My girlfriend has bought a very expensive wall unit. She has a regular 32" TV and I just bought her a DVD player. The wall unit has 2 floorlevel cabinets with speaker cloth- presumably to house subs. She wants upgraded HT sound, but doesn't want to see any speakers or wire, so surrounds are not an option for her.

Two questions: would laying 22's on their sides in these sub cabinets work as L/R fronts- will the cabinet angle compensate for their unusual placement? If I add a center channel to this setup, would that help this compromised situation?

Dan, unless you can get her to understand how essential separate surrounds are to the HT experience, there appears to be little hope here. Also, if the cabinets are for the speakers(why would you think subs?)I think that it would be near criminal to muffle the superb sound of the M22s in that way.

I had the same problem in the beginning. She had to have the nice entertainment center surrounding my new Father's Day gift (Toshiba 50H82). We also have the switchable panels for possible speaker placement in the right and left sides. I emailed Alan about using Axiom bookshelf speakers on their sides. He explained that side placement wouldn't be optimal for my sound, but tolerable. I explained the problem to my wife and let her read the posts. I also told her about that damned "upgraditis flu". I bought M60's and placed them next to the very expensive entertainment center. I also got the QS8's, VP150, and EP175. I basically wore her down and had it my way in the end. She got me back when she ordered the new bedroom furniture. Now I just need to work on getting more Axioms for that room. Compromise is the key...

In reply to:

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She wants upgraded HT sound, but doesn't want to see any speakers or wire, so surrounds are not an option for her.

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Assuming that she means by "upgraded HT sound" a surround-sound experience, and that she does not mind spending some more money for a decor-perfect system (she did buy an expensive piece of HT furniture, right?), the only thing I can think of is to have quasi-invisible in-wall surround speakers with in-wall wire installation. If the room has an accessible attic space right above the ceiling, this can be done within a reasonable cost and time, without a major surgery to the existing walls.

Otherwise, how about the super-decor-friendly BOSE systems? I seem to remember seeing at a local Ultimate Electronics their demo of this pseudo-surround system that requires only three front speakers... (ha-ha j.k. )

Unfortunately mrdangum, i have to agree with the other posts here.

If upgraded HT means she wants a surround theatre experience, you simply cannot get around putting up surround speakers and running some wire. If she is willing to buy this expensive surround case for the tv and components, i'm sure she might be willing to buy some nicely finished speakers as well, even if they are surrounds with cable runs.
You can buy many types of good looking cables, flat 'under carpet' cables, etc. It may cost a bit more but my point is that you can hide cables relatively easily if that is your/her requirement.

You might want to have a look at some of the home theatre room designs that regular joe people have put together (try hometheatreforums.com HT member pics)
Perhaps if your g/f sees how some people have integrated speakers and equipment into a nicely laid out room without ugly looking cables everywhere, she may come up with some new ideas of her own about what she wants.

I recall from childhood that I never was able to put the square-shaped block into the star-shaped hole. It just wouldn't work.

That is perfect logic Chess. I used the "nice and expensive entertainment center" approach too. How could you possibly have great this without great that?

And i agree.
How can anyone buy a beautiful tv, a nice new dvd player and then pick up some low end sound components to go with it? (assuming they could afford better).
The same principals apply to any purchase if you think about it. Would you buy a nice looking house which has walls cracking all inside?
Would you buy a sports looking car that has a Honda 50cc bike engine?
So why would you want to setup a home theatre but not want the cables and extra speakers?
I know aesthetics are important but so is function.

Heck, i dunno. Some people are funny that way i guess.
Mabye sometime in the future someone will design a wireless speaker with a foolproof, wireless connection signal so that cables would no longer matter.

Thanks to everyone who responded. She does want a stereo, so I suggested hooking it up to the video system, too. In the end, I don't think that it is all that important to her. We may just go with a two-channel system. I appreciate the input.

Maybe it's time to upgrade Girlfriend 1.0 to Girlfriend 2.0? But be careful you may have to upgrade to Wife 1.0 soon afterwards...lol.

had the same problem. wife wanted speaker wires off the floor, discard the old stereo rack, purchase a new entertainment center, and replace older tv. after asking her if she was sure what she was asking, i started to research and spend $$$. started researching here and on other forums. found axiom site, spoke with joe and went with epic 60 system and yammi rxv1300 upon his suggestion. next was the tv search. naturally we needed to decide on tv before we could purchase ent. center. went with 32" sony plasma to complete the new system. so, out came the drill, and started running wires thru the floor and up behind ent center. at this point, since install was only last saturday, the only wires on floor are for the front towers and sub. after we're happy with their placement, the drill re-appears to finish hiding wires. the epic 60 system coupled with the other components has blown us away. we're glued to the tv now, and hapilly going deaf! maybe this method of install will satisfy her.
dan