Thanks for the kind words. I've always loved the planning aspect of all my hobbies. Figuring stuff out is always half the fun. It's kind of hard not to shoot big. You guys have made some pretty inspirational rooms to follow along with others.

I guess I'll let the rope light scenario go. I'm not going to die on that hill when it comes to trying to convince the wife that escape hatch window panels are plausible. grin It was a great idea that wouldn't have even occured to me.

Another great idea is the motion speaker mount. I totally get it. Kind of like a recessed projector mount. The me a few years ago would have been all over that. Having made a couple of Lumenlab DIY projectors over the years, the wife is tired of frankenstein projects. Probably for the better.

I will scale back the couch from what we were planning for. I have a new render with a new sofa's dimensions in mind. Anyone ever bought a sofa online from www.wayfair.com before?

I think it will be doable. I was hoping for seating for 6. But realistically, it will be just the 2 of us 90% of the time anyway.



Nick, you are absolutely right. I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't at least pull the wire while I had the chance. I'll be sure to add 4 ceiling drops in the squareish pattern at Dolby's site.

It will be a while before I upgrade my receiver to one capable of 11 channels, but I will be prepared for down the road.

Bridgman, the speakers are nondescript in the render by design. They aren't Axioms and I didn't want to make a rude impression here. Axioms were on the table at one time, but when I went shopping for my brother's theater speakers a deal jumped at me I couldn't pass up.

I picked up a package of Mordaunt Short speakers on closeout for about 50% of MSRP. They are fantastic. (For now) I couldn't imagine owning anything else. Until I audition some Axioms in person and get the feel for them I wont know what I'm missing. I did listen to Paradigm studio series speakers, which are often compared to axioms. So I might have an inkling about their flavour.

This is the system I picked up. I opted for 2 floor standers as surrounds at the time because they were such a deal. A year and a half later, I scrambled to get a set of matching bookshelves to make a 7 channel setup. I think I picked up the last "new in box" pair in black in all of Canada out of Montreal. Cutting it close.... laugh 2 SVS sealed subs round out the bunch.

http://www.soundandvision.com/content/mordaunt-short-mezzo-6-speaker-system

I don't mind sharing, as I don't think they can be bought anywhere now.

We auditioned a LOT of speakers at all the big box stores and then out of curiosity went to some of the high end shops back in Calgary. I'm sure glad we did. We listened to some uber dollar setups that completely changed my direction in the hobby. My focus went from feature driven bang for buck products to being purely reproduction obsessed.

My brother picked up a high dollar setup that trounces mine on paper. But my OCD about synergy and setup had always left him scratching his head when we compared the end results.

Thus began my acoustics oddyssey... never ending as I'm sure you know from your experiments. Such a fun hobby! Boy I can ramble on.....