Who What Where How Why?

karrak

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I'd like to have music possibilities throughout the house and have already purchased two Sonos Play:1 units. That's actually what prompted me to look into things like sound systems more, as after I'd purchase the Play:1's I realized they were leagues better than the HT-MT300 setup I have in the living room; and the Play:1's were not usually described as spectacular, just nice for their purpose. By comparison, however, they are spectacular. I was impressed, in both good and bad ways, and very curious how an actually decent system would sound. Thus the thinking, planning and hunting began.

I want to set up a wired atmos/dts:x capable 5.1.2 or 5.2.2 setup, but maybe include buttkickers (probably more than one, modular sofa) so not sure what I need there for a receiver. All needs to be good for music, movies and gaming.

As for speakers, I've been reading about so many different kinds my head is swimming. I care less about what they look like than what they sound like. I'm not completely averse to DIY either, but that would also be in the future as I have many other projects, so something for now would be good. In that case, not too pricey I guess.

I have a digital piano and I'm also going to connect that with the sound system. I'd also like to isolate where the piano sound plays sometimes to a couple of speakers just nearby, and without unplugging/replugging anything. I don't know if that's possible. Is it?

How would you set this up? Where would you put things?
What components would you buy, and why?
I feel lost. Any help from you more experienced folks would be much appreciated.
 
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SONOS - is a brilliant Multi-room Music system and whilst they do have the BEAM and PLAYBAR there are better ways to deal with your Surround Sound requirements.

Digital Piano - which brand do you have? Will that be used/positioned in the 'Cinema' room or one of the other rooms?

Cinema Room - start with your Floor Plan and Furniture/Seating layout, that will guide you on the system basics. Are you planning for a TV or a Projector as your primary Display device?

Joe
 
Yes, I understand due to the wirelessness that the Sonos is not capable of atmos or dts:x, etc. That's fine, I can use a "connect" with the lounge room receiver, yes? Does that mean I'll need a receiver with more connections than I would need for just speakers? To the sonos system, the piano, etc.

The digital piano is a Kawai VPC1, more of a midi controller. It will be going into a piano housing soon and take its position in the dining room.

The cinema room is the living room for now. It is unfortunately (acoustically) an open room and I don't really want to change the layout, so I will just have to deal or make adjustments. I could put an acoustically reflective small room dividing wall behind the TV unit for example.

I've attached a simple drawing of the layout which I am currently working on, both virtually and in real life. I'm trying to get our house in order. It's 1 pixel per cm. There will be some sort of visual room divider between the dining and living but it will still probably count as open acoustically.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Ach hit send before attaching the file, whoops. Here it is.
 

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Cinema Room - is a project on its own, if you go with SONOS as your multi-room Music system all you require is a CONNECT as a Source into your cinema room AVR.

AVR - budget models tend to have limited connectivity these days with the focus being on HDMI Inputs, ensure you know which Source devices you will want to cater for in the Cinema Room.

Digital Piano - if you wish to hear it around the house connect it to the SONOS CONNECT Line Input which will then allow you to listen to the Digital Piano via any of the SONOS Zone Players. The reason I asked about Piano 'brand' being Yamaha has its own multi-zone Music system (MusicCast) which includes Yamaha AVR's and on some systems Yamaha Digital Piano's.

Layout - I would Zone the open-plan space and forget about any form of 'Surround Sound'. Give yourself the option to have the same or different sources within the open-plan space and be able to mute some areas when required.

Joe
 
Digital Piano - if you wish to hear it around the house connect it to the SONOS CONNECT Line Input which will then allow you to listen to the Digital Piano via any of the SONOS Zone Players. The reason I asked about Piano 'brand' being Yamaha has its own multi-zone Music system (MusicCast) which includes Yamaha AVR's and on some systems Yamaha Digital Piano's.

One issue with this is there is a delay on the input as the Connect buffers and passes the sound round the house, including the local speaker. That's going to be a bit confusing when you hit a piano key and don't hear if for possibly a few seconds :(
 
Would definitely require a bit of experimentation if you plan to play 'live' - I suspect Yamaha and others are thinking of the Piano being in 'auto' play mode rather than performance mode.

Joe
 
Oh a delay would make live play rather impossible. I will have to isolate that area then and only play recordings through the sonos.

Cinema Room - is a project on its own, if you go with SONOS as your multi-room Music system all you require is a CONNECT as a Source into your cinema room AVR.

I figured that would be the case but was not sure. Thanks for clarifying.

AVR - budget models tend to have limited connectivity these days with the focus being on HDMI Inputs, ensure you know which Source devices you will want to cater for in the Cinema Room.
While there is a budget it isn't super low, at least for components we will be keeping. I'd rather have something I could move into a dedicated cinema room in the future, and which will have some bonuses now.

Layout - I would Zone the open-plan space and forget about any form of 'Surround Sound'. Give yourself the option to have the same or different sources within the open-plan space and be able to mute some areas when required.
Joe

I can see how surround sound would be not perfect, but pointless entirely?
 
'I can see how surround sound would be not perfect, but pointless entirely?' - you will never deliver any form of Surround Experience in your seating area. If you stood in the middle of the room you may achieve something but it would be completely disjointed from the video images.

You can use a multi-channel AVR in Stereo mode for now and add additional Loudspeakers if required at a later date if you do move to a different layout - though personally I'd stick with an optimised Stereo system in the TV area for now.

AVR's are always going 'out of date' as Video, Surround Sound and HDMI standards change - stereo kit tends to be pretty timeless as it is not 'linked' to evolving standards.

Joe
 
Hmm. You've given me much to think about. Thanks for taking the time.

If I did a layout more like this, would that change possibilities for better sound in the living room?
 

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Surround Sound - is created by focusing sound on the seating area in front of a Display/Screen, you don’t try and fill the whole area otherwise nothing will relate to or be in scale with the TV image.

Open plan is best treated as separate ‘zones’ - that also ensures you don’t have to have the Loudspeakers blaring in one area to hear them elsewhere.

Layout - I would go with multiple stereo Zones and if you are determined to try for Surround Sound work that into the TV seating area, overlay the Dolby guide on your TV/Seating area, 5.1 Speaker Setup Guide

Joe
 
Oh, did it seem like I wanted surround sound on the whole living room? I can understand why that would seem strange. I do understand roughly how it worked physically, and I understand that it will only be somewhat possible on the seats directly facing the TV. It's one of the reasons I chose for a modular sofa with a rounded corner element, so I could put a speaker there.

I thought that the open plan of the downstairs area might cause some issues with sound reflection and whatnot, and maybe I could make some adjustments in various areas. That's why I was confused when you said that it was essentially pointless.

I did an overlay and this looks doable. There's quite a lot of play with the precise positioning angles. Unless I'm missing something?
 

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The overlay would be ideal in a conventional room - with your 'open plan' room it is still going to be very difficult to achieve surround effects with open walls on some sides, most of what you 'hear' in a conventional room is reflected audio rather than direct audio from the loudspeakers so trying to achieve a balance in an open pan area becomes very difficult.

If you have the ability to experiment with the speaker positioning before you commit to a system that would be good.

Joe
 

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