Deep Singh

Thanks to Dan and others for advice. Thought pics might be helpful.

Before.




Overview. Shows speaker cable to two fronts and 2Xhdmi and 1X component and leccy behind tv position



Closer pic of topend




Bottom end where AV cabinet with DVD player/Sky/Amp will go





One of the rear corners with speaker cable and coaxial for subwoofer.





All thats missing is cable for centre speaker, double cable for Sky HD and RF cable in case Sky breaks down and I need to watch Freeview.


The front L and R speakers are quite high, at the upper border of where the screen will do ( 43" Panny), about 6ft off the ground. Is this about right or too high?


Its not DIY and hence have not posted there.

DCI Gene Hunt

Wheres the after?

ScoobyDoo555

lovely looking plasma (I've got great imagination

Dan

Deep Singh

Dan, what do you think about the speaker height? They are at the same height as the rears, which the man at Sevenoaks said should be approx 6ft. Seem a bit high to me now....

ScoobyDoo555

down to your personal preference mate, but if that's what the sevenoaks people have said, go for it

jsh

I run my own AV installation company and i would say that the front speakers are too high.

If it were me doing the installation, I woul put the front left and right level with the middle of the screen from both an audio point of view and for an improved visual look.

What speakers are you using for the system?

I would also try and get the left, centre and right speakers as close to the screen as i could. This ensures that all action and visuals that happen on the screen are matched with the audio, rather than, for example, when a car pans accross the screen the sound will appear to come from there and not from the corner of the room.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask, I am more than happy to help.

Regards and good luck.

Jason

PPPRob

Agreed

I have my plasma over my fireplace on the chimney breast..... Big mistake!

Its lowermost edge is 4'3" from the floor and its too high. The L&R speakers are in the centre line of the plasma which looks nice and gives a nice feel although the centre had to be above which sounds ok but not ideal.

Everything is placed lovely if you stand up and watch it

I'd do what Jsh said, you'll regret it if not.

Also I know its a bit late, but wouldn't it have been easier to have had a cavity wall on that side as you are fortunate enough to be starting from scratch??? Any cables you forget you can pass through after. It would only need to be about 2" thick. Or you could go about 5-6 inch thick and mount the plasma so it appears flush with the wall.

Would give you some wow factor to match your shiney new kitchen

PPPRob

Another point to make is that you don't seem to have much area to actually mount the bracket with that nest of cables!!!

Make sure you can get the bracket onto the wall completely without having all that trunking in the way. Just test fit it now so you can move bit if you need to

Deep Singh

Nice one Jason!

Floor is yet to go in so the height of speakers above the finished floor will be 1.67m. The cables for rear speakers are run in the ceiling and plasterboard is going up as we speak. There is not much slack left in them and so might be able to drop very slightly.

The fronts as you can tell from the pics are run on the wall. These can be dropped more, as there is more slack. Do I need the speakers lower and would it make any sense to have the fronts lower than the rears or is that stupid?

The front speakers distance from the tv I calculated as being the midpoint between the edge of the tv and where the wall ends (as per Sevenoaks advice) I can move them closer if you think thats better. How much closer?

I haven't bought any of the AV kit yet so can't tell you which ones they are, but will be medium budget.

Many thanks

ScoobyDoo555

Sorry, my comments were posted under duress (of a hangover! ) and may be a bit misleading.

What I was trying to get at was IMHO, if your system is set up at about the 6ft level, then the speakers could go there (bit hard to tell without seeing it in context in the room), however, there's a few more considerations....

1. What will be your viewing angle?
2. Do you want to be able to view casually (walking about etc from the kitchen or other room)
3. How big are the speakers - no point in having it all in the corners etc as it will look out of context - all at the top of the room. Also, if you put the speakers right in the corners, you'll get a nice bass trap (the sound reflects in the corners of the room - try it in any room, you'll hear it quite effectively! ) You don't want this "phantom bass", - that's what the sub's for.

AV design is a little bit different to my field (studio design and production ), but there's alot of transferable info

Hope this helps a bit more

Dan

Deep Singh

Yes, a few people mentioned the false wall, I just never got around to sorting it out. Probably should have though!.

Rob, the lower edge of mine will be 3ft 8 inches off the floor. Is that still too high do you reckon?

You're defo right about not leaving enough space for the fixing device, I've just had another look. I'll have to drop the height of the cable exit to make more room. I'll pop along to retailers now and see exactly how much room the fixation device takes up.

Does anybody know if speaker cable can be lengthened/joined up? I'll have to do this if I'm going to drop the height of the rear speakers to match proposed drop at front. Ceiling plasterboards are now up!

I can't believe on such a glorious sunny day I'm doing this!

jsh

Hi,

With regards to lengthening speaker cable, if you are a purist HiFi nut then it is a no no, but in the real world it can be done with little affect.

In respect of the height of the fronts in relation to the rears, "most" installations are done with the rears being higher. This does help to envelope the listener and gives a good sense of scale.

i have put systems in like that costing in excess of £80K and it can sound awesome. Never has anyone sat there and said that the rear speakers were too high.

Are the speakers for the rears in-ceiling?

The distance for the front left and right from the screen is more to do with the visual than anything else. To be exact about this, you should have an acoustically transparent projection screen with the front 3 speakers behind it. That is the perfect scenario, but obviously you cant do that with plasma.

