[conan]

Hi, been browsing the forums trying to get up to speed with current gear to help me plan my new (first) decent setup. I will be starting some re-construction in our lounge in a month or two, so want to get all my gear planned so I can figure the best way to fit it all in and hide cables.

Basics of the room, Its a long narrow room, 31 ft long by 9 ft wide. One end of the room is used as a dining area, the other half is the lounge/TV area. We will be sitting approximately 8 ft from the screen. The wall where I will sit the TV has an airing cupboard (used to be a boiler cupboard) behind it, so I think its ideal for hiding a lot of mains and other cables and maybe some equipment hidden in there too.

Planned gear,
TV (will be new)
Amp + 5.1 sub/speakers (will be new)
Satellite decoder and dish (will be new)
Virgin setop box (existing)
HTPC (existing, but will be rebuilt for this setup using blu-ray drive and faster cpu/mobo)
Modem (existing)
Router (existing)
NAS box (existing)

I plan to put the NAS, modem and maybe the router (depending on signal strength) inside the cupboard also.

I would like a sanity check on my plans for the new stuff, and also anybody has any ideas to throw in then please do I'll try to get some sketch of the rough layout posted later to better illustrate it.

My planned buys at the moment are,
TV= Panasonic 42" GX10 or similar
Amp/Sub/Speakers = Sony HT-IS100
Sat decoder = Humax (not sure whether PVR version or not yet)
One of the Logitech Harmony remotes to control it all from one place.

We watch mainly SD stuff during the week (well the missus does while I am on the comp), but like to sit and watch some movies at the weekend. Neither of us are audiophiles, but I would like a half decent sound setup, hence my leaning towards the Sony setup. I'm also debating whether to run the rears as wireless, or get some speaker cables laid into the walls/roof when we are doing the building work. We have solid concrete floors so no floorboards to run under.

The missus would like to go for a 50" screen, but I think that at 8 ft away its not really suitable?

My main doubt at the moment is the Sony setup, I read elsewhere on the forum that the sub is active, and so ideally should be placed centre front, but I won't really have space to do this. It will be offset to one side by about 3/4 ft.

My other thought on the Sony setup, should I go with this, or look for separates and maybe go second hand to keep the cost down?

Would using only half of a long room adversly affect the sound? I plan to position the speakers in the lounge area only, to try and get them equi-distant around the sofa.

Anybody have any thoughts about this as a mid range setup? I would like to budget around £1500 in total, but could stretch it up to £2k if we think it is worthwhile.

[conan]

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Here is a (poor) sketch but you get the idea I hope. The red circles are the speakers.

[conan]

Would a mod mind adding "advice/feedback wanted" to the title? Many thanks

[mabo]

Originally Posted by conan

Would a mod mind adding "advice/feedback wanted" to the title? Many thanks

Done and also moved to Home Cinema DIY - as this is still in the planning stages this seems more appropriate.

[conan]

Much appreciated