Home in theater system

[ksubasser24]

I am planning on putting in a hone theater system while finishing my basement. I am looking at doing in wall speakers but the wife isn’t convinced. Anyone done the in wall and did you like it. Wife thinks we should just do a nice sound bar and put up some wireless rear speakers. Also curious if anyone has used inwalltech speakers and if you liked them.

[RdRngR]

nice sound bar and put up some wireless rear speakers
This is exactly what I did. I like the idea of easily being able to upgrade components later (which I have not done yet) without the need to do any wall work/repairs.

[Madmar]

We have in ceiling speakers in our basement which was out in by the prior owner. In 4 years we have not connected them and have no plans to. We put in a soundbar.

In our prior house we had regular speakers as surround sound mounted on bracket. That way we could change them if we wanted.

[C130]

I have in wall speakers and happy with them. Just depends on how much money and high end you want to go. My speakers are nothing special but sound decent. My center speaker kinda sucks and I’d like to replace it with a much nicer one but haven’t yet. I haven’t looked at wireless speakers in several years so I’m not familiar enough with them to give much advice.

Are you doing a projector and screen or just a tv and speakers?

[Milehibird]

A sound bar will never have the audio depth that a good in wall setup will. It all depends on what you want to spend. I'm more of an audiophile so I'd spend the money on higher end (not builder) custom audio solutions with a good 7.1 or 7.2 setup.

[n2ratfishin]

Clean sound is better than noise when it comes to watching tv. Find the best system you can afford. I don't think speakers in walls vs mounted or on stands makes as much a difference as quality.

[alanhore]

Our basement has a drop ceiling, so wires are all ran overhead above the gridwork. Two rear speakers, a center channel speaker, a couple main speakers up front, and a subwoofer also. Works well and is more than we really need but sure sounds great.

[bzbrent]

When we built our home, "Thousand Dollar" Dave convinced us that we just had to go all in and put surround in our media room.

In four years, I've watched a movie up there exactly 0 times.

Get the sound bar at Best Buy and buy fishing crap with the savings.

-b-

[HobeyBaker]

In-wall speakers will carry vibrations and noise at higher levels throughout the entire house compared to standalone speakers. If you want a clean look, I will highly suggest an acoustically transparent screen with the front soundstage (left, center, and right speakers) behind the screen. The ceiling and rear speakers are not used that much and can be in-wall. Soundbars cannot compete with free standing speakers. I have a Sonos Arc in my living room and a home theater in my basement.

[ksubasser24]

I have in wall speakers and happy with them. Just depends on how much money and high end you want to go. My speakers are nothing special but sound decent. My center speaker kinda sucks and I’d like to replace it with a much nicer one but haven’t yet. I haven’t looked at wireless speakers in several years so I’m not familiar enough with them to give much advice.

Are you doing a projector and screen or just a tv and speakers?

im doing a 85 inch tv on a 12.5’ wall.

[ksubasser24]

I want a true home theater and wife thinks sound bar with rear speakers mounted on ceiling brackets. The room basement living room is also right bellow my 4 month daughters room so the sound bar might be the better choice. I am going to put sound insulation in the ceiling.

[Haughton]

We have bought items from accessories4less without issue, if you still need some stuff

https://www.accessories4less.com

[CJ1]

I am running a 9.2 system and we use it basically every night for movies or music. I would not want the speakers "in the wall" as you will be limited to what you can do to refine the system and just being able to move stuff as needed. We have a large rec. room and nothing looks out of place and sounds great. Better than any movie theater I have been in. CJ

[DoctorJJ]

I’ve got a 152” screen in my home theater. I’d consider going screen and projector if it’s a room where you can control the light, which it sounds like being in a basement that would not be an issue. You can get a bigger, better picture for the money and more importantly, you can get a much better sound stage. Get an acoustically transparent screen, like from Seymour, and mount a vertical center channel right behind it. Sound bars, on big screens don’t sound right. Higher frequencies, your ear can easily discern that the sound is coming from above or below the screen. I would use in walls only for surrounds.

