commercial home theatre question

[fireman175]

Greetings,

I am stuck with installing a surround sound system for a home theatre system in the tv room of a fire station. This is new construction so I have room. The size is pretty large, about 32' wide by 25' deep. Ceilings are 9'. I did some research but cannot find a good answer to my situation.

I would like to use in the wall speakers, but can work with wall mounted. Since I am going to all this work, I suppose I should wire it for 7.1. Does that make sense? The four surround speakers can be mounted at any height. I determined the best to be about 6' off the floor. The left and right are gonna be a little harder to get to the right height. One reason is the the double door is right where I would put a left speaker. Thus, the height is going be about 7 or 8' off the ground. I guess if I set the large tv at that height so the top with the center speaker is about 7' that may work. What do you think?

Most importantly, I can only spend about $500 to $800 for the speakers. I want these to last. What do you recommend, the in-wall speakers or wall mounted speakers? Which would give me the best bang for the buck?

Sure appreciated this! Thanks

[Rock789]

is that $500 to $800 for all 7 speakers?

this room is very large, so, your best bet would be with larger speakers...
I have listened to some inwall speakers, but none in a room this size...
inwall speakers may not be enough...

perhaps someone has experience with larger rooms...

are you looking for a sub? and if so, in this price range?

what is the function? just something to play movies?

with your pricerange, a bookshielf would probably be a better bet...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1138085354138
-- they were $50 a month ago, maybe see if there is another sale soon?

[Dusty Chalk]

Onix X-LS -- buy 'em in pairs @ US$220 (total == US$440) and then use your receiver to "phantom" the center (tell the receiver you have no center, and it should automatically redirect the center channel information 50/50 to the front left and right main speakers).

[fireman175]

Thanks for the input. I plan on a bass, not sure which one though. Dusty Chalk, are you saying I should buy just 4 speakers and not 6? If I plan on the 7.1, do I still need that center one over the tv?

The main use of this will be movies and regular tv, with some gaming.

Thanks much!

[Hashpot]

You said you were going to put the speakers 6'' of the floor make sure the speakes are at ear level that best position to set speakers. The room is very large like rock79 said i would go large speakers i say 2 pairs of large speakers. with a price range of 800 i would sort of forget about getting 7 speakers and a sub if you want them to last i suppose. Bookshelf speakers are cheap thou? Check out these bookshelfs speakers their pretty good for your budget www.hsuresearch.com you can get four Hb-1 speakers and a center for $800 this is just a suggestion though one bookshelf speaker covers a 20 by 15ft room itsshort in width but with 4 speakers and a center they should do just fine

[recoveryone]

Not sure what Dusty is going for. but I would say with the type of enviroment that this system would be used go with some type of wall mounted bookself speakers. Being a former Cop, I'm been in a few fire station and seen how things can go. Keeping the speakers out of reach of thrown food, drinks...etc. is best for all in the house. And for your budget I would search on ebay to save a few bucks. Remember you will need to include wire in the budget. As for the center speaker, you can have it on top or if the TV will be sitting off the floor you can have it below closer to the listening area. It will be a matter of taste. And for a room that size I would go for a 5.1.1 setup two sub's one in the front of the room and one in the rear. Having speakers mounted high on the wall will allow the sound to carry futher than floor standing speaker. I'm also thinking of the many type of chairs that will be arrange in not the ideal viewing position. So you do not want anything to block the sound from getting to the back of the room where others may be sitting.

[Dusty Chalk]

I was just trying to stay within the budget. MHO is that it is better to get 4 good speakers than 7 less good ones. 4 is the minimum needed for surround, but then you wouldn't be doing 7.1 -- you'd be doing 5.1 with a fake center front channel. Especially since you have such a large room.

You may also want to look at the Insignia bookshelf speakers. You have to buy them in pairs, though.

But by no means is my answer the end-all -- there are plenty of other perfectly good alternatives, including the KEF system mentioned in another thread.

[Woochifer]

I think for a room that large, you might also want to look into some sort of wall treatment to minimize the reverberations, especially if the room does not have carpeting or an acoustic drop ceiling. Rather than going just with standard drywall, consider adding some kind of sound absorbing wall covering like what's used in meeting rooms.

As others have indicated, your budget won't get you too high up into the product lines, but five wall-mounted bookshelf speakers can still make for a decent surround setup. Depending on how loud you want it and if you don't mind speakers that are more aggressive, horn speakers like the Klipsch Synergy series or the Hsu bookshelf models might work well with a big room. If you have enough room up front, I would stick with three identical speakers. You don't need a horizontal center speaker, unless the TV completely dominates the middle of the front wall and you need the space.

As far as positioning goes, a height of 6' to 8' would work fine for the surrounds so long as they face each other (you don't want the surround speakers to point towards the front from the backwall, you want them pointed to the opposite side walls). The front speakers should be closer to ear level, but if keeping the speakers out of harm's way is a priority, then you could mount them a little higher.

You could always add the subwoofer later on, and there are plenty of good options right starting around the $300 price point (but, for a large room, you might need a bigger sub than the 10" models typical at that price).

[Rock789]

You could always add the subwoofer later on, and there are plenty of good options right starting around the $300 price point (but, for a large room, you might need a bigger sub than the 10" models typical at that price).

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=300-770