Showing off my Family Room DIY wiring job
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_mo_
Posts: 53
I posted a few weeks ago that I would upload pics of my family room upgrade after I finished, so here we go:
Shortly after we bought our house I installed a TL1 5.1 channel surround system in my family room. At the time the basement was unfinished, so running the speaker wire was easy. I've been wanting to upgrade to a 7.2.4 system for a while, but we finished the basement a few years ago, so I was waiting for the right time since I didn't want loose speaker wire or adhesive wall coverings all over the place. We decided to replace our carpet with hardwoods this summer so it was the perfect time to run new speaker wire behind the shoe molding.
First thing I did was install some outlets for better wire management and run the wires around the room and from the baseboard to the speaker height:
The next challenge was hiding the wires around the fireplace, I decided to frame out the fireplace with some of the flooring and cut grooves in the bottom of the flooring to allow the wire to hide under the wood:
After the flooring was installed I patched any holes and made sure the wires were tucked under the floor molding before installing the shoe molding to finish the look.
Finally it is a tall room with lots of windows, so my wife made some floor to ceiling curtains that are amazing! When fully closed they cover all the windows and keep most light from coming in and keep the sound from bouncing around quite as much:
And here is the finished product:
For my birthday I got some new Signature S60's for the fronts.
I have two subs hiding under each of the front end tables.
the surrounds are now Signature S10's. I wanted the S20's but my wife vetoed them because of the size, it's still our family room and she didn't want the surround speakers to be too obtrusive visually.
I repurposed the TL1 surrounds as our height speakers since they were initially installed pretty high.
Unfortunately, my current receiver only supports 7 channels, though it will switch between the 4 lower surrounds and 2 lower and 2 higher depending on if the source is Dolby digital or atmos. So my front two heights are not being used currently. The long term plan is to upgrade to a better 11 channel receiver, move the front height speakers up to the top corners of the TV, and upgrade to a slightly larger 8k TV when they come down in price.
Thanks for checking it out!
Shortly after we bought our house I installed a TL1 5.1 channel surround system in my family room. At the time the basement was unfinished, so running the speaker wire was easy. I've been wanting to upgrade to a 7.2.4 system for a while, but we finished the basement a few years ago, so I was waiting for the right time since I didn't want loose speaker wire or adhesive wall coverings all over the place. We decided to replace our carpet with hardwoods this summer so it was the perfect time to run new speaker wire behind the shoe molding.
First thing I did was install some outlets for better wire management and run the wires around the room and from the baseboard to the speaker height:
The next challenge was hiding the wires around the fireplace, I decided to frame out the fireplace with some of the flooring and cut grooves in the bottom of the flooring to allow the wire to hide under the wood:
After the flooring was installed I patched any holes and made sure the wires were tucked under the floor molding before installing the shoe molding to finish the look.
Finally it is a tall room with lots of windows, so my wife made some floor to ceiling curtains that are amazing! When fully closed they cover all the windows and keep most light from coming in and keep the sound from bouncing around quite as much:
And here is the finished product:
For my birthday I got some new Signature S60's for the fronts.
I have two subs hiding under each of the front end tables.
the surrounds are now Signature S10's. I wanted the S20's but my wife vetoed them because of the size, it's still our family room and she didn't want the surround speakers to be too obtrusive visually.
I repurposed the TL1 surrounds as our height speakers since they were initially installed pretty high.
Unfortunately, my current receiver only supports 7 channels, though it will switch between the 4 lower surrounds and 2 lower and 2 higher depending on if the source is Dolby digital or atmos. So my front two heights are not being used currently. The long term plan is to upgrade to a better 11 channel receiver, move the front height speakers up to the top corners of the TV, and upgrade to a slightly larger 8k TV when they come down in price.
Thanks for checking it out!
Family Room 7.2.4: S35, S60, S10, MM2104 endtables, TL1
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a
Comments
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Nice and neat work!
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looks great! I am sure that those s60s will sound even better with a better AVR, and of course a separate amp would really make them sing! But for now sit back and enjoy, as I am sure that you are...Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
Game Room 5.1.4: Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
Bedroom 2.1Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
Thanks, I should have mentioned, I picked up a used Parasound Amp for them a couple weeks ago and they sound great!Family Room 7.2.4: S35, S60, S10, MM2104 endtables, TL1
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a -
Nice job!!!Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Looks great
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So, the next Polkfest will be held at your house when?
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Thanks all! My house is a little over an hour from Polk's Baltimore offices...maybe we can line up a tour and then folks can come over after
Family Room 7.2.4: S35, S60, S10, MM2104 endtables, TL1
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a -
Nice work!Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS * Roon * Gustard R26 DAC / Singxer SU-6 DDC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 *
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Nice job hiding the wires, I really need to do the same. Your challenging space makes me think of my challenging 14.7 ft. x 13.4 ft. long narrow family room that opens to the kitchen.
The Mrs. wanted to arraign it like yours with the couches across from each other. However, I had to break it to her that the 70" TV (saving pennies for a 77" OLED... I really need some Crypto, Bitcoin, Doge coins!
) would not fit in the corner as she would have liked. If I were to put it over the fireplace it would be too high so I would have removed the mantel and mounted it lower.
I did consider a couple of loveseats. One towards the back of the room facing the fireplace and one on the long wall facing the window.
I ended up putting the TV across the long wall with the couch and loveseat side-by-side theater style against the wall with the window. This way all get a head on view of the TV and the fireplace can still be seen for that added warmth. Its a little odd but It works for us.
Post edited by WLDock on2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2 -
I ended up putting the TV across the long wall with the couch and loveseat side-by-side theater style against the wall with the window. This way all get a head on view of the TV and the fireplace can still be seen for that added warmth. Its a little odd but It works for us.
I did something similar when I moved to my current house. The previous owners had a smallish TV mounted above the fireplace so I replaced that with a mirror and a larger TV sits with the home theater gear on a Salamander rack.
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I ended up putting the TV across the long wall with the couch and loveseat side-by-side theater style against the wall with the window. This way all get a head on view of the TV and the fireplace can still be seen for that added warmth. Its a little odd but It works for us.
I did something similar when I moved to my current house. The previous owners had a smallish TV mounted above the fireplace so I replaced that with a mirror and a larger TV sits with the home theater gear on a Salamander rack..
Nice! Those are two nice systems you have there, I've yet to listen to Magnepan in a home, only at a show. Where are you located? How cool would it be to evade your space and burn a couple of hours of your time. I could live with both of your rigs, lol! VERY NICE!
2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2 -
That's really nice. We had a similar layout when we first moved in, but wanted more seating space when family comes to visit. After putting in the wood floors I did put the sofas and love seat on sliders so we can easily rotate them to have a direct view of the TV, and the loveseat and one of the sofas are recliners so the high position of the TV isn't too bad.Family Room 7.2.4: S35, S60, S10, MM2104 endtables, TL1
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a