The next best thing would be to have the speakers as close to the plasma as you are able, this would give the best audio performance but it would not look right, so there will be a little bit of experimentation once you have made a decision about your speaker choice.

If you need to know anything else, let me know

Regards

Jason

Hoppy

Hello Deep - your block paving looks crap

Before it's too late, I would think very carefully about the positioning of everything. Front speakers seem too high and you may want to move the screen for a comfortable viewing angle, which depends largely on the angle of your head when parked in your favourite chair! Maybe an angled wall bracket would help. Beware of screen reflections from lights/windows - they will annoy the hell out of you.

Position of front speakers from the wall or corners will make a big difference to sound. Rear speakers are much less critical.

To be absolutely certain of not making any expensive mistakes, can't you get the AV kit now and bodge it together in the positions you have planned, bnefore everything's set in stone? Could save some disappointment but you'll need temporary carpet and soft furnishings in there or the sound will be completely different.

Cheers,

Richard.

PPPRob

I think that'll be a nice height, its pretty much where you want it to be. From what I've heard/read the ideal watching position has the top edge of the tv in line with your eyes. If you cannot achieve that then I've found that by seeing your eyes in the reflection of the screen on the centreline is lovely. In your case as with mine, you'll need a tilting bracket to achieve that.


Another suggestion you may want to look into is an articulated bracket if you want to view the tv in another room (kitchen), or from the garden (party time ) Only problems are the fact that the tv will sit out about 8 or 9 inches from the wall (really would need the stud wall then ) and that when extended, its a magnet for small childrens heads, especially at that height!


As jsh said, unless you're an audiophile, you're not going to notice the difference. A nice blob of silver solder would be fine or if not a good old fashioned choccy block will be good enough.

I've positioned mine so fronts are equidistant from edge of plasma and corner of wall as you've said you will do. The centreline of which is the centreline of the tv. The rears are the exact same height (it just worked for me, makes the room look even IMHO) but are in the very corners and face the centre of the room. They are mounted at 45deg to the side/rear walls.


Have you considered what equipment you are going to use? Coz thats a whole different thread

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

Here's mine so far: not a very fancy/ hi tech system, its cost me less than a grand including a 42" LG plasma, its my bargain basement system





i used this guide Bix's Plasma Install for my ideas

alistair

The Dolby web site says fronts at ear level, surrounds higher.

That's what I went with, but with floorstanders at the front, it was a little easier


Al

Deep Singh

Thanks guys.

I'm a little further. I've just ordered the Panny TH-50inch job (went in to buy the 42'' but they saw me coming!). Won't arrive for 2 weeks though.

Also bought this bracket.






Its going to stick out quite alot. So when the builder arrives in the morning I'm going to ask him about a stud wall, perhaps not the entire wall but like a chimney breast set up. This will have the advantage of making the plasma flush and making future upgrades to wiring easier. ie what you guys all advised me weeks ago!

Builder will be back in the morning and will want to crack on. So no time to buy the rest of the kit before then I'm afraid. So in summary will plan/place wires according to the following:

1) Make stud wall and recess the plasma. I have the bracket and the dimensions of the tv.

2) I will have bottom edge of tv approx 3feet 4 inches from the ground.

3) Front speakers close to the tv and perhaps at the midpoint of its height. Centre speaker just below tv.

4) Rear speakers I'll place higher approx 5 feet off the ground. This'll mean I won't have to start soldering wires and I'll get the effect that Jason mentioned.

ps in the original pics don't forget the finished floor will be 6 inches higher than now.

Many thanks

alistair

1) I studded out the whole wall, but that's personal preference. Don't forget to leave a gap to get the TV onto the mount.
2) The bottom of mines 3'6" - so that seems about right - I'm sitting about 9' away from it.
3) My center is also recessed - I bought a B&W FPM 6 which matches the Pioneer very well (I don't know what the Panasonic looks like.
4) My rears & mid surrounds are about 5' high.

50" is a good choice - you won't regret it

Al

PPPRob

Gonna be a lovely install

Well done for planning and telling everyone your ideas, thats where you gather the info to get it right.

Just what I should have done

Deep Singh

What do you mean exactly Alastair?

PG

Can I ask why you went for such a bracket ? Why not go for a flush to the wall bracket that way eliminating the need for boxing out, afterall once the false wall is up then the rotation becomes somewhat redundant.
I assume alistair means that you should bear in mind that the TV may need lifted up to slot on to the bracket and to leave an adequate space to do so (will help with ventilation also)

Deep Singh

Ok change of plan. Its too complicated as I don't have the tv in my hands. Also the bracket I've bought as PG said is wrong for this application. When I swing the tv out it moves to the side and then will catch on the recess. Also the builder wants to charge me £450 for the pleasure and is not giving me any time to think things through!

I'm just going to mount the TV on the bracket on the wall with the cables in the pic buried in the plaster/sandncement. One spare conduit in case I need to run another cable in future.

I should have thought this through earlier and bought all the kit and had it to hand. Which I'm sure is what someone adviced me earlier but I didn't listen.

Many thanks

PPPRob

Are those corner groups from furniture village

I've got that set but the 3 seater & 2 chairs

alistair

DFS actually

2 sets, each of 2 corners, 2 mids & a foot stool. The foot stools fit perfectly in the middle to make a big bed like arrangement for movies -

PPPRob

Yep sorry DFS thats what I meant.

I thought it looked familiar (it was our dining furniture that came from furn. village) I get confused, bloody finance with both of them among others