[astasoftride]

Heck I love spending some one else’s money....

Go check out AVSForums. Do yourself a favor and build some proper subwoofers

then go to DIYSoundgroup for the l/c/r surrounds and atmos speakers. A bunch of 8” Volts should work

me?

110” acoustically transparent screen. Projector

8 12” subwoofers, 3 HTM 12’s for the front. 2 HTM 6” for the rears and 4 8” Volts for Atmos

This is backed up with ample enough amplifier power.

my wife enjoys the effect of it all.

As my brother told me...”I don’t hear the speakers”. Once you are immersed in the sound, you understand his comment.

[Highcentered]

I am running a 9.2 system and we use it basically every night for movies or music. I would not want the speakers "in the wall" as you will be limited to what you can do to refine the system and just being able to move stuff as needed. We have a large rec. room and nothing looks out of place and sounds great. Better than any movie theater I have been in. CJ

Exactly. AND 99% OF PEOPLE READING THIS WON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT BUT IT'S WORTH RESEARCHING FOR THEIR OWN EDUCATION IF INTERESTED. You want to be able to move the speakers to help dial in the sound. Just a few inches of movement on the floor and a few degrees of angle toeing in the speakers can make a HUGE difference. I even go as far as using an RTA (real time analyzer) to measure frequency response to make sure there aren't any major room modes messing things up. Room modes are bit peaks and valleys in the frequency response that generally make speakers sound bad. Speakers in the wall or ceiling will make noise but will never sound good due to where they're mounted and don't get me started on sound bars.

For gear I suggest a Denon with auto tune. Someone I know bought a new Denon last year and it auto tuned his target eq curve with extreme accuracy. I don't think I could have manually gotten as close as the auto tune on his Denon did and I'm pretty good at tuning with a VERY powerful signal processor. I bought his old Denon from him that he used for 13 years and it's a beast for power and the auto tune does OK at roughing in the general idea but nothing like the new one. The frequency response in the house isn't nearly as refined as what I have in my truck but I use a VERY powerful Helix dsp.2 in the truck and know how to get the response I want with it without causing phase issues. Oh, big dips and peaks in the frequency response can cause phase issues that will cause cancellations in the sound. You want the curve to be smooth and somewhat flat. I do like a little bit of rising response from about 200hz and down and the top end rolled off a little from about 10000hz and up. This gives a nice equal loudness curve for me.

For speakers check out ELAC. Andrew Jones designed these speakers and he's a legend at what he does. ELAC is a good safe choice for most people. I run a pair of the cheaper ELAC Debut 2.0 towers and they're very nice for what I paid for them on sale off Crutchfield. Andrew Jones also designed some of the Pioneer home speakers and while I've never heard them I hear he did a wonderful job squeezing the best sound possible out of very budget minded parts. Klipsch is also pretty good if you want a little brighter sound and so are the Wharfedale Diamond series if you want a more dark sound. For a subwoofer if you're good at cabinet building check out Stereo Integrity subwoofers. A good enclosure and amp plus careful placement of the sub in the room will leave you smiling. I know the owner (Nick Lemons) personally and he knows his stuff. Not sure how things are going right now since he sources a lot of his raw materials from China but he makes a damn good speaker.

If you want to go all out with a DIY speaker setup and finish the cabinets however you want (let the wifey have some fun here) check out the speaker kits at www.partsexpress.com

[Highcentered]

As my brother told me...”I don’t hear the speakers”. Once you are immersed in the sound, you understand his comment.

Yup, when set up correctly the speakers disappear. For example when I play the 7 drum track the drums go from wall to wall instead of speaker to speaker. The left speaker is between the second and third drum and right speaker is between the 5th and 6th drum. The speakers are about 15" away from the wall they share and each about 3' from the side walls. Most people don't understand the importance of speaker placement in a room.

[dadcat41]

if you can afford it nothing beats MC Intosh. Nothing. pioneer elite would be choice number2 . denon not so much. low end stuff. i would consult with a professional if i was you.

