Pics of my new budget setup.

[JCole]

So the girlfriend and I decided to move in together. Found a condo with a nice view looking over the Fraser River over to Surrey.

At night:

Early Morning:

But most importantly, this place has concrete walls, floors and ceiling. So I set off looking for "deals" on a new speaker system and receiver.

London Drugs is a Klipsch dealer and has been selling off the old Synergy line at a bargain. Much cheaper than shopping through eBay and shipping to Canada.

I ended up with a pair of F2 fronts, and a Sub 12 for $500 after tax. A C2 center for $130, and a pair of S2 surrounds for $220. I got a Pioneer VSX 919 AH K receiver for cheap from Craigslist,

Went to Ikea and got the floating shelve thing and mounted it to hold the devices. I'm more or less finished other than getting a larger TV eventually (40" just doesn't seem large enough). Today I'm going to tie all all the cords underneath. They're all organised, but hanging loose. As for the sound, I'm running the MCACC Pioneer acoustic calibration. The system worked really well and measure the distances of the speakers and set all the tonal ranges. Only strange thing, for all the speakers it cut the 500hz range by about 6.5db. Was 500hz just too loud ? I don't hear any holes in the tones so I guess it knows what it was doing.

Anyways, criticisms and opinions welcome!

P.S. I demo'd the reference line, aswell as the F# floor speakers while at london drugs. I couldn't tell the difference. Maybe my ears just aren't sensitive enough, but to me, I don't think I could be happier with better speakers... Other than the brass looking woofers would be kinda neat.

[HudsonValleyNoah]

You did really, really well.

You cleaned up on those Synergy units!

[Y] [Y]

[willland]

JCole,

Nice setup, nice price.

Bill

[wuzzzer]

No criticisms here! Nice deal on all your items!

[runninshine]

[Y]Like.

[MechMan]

Looks great, and I bet it sounds great too...good job.

And nice view[Y]

[Youthman]

Looks great, congrats! I really like the floating entertainment shelf. Very cool

[Yura]

Not bad, but you need to tame the cable monster.

[Boxx]

Very nice setup...

[psg]

I don't want to criticize someone with this enthousiasm, but here goes! I assume you had compromises to make; I would have installed the very nice Ikea unit lower, just clearing the sub. That would help to hide all the cables, would put all the tweeters closer to the same level, and let the TV be installed lower. But I like the Ikea unit and you killed on those speaker prices! Congrats and enjoy!

[JCole]

LoL yeah after working on it all day, cutting wire, drilling/measuring/mounting and running cables, the woman looks at it and says "shoulda mounted it lower". I mounted it slightly high so she could use it as a shelf for cards or pictures or whatever.

[Stolenrs]

Hey nice setup, I really like the floating shelf setup. I also have a wife that will come in and point something out very obvious to me.....after the fact. If you wanted to, and yes this does come from experience, just make a couple of risers and paint them black to raise your towers to be the same level with your center.

Looks awsome, even better once the wires are cleaned up []

~ross

[Rivernuggets]

Very nice setup at a great price. I like the view too!

"shoulda mounted it lower"

Do you have room to mount it lower and still cover the original holes?

[psg]

Of course that pictures looks at it from a vantage point 6 inches off the ground. I'd venture it doesn't look as high, nor do the cables show as much, when sitting in fron of the screen. Post a pic from that vantage point!

(and yeah... nice view!)

[JCole]

Can anyone offer suggestions on cleaning up the wiring more ? Since that photo I tied up the wires and took out all the slack in them, but it still doesn't look great. Maybe I should start a new thread on cleaning up wiring unless there is one already.

I'm not going to bother moving the shelf downwards. Too much of a pain and I think it's a good practical height. If I was doing it over again I would have mounted it lower but I dont want to now.

[dtel]

Can anyone offer suggestions on cleaning up the wiring more ?

Not from me, mine looks like yours or worse but it is behind the tv.

Great deal on everything, bet it sounds good, it's a good thing you have walls like that, it will help a little for the neighbors.

Great view [Y]

[tragusa3]

To heck with the equipment....that view is killer!

Many Klipsch owners talk about AC/DC and a brewsky, but I'd take that view, a bottle of Merlot, my honey and some Nora Jones.

[indyhawg]

You got that system at a great price. Love that view.

[MechMan]

Can anyone offer suggestions on cleaning up the wiring more ?

Mind my crude photoshop skills but I think this might work nice. A simple piece of oak painted with black laquer to match your mains attached with spacers to the wall under the shelf unit.

The pic looks poor, but picture that black piece of wood running from the shelf to the floor, and spaced out just enough to stash the wires...should be super cheap.

Maybe?

[Islander]

First, great deal on the speakers! [Y][H] Happy listening!

Second, if the shelf was lower, the centre speaker would be farther below the screen, which is not the way you want to go.

As for the cables, you can get "split wiring loom" at auto parts jobbers in many colours. White would be the obvious choice, so the cables will be less visible against the wall. They're a split plastic tube, so it's easy to cut them to the right length and slip them over the cables. They come in sizes from 1/4" or so right up to 1-1/2" or more.

Try to avoid running power cords beside interconnects or speaker cables, so you don't get 60Hz interference from the power cords.

And if you haven't been told yet, welcome to the forum!