What do you think of my planned setup?

Zagato

Moved into our house about a year now and just getting around to setting up HE setup. I'm interested to know what you think of what I'm planning on getting. I know that I really should listen to everything myself (but if I'm honest, it's not going to happen).

The room I am setting it up in is about 7.5m x 4m x 3to4.5m (the ceiling comes to an apex). the walls and ceiling are all white and aesthetics has to be priority in speaker choice (or the other half might leave me), she has told be that I would be allowed put up Bose cube type speakers in white, but can't stray to far from this. The room has quite a lot of windows, no curtains at present, but don't plan on having curtains for all of the windows any way, so will be wanting a bright projector. We would plan to use the setup to watch movies mostly but also, it is our good room that we would read the paper in on a Sunday and entertain people, so listening to music at those times too. I want to have a second zone (kitchen/living area) which we would probably listen to music via mostly. Other things that I would like as features in the amp are Wifi/Bluetooth/Spotify/Airplay/3D + 4K passthrough (so it won't be out of date in a couple of years) and some sort of auto set up. Can't find one that has all of this, but here is the plan:

AV Receiver: Onkyo TX-NR727 -have found it for €649
Speakers: Bose Acoustics Soundware S 5.1 - widely available for €410
Projector: Optoma HD25-LV - going to be around €1,200

Haven't picked out speakers for the kitchen yet.

The main questions I have at the moment is what speaker cable should I use to connect it all up, can't imagine I will want to spend much more money on this, and also how far away do you think the powered second zone can be (reckon there might need to be nearly 20m of speaker cable to furthest speaker). I also feel that I am spending a lot relatively on the the projector, but I think it would be good to have one that is pretty bright (that one is 3,200lumens).

Do you think there is much benefit in getting a couple of extra speakers and going for 7.1, rather than 5.1?

Any contributions appreciated

uphillonly

Buy cheap speaker cable. Every double-blind test in history has failed to show a difference in quality between "premium" & the cheapest cable.

It's snake oil selling of the highest order. Same with premium hdmi cables.

Slaphead07

there's a "sticky" on cables already here. Best to read that before taking any other "advice" :rolleyes: on the issue.

On another issue I'd lose the Bose in favour of almost anything else.

Zagato

Slaphead07 wrote: »

there's a "sticky" on cables already here. Best to read that before taking any other "advice" :rolleyes: on the issue.

On another issue I'd lose the Bose in favour of almost anything else.

Just reread my post there, I meant Boston Acoustics, not Bose. I got it all anyway, just have to connect it up now. Have only tried the Projector and the am very pleased, it's a little noisy without having proper sound, but picture quality is great.

Zagato

uphillonly wrote: »

Buy cheap speaker cable. Every double-blind test in history has failed to show a difference in quality between "premium" & the cheapest cable.

It's snake oil selling of the highest order. Same with premium hdmi cables.

Cheers, don't know how I didn't noticed that. I had ended up buying a roll of QED 79 strand cable as it happens

TroutMask

That's OK - you want a minimum of OFC multi strand speaker cable so that will do nicely.

uphillonly

Slaphead07 wrote: »

there's a "sticky" on cables already here.

Sorry, read that after my post.

www.temple.ie (Tallaght, Dublin) sell 100m rolls of 79 strand speaker wire. Cost me 90euros.

Also sell 305m rolls of Belden Cat6 if you're doing network cabling at the same time which tend to go hand in hand now when redecorating. Anyone know why they are always 305m and not 300m .....?

M three

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but renovated another house and before I put in flooring and skirting boards do I just run 79 strand speaker wire around the room behind the skirting boards?
One wire per speaker? Tv etc will be in one corner, couch will be near opposite wall and I'll have 2 speakers behind couch.
So do I need 2 wires going to each speaker?

Appreciate any advice.

Zagato

The QED 79 strand wire that I got is two wires (one for each terminal red/black) they come stuck together. So you would need one wire (i.e. 2 wires) per speaker, all going back to wherever your amplifier/receiver is going to be.
I find my wires work well for me as they are visible, but all white on white walls. If they were going to be hidden I would recommend getting one that has some marker for the positive terminal, so you don't get them confused.

uphillonly

Zagato wrote: »

I find my wires work well for me as they are visible, but all white on white walls. If they were going to be hidden I would recommend getting one that has some marker for the positive terminal, so you don't get them confused.

The 79 strand I bought from Temple is white on one side and the other has one cable with a black line. Perfect for positive terminal marking & also keeping it tidy along a wall but just showing the all the white side.

M three

Zagato wrote: »

The QED 79 strand wire that I got is two wires (one for each terminal red/black) they come stuck together. So you would need one wire (i.e. 2 wires) per speaker, all going back to wherever your amplifier/receiver is going to be.
I find my wires work well for me as they are visible, but all white on white walls. If they were going to be hidden I would recommend getting one that has some marker for the positive terminal, so you don't get them confused.

Thanks for that. I'll be putting it behind the skirting board and just a thought, is there a "port" for this wire, that I could install in the skirting board and plug another length of wire into?