Lounge re-design (TV/fireplace wall)

LeeSelby77

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Hi all

I'm in the process moving from an Alphason FW-1350 AV unit (with a shocking TV bracket fabricated to support the TV!) to a TV wall with integrated units for the AV equipment, inset electric SKOPE 135R electric fire and surface mounted TV. There'll be chunky shelves with LED uplights integrated on both sides of the central column.

In one of my earlier forum posts - I asked the question of which speakers I could use (in-wall) to replace my current Monitor Audio Silver 300's /C150 centre.

What was suggested was some CP-IW260X LCR in-wall around / below the TV.
However - we have a problem. With our 65" TV and the wifes requirements of having 1m wide shelves wither side of the TV wall, I simply cannot fit them in.

So a rough mockup of what we're going to have below (with TV in place of the mirror!) - my question is:

Can the Left and Right channel be moved out (and integrated into the front of the storage) or am I now looking at bookshelf speakers? Thoughts definitely welcome as the build progresses!
concept1.png
 
At this moment in time I can get any height in here. Minimum 600mm - max 950mm :)
 
Some progress pictures from today.
I ordered a load of c16 timber but the merchant sent me c24 which took a bit more cutting

I’ve got a load of cables that enter the lounge and were originally housed in a set of drawers (minus the drawer!) for my 24 port switch, access point, Cisco router for FTTP, hue hub etc etc which will be installed in the lower right cabinet. The AV equipment will be installed underneath the fire in a hidden wall and the sub in the left cabinet.

I’ve ordered today from AV Online (forum sponsor) a single CP-IW260 speaker and TV bracket ready for the LG C9 OLED TV which arrives on Friday (cannot wait for this!).

So still looking for advice on FL and FR units as I cannot go wall mounted here due to the wife’s requirements but she’s given me permission for bookshelf speakers....hmmmm.

The SkyQ, AppleTV 4K and BR player are all connected into an existing TX-RZ800 which for all intents and purposes has been brilliant. I’m contemplating moving the Sonos One stereo pair into my office and getting a new Sonos Amp to run into this system too. We’ll see - currently building a 62sq m extension so funds are stretched at present!

Opted for 12mm MDF as the wall as opposed to plaster. Happier working with this and with the right finish - looks just as good. Everything will be braced to death anyway!

Found a nice access panel from Screwfix for one side entry behind the tv too for running new cables / replacing stuff as required. Will be leaving 5 new pull strings in ready for the future as well as the usual quality HDMI and Cat6 cables :)

The fireplace is a Skope (Gazco) 135R inset electric fireplace. We have no gas in the village, just oil. Lovely piece of kit - just the glass will be visible once completed.

Finally some smaller LED inset uplights will be recessed into the shelves as per the wives requirements!
 
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A small update; I binned the order of the C9 and now awaiting for stock arriving of the new Panasonic GX1000B 65in.

I’ve ordered some SF1 for my fronts from Peter Tyson no just about to pay for 3 x WT380-IDC in-wall speakers and 3 x CP-CT380IDC in-ceiling speakers from a member on here.

The CT380’s shall be used as my atmos speakers and the WT380’s will be used in our extension.

Today I’ve run all of my cables into the AV cupboard and terminated all of my speaker wire with some amazon basic banana plugs which incidentally are very good quality.

I’ve also mounted the IW260X and the very lovely Vogels thin 515 tilting tv mount.

The SF1’s will be here on Tuesday so I’ll be chasing the cables into the wall in anticipation. The sub I simply couldn’t integrate into the cabinet so it’s sat in front but hidden for the time being.

The fireplace is surprising tall (even though in part it’s covered) which meant the speaker position was slightly higher than I had hoped. The TV (4 year old Samsung 65 curve) is up and mounted for now to test the height and actually - for an all purpose room we are happy.

The led up lights are run in but I timed out for the shelves today. A job for early next week too. This weekend will be 2 part wood filling and sanding ready for paint prep and a couple of coats later in the week.

The old fireplace will be removed and used in the new extension and the 170mm oak skirting board replaced with a new run but with a cable rebate for the rear speakers. I’m also going to be fitting some hardwood floors in due course and replacing the sofas with a nice corner unit....
 
A small update; I binned the order of the C9 and now awaiting for stock arriving of the new Panasonic GX1000B 65in.

I’ve ordered some SF1 for my fronts from Peter Tyson no just about to pay for 3 x WT380-IDC in-wall speakers and 3 x CP-CT380IDC in-ceiling speakers from a member on here.

The CT380’s shall be used as my atmos speakers and the WT380’s will be used in our extension.

Today I’ve run all of my cables into the AV cupboard and terminated all of my speaker wire with some amazon basic banana plugs which incidentally are very good quality.

I’ve also mounted the IW260X and the very lovely Vogels thin 515 tilting tv mount.

The SF1’s will be here on Tuesday so I’ll be chasing the cables into the wall in anticipation. The sub I simply couldn’t integrate into the cabinet so it’s sat in front but hidden for the time being.

