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General discussion

Home Theater and General Entertainment Room setup HELP

Oct 10, 2005 8:36AM PDT

Because of some pretty good fortune, I find myself with a hodge-podge of AV equipment and two rooms by which my better half is "allowing" me to setup up to my liking within some financial reasoning. First, the rooms. Room 1 is the family room of our home, where we spend all of our family TV time. It is 20x15x8 covered in oak hardwood with one window to the north. Because of our furniture (wrap around sectional), the only way to position this room is with the TV on the opposite short wall facing the window. Room 2 is detached from the main structure and has fairly similar dimensions except the window positioning and furniture dictate a seating area along the "long wall" with the entertainment media on the opposite long wall. We will use this room for general adult entertainment (cards, cocktails, music, some movies, etc.)

What I have:
2 Energy C9 floor standing Speakers
2 Boston Acoustic CR6 Bookshelfs
Velodyne SPL-1000RBG sub
Bose VCS-10 Center
Bose Acoustimas 5 III system (two cubes and bass unit)
2 Bose indoor/outdoor speakers
Denon AVR1601 Receiver
Panasonic S77S DVD player
Denon 5 Disk CD carousel
Sony Combo DVD/VCR (can't remember model)
Sony WEGA 50" HD Rear Projection LCD
JVC 36" AV36D800 (tube)
Panasonic 27" Tube (probably 5 years old)
Comcast HD Digital cable in Room 1
Standard Cable in Room 2
Both rooms wired (inwall) with monster low profile 16g

Thoughts Room 1:
The WEGA, C9's, CR6's, Panasonic DVD and Velodyne all stay in Room 1. I then upgrade to a better center speaker and move the vcs-10 to craigslist or Room 2. I've gotten used to the interfacing on the Denon AVR1601 so I upgrade to a higher end Denon. Done?

Questions:
Will the mismatched speakers be a problem? I can only see getting rid of the bose center. But if I have to I can relegate the boston's to the other room too. But would rather spend $ on a better center. Because of the seating taking up so much room, the l/r rear speakers need to be mounted above head height. Thye're actually about 7 feet up. Well out of the reach of our two year old even on the couch. If I angle them down on mounting brackets will that keep the surround stage in tact? Also, the CR6's are fairly hefty. What mounting brackets should I use?

Thoughts Room 2:
Somewhat dependant on what comes out of room 1 but I was thinking of taking the Denon AVR1601, All the Bose, and using them mainly for music. I would mount the outdoor speakers on the outside of the structure and run them on the speaker B input while using the cubes and bass unit inside for music and some iteration of 3.1 surround (utilizing the JVC TV's built in's as 1).

Questions:
I'm ok with much less sound quality in this room but, will the acoustimas setup operate with the TV speakers acting as the fronts/center. I would like to be able to have people inside watching some sporting event and people outside listening to background music, but am not sure if this is even possible with the Denon 1601.

I have a bunch of reading to do, but a push (gentle or otherwise) in the right directions would be most appreciated.

Jay

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