Help Me Make The Best Of It

It looks like the speaker set she purchased is designed for in-wall usage. If that's the case, they are designed for in-wall, not on-wall.


Obviously in-wall means that they go in the wall, so if that's not something you or she wants, have her return them immediately.


As for the subwoofers, you can pick up a receiver with dual subwoofer outputs, or just pick up a $7.00 y-cable splitter. Either way, they'll both work just fine.


Edit: I see vanmeter beat me to it, but you get the point. If you don't want to cut out pieces of your walls, get her a different system.


Click here and fill out the info to see the Dolby recommended 7.1 setup. If you do keep the system your mom purchased, you can either stack the second subwoofer on top of the first, or put behind the front speakers, put one in each front corner, put each on the inside of the fronts, etc. Suwboofer placement isn't easy, so best to find the best place for in-room bass response, then place the subwoofer there. Of course, if those subs were designed to go in-wall, you don't have many choices.


The following was taken from this link:

6 - Subwoofer Positioning


One of the easiest ways to position a sub is to place it in the listening position - in the chair. Play material that has significant low frequency material, and then crawl around the room, placing your head in the most desirable potential locations. Listen carefully to the bass - it should be smooth and extended, with a minimum of large peaks or dips. The optimum position for the sub is now the location where you heard the best response.


It is very likely that the position of best response is completely undesirable for other reasons, so be prepared to spend a fair bit of time moving around, and listening carefully. There are always compromises, but with care you can still find a location that is acceptable aesthetically, is not inconvenient (e.g. the middle of the lounge room doorway), and does not cause howls of protest from SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).


It is a given that the other members of your family will naturally assume that you have finally lost it completely during this exercise, but it may be possible to get their assistance - or at least a second opinion. Involvement in the process could make it a lot easier to explain why the china cabinet really should be moved - preferably to another room if you have a powerful subwoofer

Thanks for the responses.


Yes, she intended to mount the speakers in the wall/ceiling. I didn't know if there was an optimum arrangement for the two subs - spaced equally on either side of the TV, stacked, try to get them behind the couch,...


Yes, the subs are passive. Here's the info I have on them:


Two HD-S10 Dedicated 10" In-Wall Subwoofers Additional Specifications

10 Inch Subwoofers

Power Handling Capabilities: 150 Watts RMS to 300 Watts Each

Frequency Response: 26Hz – 200Hz + 3 dB


Is she now stuck with a high-end rec/amp and lousy speakers? Should she scrap the speakers and start over? Or is there an economic solution?


Thanks,


igmo

the speakers are typical asian import speakers - not terrible, but certainly too small to create much of a soundfield in your huge room.


Who is going to do the in-wall wiring ? Are the walls finished and painted, or still under construction ?


To power the two passive 10" subwoofers, I would recommend a modest priced subwoofer amp for each, you would split the "sub-out" channel on your receiver to feed each amp and drive the speakers. The sub amps would be located with the a/v receiver and require a 2 conductor speaker cable running to each in-wall subwoofer as well a a 2 conductor speaker cable running to each in-wall speaker and home-running back at the location for the a/v receiver. Thats 9 speaker cables to fish through the walls, a very considerable task for anyone who has not done this kind of work before.


Bottom line: I think after all the work to install these low end speakers, you will be disappointed with the results.


Decent a/v receivers would be the Onkyo SR607, Yamaha V665, or Denon 1910.

not sure what you meant by "3 cables" ?


the "cables" feeding the passive subwoofers from the amps are regular 2 conductor speaker wire, as are the cables from the a/v receiver feeding the 7 other in-wall speakers. You will need to get several hundred feet of at least 14 ga. in-wall speaker cable, rated CL2 or CL3 for in-wall use.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=100-734


the "splitter cable" is an audio cable with one RCA male connector which splits into 2 leads with RCA female connectors http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...F5AH67GD3SDYMP and you would then use whatever length RCA male to RCA male audio cables to get to the subwoofer amps.


outlet box cover connection plates (scroll down for plates with binding posts) http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...09&cp_id=10425


another option if you don't want to use binding post plates, is to just bring all the wiring out of the wall and continue to run it to the a/v receiver and sub amps.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2


you also need to consider 120v AC power for the TV on the wall and the video cables you will need to feed it ( HDMI or the 3 component video cables). something like this works well if you need both http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

or if you are going to have a 120v outlet set high on the wall, then a pair of these to feed the video into the wall and out behind the TV http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2


a basic question you need to resolve is (1) whether you are going to have a single video feed to the TV and let the a/v receiver do the source switching or (2) multiple feeds to the TV and let the TV do the video switching between sources and the a/v receiver switch between the audio sources. It's easier to let the a/v receiver do all the switching, but that means it is on all the time the TV is. It get reall confusing on the audio feeds is you don't do Option (1).


good luck