The fireplace is surprising tall (even though in part it’s covered) which meant the speaker position was slightly higher than I had hoped. The TV (4 year old Samsung 65 curve) is up and mounted for now to test the height and actually - for an all purpose room we are happy.

The led up lights are run in but I timed out for the shelves today. A job for early next week too. This weekend will be 2 part wood filling and sanding ready for paint prep and a couple of coats later in the week.

The old fireplace will be removed and used in the new extension and the 170mm oak skirting board replaced with a new run but with a cable rebate for the rear speakers. I’m also going to be fitting some hardwood floors in due course and replacing the sofas with a nice corner unit....
 
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Found a nice access panel from Screwfix for one side entry behind the tv too for running new cables / replacing stuff as required.

The fireplace is a Skope (Gazco) 135R inset electric fireplace. We have no gas in the village, just oil. Lovely piece of kit - just the glass will be visible once completed.
nice design.
You won't believe it, but, I'm looking at similar design.
Got the same panel & fire, although mines a 105R.
Had gas fire removed so hoping to start build soon.
What size breast did you build. I'm thinking about a false chimney breast 160cm wide x 30cm deep for my 65in TV & using besta units either side for AV gear.
What size timber did you use. I was looking at 3x2in but seems difficult to buy now. Bought 38x63mm studding & plasterboard.
 
Hey

Spooky!

So this is 1800mm wide and 500mm deep.
Either side is 1000mm and the shelves will be 400mm deep.

For the frame it’s 3x2 C24 timber and it’s 12mm MDF.
 
A good day! Today my Monitor Audio SF1 (on wall) arrived and I couldn’t wait to get them set up. First impressions: a lot heavier than expected but with some lovely features (cable management runs for example) and a good looking mechanism for the grille.

I’ve yet to run the cables through the wood and trunk it in (very thin trunking for 2”) which will be painted.

I got the shelves in today too and am currently trialling some led up/down lighters. Looking still for a hue plug controller to tie in with the rest of the house. Tomorrow’s job is to prep the surface for paint (filling / sanding) everywhere. Then it’ll be coving, caulking and new spotlights. The rear FX speakers are now wired in and will be wall mounted tomorrow.

My plan is to remove the existing fireplace at the weekend, get the skirting board to the house and rip up the carpet / lay some hardwood flooring down :)
 
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Sorry for the distinct lack of updates to this thread - we've been building a massive extension (yes with AV components - more on that soon!) so this room took a bit of a back burner.

There was lot's to do as per the last photograph and to be honest, I wasn't satisfied with how the shelves were supported. So they came out, had some floating shelf brackets installed and off I went again with the paint and filler!

I treat myself to a Panasonic TX65GZ950B for this room and sold the Samsung 65 Curved TV.
This led to another problem. Weight!

The Panasonic was a massive 12 KG (double) the weight of the older Samsung. So the front panel had to come off and some stronger (and more of them) anchor bolts into the block work used to stop the unit pulling off the wall.

This all went back together well - but out came the filler and the paint again! All the while, we had to remove the old fireplace which weight about 200kg in many parts (single handedly!), strip the walls, remove the carpet and put all new in.

At this time, I opted to inform the wife for a true "adults TV room" - we needed to position the sofas off the back wall and have space around it / be central. This didn't initially go down too well, but on seeing the smaller sofa in the new extension, she seemed to agree. RESULT!

So today we have finished the carpet, wall papering, colours (hurrah!) and now left with the decision on if I keep the Monitor Audio Silver FX or replace them with SoundFrame 3's to complement the rest of the room, or get the FX painted grey/white to be more in-keeping. Would welcome thoughts here people!

I'm also looking to move the W12 V2 on - it simply isn't in-keeping with the room. I am looking at @Saalty and his IWS-10 at the moment and have one cut into the front panel (left side). Still pondering that at the moment!
 
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That "other" project is below!

We extended our house by 65 sq m - and did 75% of it ourselves (I work in IT, my dad's a groundworker) and we called on friends to help us with some of the trades where we needed it.

The main room is an open-plan kitchen/diner/living space, with the smaller room to the side being our family snug room / babies play room.

The roof lantern is 4m x 2m for scale - the room is 5.8m wide and 12m long.

We have some in-ceiling speakers (monitor audio) driven by a Onkyo 686. There's a 30m HDMI cable (amazon special!) with an HDMI booster on the TV end (4K60Hz!) with ARC. This let's us watch TV / party mode when we're entertaining. This also has a Sonos AMP connected to the AVR (every room has Sonos now) so we can group up as required.


There's no sub in this room as it's not really required - we're not audiophiles when we're eating though my W12 V2 is now spare and could make its way into here if I can hide it in a corner! You'll note the fireplace from the top project has made it into here too (all about reusing what we had!)

I've got Hue LED strips on top of the coving - it's a special XPS coving with an LED rebate in it. This connects to the lighting circuit via a 24v LED driver. Means I didn't need to have a 3pin socket up there just for Hue :)

You'll note the access point on the back wall too - it's controller based like everything in the house. Means we have seemless handover between AP's across 3 stories - essential when I work from home and wander around a lot when on conf calls.

