In an ideal world..

[miikeeyy92]

..how would you set up a house if were doing it from scratch?

I’m soon to be moving into my first owned property and want to see if I can get all ideas together so I don’t miss out on a good opportunity.

I have a Yamaha RXV677 with 5.1 Tannoy speakers and a HTPC + PS4.

My plans are to convert the HTPC to more of a plex server, with an Nvidia Shield pulling from it in the future. I’m aware that my amp does 2-zone so can have 5.1 in the lounge, with 2 speakers In the kitchen. Could I piggy-back 2 extra speakers onto them for the dining room too? I want to put Ethernet about type house too. Is there anything I’m not thinking of?

 

[hornetstinger]

Could I piggy-back 2 extra speakers onto them for the dining room too?

I wouldn't recommend it.

But if I were able to get home done from scratch

1) Dedicated home cinema room, ideal room shape for audio. Built in projector behind soun proof room, sound insulation and treatment. All wiring in trunking that can be added or removed easily. Full Atmos system. Audio gear and speakers behind screen mesh. Built in OLED TV. All network and audio cable between rooms, network switch and high capacity NAS under stairs cupboard.

ISF calibration for OLED and projector, and full audio setup with room EQ etc.

I might know about audio gear, and got audio gear already and able to put it together, but not about the custom install things, that a pro would know and plan out.

 

[miikeeyy92]

I wouldn't recommend it.

But if I were able to get home done from scratch

1) Dedicated home cinema room, ideal room shape for audio. Built in projector behind soun proof room, sound insulation and treatment. All wiring in trunking that can be added or removed easily. Full Atmos system. Audio gear and speakers behind screen mesh. Built in OLED TV. All network and audio cable between rooms, network switch and high capacity NAS under stairs cupboard.

ISF calibration for OLED and projector, and full audio setup with room EQ etc.

I might know about audio gear, and got audio gear already and able to put it together, but not about the custom install things, that a pro would know and plan out.

It would be great to to have a dedicated room but as it’s my first house it’s not going to happen! I’ll be working with a lounge, dining room and kitchen + bedroom.

 

[hornetstinger]

well since it's just a regular home, usual things are just making sure enough mains points close to the hifi racking, good flooring (carpet) not audio reflective surface, mounting surround speakers in the right place, making cables neat and tidy. Even if you don't put speaker cables in the wall, a good job can be done if it's along skirting, getting speaker wire that matches the walls, some surround speakers are white so blend into the room. Finding place best for the sub.

Probably biggest thing to do would be multi-room ethernet, planning that from the start so PC's, NAS and other audio/video streamers using gigabit from a decent network switch. Unless you stick with wifi.

Other things mainly about existing setup, like macro and universal remote so make it easier to use and don't need multiple remotes and cut down on pressing buttons on your remotes

 

[lucid]

The Yam Z2 output won't support two pairs of speakers running from it directly as that'll pull the impedance down to 4 Ohms if wired parallel. You could either use an impedance-matching transformer which would then make the two sets of 8 Ohm speaker appear as 6-8 Ohm load on Z2, or you could have speakers with a switchable 4 Ohm / 8 Ohm load setting. The transformer is cheaper, but it sucks some power out of the system so at medium to high volume sound the audio pumps a bit. The 4/8 Ohm load switching works better, but you'll spend £300/pr for the speakers as it's a high-end feature that requires very good circuit design and high build quality.

"What about wiring 8 Ohm speakers in series?" Two sets of speakers combined in this way will present a 16 Ohm load to the amp. It will reduce the volume of the speakers because the system draws less current. However, you're likely to run in to an issue with the maximum load that the amp will tolerate. It's possible it will trip out at medium volume levels.


As for the "anything I'm not thinking about? " question.... how long is a piece of string? lol

Common mistakes are the TV too high (sometimes unavoidable because it sits above a fireplace), speakers in the corners of the room (bad for acoustics and intelligibility); obsessing over wall plates (they add cost and extra connection points which are potential points of failure. Plus, getting cables to bend to plug in to the rear sockets can strain or break them); fitting sockets right where the wall bracket will sit; not using a tilting TV bracket; buying an ultra slim TV bracket and then finding the signal plugs get mashed or broken because of limited clearance; fitting cable outlets below the halfway line of the TV(clearance issues again); paying too little for- and using crap- cable without realising the pitfalls (RG6/CCS coax = bad, CCA Ethernet = very bad); paying too much for "magic" cables because no-one can adequately explain the mythical benefits without ************ you; overspecing the Ethernet cable because you're scared of future-proofing; burying cables in-wall rather than using trunking and conduit....... The list goes on and on .