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Best laid plans-AKA-nope, none of my speakers will work in this space. Please help.

keithpgdrb

keithpgdrb

Super Member
Hey all,

Just recently joined the 21st century and got ourselves a fancy new flat panel tv. We will us this tv for some movies, wii games, and general tv watching. no biggie. so, I had this awesome plan to use my Kef 103.2's and my sansui 9090 as sound support for the tv, and to just use it to play music during parties and such. I've been looking forward to getting this set up since we decided to get the tv.

so, fast forward to the obvious. We got the tv all set up on its new stand, and it looks great. found a nice corner stand, which allowed us to get a nice big tv. So, I start setting up the speakers and receiver to support everything. get it set, place the speakers..... And it just looks stupid. Wife didnt even have to say anything. it just looked like a bunch of stuff jammed in the corner. I hate it. I've looked at every possible setup scenario, and it just isnt in the cards.

I need different speakers. at this point, I am looking for something that takes up very little real estate. Options that come to mind are a) a sound bar b) satellite speakers c) some of those really skinny, but slightly taller speakers. I dont know of many of those, and those may be really expensive..

I am looking to you more experienced cats for some guidance. My first priority, is good sound, as we will be using this for general music listening in this area, as well as tv, movies and games. The speakers dont have to fill the whole house with frat party loudness, but I would like them to sound full.

I have included some pictures of the space that the speakers need to fit. I have placed my Kef next to the stand for size reference. They are about 20" tall and 10.5" wide. I am looking for something much less blocky. taller is ok, if its less wide. The distance from floor to the top of the tv is about 53.5".

My present vision is to put a speaker on each side of the cabinet.

I'm not sure what kind of budget I need here. I've seen some of the tall thin speakers go for 1k and up. I'm nowhere near that. I'd like to keep these under $300 bills.

I hope you guys can throw me some suggestions. My research is showing a lot of old posts, but not much about whats out there now. Thank you all in advance.

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The plant and candle blocking the part of the TV screen looks much more stupid than a beautiful pair of KEF speakers in the middle of the floor. :)

That's a tough area. I have no serious suggestions for you, but I have a similar problem. I'll post pictures of my fix in a bit.
 
Try something small, on stands. Or perhaps try something on the right side of the fireplace, and an equal distance along the wall with the window. If you face the speakers towards you (i.e. not parallel with the wall) you can avoid early reflections off of the wall.
 
Well I can't find my camera. But I have a TV in the corner like you, and although I have a little more floor space than you do before hitting an air vent or a fire place, I put a pair of Mission 761's on nice looking stands that are about 2 1/2" tall. $300 will go much further with bookshelf speakers on stands rather than modern floor standers.
 
Don't know, even with skinny speakers it'll look cramped. Best speakers for that space are satellite speakers. Sound would not be as good as full range speakers though. Is that the only part of the room you can put the tv and stand? Why not place it against the window on the left. You can still use your kefs' with that placement and save you $300. Maybe replace the paper blinds with thick linen curtains to block out light during daytime tv watching.
 
Is that the only place to put the TV? Do you need to use that TV stand so bad that you're going to spend more money to swap out a pair of nice KEFs?
 
I probably should have given you guys a bigger shot to see the whole room. We've thought out the placement of all this for a while. That corner is the best place for the tv, so its definitely staying there. There's the same amount of space on the other side of the fireplace.

No, not going to put the tv in front of the window. Not very Zen. Funny though that you say the blinds look like paper. They are supposedly very expensive custom blinds. I always thought they looked like paper as well. came with the house.

I'm not against satellite speakers or any of the other mentioned solutions. whatever we choose, we'll have to see and hear it in the space. Luckily, I have a nice Polk powered sub that is presently unused If I need it. save me a few bucks.

