I'm abandoning my old post, since the topic had wandered beyond the original focus.

The home theater in my new under-construction home (which is slowly approaching completion) is coming along nicely. Between the wife ("No, you are not putting those speakers out in the open in my living room!") and the carpenter ("You want 2-1/2 by 4-1/2-foot cabinet doors on this thing? Good luck with them staying straight for more than a few months?" -- who knew that "CAF" would be a factor in all of this?) I had to make some serious acoustic concessions. I'm sure (I hope ) that it still sounds great. For reference, anything without wood on the back will have a door(s) installed in front of it.


In my eagerness to get everything together, I've also thrown together a wiring diagram.


So far, the only things I actually own are the in-wall surrounds, the PS2, and the old DVD player & VCR (eventually to be replaced by a HTPC). Also, since the cutout for the TV is fitted to my TV choice, I'm pretty committed on that also. The Faroudja scaler & 1080p passthru on the Pioneer AV Receiver lured me away from my original Denon 2807 choice.

Taking into account everything that I'm more-or-less stuck with at this point (the already-purchased surround speakers and the Panasonic TH-58PX60U plasma), any recommendations on wiring or equipment choices?

Thanks!

Looks real nice. Is the idea that the doors can be closed but you would open them for serious listening ? If so, a couple of suggestions you may have already considered :

1. You can get hinge assemblies which allow you to open the door then slide it back out of the way. No idea how they work but they would seem to be a really good idea. They would also increase your chances of being able to leave the doors open after a while

2. Do you have enough height in the M60 areas to include a couple of heavy-duty slides and a platform for the M60 to sit on, allowing you to pull the speakers a couple of inches out from the cabinet when listening ?

3. Where is the VP150 going ? I don't see any VP150-sized openings in the cabinet, just what seems to be VP100 sized (or maybe the cabinet is bigger than I think... it is a pretty big plasma TV after all).

Re: wiring, I was surprised to see an optical cable going FROM the tv TO the receiver. I have seen them go the other way (player/receiver to the TV) but not optical FROM the TV. Then again I haven't seen a lot of modern TVs... wouldn't hurt to double check though.

Yeah, the doors are opened for listening. The wife and carpenter both wanted to install permanent mesh in front of the speakers, but that would've been one too many things to kill the sound quality.

1) I was aware of these hinges, but the carpenter didn't like the visible gap that has to be left in order to let the doors slide in. Once the wife heard that, it was basically me vs. them, and majority rules.

2) There is a fair amount of height for slidable platforms, so that's still a possibility. Will see what kind of effort that will require.

3) Oh yeah, there's room for the VP150 in there. For reference, the entire cabinet is 14-feet across, and the TV cutout alone is 5 feet wide

And I double checked on the optical cable. The TV does have an optical audio out (i.e. to listen to OTA HD programming in 5.1 audio). So, I'm safe there.

I'm getting close.. real close to taking the final leap and finishing my home theater. Should hopefully have my Axioms on hand within the next couple weeks.

Here's where I am now.



For scale, that TV is a 58-incher. As I'd mentioned earlier, the wife & carpenter took a big dump on my original entertainment center plans during construction, and the mains will actually spend their time sleeping behind the two outside doors when not in use. When it's time to fire 'em up, the doors are opened. And when the wife's not around, I'll probably risk a hernia and haul them out onto the floor.

The opening for my mains is 48"H x 19"W x 22"D. I'm half considering upgrading to M80s, but with the sacrifices in sound I'll be making with them being in a cabinet, I may decide to stick with the M60s. I'll war that over with myself over the next week or so.

Wow, that's a lot of cabinet!!!

Nice TV too. If you get the 80s you will never have up-grade-itis, at least as far as axiom goes.

Looking good so far. Keep the pics coming.

I'm curious if you read this article by Alan on How Speakers Radiate Sound: Why Wall Units are the Enemy.

It looks like you have a tough row to hoe trying to get good sound while keeping the wife happy. Good luck.

Brad - that will look great when it is done. I hung a 58" Panny (the 600U) on the wall last month and I am thrilled with it.

