Home Cinema Custom Install Quote

GreenGiant1888

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Hi,

I am in the process of purchasing a home cinema system, I am a complete novice therefore I have been relying on the internet for advice!

The system will be placed in the right side of the attached layout image, it will be part of a TV feature wall.

I have reached out to a popular custom installer, they came out to survey my house and recommended in-wall speakers, and they have now provided me with a quote (shown below).

My main question is around the cost of the cables and interconnects, they come in at over £800 - is this common for a home cinema install? All the cables are a fairly short distance from the TV.

Furthermore, the quote does not include the price they charge to install all of the below mentioned products, that's still to be added on.

As a novice to home cinema, is this reasonable pricing or excessive?

I am not sure about the speakers they have recommended, this will most likely change (especially the sub) but just want to know if this is the prices I should generally expect if I want a home cinema system custom installed.

Denon ACR-X2700H£629
HDMI 3 meter interconnects£59
HDMI 1 meter interconnects£35
Install cables£500
Speaker cables£80
C-SUB 3M interconnects£35
Monitor CP-WT140 LCRs (x3)£747
Monitor C265IDC (x2)£510
Dali E-12F subwoofer£579
Speaker fire hoods£130
AVR Rack£175
Total cost£3,595
Total after discounts£3,088
 

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Hi,

I am in the process of purchasing a home cinema system, I am a complete novice therefore I have been relying on the internet for advice!

The system will be placed in the right side of the attached layout image, it will be part of a TV feature wall.

I have reached out to a popular custom installer, they came out to survey my house and recommended in-wall speakers, and they have now provided me with a quote (shown below).

My main question is around the cost of the cables and interconnects, they come in at over £800 - is this common for a home cinema install? All the cables are a fairly short distance from the TV.

Furthermore, the quote does not include the price they charge to install all of the below mentioned products, that's still to be added on.

As a novice to home cinema, is this reasonable pricing or excessive?

I am not sure about the speakers they have recommended, this will most likely change (especially the sub) but just want to know if this is the prices I should generally expect if I want a home cinema system custom installed.

Denon ACR-X2700H£629
HDMI 3 meter interconnects£59
HDMI 1 meter interconnects£35
Install cables£500
Speaker cables£80
C-SUB 3M interconnects£35
Monitor CP-WT140 LCRs (x3)£747
Monitor C265IDC (x2)£510
Dali E-12F subwoofer£579
Speaker fire hoods£130
AVR Rack£175
Total cost£3,595
Total after discounts£3,088
£209 for all your cables which is reasonable. It's the installer price of £500 installing all your cables which is expensive.

Though it might be the usual going rate for a custom installation especially if the cables are going through the walls and ceiling. And if it's a big sized room.

I'm sure other's who have had custom installed home cinema's will be able to tell you if the £500 quote for installing all the cables is a fair price.
 
Hi,

I am in the process of purchasing a home cinema system, I am a complete novice therefore I have been relying on the internet for advice!

The system will be placed in the right side of the attached layout image, it will be part of a TV feature wall.

I have reached out to a popular custom installer, they came out to survey my house and recommended in-wall speakers, and they have now provided me with a quote (shown below).

My main question is around the cost of the cables and interconnects, they come in at over £800 - is this common for a home cinema install? All the cables are a fairly short distance from the TV.

Furthermore, the quote does not include the price they charge to install all of the below mentioned products, that's still to be added on.

As a novice to home cinema, is this reasonable pricing or excessive?

I am not sure about the speakers they have recommended, this will most likely change (especially the sub) but just want to know if this is the prices I should generally expect if I want a home cinema system custom installed.

Denon ACR-X2700H£629
HDMI 3 meter interconnects£59
HDMI 1 meter interconnects£35
Install cables£500
Speaker cables£80
C-SUB 3M interconnects£35
Monitor CP-WT140 LCRs (x3)£747
Monitor C265IDC (x2)£510
Dali E-12F subwoofer£579
Speaker fire hoods£130
AVR Rack£175
Total cost£3,595
Total after discounts£3,088

Not really balanced system. Expensive cables. 100£ for 3m and 1meter HDMI cables is robbery as the Amazon Basics will do the job as good at those lenghts. The installation price is high, you might want to consider doing this yourself or help with some friend.

How much do you require in-wall / ceiling cable in meters as you probably have given some rough estimation for this dealer? Do you have the brand/model of cables they offered you?

