Home Theatre Speakers

Posted by: Dipak on 12 August 2007

Dear all

I am planning to set up my own first home cinema system but the one major issue is that
of the speakers, especially the rears.

I want to try and avoid masses of cabling and to this end would like to know if there are any decent wireless systems avaliable?

I have also thought about the possibility of in ceiling speakers but would like any advise as to how practical they would be to install.

Any help much appreciated.

Regards

Dipak
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by Adrian F.
Wireless speakers are a marketing gag! Just because wireless is so fashionable at the moment.

I only know it from relatively cheap consumer electronics. You can send a music signal wireless - but where does the electricity to power the speakers and the receiver come from?
Or do you want to change batteries in your surround speakers Roll Eyes

The only thing you do is change the signal cables to power cables. And most likely you will spend more money to get less music. Does not make much sense to me...

You could try and lead the cables through the floor or the ceiling if possible. Pro installers do this with a "room in room" concept to find the space between the walls for the technical stuff.

happy listening
Adrian
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by Dipak
Thanks for the reply Adrian.
As I write this I keep looking where I could run the cables.
Something will work out as I have put off getting home cinema long enough.

Regards

Dipak
Posted on: 14 August 2007 by KenM
Hiding the cables is pretty easy if you have a suspended floor. Just run them under the floorboards. If you have a solid floor, they can be neatened by running them through PVC trunking, fastened to the wall just above the skirting. You may just want to check first whether this arrangement causes any lowering of sound quality, but there should not be a problem.
Posted on: 15 August 2007 by Alan Paterson
What about some mission DS speakers for the rears? They are quite discreet when mounted on the wall.
Posted on: 15 August 2007 by KenM
If I were going into Home Theatre, I would incline towards Piega speakers. As side/rear speakers, Piega TS 3's are tiny, unobtrusive, stylish and sound great. They are (IIRC) abuot £300 per pair.
Posted on: 18 August 2007 by Musicmad
If the size of the speakers is an issue, I cam highly recommend the Pro-Ac Response Hexa 5.1 system I have. Lovely, weighty units - superbly finished - they sound great for 5.1 AV. They do need to be on stands.

I have the Pro-Ac ER1 Sub-woofer rather than the one marketed for this set-up so perhaps I'm getting a better performance overall.

For audio two front speaker and SW performance they're pretty good too especially in the more delicate, precise sounds. Perhaps they fail a little when it comes to full-bodied orchestral pieces but we all have to accept some restrictions.

Of course you still have the cabling problem but this is not a major issue: do you not have a skirting board under which you can ease the cables?
Posted on: 18 August 2007 by Dipak
Many thanks for the responses guys.

we have a solid floor downstairs and so the option here would be to run cabling behind some trunking as suggested by Ken.
I am going to go and have a look at the Missions and Piegas but Music mad our room constraints mean that I cannot really use stands for the rear.

Have you guys had any experience of the Mission Mcubes or the KEF 5005.2?

Regards

Dipak