Looking for advice / inspiration

[Dony]

In the near future I hope to start my lounge project. My room is 5.25m x 4.2m (or about 17' x almost 14'). My chimney breast is in the centre of the longer wall.

My wife had given me the ok to get as good a setup as I can (she's loosened the purse strings) but she preferred lifesytle/pod speakers. I had narrowed my search down to either Antony Gallo A'Diva ti's or B&W Mt 20/30.

Last night however, I stumbled across the XTZ reviews and to my complete amazement, my wife liked the 99.36 walnut floorstanders and the matching 99.26 centre. Now these are big deep speakers (to what I am used to, and what I had been looking at buying) and therein lies the problem.

The tv will be mounted on the chimney breast, with a gas fire below. I know some people have issues with this but I have done enough research and I'm happy that the design of fireplace will not hinder the workings of the tv. For my original plan of having lifestyle speakers I was going to have a small mantle above the fire. This was to serve 2 purposes, the first it would act as a heat deflector if the fire was ever to be on when watching the screen (this would be very rare, but I want to cover the possibilities), and the second reason for this was to set the left/centre/right speakers on.

Now I've been given the green light to go for a more conventional size centre, this idea will not work. I've now thought the only solution is to build a larger shelf above the tv to hold the centre speaker. This will have to be a fairly deep shelf (about 40cm's max) and I'm afraid it will be too intrusive to the overall look we hope to achieve. Last night in bed I had a light bulb moment. What if I was to have a joiner install the shelf, and then put in a false chimney breast that will change the shape of the wall from flat to curved, and then set the centre into this curve.

Has anyone who has done similar point me to their setups for ideas, or how have others gotten over the problem of having a bookshelf speaker on a chimney breast.

I hope I've explained my thoughts well enough for you guys to get a picture of what I'm trying to achieve.

All ideas are welcome

[albriscoe]

Hi Dony

if you want check out my new thread at the bottom here, I`ve just built a stud wall out so I can sink the TV and the fronts speakers flush into the wall.

Its a much neater solution I think mate.

I also think that your centre speaker could be too high unless angled down towards your listening area.

Maybe an easier solution for you

cheers and merry xmas

Al

[Dony]

I know what you are saying about the centre being too high, but my main priority is for the bottom of the screen to be no more than 1.2m from the floor. This wouldn't leave enough room for the centre to go between the fire and below the screen.

If I was to have the centre as close as possible to the top of the screen do you think the sound would be out, considering that the floorstanders are about 1m high and the centre would be close to 2m from the floor?

I'm off to look through your thread now Al


Any other opinions / ideas?

[Dony]

If anyone from N. Ireland is reading this, and they have done a similar project I'd love to hear from you.

All tips are welcome (this job will only be done once so it has to be right), so if you can recommend anything at all please chip in.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Originally Posted by albriscoe

if you want check out my new thread at the bottom here, I`ve just built a stud wall out so I can sink the TV and the fronts speakers flush into the wall.

Its a much neater solution I think mate.

Having read the reviews of the XTZ's there performance would be compromised by recessing them in the walls. They need free space to perform well. Al's example of flush mounting the tv however is a great one.

btw joiners and builders really dont like curves!

[Dony]

I would only have the centre recessed, the floorstanders will be either side of the chimney breast. Do you think it would be a major problem?

I hear what you are saying about builders and curves, and I'm beginning to think a curved chimney breast may not suit the room overall. Having had a flick through Al's thread, I'm thinking what he has done may be a neater solution, though I'll have to use more depth to accommodate the depth of the XTZ centre (depth of 352mm )

My head is starting to hurt.

[Dony]

Since last night I've done a fair bit of measuring and thinking, and I now feel that the centre speaker I'm thinking of is just too deep (35cm) for me to incorporate it into the chimney breast.

I could go to 20-25cm so again if anyone has done something similar, please let me know how you got on, and if possible point me to your threads.

Can anyone recommend a good centre with a max depth of 25cm??

