I just got a new TV, and am re-doing my surround setup and furniture layout. I look at avsforum.com, but those guys are too hardcore, rivaling AMC with their home theater setups.



What do you have, and how is yours set up? I recently got a new tv, and I want a cleaner appearance. I'm trying to find a piece of furniture that will hold an AV receiver, satellite receiver, Xbox, PS3, and possibly a Wii (if I can get it working again https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR ). However, the TV is mounted on the wall, and I want the components to be as out of the way and unobtrusive as possible. Right now they're on a ~5' tall shelf unit that throw off the whole room, I want something low and as small as possible. I was thinking of something long and flat-ish, like a bench with shelves/storage underneath, that can hold the items and double as a seating spot when there are more guests than couches will hold. Bad idea? Good idea? It'd be even better if the subwoofer could fit in there somewhere.



I'm also hunting for good cable-hiding options. Right now the surround speaker wire is simply stapled to the baseboard, it's unattractive. However, 50'-60' of Wiremold (sold at retail stores, usually 3 4' segments to a package) brand stuff would cost way too much (and in-wall is not an option). Know of any alternatives?

I don't live at my house any more but when i did I had the surround done through the roof. got my fat ass in the attic and ran the wires to a wall plate right behind the receiver. as far as speakers I bought a pioneer 5.1 receiver and bought a separate sub amp and made my home theater with speakers bought from madisound.com



I bought 6 Audax HM100C0 4" Carbon Fiber Cone Woofers

6 Audax PR125T1 Horn Tweeter

1 Pioneer Premier 12" Dual 4 ohm Car woofer with another blown premier woofer I had as a passive radiator.



I put 1 mid and tweeter on each satellite and 2 mids and tweeters center. i made the boxes out of MDF and wrapped in black vinyl and let me tell you sounded really good i would put my old system up against any newer 5.1 system and whip some ass.

my **** is super old, always invest in good speakers, it is the one thing you can always use no matter what new tech they come out with.



Cabinets are hard to find, I shopped for 5 months when we bought our tv, then gave up and just bought something from Ikea because it was cheap- well here I

am 5 years later with the **** from Ikea, lol- cant be bothered.



Do you have a basement or access to the ceiling? is there carpet in that room? I bet you could get the wires running up the wall to your tv pretty easily, even

a electrician cant charge more then a hour worth of work to do it



definitely run a Ethernet cable

My ****'s really old too. This house has a full wall of very nice maple finish built-in bookshelves, with cabinets below, on either side of the gas log fireplace. Above the fireplace (non-vented, of course) is a big recessed area for a giant CRT, with a shelf below for the cable box and DVD. My 32" Sharp CRT sits in there (I know, I know). My receiver is an Onkyo 5.1 from around the turn of the century. I forget how many watts, but it's plenty. It weighs a ton and does a nice job. I keep it in one of the cabinets, just to the right of the TV, with the wires snaked through the sheetrock. My main speakers are my antique Boston Acoustics A60's that I bought as a college student. I replaced the bass drivers a few years ago and they still sound great. Center channel is a newer Infinity unit that blends well with the Bostons. I put in-wall two rear surround speakers from Dayton. Pretty easy install, and they all but disappear unless something's sneaking up behind you! The builder ran a piece of THX-certified cable under the house, from the cabinet to the rear wall, so I didn't have much trouble extending the wiring from the wall jacks up to the in-wall speakers. The subwoofer is a cheapie I got as a gift from my brother a couple years ago.



All in all, it's a bunch of mis-matched pieces, but together it sounds quite nice. Setting up any listening area involves some compromise, unless you design a home theatre space when you build your own custom home. Not many of us are that lucky. Just try to get the main speakers left and right and equidistant from the listening position, Tweeters should be at ear level. Sub can pretty much go anywhere. I agree with Rob on the speakers. Buy the best ones you can afford. Ultimately, it's the speakers you're listening to. No other component in your system is as important.

I have Bose front and rear, Yamaha center and powered sub, and a pair Celestion speakers that I run up front also for a little more fill and they are nice and bright. I have a Yamaha receiver and a onkyo eq that I love and will never part with.



Most of this is 10+ years old, some of it pushing 15+ years

It's amazing how long some of this audio equipment will last. Over ten years ago, a friend gave me a pair of AR-4's by Acoustic Research. Near as I can tell, they were made in the 1960's, maybe early 70's. They appear to be all original, except someone tried to refinish the cabinets. They are stamped with a serial number, and each speaker is signed in ink by the individual doing the "testing" and "final inspection". These still sound great. I have them hooked up to an old Technics integrated amp out in my attached garage.



A neighbor scored some old Infinity 2000's with a crazy-looking Walsh super-tweeter. The dome tweeters were blown, but I ordered him some silk dome tweeters from Parts Express and put them in. They totally kick. These are pretty big. I think the woofers are at least 12". They were made back in the mid-70's.

I have an Infinity speaker setup, I love our speakers, I hope they last forever. 5 speakers and subwoofer, center front channel is larger than the 4 surrounds. Yamaha 7.1-capable receiver, just old enough to not have any HDMI. I've got all my video on component cables, audio on optical cables.



I don't have an attic (high ceiling up to 2nd floor "window", only space is the few inches between the sheetrock and plywood of the roof), and there's a floor below this one (2nd living area), and the flooring is hardwood. The only options of hiding wires in the wall are cutting out sheetrock and drilling through all the studs, or removing quarter round and baseboard, some sheetrock at the bottom, and shoving it all under there. But even then, I still have some spots that would be very difficult. We have a wood burning stove, set on tile, with tile on the wall behind it. I'd have to go around that tile somehow. Also immediately behind the center viewing spot is a sliding glass door, with wood trim around it. It'd be tough removing trim from around the tile and doorframe, and cutting channels into the sheetrock there. I don't really want to do that.



That's why I figured I'd go with the stick-on, paintable molding that holds the wires. Looking at pics, it doesn't look to unsightly (especially considering I've had just the wires stapled to the baseboard for years).



I've been searching more online, and have found some wiremold-type of stuff that comes flat, in a roll, but "unfolds" to a square-ish cross section, made of PVC. Much cheaper than wiremold-brand. Dunno if I'll go with that, though, still not sure.



I'll try to get some pics of the room tomorrow.

There is a product that is basically a flat 2-conductor wire that you can stick to the wall and paint over. This one is sold under the AR name by parts express. It's a tad pricey for wire, but might be just what you need. Shop around if you decide to get some, I've seen prices all over the place and I believe Amazon carries it.



http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=181-910

I'll keep it in mind, but I have ~100' of speaker wire available from a friend who bought way too much when he did his surround sound.

why cant you snake the wire through the space between the ceiling and the roof?