We have a an unfinished basement that we're in the early stages of planning a complete reno. Half of the basement will be made into 2 bedrooms and a three piece washroom. The other half will be used as an entertainment area including a fireplace, bar, home theatre and if there's room...a pool table. We want to keep this area open and multi-functional with as few/no walls as possible vs say, a dedicated HT, family room etc. So, ie, the HT area of approx 200ish sq ft, would sit within a larger, open area of about 650-750 sq ft. The TV and LCR speakers will share a common wall with the larger area, but there will be "free air" around all of the surround speakers(8-10 ft to nearest walls). Hope that makes sense. Do you think there will be any problems with this set-up?

No.

Ba hahahahahahaha!

Tom, we both know you never read past the word "bar"...

Well, if I had only read as far as "bar", my answer would have been "Yes!".

You have such good taste and so many skills that I really don't know what kind of advice you're looking for based on the information provided. Maybe I need a picture. Or a beer. Or some butter chicken.

OK. I'll try to add some *helpful* information unlike the previous posts.

I know 2 guys that did this within the past 6 months. One guy hired everything out, went with in-wall/in-ceiling speakers from the installer, and hates the home theater part of his basement for sound. They basically used "whole house audio" level speakers for everything but the subwoofer, and you can tell that they aren't made for anything buy background sound. He paid a pretty penny for a blah to mediocre theater experience in his open space. His basement has a wet bar in the back, and a side room that is open to the theater area and wet bar that is about 14ft x 14ft with a fireplace, etc. We call it the "lounge". The look and feel of the basement is very nice, but his movie watching experience sounds like watching a movie on a tv but with a big 120" display.

The next guy has a similar space. Wet bar in the back, and a side room area that isn't quite as big (they went with the same builder). His experience is completely different. Still a cool vibe to the space. He has a massive 140" screen and a nice projector. He, however, went with M2 in-walls, a VP100 in-wall for the center, and then four QS4s for the surrounds. The sound is light-years ahead of the other guy, and he paid a fraction of the cost. His issue is that with the large air volume, his cheapo sub isn't enough at all. He needs at LEAST a 350 watt 12" sub for that space from a good manufacturer.

I tried to talk him into getting three M22 in-walls for up front, but I think that once he gets a new sub, he won't notice much missing. I mean, it isn't a dedicated space, so there are always compromises that you need to make and budgets that you need should try to follow.

I say DO IT! You will love the open space. Yeah, I know, this coming from a guy with a 335+ sqft dedicated space. I'm an equal opportunity home theater-ist.

Thanks, Nick. I have a 14" Paradigm Sub but I will probably build a couple of DIY'ers with opposed drivers. This would help augment the larger open area. Fronts are M80s, VP180 with QS8s as surrounds...probably add a couple more Q's for 7.1. I wasn't sure if the Q's kind of needed to be mounted on or near a wall for sound re-enforcement or if they're ok mounted from the ceiling in "free air".

Tom, you definitely need a beer. And some butter chicken. Better yet, a trip to the Mandarin!....35TH!!!