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Pre wire for family room


Chris9809

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Have to decide how to pre-wire for family room in next week. Need help and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

The room is 14.5' (depth) 19 (width) and 9' (high). One side is open to the nook. The back wall is 13' with open on the nook side.

Should we select 5.1 with powerful speakers later or 7.1 for the room this size? Also we have to decide the location of the prewires really soon. Most likely the rear (and middle) will be ceiling mount. The front and center will be stand alone system, right?. Somehow the sales person suggested a set of wall mounted speakers even for front and center. He gave two models CDT 3650C and CDT 2650C. I am not sure if these models are any good for rear? Also not sure what are the popular choices for front and center. In addition, we have this Onkyo HF R501 reciever (5-6 year old). Most likely we need a new reciever, then what are the leading types.

I am new to the audio technology. I heard the klipsch first time from this sales person. Really appreciate any suggestions or comments as the staring point for my further research.

Best Regards,

post-41913-13819526917914_thumb.jpg

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I will let others answer should you go 5.1 or 7.1, because the room is wider than deep. I have 6.1 and don't plan on making a changes.

First thing I also think Klipsch has MANY great sounding speakers, your sales person was right to suggest them.

Is this a room you want the speakers not seen ?

Me personally I would only have in-wall or in-ceiling speakers for the side and/or rears, only if the had to be out of sight. " I " would not use for the front 3 speakers unless it was that or nothing.

I have heard the in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and they sound really good but I think the front 3 are much more important. Also if you decide to listen to music in stereo or concert DVDs having something a little more flexible in positioning in the front is a big advantage.

Others will have some other ideas and questions.

The main thing is that you get the best sound you can considering what you have to work with.

And welcome to the forum there are many here who have alot of good advice, use it to save money by going in the right direction from the start. Don't be afraid to ask questions, it's just sometimes takes a while until someone answers but you will catch on to it.

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dtel, thanks for the reply. I will definitely prefer rear and side speakers unseen. So most likely they will be in-ceiling. I am not sure if we will go for 7.1 especially considering the side speaker will be in-ceiling. It might be challendging to select the right configuration for this type of familiy room, I think... not perfect for a true home theater...i was not even sure this is the right place to post my questions. Anyway, will try to learn more on some basics. The key decisions is still 5.1 or 7.1? also the relative positions of speakers for side and rear. We need to decide them for pre-wire purpose. For the front and center, I think I will ask them to pre-wire to in-wall... at low height? to be connected with external speakers later. The speakers and reciever will be selected later...when we have the budget...most likely we will go ebay to get them. Thanks again for the feedback.

p.s Still try to find how to upload the image. That should help for you guys to picture the layout etc.

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p.s Still try to find how to upload the image. That should help for you guys to picture the layout etc.

After you click 'write a new post', click 'options', then 'add/update', browse for your file, then slide the horizontal bar to the right and click 'save'. Make sure to have something written in the 'compose' part of your post, even if it's a '1'. Hope this isn't too run-on sentence like.

Welcome to the Forum, Chris9809!

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So most likely they will be in-ceiling

We all have to do what we have to do and I understand that. With that said, my neighbor has a decent sized house (> 10,000 sq/ft) I was over there when they moved in and the wife said with great pride, "sit here and listen to our surround sound system"

Their ceiling is something approaching 20' high and they wanted the speakers hidden so they are in the ceiling. It frankly, was pretty wierd sounding (in their specific setup) with the TV in front of you and the voice of the commentator coming from overhead, more like a voice from God. I just sat and tried to be polite about it but really, in their situation, it sounded more like I was sitting at the Doctors office listening to the news via Musac.

If they had used in walls, flanking the TV (can't in their situation because of a floor/ceiling fireplace) it might have been different. Once again...they had to do what they felt they had to do. (fortunate for them, they will also have a dedicated HT room elsewhere in the house and I'm trying to mooch in with them to allow me to help them configure it, rather than the Musac speaker dudes)

If you go with the buried type, hopefully you will be able to put them to the sides of the TV instead of overhead. I speculate this would be more important with the front three speakers than the rears.

I personally am only looking at going to a max of 5.0 or 5.1 however, it's more because of my room shape and size of speaker constraints. You can typically only fit so many Klipsch speakers into a single room before you have no space for a chair.

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Just uploaded the pic. Thanks to Rivernugget. The backwall is a little short and why I was thinking to go in-ceiling to "cover" more area. After seeing your post, I am doubtful it IS the right decision/direction. The other direction is to go for in-wall for rear. Limitations are first the people sit on the side might not hear the rear speakers that well and the speakers will be just behind the ears for the people facing the TV...maybe it is good thing? I assume light of sight for speakers, maybe it is not right with klipsch speakers... i.e they might have pretty front distribution even for the direction not facing them directly?

Somehow for the front and center, I am reasonably sure we will get seperate systems. Coytee, I do agree if the burried type, we will go for the in-wall for sure. Maybe the safe thing to do there is to ask them prewire the front and center in-wall at 4' then they can either for external or for in-wall later. Thanks everyone for the feedback again.

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