70000260_10162436359210717_3457224695030480896_o.jpg


The room is far from finished but it's now usable - tiling, skirting, painting etc all done myself. A friend did the plastering and another friend is a sparky.

70332662_10162436359410717_5252682902075867136_o.jpg


Rear elevation - had to keep the qoins and cills inkeeping with the rest of the house - makes AV gear look cheap in comparison! :D
70946013_10162436359555717_873873085634183168_o.jpg


Wall-plate for HDMI and speaker connections prior to being caulked up. Solid oak skirting everywhere - Danish oil going on all the fittings this week.


The snug room - a small Samsung 27" (I think) TV in here and the AVR - all the curtains/blinds etc are on order. The wife wants this room to be as tech free as possible :)
 
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Lovely house and rooms !
I was just wondering... how do the sound frames and ceiling speakers perform...?
Also does the new fireplace produce a lot of heat and if so does it affect tv and centre speaker ?
I’m facing wife issues so planning to have in wall monitors and Atmos.
Regards Guy
 
Hello Guy

I've been really blown away with the quality of the Sound Frames. I feel they're well balanced with the other speakers in the room - they have a really nice top end too which helps bounce the sound.

The fireplace does indeed product heat (thankfully!) but any internal unit heat is released via vents at the very top of the unit well above the TV. The forward projected heat is driven by a pretty powerful fan in the fireplace itself and subsequently the TV doesn't suffer.

I don't have Atmos speakers *yet* in the lounge as still assessing the viability of the mess!

Into the other room where we have the ceiling speakers - they sound great. The acoustics are off at the moment due to a lack of soft furnishings (sound bouncing off of tiles) but in that room, it's more ambience / background music or low volume for the TV and they're not blasting out unlike the movie room :)
 
Having done some research on different NAS platforms, I decided today to build a dedicated media PC and install Plex.
It’s an i5 16GB, Windows 10 on SSD and then a RAID5 32TB storage.
Fortunately the Panasonic TV has Plex app support which was easy to setup and begin to enjoy my locally stored video. Most of them are MKV HEVC lossless / true audio.

Another job that’s needed doing for some time was getting better access to the AVR. It was hidden in the unit under the front right speaker, accessed from a top cubby hole. It made maintenance / cabling very hard.

I called my installer over to assist as there were other bits I wanted doing also (new runs of CAT6 UTP, cabling runs for my Atmos and rear speakers and to have my OLED calibrated.
Firstly - the unit was cut and a new shelf installed. I’m having a door made out of the cutout with gas struts / magnets to conceal the AVR when not in use - already looks a lot better!
Then the CAT6 was run behind the unit to the new PC that sits in the left hand side of the unit (under front left speaker), a new run into the back of the TV so I wasn’t reliant on 5Ghz wireless for 4K local streaming and cables installed in trunking outside of the house to my workshop in the back garden. I’ve put a 100mm diameter pipe into the workshop with cable pulls ready for a new project later in the year.

Then onto the cabling for my Atmos and my rear speakers. We’ve been able to situate our sofa 1m off the rear wall, with the surrounds now at ear height at the side of the sofa. This gives 4.2m from the front left / right and 3m from the centre. We worked out the angles and position MLP for the Atmos (going Monitor Audio C165) in front of the seating position. On Monday I’m hoping to receive some Monitor Gold bookshelf to sample as the rears. I may go 4 x C165 since we are going to be pulling the carpet upstairs above the lounge up to install the cables without a need of plastering / skimming the lounge with access holes everywhere!

I’m still on the lookout for an IWS-10 to replace the overpowering W12 v2 but for now, I’m just going to run the cables through the front of the unit behind the skirting board so it’s a little tidier.

since kitting out the lounge, we’ve found ourselves retreating here most evenings and weekends for a film session as well as enjoying music too. It feels really well balanced now :)
 
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Hi there,

I was looking at possibly getting the CP-IW260X for my front LCR set-up and was wondering you have any feedback on its performance. Its either these ones or the smaller CP-WT380IDC. The IW260X are over twice the cost but if they are worth it, then I'll probably go for them. Unfortunately there's not a dealer close to me to demo them. Let me know what you think.
 
Hey @kungfuman - honestly, having owned both of your choices above, I would hand on heart say go for the IW260X. You may not need to go dual sub based on your room layout, but I've found the range, depth and quality to be exceptional. If I had my time again, I'd upgrade the room with the WT380's and have a 260X in there also (I bought them for a great price).

The configuration of the B-M-T-M-B gives perfect audio placement and power in a single unit. I've had to reduce the output on the centre with my SoundFrame 1's as my left and right channel as they were being massively overpowered. However - I've now got that balance worked out and it makes for a very pleasurable, powerful movie experience.

Don't expect it to replace a quality set of towers/floor standers - you don't get as much bass for obvious reasons with the in-walls but out of the two sampled above, splash the cash :)
 
Thanks for the feedback @thepilot. There’s not much info around on these in-walls so it’s greatly appreciated. I currently own MA floorstanders but going down the acoustically transparent screen route so in walls are needed. I realise there will be compromises but it’s got to know they will still sound decent.
 

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