Home Theater Design Help

[bme]

Well, my Dad over the past 9+ months has renovated his basement from completely unfinished with nothing but concrete to a very nice looking entertainment room. There's now a bar and a pool table a long with a nice 1080p 46" HDTV. To complete the transformation, I'm helping him get a home theater surround sound setup.

Let me preface this with saying at first he just wanted a *shudder* Bose wave machine. I know, I know. I talked him out of it and told him all of his work would be wasted if he didn't go the correct route of getting a receiver + at least 5.1 surround. He finally agreed. I was hoping you guys, the experts, could help me help him get the best bang for his buck.

Here's what I came up with after a few hours of research and review reading:

Yamaha RX-V665 Receiver (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_022RXV665/Yamaha-RX-V665.html)
Energy Take Classic 5.1 Surround Sound (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_732TAKECL/Energy-Take-Classic-5-1.html)
Sirius Connect (http://www.crutchfield.com/p_607SCH1/SIRIUS-SC-H1.html)

That put's it right under $1,000.

But the big thing I am wondering about are the speakers. I know those are quality from everything I've read. But the room layout is what is bothering me. The main need is a quality surround sound experience when viewing movies, TV shows and live sports. But the setup should also be able to fill the room with sound via Sirius while shooting pool.

The issue is the way the room is laid out, it is going to be difficult to fulfill both needs. I will be going over there tonight to create an accurate room layout with true measurements. The walls are drywall and the ceiling is made of removable tiles. Running/hiding the speaker wire won't be a problem. Anyways, I will update this post later with an accurate room layout. Will you be able to recommend correct speaker placement ?

Along with ensuring I am getting him quality components, the main goal of this post is to determine:

1) 5.1 or 7.1 speakers

and

2) Correct speaker placement based off the answer to #1.

Thanks so much in advance for your help! :3:

[Mr Peabody]

I would suggest a 5.1 set up based on the sitting location when viewing movies. Without double checking features I believe that Yamaha model has dual zone which isn't great but it does allow you to maybe use a strategic 2nd set of speakers placed some place for music in other areas, possibly even ceiling speakers. Another feature to be aware of is the 7.1 stereo mode which will send the music to all speakers without surround sound processing. The receiver has A/B main speaker terminals with assignable "B" speakers. So for example when watching movies the "B" speakers, ceiling around bar for instance, would be turned off and then when music listening throughout the basement turn A & B on and use the 7.1 stereo mode.

[bme]

Thanks for the reply, those are the details I am looking for. Do you think those are good items for the money? Here is the basement layout.

http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=basement_nt9w2k9pimcwr6vhjkvb.jpg

Maybe you could mark some red X's where you think speakers should go and then upload it to shackpics.com ? its free and no registration required.

[02audionoob]

It seems like you could just set up the speakers for optimum while sitting in the TV chairs. The sound should fill the room around the pool table. See the blue rectangles on your picture. The big one is the sub. The ones at the chairs could be ceiling speakers. The ones on each side of the TV might be good angled in, depending on the design of the speaker.

[Mr Peabody]

The center channel speaker should be above or below the center of the TV screen, the left and right channel speakers to the left/right of the TV which all look easy to do from your diagram. The rear should be slightly above and behind your head when sitting. But for that room ceiling or wall speakers as close to optimum as possible could work. It looks like you could get away with a 5.1 set up easy enough to fill the room.

02AN's set up diagram looks good.

Your choice of Yamaha is fine. They seem to be reliable and several here use them. I like Onkyo a bit more feeling the amp section is better but that's merely my opinion. Depending on what models you compare I believe the Yamaha gives more HDMI inputs.

I personally have not heard Energy but they have a good rep. You might also look at entry B&W or Paradigm but those could put you over what you are spending now.

[bme]

Thanks so much for the replies, it means a lot.

Another forum has recommended this receiver (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B001S2RDAE/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance) and this set of speakers (http://store.audioholics.com/product/1793/17/emp-htp-551t-5-1-speaker-system).

Do you think it will be a problem hanging those surrounds from the ceiling ? I'm sure my dad can do it as he is a "master carpenter". All the research on that speaker set I've done indicates they sound great for the price, so I think I will go with that. Thanks for taking the time to update the diagram, too.

[02audionoob]

If you have a ceiling with removable tiles, I'd suggest recessed speakers. If not recessed speakers, I'd suggest very small surround speakers in a space with a low ceiling.

[Mr Peabody]

I have to admit I haven't heard those speakers but they aren't going to put out much bass with a 4" driver and the surrounds being only 85dB efficient and 8 ohms will take some juice to push and the others aren't a whole lot more efficient. I don't know if the specs included the sub but there's no way those speakers play down to 20hz as the spec said. It also takes a lot more power to recreate bass, the sub is only rated at 100 watts. I may have missed it, did it say why these were $699. when supposedly retail was $2k? I may be wrong but from the ad it just looks a bit suspect to me.

I was referring to recessed into the ceiling when I suggested "ceiling speakers".

If you are buying online be sure you have a return policy and watch for restocking fees. You want your dad to be happy with his system. I'd recommend keeping with established brands of equipment.