[Highcentered]

if you can afford it nothing beats MC Intosh. Nothing. pioneer elite would be choice number2 . denon not so much. low end stuff. i would consult with a professional if i was you.

Denon is OK on a budget. I do agree McIntosh is the real deal but if you're gonna go high end on one thing you may as well go high end on all of it. Home audio is a big rabbit hole that can easily get near or over the 6 figure mark if you get roped into the snake oil stuff like special audio cables and such. Only an idiot gets fooled by special audio cables because the ONLY way a PROPERLY sized rca cable or speaker wire WITH GOOD CLEAN ENDS AND TIGHT CONNECTIONS will make an audible difference is if the cable has a passive filter built in. Home audio people can be the WORST about this because they fail to realize that aural memory is terrible. They let how much they spend on something tell them how good (or bad) something sounds and wire is wire as long as it's not undersized and the connections are good. Good WELL DESIGNED speakers have their place and more expensive doesn't always mean better sound. Same with amps, preamps, sources, and signal processors. Their are speaker reviewers that will get a pair of VERY expensive speakers sent to them to test then send them back without doing a review because they know it wouldn't end well if they were honest. Then some "professional" reviewers are just plain idiots.

For good UNBIASED reviews on gear this guy knows what he's talking about and he provides measurements to back up what he's saying. He makes fun of the reviewers that just hook stuff up and listen because without objective data you're best off just taking their word with a grain of salt. I've known Erin personally for years and he's honestly about the only person I fully trust when it comes to car or home audio. You can pretty well take what he's saying as fact because he will tell it like it is for better or worse.
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/

[opaleski]

Exactly. AND 99% OF PEOPLE READING THIS WON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT BUT IT'S WORTH RESEARCHING FOR THEIR OWN EDUCATION IF INTERESTED. You want to be able to move the speakers to help dial in the sound. Just a few inches of movement on the floor and a few degrees of angle toeing in the speakers can make a HUGE difference. I even go as far as using an RTA (real time analyzer) to measure frequency response to make sure there aren't any major room modes messing things up. Room modes are bit peaks and valleys in the frequency response that generally make speakers sound bad. Speakers in the wall or ceiling will make noise but will never sound good due to where they're mounted and don't get me started on sound bars.

For gear I suggest a Denon with auto tune. Someone I know bought a new Denon last year and it auto tuned his target eq curve with extreme accuracy. I don't think I could have manually gotten as close as the auto tune on his Denon did and I'm pretty good at tuning with a VERY powerful signal processor. I bought his old Denon from him that he used for 13 years and it's a beast for power and the auto tune does OK at roughing in the general idea but nothing like the new one. The frequency response in the house isn't nearly as refined as what I have in my truck but I use a VERY powerful Helix dsp.2 in the truck and know how to get the response I want with it without causing phase issues. Oh, big dips and peaks in the frequency response can cause phase issues that will cause cancellations in the sound. You want the curve to be smooth and somewhat flat. I do like a little bit of rising response from about 200hz and down and the top end rolled off a little from about 10000hz and up. This gives a nice equal loudness curve for me.

For speakers check out ELAC. Andrew Jones designed these speakers and he's a legend at what he does. ELAC is a good safe choice for most people. I run a pair of the cheaper ELAC Debut 2.0 towers and they're very nice for what I paid for them on sale off Crutchfield. Andrew Jones also designed some of the Pioneer home speakers and while I've never heard them I hear he did a wonderful job squeezing the best sound possible out of very budget minded parts. Klipsch is also pretty good if you want a little brighter sound and so are the Wharfedale Diamond series if you want a more dark sound. For a subwoofer if you're good at cabinet building check out Stereo Integrity subwoofers. A good enclosure and amp plus careful placement of the sub in the room will leave you smiling. I know the owner (Nick Lemons) personally and he knows his stuff. Not sure how things are going right now since he sources a lot of his raw materials from China but he makes a damn good speaker.

If you want to go all out with a DIY speaker setup and finish the cabinets however you want (let the wifey have some fun here) check out the speaker kits at www.partsexpress.com