Wireless surround cinema

dsme · 3 Mar 2017 at 23:00

Hi,

Well I've just had an offer accepted on my first house, exciting times. I'm looking for a new home cinema system for the living room. I currently have a Panasonic SA-PT870 at the moment. I used to have a Samsung system HT-E5550. I preferred the speakers on this but prefer the subwoofer on the Panasonic.

I want a 5.1 or 7.1 system and the system must be wireless (I ******* hate cables). Budget < £1,500.

Thanks

rids57 · 3 Mar 2017 at 23:07

You'll get more responses in the Home Cinema & Hi-Fi forum

Marsman · 3 Mar 2017 at 23:30

True, you'll likely get more responses that section, but expecting to find a completely wireless system is not going to happen. Depends how you define wireless though. If you really do mean wireless, then that's not possible, because speakers require power and battery powered surround system is not feasible. Wireless could mean wires to provide power to the various speakers, but no wired connection to the AV receiver. Even then, they are not common, but at least you've got a budget that is more plausible than those looking for a completely wireless system for £200.

The best you can do for a wireless system is to have wireless rear speakers, but they tend to come about by using some other kit which consists of a transmitter connecting to the AV receiver and then the rear speakers connecting to a receiver. However you look at it though, you can't get away from wires. Monitor Audio did have such kit at one point, but I'm not sure they do now. KEF did too, but again I don't think they do any more. That says to me it's too costly and not feasible really to have a good wireless surround system.

dsme · 3 Mar 2017 at 23:56

Flagged for this thread to be moved to the Home Cinema forum, sorry that I missed that.

Power cables is fine, we can deal with that as it's compulsory. At the very minimum I'm looking at the surrounds being wireless.

HEADRAT · 4 Mar 2017 at 06:50

This tweaked my attention

http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/1...mos-soundbar-review-genuinely-immersive-audio

But the lack of DTS Master Audio support would kill it for me.

That said with bit more digging it looks as if something like the Samsung K8500 will re-encode Dolby Digital.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201512/20151224160603900/UBD-K8500-ZA_1203.pdf

hornetstinger · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:10

You will need either need

a) Speaker cable
b) Power cable

Going from amp to speaker, or mains plug to speaker

I guess you could buy active bluetooth speakers for sides/surrounds but they'll cost more.

For £1500 I'd just buy a AVR and Q Acoustics regular speakers.

HEADRAT · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:39

Yep but OP was pretty clear "the system must be wireless (I ******* hate cables)" so I discounted that

I'd be pretty tempted by the Samsung HW-K950 to be honest, the wife would also approve

hornetstinger · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:42

And power cables...are cables. So either way you'd need two cables. Or 8 mains cables in a 7.1

Unless you buy speakers which have built in battery and you charge them up all the time.

HEADRAT · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:47

Are you even reading this thread

dsme said:
Power cables is fine, we can deal with that as it's compulsory. At the very minimum I'm looking at the surrounds being wireless.

hornetstinger · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:50

yeah. Wireless speakers suck though.

Buffman · 4 Mar 2017 at 07:51

Can't you just route the cabling from the amp. Under the floor?

Assuming the house is getting new carpet/similar done. That's what I've done.

If it's a new build ask the developer to put some in for you?

hornetstinger · 4 Mar 2017 at 08:02

And even if you don't, you can get flat speaker cable and paint it to the same colour as your wall. Also if you have speakers like this, a few cables is hardly an eyesore

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/imagehosting/75530955567a647bc05d.jpg

HEADRAT · 4 Mar 2017 at 08:06

Wow that has to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen, OK it might sound great but I couldn't live with that!

Also the dimension of the rooms look small, it's hard to tell from that photo, just stupidly overpowered

dsme · 4 Mar 2017 at 09:08

The Craig said:
Can't you just route the cabling from the amp. Under the floor?

Assuming the house is getting new carpet/similar done. That's what I've done.

If it's a new build ask the developer to put some in for you?

It's not a new build. I've not even thought about lifting the floor boards, which is a pretty good suggestion to be honest.

hornetstinger said:
yeah. Wireless speakers suck though.

Do they though? Surely there can't be THAT much of a difference?

Buffman · 4 Mar 2017 at 10:41

Lifting the floor boards might be a pain if you've got no access.

I fitted my cables as an afterthought once I'd put down my engineered wood floor. All I did was hide it behind the Scotia (5.1 system)

Here's a pic of the front left (ye I've left the cable too long! But easily cut.)

GoRedwings19 · 6 Mar 2017 at 01:53

have you tried looking at the Dynaudio xeo series?

hornetstinger · 6 Mar 2017 at 17:49

If it uses bluetooth to transmit audio from the source to the speakers then it's downgrade in sound quality.

nintenjo · 6 Mar 2017 at 19:51

The Craig said:
Lifting the floor boards might be a pain if you've got no access.

I fitted my cables as an afterthought once I'd put down my engineered wood floor. All I did was hide it behind the Scotia (5.1 system)

Here's a pic of the front left (ye I've left the cable too long! But easily cut.)

<snip>

This looks ideal to what i need (i have oak flooring with a white scotia currently).. Where did you get Scotia with a pocket behind it big enough to feed that cable? The issue i have is i actually need to get 2 cables behind it for both rears ideally. As going round the room the other direction is going to be a nightmare.

I did think of going with very thin cables? but i'm worried about quality and signal.. thoughts?

Buffman · 6 Mar 2017 at 20:29

nintenjo said:
This looks ideal to what i need (i have oak flooring with a white scotia currently).. Where did you get Scotia with a pocket behind it big enough to feed that cable? The issue i have is i actually need to get 2 cables behind it for both rears ideally. As going round the room the other direction is going to be a nightmare.

I did think of going with very thin cables? but i'm worried about quality and signal.. thoughts?

The Scotia is Natura Laminate White Scotia from flooring supplies . I also chased off some of the rear off the back at the bottom (as its not required) .

The front cable is quite fat so I wouldn't be able to fit 2 sets in there (I do have an Internet cable plus that) .

Round the back I've got 2 sets of cables running and it's QED Profile 42 Strand Speaker Cable White. In terms of signal attenuation it's not a massive length, and I also don't have particularly impressive speakers at the rear. (I believe it's 2.5mm2 though).

Entai · 7 Mar 2017 at 05:52

I got some of this when I did mine.

http://www.rockwell-meriden.co.uk/shop/products.asp?c=151&desc=Rockwell_Skirting/Trunking

Scroll to the bottom to see their skirting board trunking, they do it in many colors and supply all the adapters fixings and everything you need.

Yes slightly more expensive than other options but looks great and hides everything you could possibly need.