Front LCR is cheap, but the ceiling speakers are very expensive IDC models for the atmos effects. The front three are where the most money should go, not in ceiling. Or was the plan to do 5.1 with all in-wall? MA has much cheaper in-wall models for that purpose. Those IDC models are ideal for Atmos if you ask from MA, but usually when the rest of system is up to that level. Again not balanced!

Subwoofer is rather poor, overpriced and with some amp failures with short amp warranty. I would pass this Dali strongly and choose something from SVS / Arendal depending of max budget. We have had members buying BK woofers after this E12F which has been noticeable upgrade (BK Monolith / Monolith Plus).

Have you considered on-wall speakers or is the in-walls required?
 
£209 for all your cables which is reasonable. It's the installer price of £500 installing all your cables which is expensive.

Though it might be the usual going rate for a custom installation especially if the cables are going through the walls and ceiling. And if it's a big sized room.

I'm sure other's who have had custom installed home cinema's will be able to tell you if the £500 quote for installing all the cables is a fair price.

Thanks for the reply!

£500 is for 'Chord Company LEYLINEX install cables.

The quote does not include the price of installing the cables, that's still to be added.
 
Not really balanced system. Expensive cables. 100£ for 3m and 1meter HDMI cables is robbery as the Amazon Basics will do the job as good at those lenghts. The installation price is high, you might want to consider doing this yourself or help with some friend.

How much do you require in-wall / ceiling cable in meters as you probably have given some rough estimation for this dealer? Do you have the brand/model of cables they offered you?

Front LCR is cheap, but the ceiling speakers are very expensive IDC models for the atmos effects. The front three are where the most money should go, not in ceiling. Or was the plan to do 5.1 with all in-wall? MA has much cheaper in-wall models for that purpose. Those IDC models are ideal for Atmos if you ask from MA, but usually when the rest of system is up to that level. Again not balanced!

Subwoofer is rather poor, overpriced and with some amp failures with short amp warranty. I would pass this Dali strongly and choose something from SVS / Arendal depending of max budget. We have had members buying BK woofers after this E12F which has been noticeable upgrade (BK Monolith / Monolith Plus).

Have you considered on-wall speakers or is the in-walls required?

Thanks for the reply!

The HDMI cables are 'AudioQuest PEARL 48', the other speaker cables are from Chord Company.

I realise now that the wording wasn't clear, the £500 is for 'Chord Company LEYLINEX Install cables'. The price to install the system is not included in the quote.

The company recommended that speaker set-up with the idea of doing all in-wall 5.1, I can see how it's not very balanced though! The subwoofer isn't great value for money either, BK defintely sound a lot better.

Yeah, you helped me out on a thread previously regarding Dali Oberon/Opticon on-wall speakers. I would get a quote on them but the price of the cables is putting me off at the moment!
 
Typical overpriced audiophile cables which as we have seen in blind tests aren´t picked over cheaper ones. But yeah i understand these companies want to make money. Thankfully you came to right forum before being robbed!

@ShanePJ could possibly be able to give you much better pricing from affordable cables/wires and AV-Online also sells the Dali on-wall speakers, SVS subwoofers (PB1000 Pro example for larger open space). Oh and they also have Monitor Audio in-wall speakers. If joining their VIP club you might get more discount too.

 
You can buy a full 100m roll of Van-Damme Blue 2.5mm for less than £300. So unless they are fitting more than 100m, that seems very expensive.
 
You can buy a full 100m roll of Van-Damme Blue 2.5mm for less than £300. So unless they are fitting more than 100m, that seems very expensive.

It`s likely some fancy big brand CL2/CL3 rated cable for in-wall installation. Monoprice has few options for low prices in Amazon, shipped from US though so couple week wait time.
 
Buy cheaper cables and buy x2 of everything to run as spares.
 
Agreed with everything. Spec is way out of whac. The speakers certainly wont benefit from the proposed cable quality and unless you gave the impression this was a starter set with a plan to upgrade. Odd choices.

As others have said. Put your money in the fronts and the sub. At this level the atmos and effects can and should be cheaper than the fronts.

HDMI basics work and well, but no one knows how close to the edge they are to falling over. Again at this budget certainly not worth it. If that are going in a wall, get them in conduits so they can be pulled out and replaced.
 
'As a novice to home cinema, is this reasonable pricing or excessive?' - a mixed bag.

Is it coincidental that the 'discount' equals the 'Install cables' whatever those are - if, as you suggest, it is speaker cable they better be taking it the long way around your room a few times to justify that price!

