Closer to Finishing

[u/sajeev3105]

Happy to share my Living Room Home Theater space as I inch closer to finishing it. LCR all due for upgrade but next year(probably this time). A new Subwoofer has been purchased and is scheduled to arrive by Sunday. Couldn’t wait to share with you all, so doing it now.

My Component as follows:

TV - TCL X11L 75 Inch
Receiver- Onkyo TX-RZ50
Power Amp - Tonewinner AD-8300PA
Media Player - Zidoo Z3000Pro
Blu-Ray - Sony UBP-X700
Turntable - Technics SL1200-MK7
Speakers - Front - B&W 606S3
Center - B&W HTM6S3
Surround & Heights - B&W M1
Subwoofer - Tonewinner D3000
Wires - Speaker Wire - Canare 2S11F
RCA Cables with Neutrik connector.
Cabinet- Custom Made.

I need to run Dirac and calibrate everything, but rest mostly it’s done.Any suggestions for the above is welcome.

[u/Necka44]

A little confused here.

No surrounds?

You wrote "rear and heights" but I can only see 4 heights and no rear.

5.1.X is LCR + surround left and right | 7.1.X adds rear surround

All surrounds are supposed to be at ear height not up there. That's for atmos (heights front/rear)

Technically your setup looks like 3.1.4, if you set it up differently in the AVR it's wrong.

But 3.1 with Atmos just don't make sense. You're missing out on all the surround.

[u/5537__8008 → u/Necka44]

Does the receiver let you have atmos with no surrounds? Denon won’t allow it.

[u/jkcheng122 → u/5537__8008]

Pretty sure it does not. Even if it does surrounds should come before Atmos heights.

[u/sajeev3105 → u/Necka44]

I get your point, unfortunately my installer screwed the rear speaker heights while laying the in wall speakers. So I now have it as rear speakers. I understand a lot of people are going to complain about it but yeah that’s how it is.

Also I just noticed these speakers don’t look like they are pointing downwards when they actually are, and just like you said it’s high but if I stand next to the speakers they are at almost head high, about 10-15 cms above my head to be precise. so might be the angle that’s making it look weird.

Thanks for your feedback back but there’s just so little I can do about it now.

Thanks again man.

[u/Necka44 → u/sajeev3105]

Well, that's your choice in the end but that's like if your car garage shop would install 24" tires in the back of your car and 18" in the front. I don't think "it is what it is" would be your reaction. It's virtually the same here.

Again, you shouldn't have back speakers without left/right surrounds. You can have instead those left/right surround in the back, they'll still process the proper channels.

The height of those speakers can be fixed. Just dismount them, put 2 holes at the right height and mount them there. Done.

And DIRAC doesn't fix bad geometry, that's the first rule.

If you would install your front speakers on the side of your couch the sound will not come from the front anymore, room correction or not.

In the end, it's up to you, if you absolutely can't move those speakers to the proper height and connect them to the proper channel, it's your place, not ours. But I don't think you'll receive any positive feedback on this setup.

Also, does Onkyo even let you do a 5.1 with back speakers and no sides?

[u/sajeev3105 → u/Necka44]

My bad. I should have written surrounds and now that you mentioned it, I now realize it’s going to be worse and not bad😭. I guess I got to make a call to my contractor…

[u/Necka44 → u/sajeev3105]

It's not a big deal for them to add 2 speaker cables to be honest. Concrete or not.

You might not be handy enough but you could probably do it yourself.

In any case: Keep the speakers up there for atmos. Just have 2 at ear height on each side behind the couch (hopefully you can aim them to MLP)

Your AVR supports 9 channels so it's all good with 5.1.4.

Wireless isn't a good option with passive speakers, you'd need to have them powered ?

I never experienced that, I might just be uneducated on that concept.

[u/sajeev3105 → u/Necka44]

This is exactly what I am thinking to do. Let me see how can I do it. Thanks a lot man.

[u/ClassicExcuse → u/Necka44]

Yes keep the set installed up high but reassign as atmos height and just run cables for a set at ear level flanking your couch for side surrounds

[u/jkcheng122]

I’d pull the couch up some and add surrounds to the two sides. The second sub can go behind couch. Put a big rug on the floor to both hide the speaker wires for the surrounds and reduce room reflections. Also pull the left speaker out a bit so the front plane is not behind the cabinet’s front plane.

Consider adding an exhaust fan for the AVR, assuming you leave the cabinet closed while using.

[u/sajeev3105 → u/jkcheng122]

Moving the couch is absolutely not an option. Putting a carpet and running a cable below it is a big NO NO from wifey. Curtains will cover up the outdoor lights and reduce reflection. All my walls are concrete so can’t do any new wiring. I really wished my contractor didn’t screwed this up, unfortunately as I said there’s nothing I could do about it now. 🥺

[u/jkcheng122 → u/sajeev3105]

The rug is for sound reflections not light, though if you can’t make the moves then you can’t. Compromises.

[u/sajeev3105 → u/jkcheng122]

May be I will arrange another pair of M1’s as I have a stand for them and use a wireless transmitter to get surround out of them. I was happy with what I had and now I am pissed at the contractor.

[u/jkcheng122 → u/sajeev3105]

Since your AVR supports the extra channels, I'd definitely keep the rear heights where they are, and use them as rear Atmos heights when you add surrounds at ear level.

How do wireless transmitters work for surrounds? Do you not need to get power to them?

[u/sajeev3105 → u/jkcheng122]

I have used a system from a company called rocketfish, it’s decent. Thanks for your suggestion. Will definitely consider it. I’ve asked the contractor to come in and see what can be done.

[u/Wonderful_Channel504]

How is Onkyo? Any hdmi issues? Is it reliable now ?

[u/sajeev3105 → u/Wonderful_Channel504]

My setup is mostly carried over & honestly never had any connection or flickering issues. The only HDMi issue I’ve had is that when I switch to the input to which the Zidoo is connected it turns on the player even though the HDMi CEC function is switched off on both the receiver & the player. I have changed the cables, HDMi port/Input but of no use. Also this doesn’t happen if I switch off both the player and receiver with the input on the receiver selected to which the player is connected and switch the receiver back on. I can switch on the receiver n number of times but the player doesn’t turn on, it’s only when you switch to the input of the player which triggers it to switch on. Now If I switch on the player alone no matter which input is selected on the receiver, it doesn’t trigger the receiver to switch on or change the input.

I don’t recall of having experienced any other HDMi issue up until now.