I'm not clear where the speakers would be. It looks like there are groups to the left and right, each with two vertical grills and one horizontal one below. For a total of 6. But the TV is on the right side behind the doors so there is no room for speakers there.

It also appears the TV is way back in the corner, and the only seating directly in front is a couch at right angles to it. Not a good arrangement for TV viewing.

Hi toxcrusadr,

Thanks for your feedback. The TV in this location will not be well used, and generally only for two people at once. We will have a larger TV that is centrally located in our basement man cave. The focal point in the great room is to be the fireplace. We will have the TV on an arm/swivel to be able to angle the TV to face a few of the seats. The TV will also be able to be viewed from the clean-up peninsula.

For the speakers we had the following in mind: The subwoofer will go in a closet that is not shown in the above floor plan. Two speakers will go on top of a china cabinet that is across from the fireplace (around 36 feet away). On the builts ins, we will have one speaker behind the left hand bi-fold door and one in the right hand drop down. Also, the components will be placed in the drop downs so they don't overheat. Will that work for sound? Here is a floor plan of the whole area. The closet for the subwoofer is in the corner close to the china cabinet in the diningroom.

Thanks and let me know what you think?

The arm mounted TV is a good solution to a corner, I should have suggested that since mine is in a corner by the fireplace too. :-]

Only potential issue here is the distance to your rear speakers and sub. At that distance you will have to crank them up to be heard in the seating area, and possibly a worse problem is the delay in sound reaching the seating area due to the distance.

Solutions might be 1) don't bother with surround sound, just use front L and R speakers; OR 2) hang the rear speakers on the walls behind the seating area (aim them in that direction) and put the subwoofer under the coffee table or next to a sofa.

Good comments. We don't know anything about optimal distances and locations of speakers/sub woofers. What is the recommended distance between components/speakers/subwoofer?

Carol

We will check into what the receiver can handle. Thanks for the heads up.

Carol

Having a good symmetry of the AV components to the seating locations will make it much more effective. The couch on the right of the room will have a poor viewing angle as it exists. Also the sound field will never be right with this arrangement no matter where you sit. If the fireplace is gas look into low profile linear fireplaces so that you can place the TV in the center and place the speakers evenly, or place the fireplace to the side. Then you can arrange a surround format properly and with most receivers having a room calibration routine built in, everyone will enjoy a well balance sound field, but room correction DSP cannot fix really poor speaker locations.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, many of your helpfful suggestions are too late. The fireplace is already installed, centered in the room and is a more traditional design with a hearth. The TV in this room will not frequently be watched by more than two people. Those viewing can avoid couch on right and will likely opt for the chairs or opposite couch. The TV where located will be nicely viewed from the dish washing area in the open concept area. We will have a larger, centrally located TV in our man cave/basement area which will be nicely finished and the gathering spot if the whole family wants to watch TV. In the basement the TV will be the focal point. I totally understand that the furniture as arranged in the great room shown above is centered around the chosen focal point of that room -- the fireplace. The TV is the secondary focal point in the great room. So it is not an issue if only some of the seating areas allow viewing of the TV.

As per your speaker locations it is too bad the sound field cannot be made right with this furniture/TV location as shown. No wiring has been done for the speakers -- nor speakers bought. So we are wide open on this design aspect. I would love your suggestions on acceptable speaker locations given the shown arrangement. DH will also want a music sound system (old fashioned CD player, etc) that will play from this location to the open concept space.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment on my design. I hope you will respond with acceptable speaker location ideas.

Carol

Sorry we don't have the budget for that. We designed the built-ins ourselves. Hopefully the store that sells us the speakers will be able to advice on the best location. I was hoping to get some info on speaker placement from this thread without having to scrap all the work that has been completed in the great room. The form in our great room is more important than the sound system (function).

Carol

Hi Carol,

I am building out my hometheater in a basement and can help you a little on your speaker/placement issue since I have researched the topic.

You have a giant space that you want filled with sound. Given your layout, for TV/Movie watching, I would stick with a 2.1 or 3.1 system (Front R, Center Channel, Front L) and the .1 is the subwoofer. Your rear speakers (for a 5.1 sytstem) are too far away to be used in that manner. Also, given how big your space is, you would need a massive subwoofer or 2 to properly pressurize the room for theater type bass. However, that doesnt mean you cant enjoy some of the bass. Proper placement of a subwoofer involves doing a subcrawl, however, for your purposes, I would probably place it in a corner maybe under the TV. This is will give you some "corner loading" which can maximize some bass (although its more "boomy" rather than a nice even bass sound". Don't put the sub in a cabinet.

Ideally, you want the center channel directly under or over the TV aimed out the main listening position so you perceive the dialogue as coming from the TV.

Now you also stated that your husband wants music and if you want music in your den and in the dining room, I would put two speakers in the dining room area and hook these up to the "zone 2" section of your receiver. That will allow you to play music in your den and dining room at the same time or each area independently (the midrange recievers, <$600, will allow you to play the SAME source in each zone. If you want to play two different sources, you will need to spend more).

If this were my floorplan, this is how I would do it, even though you will have to sacrifice a "true 5.1" setup because your space doesnt really allow it, unless you are willing to put two in ceiling speakers (as rears) above the wing back chairs or speakers on stands behind the wingbacks.

Now for products.

Receiver: Get a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver with Zone 2 functionality. Denon, Yamaha

It seems like you want things discreet, so I would recommend bookshelf speakers. While small, you can achieve great sound for your space.

Chane (http://www.chanemusiccinema.com/chane-loudspeakers), Wavecrest (http://www.wavecrestaudio.com/products/hvl-1-two-way-loudspeaker-pair), Infinity (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-WY7c39wmgNu/fg_37900_FFBrand%7CInfinity/Infinity-Bookshelf-Speakers.html).

Ideally, you want matching speakers for your FR, C, and FL.

There are a million speaker companys out ethere. These are in a good price range, recommended often around the internet.

And as a disclaimer, I am in no means a pro or audiophile, these are just some ideas I came across in planning my own room.

This is certainly a very helpful post, mshahmd! We are certainly open to speakers in the ceiling. I will get DH to digest all the info you kindly wrote up for us as this is his baby. He may be back with some questions for you. So please check back.

Carol

What about surround sound for music, not so much for TV? Again the TV is not important in this room. There is a larger, well situated TV in the finished mancave we will use if more than 2 viewers.

Carol

You won't need " surround" sound for music as fusion stated. If you want the music playing in all of your speakers( your front speakers, possible in ceilings or dining room speakers) to fill your space with music as you entertain, the receiver will have something called matrix mode or similar that can send the same audio to all channels or you can get the zone 2 function as I stated earlier.

From what I am gathering you want quality sound for music so I would concentrate on a good 2.1, probably something more than I suggested above.

Hi mshahmd,

I was just checking back the tips in this older thread. I don't know how I missed your post above. It is very helpfu. Yes, it it more music we want quality sound for in this room. The audio for TV is not important, but will be in our basement man cave. So thank you and sorry my gratitude was so delayed.

Carol