Did you tell your wife,

"Honey, I wouldn't put something as beautiful as you away in a cabinet when I'm through with you, so why would I want to do that to my speakers?"

On second, thought, it's probably not the best idea...

That's a spiffy looking cabinet there, but I'd be leery of shoving those M60's inside of it. I know you've got some serious WAF issues, and that's tricky to work with.

I agree with Alan's article. I'd be a little worried that cramming large floorstanding speakers like M60's inside an AV rack might do some weird things to the overall sound quality. I really don't know what I'm talking about, so take my words with a grain of salt. I do know that most speakers do need some breathing room. I was recently tinkering with the placement of my m22's and found a subtle improvement in soundstage just by pulling them out about a foot from the plane of my TV/AV rack line. YMMV, of course. I may be crazy too.

I'd also worry a little bit about your other compenents in that AV rack. I know a few audiophile buddies are very picky about extraneous vibration in gear rack, and I wonder how much reverberation you'll get in the AV cabinet during bass heavy music from the M60's? Hate to have the CD player start skipping during the loud stuff!

Bridgman has some great ideas. Cabinet doors that slide back in after opening would be nice. I don't think your wife is going to be too happy with cabinet doors hanging open everywhere all the time. See if you can get some kind of trays that would allow you to pull the speakers out a few inches from the cabinet - even if it's just for times when you're listening to music alone!

But anyway, that's a really nice looking cabinet. I hope the situation works out for you!

Yeah, my TV has the optical out as well, but it only sends audio from digital stations over it, so I would still need an another cable for the analog stations... if I ever still watched those, which I don't, so why am I bringing it up?

Wow....nice woodwork. Is that bird's eye maple? Sure does look mighty purty, whatever it is.

For your imprisoned speakers, I'd build a sliding shelf that would pull out when you open the doors. Similar to kitchen cabinets with roll out shelves for heavy things.

It would be real easy to do. That would help big time. Keeping the speakers in the cabinet will be a big time bummer. I know, I had them like that before and when I pulled them out, I realized how bad they sounded in the cabinet. So if you plan to keep them in the cabinet, don't EVER pull them out or you will realize what you've missed.

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I'm curious if you read this article by Alan on How Speakers Radiate Sound: Why Wall Units are the Enemy.

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Oh, yeah.. I'm fully aware of the evils of cabinet-izing your speakers. The Audio Gods are surely frowning upon me right now... Unfortunately, wifey went unhinged when I proposed a more open cabinet setup like below.

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I hung a 58" Panny (the 600U) on the wall last month and I am thrilled with it.

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I would (and have) wholeheartedly recommend the Panasonic plasmas. Like Pioneer, they excellent PQ. However, Pioneer's shiny black sets didn't seem worth the extra couple $1000 to me for what you get with Panasonic.

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I'd also worry a little bit about your other compenents in that AV rack. I know a few audiophile buddies are very picky about extraneous vibration in gear rack, and I wonder how much reverberation you'll get in the AV cabinet during bass heavy music from the M60's?

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Hopefully, sending most of the LFE to the sub will help with some of that. That, and I tend not to crank up the volume too high (we'll see if that still applies once I get the Axioms).

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Yeah, my TV has the optical out as well, but it only sends audio from digital stations over it, so I would still need an another cable for the analog stations...

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Good to know. Luckily, I don't watch any of the analog channels, either.

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Wow....nice woodwork. Is that bird's eye maple?

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Close. It's actually "poor-man's maple" (a.k.a. birch), stained to match our alder (a.k.a. "poor man's cherry") furniture. Maybe if I wasn't such a technology geek, I wouldn't be so poor. Truthfully, the photos don't do the woodwork justice. For some reason, it looks really blotchy in the photos, and that isn't really the case in real life.

Anyhoo, I think I'm going to stick to the M60s, as they'll have a bit more breathing room than the 80s would. The sliding platform mentioned a few times sounds like a really good idea to keep in mind.

Luckily, we still have a nice, big room in the basement to be finished yet. Once that materializes, I may move the M60s downstairs so they can be out in the open where they belong. Or, I may just buy some M80s.