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First Home Theater


Rhino

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I am looking to get my first home theater setup. We just built a new house and now I’m beginning to acquire everything needed to have a nice movie experience. This system will be 70% movies and 30% video games. 

 

I have purchased, awaiting delivery, a Vizio PQ65-F1 for my display. I just received a Logitech Harmony Elite after getting it on a Cyber Monday deal for $200 on Amazon. 

 

My room is a no-ideal layout as the back of the room is open to the dining area and kitchen. I won’t be doing rear surrounds at this time due to having a 2 year old who will wreck them. Therefore, I’m looking to do a 3.1 system, maybe a 3.1.2. 

 

I’m wanting the RP 504C as my center. For my front speakers I’m very limited due to our furniture. I’m thinking either dual RP-500M bookshelf speakers or, and this may be weird, but dual RP-500C as L & R speakers. Any negative to doing this? Or ideas what would be better?

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Rhino, welcome to the forum.

 

Sounds like you are trying to construct a home theater with "lesser" speakers.  May sound OK, but you will never get great sound ... you will never get "earthquake booms" with those speakers :(   Minimum I would recommend is some Heresy's  (if you get series I or II they will be cheaper than the dedicated centers you mentioned) :D Use another Heresy as a center speaker.  Many of us are NOT fans of these dedicated center speakers (they are made to look "good" underneath a TV ... not made for "good" sound).  Add a decent subwoofer and you'll be in business :)  

 

Cheers, Emile

 

Add-on ... the reviews on the RP-500M's are generally good ... but if you put them side by side to some bigger Heritage speakers you quickly hear the difference :D  5 1/4 inch woofers will sound "tiny" compared to 10-12 inch woofers.  Specs on these may say 48HZ, but it will not be "full" sound.  Same problem (actually worse) with the RP-500C's ...  Sorry, but you are just going to have to find a little more "room."

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On 11/30/2018 at 9:34 PM, Rhino said:

. This system will be 70% movies and 30% video games.

 

My room is a no-ideal layout as the back of the room is open to the dining area and kitchen. I won’t be doing rear surrounds at this time due to having a 2 year old who will wreck them. Therefore, I’m looking to do a 3.1 system, maybe a 3.1.2. 

 

When building a new HT based system my opinion is to build from the inside out.  Get the best center speaker you can afford because Movies/TV are 90% dialog and 90% of the dialog comes out of the center. 

 

For HT the next best place to put your money is into a decent sub.  Since you have a two year-old you might even want to skip the sub and get a good pair of L/R with some strong bass like the RF-7 III's.  It will meet almost all your needs for strong bass.  A good 3.0 system might fit your family needs.

 

Quote

 

I have purchased, awaiting delivery, a Vizio PQ65-F1 for my display. I just received a Logitech Harmony Elite after getting it on a Cyber Monday deal for $200 on Amazon. 

 

Oh man, we need to talk.  B)  I just installed my Viz PQ65 after my 10 year-old TV died about a month ago.  I got mine through Sams Club on a Black Friday deal.  The picture quality is outstanding and changing picture modes (dark, calibrated, vivid, etc) is easy and it flat out works. 

 

The internet complaints about banding?  Not a problem, I've seen banding about 3 seconds worth in 20 hours of TV and movie watching.  The narrow viewing angle?  Not a problem, it is much less a concern than I was worried about.

 

If you haven't done it yet go to rtings.com and get the calibration settings.  Note:  The rtings.com settings can't all be used (Extreme Black Engine Pro) because your Viz will update the software which eliminates part of their recommendations.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/p-series-quantum/settings

 

Here is the PQ65 and my unusual front sound stage using RF-83's with RS-62 surround speakers on top which are configured as Front Heights giving me an outstanding wide sound stage.  For obvious reasons I do NOT recommend that for safety reasons.  I am child and pet free right now so I can get away with such an otherwise unstable front setup.

