Living Room setup advice (Ceiling Speakers? AV receiver? Sub wiring options)

[ngd2710]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of a home renovation and before I get past the point of no return with my AV setup I wanted to get the wisdom of the members here! I have just put together a false chimney breast with space for a soundbar (Sony HTG-700) BUT I have got some ability to run cabling to put in a proper setup (having previously had various Onkyo receivers this is very tempting!)

Ideally I want to put the receiver out of the way and there is a decent-sized under stairs cupboard that I can use that backs onto the living room so I think I should be covered on that front but there are a few queries I had that I was hoping to try and get sorted.

1. Are there any recommendations on sub wiring solutions? I can easily drill through the wall to run a cable for a sub but wondered if there are any recommended approaches for handling a relatively long run (say around 5m) for a sub?
2. Are long HDMI runs carrying eARC suitable? My thinking at the moment is that I can run a cable through the cavity in the ceiling and drop it down through a wall chase and out into the cupboard. This would probably be about a 10m run - would there be any limitations with an extra long HDMI or are there better options with Cat6?
3. How do ceiling speakers stack up for performance? I was looking to minimise visible AV equipment in the living room (not my decision ) and have been considering using ceiling speakers. I know they wouldn't be as good as ear level but wondered if anyone had any experience with them at all?

Conscious there is a lot there and it is a bit of a brain dump, but any advice would be massively appreciated!

 

[gibbsy]

1 You can get wireless subs from REL. Expensive but work very well. Otherwise you really have go for the best position for the sub's own performance.

2 Depending on the run HDMI can prove difficult with a 4K signal over 5 metres and you have need an active cable for that duty.

3 Crap. Simple as. Lifestyle over performance. Have you thought of on wall or in wall speakers?

 

[kenshingintoki]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of a home renovation and before I get past the point of no return with my AV setup I wanted to get the wisdom of the members here! I have just put together a false chimney breast with space for a soundbar (Sony HTG-700) BUT I have got some ability to run cabling to put in a proper setup (having previously had various Onkyo receivers this is very tempting!)

Ideally I want to put the receiver out of the way and there is a decent-sized under stairs cupboard that I can use that backs onto the living room so I think I should be covered on that front but there are a few queries I had that I was hoping to try and get sorted.

1. Are there any recommendations on sub wiring solutions? I can easily drill through the wall to run a cable for a sub but wondered if there are any recommended approaches for handling a relatively long run (say around 5m) for a sub?
2. Are long HDMI runs carrying eARC suitable? My thinking at the moment is that I can run a cable through the cavity in the ceiling and drop it down through a wall chase and out into the cupboard. This would probably be about a 10m run - would there be any limitations with an extra long HDMI or are there better options with Cat6?
3. How do ceiling speakers stack up for performance? I was looking to minimise visible AV equipment in the living room (not my decision ) and have been considering using ceiling speakers. I know they wouldn't be as good as ear level but wondered if anyone had any experience with them at all?

Conscious there is a lot there and it is a bit of a brain dump, but any advice would be massively appreciated!

Long subwoofer cable (on Amazon)
Fibre optic hdmi cable
If space is tight, go in wall speakers rather than in ceiling because you lose all the metadata from Dolby and dts and they presume your speakers are in set positions

 

[ngd2710]

Thanks for all of the responses! I'll get looking into some of the options. I'm thinking I might be able to re-purpose the soundbar recess to fit the front channel speakers, albeit with a bit of loss of stereo separation.

 

[pamasonicman666]

I was in the same position a few years ago and had to put in 2 very long hdmi cables as we didn’t know where we were going to have a tv, we don’t use the cables or tv points now but I bought neet cables they have been in for about 7 years and I used them all over the house, good price and performance.

speakers - I got kef ci160 qr the main speaker is in wall and the others are in ceiling , others may say they are rubbish but I disagree , great sound and everyone who comes round says the same , also very neet and look good, they were more expensive but I would definately buy again, my wife hated 5.1 systems and now will not watch tv without it turned on.

best advise …. Where ever your media tower is going put in as many plugs as you can, i thought 3 doubles would be ok, I should have put in 4

good luck