The room is 12 feet wide by 24 feet long. along the 24 foot outside wall we just installed french patio doors about center of the room. On the left side (12' wall) of the room we are installing a large window. maybe a double window or bay window something that size.
left of the back 24' wall is a opening to the kitchen where sliding doors once where. The opening starts about 3 feet from the left wall and the opening is 6feet(have to measure for sure) The opening we have no plans for but are thinking of many options, such as double doors, bifold doors, walling half of it and installing a standard 36" door.
Now with all that back ground. What things to consider for the room.
I'm thinking of 2 possible set ups for the room.
a) on the right side of the room installing the TV which would be on the same wall as the patio doors and the setting area be directly infront.
b) The Tv be centered on the right 12' wall and the setting area be 15'-24' (proably 24') along the window wall.
I'm favoring option a) that way the wife has half the room and I have half of the room
The original plan was to make it two rooms, but considering resale we descide it would be better if it was 1 large room.
I plan on wiring the speakers in the wall before the sheet rock goes up. Things to consider.
1-What about outlet for the receiver, what should i consider for that.
2-Ample powered receiver for surrond sound for the room. What per channel wattage will do the job. The receiver will be mainly for surround sound. I'm consdering Denon or, Onkyo or what!
3-What speakers to consider?
4-Large tv or projector?
We currently have a 6 year old 36" toshiba, a 8 year denon pro logic receiver 5.0. that runs a custom built speaker set-up. 4 book shelfs with tweeter and 5-1/4" midrange and a center with a large tweeter and two 5-1/4" woofers. and a sealed woofer box with 2 cadence 10" 8-ohm speaker. That are hooked to the front left and right channel book shelfs. LAstly is the pansionic dvd player, basic modle no prgressive scan that is about 2 christmas old.
My first upgrade will be the receiver, it's the most outdated piece of the setup. The balance dosn't work proably the power is very low about 50 per channel i think have to check. :p
5- The in-wall speaker hook ups, what brands to consider, Niles? what best buy carries? what?
6- what gague wire to run and what type. I'm considering atleaset 14 gauge but what brand monster, or what? I want to hit the curve about where price and proformance intersect, I don't want the cheap stuff and I don't want stuff that gives me no more perforance for the dollar where the only benefit is bragging that u spent a grand on wiring.
7- anything else?
Thanks This should be fun. It's always fun to plan a system it's actual the best part of it Like being 6 years old and it is christmas eve......
With myself being a Dish Network installer if you can manage to get 3 RG6 coax cables plus a phone from behind where you components will be back to a utility room somewhere in the basement you will save your installer tons of time and save you from getting shafted. The 322 and 522 models require to satellite inputs for the two tuners and one return line to feed a second tv. The phone line will save you from having to pay an additional outlet fee for a second remote tv. If you ended up getting and 811 (HDTV) model you will only need to have one cable. I would run two for a spare plus a phone line. Even if you don't have/get Dish Network you will be able to rest knowing you have what you need. You can also use the extra cables to send feeds elswhere in the house.