help a newbie!

[jfletcher]

Hello all, our television is in the corner of a large family room with vaulted ceilings, ranging from about 15 feet to about 20 feet high. The kitchen is essentially in the same room. Because it's such a huge room, the sound from the TV isn't very clear. We just have the speakers on the bottom of the TV (a 43" DLP). Any little noises coming out of the kitchen (water running, glasses rattling, silverware rustling, etc.) causes it to be difficult to hear the TV. You end up turning the TV volume higher and higher until you realize its suddenly WAY TOO loud.

So what I'd like to do is install some sort of basic home theater system with speakers that could be located around the couch and viewing area, so you don't need the volume to be so loud. But I really don't feel like running a bunch of wires through walls or spending $3000. I am wondering if wireless speakers are any good. A guy at a store just told me that wireless speakers are all garbage.

I don't really need the perfect theater affect. I just want to be able to hear the TV when the sink is running!

Any help would be appreciated.

[PAT.P]

Hello all, our television is in the corner of a large family room with vaulted ceilings, ranging from about 15 feet to about 20 feet high. The kitchen is essentially in the same room. Because it's such a huge room, the sound from the TV isn't very clear. We just have the speakers on the bottom of the TV (a 43" DLP). Any little noises coming out of the kitchen (water running, glasses rattling, silverware rustling, etc.) causes it to be difficult to hear the TV. You end up turning the TV volume higher and higher until you realize its suddenly WAY TOO loud.

So what I'd like to do is install some sort of basic home theater system with speakers that could be located around the couch and viewing area, so you don't need the volume to be so loud. But I really don't feel like running a bunch of wires through walls or spending $3000. I am wondering if wireless speakers are any good. A guy at a store just told me that wireless speakers are all garbage.

I don't really need the perfect theater affect. I just want to be able to hear the TV when the sink is running!

Any help would be appreciated.

Maybe start with towers for side of TV and a good center and a subwoofer for now if you dont want any speaker wire all over .You'll also need a receiver .Not so easy to give advice if you have no drawing of room .Speaker wire could be run along baseboard also .or under baseboard .Pat.P

[chimera128]

It sounds like your tv can be turned up loud enough when the appliances are running for you to still be able to hear it. If that is all that truly matters then maybe you should just keep the tv the way it is or move it to a room where you don't have any noisy appliances to interrupt your viewing. However if you are just looking for an excuse to start a home theatre I would get some good bookshelves in the $500+/pair range and decent ~$500 receiver. You will still have to turn up the volume when you have the appliances running and turn it down when you have the appliances off. That is just something you will have to live with if you keep your equipment in a room where you have a lot going on. Getting a more powerful system or system with more speakers will NOT change that. The cheapest option that I can think of is for you to get wireless headphones. This will allow you to listen to it as loud as you want while not bothering other people in your household(or being bothered by them).