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speaker/theatre layout in open plan basement

  • 17 February 2023
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Hi all, 

we have a decent sized basement that is going to be pretty open plan. It’s pretty much an L Shape, and the plan is for one side of the L to be a home gym/workout area, the other side a TV/sofas area, and in the “corner” of the L is a bar. You’d be able to stand at the bar and look straight ahead at the TV, or look to your right and  see the gym area.

for the TV set up i would plan on soundbar, sub and surrounds. Initial thought is that surrounds would be positioned focused on the sofa. However if we ever hosted a party (think super bowl or otherwise) or whatever we would expect people to be sitting at the bar or perched behind the sofas. Even home alone id probably like to be able to sit at the bar and have the tv on.

 

So i am also not sure what to do about speaker placement. Would adding an extra “zone” for the bar (and then grouping with the TV) do the job in bringing the tv sound to the bar area? Or will this distort, cause echo, etc? Putting the surrounds back by the bar would be too far from the main seating (sofa). 

 

similarly I’d probably want a small tv in the gym area (maybe synced to main TV) so would like to have a zone too.. same question? Will these zones all grouped together with the TV provide sound of the main TV to those areas or likely to be bad quality? 


 

 

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Best answer by Stanley_4 18 February 2023, 01:01

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Grouping outside the 5.1 bonded units adds a small delay to the TV mode sound, not bad in different rooms but maybe an issue in your open plan. No delay in streaming audio mode.

Maybe, for the main TV, instead of a bar you could use an Amp and multiple speakers placed where you need them. That would get you stereo sound but with the multiple speakers the image wouldn’t be great. Four is easy, six you need either the speakers Sonos sells or impedance matching units. Two Amps, Front with multiple speakers per channel and Surround would also be an option but I’d not be surprised if that didn’t sound great in surround TV mode.

In the gym you could just use a bar and let the TV feed it sound, the two rooms would be as close as the TV’s outputs. You could group for music with no issues.

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