The KEF's have actually never been up in this location. I was just looking forward to putting them there. but they just dont work. I'm not that worried, I'll find another place for them!! anyway, back to the problem at hand.. anyone know anything about, or are happy with any kind of sound bar?
 
nickrobotron said:
The plant and candle blocking the part of the TV screen looks much more stupid than a beautiful pair of KEF speakers in the middle of the floor. :)

That's a tough area. I have no serious suggestions for you, but I have a similar problem. I'll post pictures of my fix in a bit.
Click to expand...

Plant and candlestick will be relocated for viewing. lol.
 
$300 does not buy a a lot of new speaker. I would look at the soundbars available today. Check to make sure the tv has an audio out hook up. If it does not, then you may not be able to get everything running without additional expense.
I think Target has a Samsung bar for about $300. It also comes with a sub module.
The other option would be a used Bose Cinemate. They usually run about $350 to $400. They sound good, and consist of 2 satellites and a bass unit. It also has a small control box. Good luck
 
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! to those cheap, crappy sound bars.

personally, I'd get a wall mount bracket, and put the TV over the fireplace, and then speakers on either side.

used/semi vintage,
some speakers I'd look at AR Rock Partners, possibly putting them under the TV, raising the TV up about 9"...could look for some Powered Partners, and save your sansui for other duty....
I'd also look at some AR Holographic Imaging M4 or M5's...they're pretty small foot print towers, and my M5's sound very nice.
newer, but still used, the AR "the edge" speakers from the late 90's have pretty good sound for their size (realistic minumus 77 size), but possibly questionable aesthetics.

smaller, I'd build my own. I'd start with Paul Carmody's Overnight sensations in either TM or MTM version

http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-overnightsensations
http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/overnightsensationmtm

for your space, I'd modify the box a bit, making it shallower and taller, with a front port(s). you'll need to probably put an elbow in the port if you make them shallower.
 
If it was me, I'd pull the screen and stand a little bit forward from the corner and get a pair of these Axiom monitors or something similar. You don't have to sacrifice sound quality because of speaker size.
 
Give us a pull back shot of the whole fireplace area. What I would propose is more radical but perhaps useful.

Consider this:
Take down the fireplace mantle and pictures. Look at it bare.

Now consider remounting the mantle lower. Get a rigid or tilt/tilt and swivel wall mount and fasten into the fireplace brick - gotta do a good job of that though to be sure it will hold.

Clean up any mortar that needs it. Run wiring down one side or find a way to tunnel in wall for TV and cable/satellite box feeds.

Now you can place speakers on either side of fireplace, stands or not, or for some even wall mount them if they are smaller, or in-wall speakers with a sub for support. Ton's of in-wall's you could use that sound a ton better than "bar" types.

Of course, this would mean reconfiguring your seating arrangements. That's why a full 360 of the room is needed. KEEP the KEFs and use them to full effect, they are great speakers!

The stand you bought can remain in one of the corners to house the gear and video equipment.
 
Durski said:
Others said it first, TV over the fireplace.
Click to expand...

Sorry, missed michiganpat's comment about over fireplace mounting. Still, wanted to give the OP more detail about it. Don't know if the fireplace is brick veneer or truly full brick. Can be tricky to find studs for the wall mount. And there is the issue of heat deflection although if the fireplace is working well, the heat is radiated rather than air convection heating - that's why the mantle is important to further deflect any heat rising to in front of the TV.
 
Corner Placement is a PITA and I ended up changing my room rather than trying a workaround but something like Mirage OMD5s wich are omnidirectional can be wall mounted with the included mounts with very little trouble and they sound very good no matter where you sit. Build quality and finish is much better than you usually see
in their price range, they sometimes pop up at auction at less than a third of their retail. Their appearance is deceiving, they can easily fill a Medium size room with a clear detailed sound. Soundstage is something special because of their omni-directional design. Bass is about what you would expect in a small bookshelf. but you can place them anywhere wich is a big plus.
Good Hunting.

Edit: I also like the wallmount over the fireplace suggestion but those bricks wouldn't make it easy to do and it would be awfully high up.
 
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I can't see the rest of the room, but I would put the speakers up along side the fireplace on some sort of mount.
 
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