Questions on new living room arrangement

[bwilliams22685]

I was recently given the ok to spend a reasonable amount of our cash on a 5.1 surround sound system for the house.  The only thing is she wants is the speakers to be flush with the walls.  Cool, but I have some questions and concerns as to which one to get and what kind of modifications I would have to do to the house to accommodate these new toys.

 

Back Wall:

The system will consist of 2 R-5650-s II in-wall speakers.  I know that these arent ususally the best option for a rear setup.  What are some other recommendations.  Wall goes to another bedroom behind it. Space is not really a concern

 

Front Wall:

Here is where it gets tricky.  I am wanting to keep the same in-wall setup.  I know there are other options as to what types of speakers I could get.  I was going to get 3 of the R-5502-w II and use them for the left, right, and center.   The concern I have for this wall is this is an exterior wall.  How good would the sound be with just siding on the outside behind each one of those speakers.  Also, I am afraid if I use one as a center channel, I would either have to do a little reframing as the stud separation is only 16 center to center, or get another speaker to replace the center channel.  We are planning on mounting the tv a little higher as well.  The room it self is is just open, and it does open itself up to the kitchen as well.  You guys are the audio gurus.  What is your recommendations?   

[Scrappydue]

welcome to the forum. 

 

question. are you not allowed to have speakers in the room? cause in walls are such a compromise in sound quality.

[Heritage_Head]

Go big or go home

[bwilliams22685]

We can have speakers. She just prefers the back walls to be flush as you can see down the wall when you come in through the front door. I will try working her some more. Fronts I can get away with though. I guess I would rather have the speakers behind the front of the TV instead of sticking out.

[Scrappydue]

ok now we are talking. surround in walls? fine that is cool. but the front three you want to be non in walls if at all possible. so lets go with the next questions. whats your budget, and what all does that budget have to buy? and whats your ratio of music and movie watching. that all will get you different suggestion around here. 

[bwilliams22685]

3k max on the speakers and sub. Need to look at a receiver too but let's do one thing at a time. We will use it it for the occasional movies, sports ball games and she will use Pandora on occasion. Thanks scrappydue for the welcome. New to this game. Car audio in OK with but home not so much. This is a fairly new home. Just want it to sound well.

[Ceptorman]

Welcome, I'm sure Scrappy will steer you in the right direction.

There are a lot of very knowledgeable and friendly folks around here, awesome place.

[Scrappydue]

Ok so fairly open room. That means bass is gonna be the hardest to get right. And it's the second most important speaker.

If it were my room and wife would allow speakers up front the. Get some small in walls for surrounds (any will do the job) and then look into possibly two rf-62ii with a rc-62ii center channel. That should leave you half your budget for a DANG good sub. If you wanna keep a small footprint possibly a Svs cylinder. If the wife would rather have small then possibly a Svs sb-13 ultra? If you can have a bigger sub then something like the Svs PB-12 plus, psa xv-15, hsu vtf-15h, or rythmik 15" sub. Can't remember their models.

Where are you located?

Make sure when you are ready to buy you call around for the best pricing. I always buy from mike at acoustic sound design. He will cut you a sweet deal and those front three and a couple in wall surrounds. Skip any subs he offers though as he doesn't sell top notch subs. The ones I mentioned are the cream of the crop in your budget. And like I said subwoofer is the second most important speaker to splurge on. And a good one can make or break your experience in my opinion.

[wvu80]

I have a wife with a high WAF.  I would seriously try to explain to her that mounting speakers in-wall would be a waste of money.  You will lose their value if you need to move, and they are not as attractive as she might think they would be.  Explain to her that you understand her concerns, and that other wives with similar concerns are most happy with speakers that are about the height of other furniture such as a TV stand, and they can be tilted so you can have good sound, and she can have an attractive living room.

 

Suggest to her that speakers can be as nice as a piece of furniture, and they will hold their resale value.  Someday you might even pass them along to your kids, so the kids can listen to music and think about how much they love mom and dad with the gift of music.

 

If you don't have kids yet, then talking to her about that is a whole other discussion. 

Edited December 29, 2014 by wvu80

[Sancho Panza]

Don't forget pre-listened speakers on Craig's List, et Cetera.

[bwilliams22685]

What are the draw backs of going to a r-52 setup versus a r-62 setup. The only thing I can tell is the woofer size goes up from 5.25 to 6.5 and the price as well. I can still swing for the larger speakers though. The subs I haven't looked at enough. I did look at the klipsch r-112sw. With the setup you mentioned, would the rears do the job will enough?

I am from Indianapolis. Ovation is the only store I can think of I can compare these at. There is the bb with the mongolia section.

Wvu80. No kids yet, but I am figuring out really quick what I can and can't use as a bargaining chip. Haha

[Scrappydue]

The 62's are THE BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK in the reference line up. The draw back is of course as you said smaller woofers but main would be a much smaller horn. The 62's will have a much larger sound to them. And them the matching center is way better as well. The rc-42ii and rc-52ii have their place but neither are very good center channels. The 62ii is a fantastic center channel.

