD. Throw in a decent sub and it should be a decent minimalist system for about $800.

Anybody have any better ideas?

Maybe there is a better single speaker solution than the Yamaha for about the same price? I'm willing to include a shelf for a receiver if I need to but I really have to keep my speaker thin so that it blends with the TV. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Thats fine, or get a nice little sub and 2 pretty speakers and matching stands ... and build a 2.1 setup. You will get far better sound and they can look elegant.

Here is my Bedroom theater, minimalist but not hidden.

Thats fine, or get a nice little sub and 2 pretty speakers and matching stands ... and build a 2.1 setup. You will get far better sound and they can look elegant.

Here is my Bedroom theater, minimalist but not hidden.

Nice! Are those Cantons?

Here's a thread for my minimalist solution:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=955752

You could go even cleaner by putting the Yamaha 800 on the top shelf and your cable box on the bottom.

Thats fine, or get a nice little sub and 2 pretty speakers and matching stands ... and build a 2.1 setup. You will get far better sound and they can look elegant.

Here is my Bedroom theater, minimalist but not hidden.

Very nice!

Thats fine, or get a nice little sub and 2 pretty speakers and matching stands ... and build a 2.1 setup. You will get far better sound and they can look elegant.

Here is my Bedroom theater, minimalist but not hidden.

That is a very nice and clean setup. I particularly like how the speakers blend into the wall color.

Overall I would still like to do a single-speaker solution but after seeing your picture I may consider something similar to yours.

Thanks.

Here's a thread for my minimalist solution:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=955752

You could go even cleaner by putting the Yamaha 800 on the top shelf and your cable box on the bottom.

I really like that AV rack. Where did you get it?

Thanks.

You could do a surround bar from polk audio or yamaha.
http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/flatscreens/surroundbar/?reviews=1

http://www.electronicexpress.com/product?prod_id=9904

This is what I was thinking:

Get something like the Yamaha YSP-800. It is pretty cheap and it combines LCR into one box with it's own receiver. I figure I can run audio from my DVD player and cable box direct to this speaker. Then I will just run a small switch box going to the TV for the picture for both the cable and DVD. Throw in a decent sub and it should be a decent minimalist system for about $800.

The Yamaha soundbar and a sub sounds like a fine tv set up. Near sidewalls are needed for the reflective properties of the Yamaha to work as designed.

Your OP is not clear as to how much money is left over after purchasing the Yamaha. That being said (asked?) buy the largest potent sub from one of the many great sub mfgs as your wife will allow. If she will allow black then you have many choices, but if it must be real wood or colored vinyl then you do have less to choose from.

If your walls are painted and she would consider a matching painted sub, then ED can provide you with an unfinished sub which you can paint the same color as the wall and make it really disappear. :rolleyes:

I really like that AV rack. Where did you get it?

Thanks.

Thanks!

It's an Omnimount MWFS...in my case with a second large shelf instead of the usual 16" and 8". I had to buy an extra MWF16 to get the second large shelf. I chose it over the other wall shelves due to the panels for hidden cable management.

I got mine on that auction site...just type "Omnimount MW*" and you'll find several. Omnimount is a very common brand, there are many web stores and B&M stores that have it as well.

The Yamaha soundbar and a sub sounds like a fine tv set up. Near sidewalls are needed for the reflective properties of the Yamaha to work as designed.

Your OP is not clear as to how much money is left over after purchasing the Yamaha. That being said (asked?) buy the largest potent sub from one of the many great sub mfgs as your wife will allow. If she will allow black then you have many choices, but if it must be real wood or colored vinyl then you do have less to choose from.

If your walls are painted and she would consider a matching painted sub, then ED can provide you with an unfinished sub which you can paint the same color as the wall and make it really disappear. :rolleyes:

Ok, I guess I was pretty vague in my first post. This is the room setup. The room is pretty square at 16.5 ft length and width. The ceiling is just shy of 8ft. The TV is not centered on a wall due to furniture and door placement. The wall where my sound will be coming from will be roughly 4.5 feet away from one wall and about 8 ft from the other. I don't want to spend more than a grand on the sound for this room as it will mostly be used for regular tv and maybe background music when cleaning the house...at the same time I don't want it to sound like butt either.

Right now I am still leaning toward getting a yamaha soundbar. I can get an YSP 800 for around 350. Put that together with the BIC-H100 for 200. This puts me at a rough cost of 550. If this type of setup will fill my room with decent sound and be ok for music than maybe I should go that route. I have my doubts about it though so if somebody can let me know that would be great. Maybe a suggestion for a better soundbar. I figure there has to be more out there than just the Yamaha and Polk. I read about something from
Triad (I think that is the name). But couldn't find a price which usually means it is too expensive.

In the meantime I am still considering two floorstanding speakers and a sub but it has to be very clean looking. More like a piano finish in order to pass WAF inspection. I don't think bookshelves will work because the wife doesn't like the stands so my only option with those is to hang them on the wall and then I have to figure out how to hide the wires wich I don't have a ton of experience with.

I like the idea you suggested about the subwoofer. I may do that. Thanks for the info.

The advantage of a soundbar like the Yamaha is that it (supposedly) provides for some pseudo-surround sound ambience.

The advantage of going with a pair of speakers instead is that there MAY be a significant improvement in sound quality.

As far as soundbars go, I have heard the Mirage Uni-theater (http://www.miragespeakers.com/v2/product_page.php?open=lines&subid=677&id=598) and was impressed. It is not advertised as being able to specifically produce surround-sound ambience like the Yamaha is, however I'm sure it would provide some when the receiver is set up as having no surround speakers.

Or you could go with speakers like THESE (http://www.definitivetech.com/loudspeakers/mythos/mythos_tower.html). Many manufacturers are making speakers like these, now.

Nice! Are those Cantons?

Yep those are Cantons with metal grills. They are good but not great.
I chose them because they blended well with the room.

I really like that AV rack. Where did you get it?

Thanks.

I have this swanky Italian furniture in my bedroom that I wanted to match. I found a 2 drawer TV stand from the same bedroom set, and removed the top drawer. Then I just put in a black plywood shelf where the top drawer was.

It was bought at Levitz...

I have since replaced that huge receiver with a slim Panasonic digital receiver, and painted the base of those speaker stands silver, and it looks even better now.

It's a bit over your budget but you can consider the Artison Portraits for L/C/R.

There is a left and right speaker and two, dual-mono center speakers on either side.

The grill covers match your flat panel's height and color so they look like they're part of the tv----it doesn't get much more minimalist than that.

If you want to go with piano black floorstanders, check out Aperion Audio:

http://www.aperionaudio.com/product/Intimus-533-T-Tower-Speaker,22,28,23.aspx

http://www.aperionaudio.com/product/Intimus-533-PT-Powered-Tower-Speaker,32,28,168.aspx

The first option sounds very nice.

The second option is more expensive but each speaker has built in, amplified 8" subwoofers. So if you're going minimalist, you don't have to worry about hiding a big, black box.