Just joined the forum, thought I'd say "Hi!"

Hey guys,

I've been getting a lot of knowledge from these forums! I recently bought a 50" LG Plasma to replace an old 32" Panasonic LCD, so I went ahead and got a cheap cabinet from IKEA. So now that my apartment setup is as complete as I want it, thought I'd post up on it!

Budget was definitely in mind, but I wanted to get the best without spending too much. Here's the setup:



TV: 50" LG 50PA5500 Plasma 1080P
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-821
Towers: Pioneer SP-FS51
Center: Pioneer SP-CS21
Subwoofer: Pioneer SW-8

Things connected to the setup:
-PS3
-Roku XD
-Old Asus laptop sitting on top of the subwoofer as a "media PC" with Lenovo Media Remote N5902 (love this thing!)

I think the weakest link in the setup is the subwoofer, but living in an old Chicago apartment, it's actually a good thing. Our 60 something neighbor downstairs has not complained about it yet!

I'm particularly happy about how the center channel speaker fits in this cheap IKEA cabinet. No cutting and additional assembly necessary.

The plasma screen is reflective, but luckily, I am barely home when it is bright outside There are three rather large windows to the right of this setup pointing toward the street, but to be honest, it's not that bad. We don't have blinds, we like the sun! Anyways, the TV has good color and brightness even during the day.

Any questions, comments, and advice is welcome! I am still a noob when it comes to this but I am having a lot of fun learning. As a mechanical engineer by study, a lot of the design aspects behind this escapes me, but keeps me intrigued.

Thanks for looking!
Edited by tune4jack - 11/29/12 at 4:18pm

Thanks guys! I'm really enjoying it so far

I'll have to try toeing in the speakers a bit. Everything is square with the front of the cabinet, so that is worth a try.

I'd like to put the sub in a corner, but unfortunately, there is the closet door on the left and the door to the den on the right. It's not feasible to set the sub in the corner unfortunately.

I've been tinkering with a few things, but I'm not sure if it is me or the setup. I feel like the center channel is too prominent that dialogue really sounds like it's coming from them. From what I understand, 50% of the dialogue should come out of the center channel, the other 50% through the towers?

In this case, does it usually mean I need to turn down the level the center channel? The center channel is also about an inch closer to the couch. Should it be flush to the tower speakers?