As far as subs I have not heard the newest line of subs but I have already heard the flagship r-115 described as muddy. And that is all it takes for me to think it's a pretty typical Klipsch sub. They may have output but that not the most important thing. And accurate sub is a much better experience. So one from the companies I mention will smoke the new Klipsch offerings.

And you asked about rears keeping up. Well to me surrounds don't have a extremely hard job. IMO to save space in walls will do the job. And of course save some money as they are cheaper because they have no cabinet which cut costs. Now would some rs-52ii be better? Yep of course they would. But it all depends on your wife and what you two want.

And as far as price don't think msrp cause your not gonna pay that if you do what I said and call acoustic sound design. You should be able to get the rf-62ii and rc-62ii around 1100-1150 and not sure what rears you want. Get your 5.0 set from him and let me know what you got left for a sub and how big it can be.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Scrappydue

[JJkizak]

Perhaps a small vacation to someplace that has suitable speakers for demos for the benefit of the other "half" would help the clean wall "syndrome" as you walk in the door.

JJK

Edited December 29, 2014 by JJKIZAK

[Scrappydue]

Hey I just finished my living room theater. Is very nice. But smaller than what I am recommending to you. However I have multiple setups. If I inly had one then it would have much larger speakers than what I have. Probably even bigger than what I'm recommending to you. However my wife enjoys Audio almost as much as I do.

[wvu80]

Agree with Scrappy, put money into your L/C/R front sound stage, and compromise with in-wall surround speakers for surrounds if you have to.  Satellite speakers on attractive stands would still be more versatile.

 

This is debatable, but I think the center speaker is the most important one.  That's because most of the dialog will come from there and it anchors the sound to the TV.  If your wife is like mine, that is what she will be most sensitive to and the sound she will like the most, very clear speech. 

 

You'll find she won't care about tactile mid-range chest pounding drums  and electric bass lines that will rattle the pictures off the walls like men like.  Wives are very strange that way. 

+++

 

Edit: 
 

Back Wall:

 

The system will consist of 2 R-5650-s II in-wall speakers.  I know that these arent ususally the best option for a rear setup.  What are some other recommendations.  Wall goes to another bedroom behind it. Space is not really a concern

 

 

I just realized, you will not be putting speakers into the back wall on a 5.1 system.  The surrounds ideally should go to the SIDE of the listening position, and slightly ABOVE ear level.  It looks like you have a bookshelf on the left of the LP, and then some open area on the right.  Can you clarify what the space looks like on the right?

 

Edited December 29, 2014 by wvu80

[bwilliams22685]

I will talk to mike at acoustic sound design. You are right we have a book shelf on the right side of the couch if your facing the TV. The left side is bare. Actually we have a plant shelf on to of the opening to the kitchen. I just can't guarantee that book shelf will stay. I did prewire the rears before they dry walled. The in-wall speakers I selected have 2 tweeters that are angled in the assembly. Should I go for another set then. That's why I was sticking to the speakers on the rear

Edited December 29, 2014 by bwilliams22685

[Scrappydue]

Which models are the rears gonna be?

[Paducah Home Theater]

Back Wall:

The system will consist of 2 R-5650-s II in-wall speakers.  I know that these arent ususally the best option for a rear setup.  What are some other recommendations.  Wall goes to another bedroom behind it. Space is not really a concern

 

Front Wall:

Here is where it gets tricky.  I am wanting to keep the same in-wall setup.  I know there are other options as to what types of speakers I could get.  I was going to get 3 of the R-5502-w II and use them for the left, right, and center.   The concern I have for this wall is this is an exterior wall.  How good would the sound be with just siding on the outside behind each one of those speakers.  Also, I am afraid if I use one as a center channel, I would either have to do a little reframing as the stud separation is only 16 center to center, or get another speaker to replace the center channel.  We are planning on mounting the tv a little higher as well.  The room it self is is just open, and it does open itself up to the kitchen as well.  You guys are the audio gurus.  What is your recommendations?

IF you do stick with in-wall...

1. If you mount those vertically, they will fit between the studs just fine, but yeah I can see where you'd want to mount them horizontally for use with a TV.

2. Consider the KL-7800-THX. It has an integrated enclosure.

3. If you stick with non-enclosed in-walls, at least try to get an enclosure like:

http://www.klipsch.com/me-650-w-speaker-enclosure

4. If you don't get the THX, and don't get an enclosure, at least try to box off the area with horizontal studs and make your own enclosure. You shouldn't just have siding behind the speakers, there ought to be plywood behind it. If you box it in it should help, not just with sound, but with insulation.

Edited December 29, 2014 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters

[Paducah Home Theater]

I did look at the klipsch r-112sw.

Go bigger.

 

There is the bb with the mongolia section.

[bwilliams22685]

Update on what I plan on getting.

2x rf-62 II towers

1x rc-62 II center channel

The only question mark is the rears. Was planning on getting the r-5650s II in-walls. I only selected those to have them flush mount with the wall