What do you want to achieve, what do you have now and what would be your ideal budget (inc. install).

Joe
 
The system will be placed in the right side of the attached layout image, it will be part of a TV feature wall.

Who's building the TV wall?

It's not such a complex setup that if you already have competent builders on site that you feel you can work with and you plan everything out well in advance (and they feel comfortable doing it) they should be able to install a setup like that. It might even work out easier for them if they're building the TV wall at the same time.

As already said the cables are over priced, for those lengths Amazon basic HDMI cables, Amazon basics for the sub cable and Van-Damme Blue 2.5mm for your speakers is fine.

What's the AV rack? Is that a 19" cabinet (located in another room) or just a shelving unit. If your building a TV wall get your chippy to build you some integrated / shelving for your kit. Will likely look better too.

Was the plan to use the C265IDC as ceiling mounted surround channels in a 5.1 setup? Not ideal but I guess that a fair compromise given the layout. You might find that a ceiling speaker with a pivotable tweeter (like the C265IDC) helps there. But the C265IDC far outweigh your front LCR in terms of cost. As others have said the bulk of your budget should go on your front LCR speakers and your sub.

Monitor Audio in-walls are well regarded, but you can probably get a better balance / use of your budget with other models in the MA in-wall range. Lot's of good advice on here of users having used them in similar setups.

As above, you could do far better re. the sub and you may find that a downward firing BK Monolith disappears better in your room as it simply looks like a wooden box/side table.

Time is of course money, installers have to make a living and maybe you'd rather just leave it to to someone else to sort out and have some recommence if it not installed as expected. But that doesn't look like a particular overly thought out quote, or at least not as good use of your budget. If you go the CI route I'd seek some other quotes / advice first.

But if you have time to draw up a cabling diagram / speakers placement diagram — which shouldn't be too complex/onerous — I am sure many users here will be more than happy to give it a once over. Pass that over to your builders and keep a close eye on them while there routing cables, in particular make sure they aren't installed so they kink or can't be pulled though and replaced, you should be fine.
 
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Time is of course money, installers have to make a living and maybe you'd rather just leave it to to someone else to sort out and have some recommence if it not installed as expected. But that doesn't look like a particular overly thought out quote, or at least not as good use of your budget. If you go the CI route I'd seek some other quotes / advice first.

Of course we all have to make something, but at this moment, there is no labour priced for this!
 
Are you sure the £500 is for the speaker cables and not the installation ? There‘s also a separate line quoting £80 for speaker cables.
 
I didn't realize I was getting more replies to this thread, and just checked it - apologies!!

Since my initial post the company confirmed the cost of installation as £695 - therefore the total cost would be £3,783! The opinion seems to be that their pricing is expensive and the system they have recommended isn't balanced therefore I will be disregarding their quote.

@jamieu - I think that's a good suggestion, I have just reached out to a local company that does both feature walls and home cinema systems therefore I am hoping their costs will be more reasonable given that it's part of the same overall build. The AV rack was intended to house an AVR in a nearby room but getting the joiner to build a bespoke solution for it is a better idea, like you said.

@Joe Fernand & @AmericanAudio - what I am looking to achieve is detailed a bit more in this thread (On-Wall Speaker Purchase Advice). At that time I was looking at on wall speakers but I'm really not sure if that's the best option now!

I reached out to another custom installer in my area and they steered me away from a 5.1 system and suggested Sonus Faber Lumina Ones with a REL sub - given that my priority is listening to music and I need inputs for a TV as well.

To be honest I am bit all over the place and finding this process very difficult haha! In a nutshell I'm looking to have a system that is geared towards music listening but can still provide decent performance for movies and is streamlined enough to fit around my TV feature wall. My budget for the overall build (feature wall included) is around £3,500 therefore the budget allocated to the sound system will be around £2,500.
 
Easy to get lost in a myriad of ideas - there are endless options available to you.

Budget - where has it come from? A custom built ‘feature/TV’ wall built to a high quality finish will eat up all of your budget, and more, before you even start to consider the TV and Sound system.

TV Wall - it would be good to see what you have been discussing with your joiner/cabinet maker or an example of what you would like to achieve.

Stereo system - no harm in specifying/supplying a stereo rather than surround sound system as the better option to match budget, sound quality, aesthetics and seating layout.

Custom installer - is likely not required if you can take some basic instructions and are happy to manage the construction of the cabinetry by a competent joiner/cabinet maker.

Where about are you? I may be able to take a look when next ‘in town’ :)

Joe
 

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