[dalex1]

i talked the missus out of a fireplace and did this

Dave

[Dony]

Following a lot of head scratching as to how I was going to overcome the problem of positioning a centre speaker on the chimney breast, I think I've found the solution.

I'm scrapping the idea completely and going to use a different wall , where I can build a false wall to house the screen and centre, and have the floorstanders either side. Below is a rough idea of how I hope it will look.

The room itself is 5.25m long, and 4.2m wide. The tv will be on the shorter wall. Ignore the fact that the rear speakers are facing out the window but my sketch-up skills are very limited!! The door into the room is on the wall above the 3 seater.

To achieve the above, I need to move a radiator from the wall that the tv is going to go on to behind the 3 seater.

At the moment the room is a bare shell, and my first problem is to figure out how to track the cables. I'll have plenty of questions closer to the time, but the main problem is all the av gear will be housed at the far end of the room (in the low cabinet under the window).

I'll need to run speaker cables for the fronts, as well as a hdmi for the tv. I had thought the cables could run under the wooden floor, but I've been told this may not be possible because the floor (semi solid) will be glued directly to the concrete without any underlay. My other options are to run them behind the skirting board, or else channel them into the floor itself.

Apologies for the ramble, but writing these thoughts down now will hopefully be a reminder to me further down the line.

[Liam_G]

I dont think it will look quite right with the chimney and a false chimney wall

[Dony]

Originally Posted by Liam_G

I dont think it will look quite right with the chimney and a false chimney wall

I tend to agree with you. The real chimney breast is 45cm deep, and the false one is working out at 30cm on my plan. I could go less than 30cm, but I'll have the problem with the centre sitting out on its own, something that SWMBO doesn't want.

I'll keep searching through the threads here for inspiration, but it looks like the floating wall idea might be the best.


Thanks.

[Dony]

I've tweaked it slightly by widening the false wall and including some shelves either side of the screen.

I want to keep the floorstanders to the side of the wall.

The depth of the false wall is still the same as before.

[Liam_G]

Im just thinking that top left corner is gonna be a bit tight? that looks better than the 1st plan though!

[Dony]

Originally Posted by Liam_G

Im just thinking that top left corner is gonna be a bit tight? that looks better than the 1st plan though!

Thanks again Liam for the input. The dimensions aren't finalised yet so the corners won't be a problem. In my latest mock-up I've left 1m each side of the screen wall.

I had thought of putting the sub in the top left corner but again no plans are finalised.

My next problem is deciding what cables I need to run to the screen. Like everyone else, I want to make sure I'm covered for all possibilities. I'm intending to run 2 hdmi cables, what else should I consider. I definitely won't be using the screen as a pc monitor so won't need cables for that, and the only games console in this setup will be a PS3.

[Spiderkid]

Interesting ideas (and dilema!). I had a similar quandry recently when mounting my TV on a chimney breast. In my case I ignored my better judgement and built shelves into the alcoves either side to house my standmount speakers. In the end they sounded so bad that even my wife noticed the difference! So I abandoned that idea and got some Monitor Audio Radius 270's instead, which are about the slimmest floorstanders you can get and sit nicely in front of the chimney breast. Also means I can wallmount an R225 beneath the TV and keep it all quite discrete without compromising too much on sound quality.

In your case I agree that the second wall is a better option. But why are you still considering building a false wall? In your first sketchup the false wall looks out of place because it looks like a second chimney breast, and in your second sketchup the two floorstanding speakers are too far apart and one is blocked by the sofa.

People seem obsessed with flush mounting their TV's, but I can't really see the appeal. Especially at that distance a decent mount on the existing wall would be fine for the TV, also giving you more flexibility to extend or move the TV to different angles if needed.

So I'd mount the TV on the existing wall, have the floor standers either side and buy a decent speaker stand for the centre, or place it on top of a solid AV rack. Not only will this save you a lot of unecessary and expensive hassle, it'll also cost less, give you great flexibility for the future AND will give your centre speaker room to 'breath' properly, rather than being boxed into a false wall.