 

225702814_VizioPQ65KlipschRF-83.thumb.jpg.93f7512741a409abfba5f8b9864513ea.jpg

 

 

Quote

 

I’m wanting the RP 504C as my center. For my front speakers I’m very limited due to our furniture. I’m thinking either dual RP-500M bookshelf speakers or, and this may be weird, but dual RP-500C as L & R speakers. Any negative to doing this? Or ideas what would be better?

 

There are people who have used dual bookshelf speakers as a center speaker.  You hook them up in parallel to turn an 8 Ohm load into a 4 Ohm load.  The negative is having two speakers play the exact same content will produce lobing.  The people who have done that (not me) all have great things to say about the sound and report that lobing is not an issue.

 

If you are going to go with the RP series get the biggest ones you can afford starting with the center speaker.  Get smaller L/R if that is what your budget dictates but don't skimp on the center.

 

Safety Tip:  Two year-olds will climb everything.  You, your wife, the dog...and your speakers.  Get some cables and anchor those floor standers to the wall.  You'll have to drill a small hole in your L/R cabs but that is a small trade off for  safety and peace of mind.

 

And welcome to the forums!  Post a pic of your potential front setup if you get a chance.  The following program will allow you to shrink your pics to under the 2 MB limit per post this forum allows.  It is a small program and is ad-ware free.

http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm

 

 

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Wvu80 Glad to hear your loving the Vizio! Mine still hasn’t arrived yet. Digging your setup, but certainly not toddler friendly lol. 

 

Here is is a pic of my furniture for reference, while it looks nice it makes for an awful difficult time for speaker placement. 

 

 

 

For or a sub I’m going with a SVS PB2000.

 

thanks for the advice thus far. 

B23938DA-E2DB-4702-8735-6F82AD1D80E4.jpeg

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As far as 2 year olds, from the time my son could crawl, everything that had anything to do with my A/V gear would "burn!", "hot!", "ouch!".  Never once did he ever touch or try to climb any of it.  Same goes for electrical outlets, lamps, tables.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Bill

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4 hours ago, willland said:

As far as 2 year olds, from the time my son could crawl, everything that had anything to do with my A/V gear would "burn!", "hot!", "ouch!".  Never once did he ever touch or try to climb any of it.  Same goes for electrical outlets, lamps, tables.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Bill

 

 

This is an excellent idea that we will employ. Thanks for the idea!

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21 hours ago, Rhino said:

Here is is a pic of my furniture for reference, while it looks nice it makes for an awful difficult time for speaker placement. 

For or a sub I’m going with a SVS PB2000.

 

B23938DA-E2DB-4702-8735-6F82AD1D80E4.jpeg

 

Sub:  The SVS sub is a solid choice.

 

Center:  Can you squeeze a horizontal center in that space directly under the TV?  That would be ideal.

 

L/R:  The pic was very helpful.  If your shelving will accommodate it I would go with bookshelf speakers.  That will solve the safety issues, fit into your existing space and I don't think sound quality will suffer a bit vs floorstanders.

 

TV:  Is that a 65" TV already in that cab?  Will the Viz PQ65 fit in there?

 

If the TV, center and L/R bookshelf speakers will fit into that audio cabinet that will make a pretty tidy front end.

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On 12/11/2018 at 8:51 PM, wvu80 said:

 

Sub:  The SVS sub is a solid choice.

 

Center:  Can you squeeze a horizontal center in that space directly under the TV?  That would be ideal.

 

L/R:  The pic was very helpful.  If your shelving will accommodate it I would go with bookshelf speakers.  That will solve the safety issues, fit into your existing space and I don't think sound quality will suffer a bit vs floorstanders.

 

TV:  Is that a 65" TV already in that cab?  Will the Viz PQ65 fit in there?

 

If the TV, center and L/R bookshelf speakers will fit into that audio cabinet that will make a pretty tidy front end.

 

Unfortunately none of the centers im considering will fit their due to the height. I will set the center on the top and wall mount the tv leaving enough clearance so the center doesn’t obscure the tv. 

 

Currently that is a 60”. 65” will fit with a little room left, but not much. 

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