My future home cinema setup

SgtSpoon

Member
Dec 25, 2007
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Hi all,

I've been throroughly renovating a house i bought last february, i think i'll be able to move in by march/april. I've been thinking about the home cinema setup, and i'm not sure what to do. Of course, since i just renovated a house, budget is loooow :)

The living room is small : it's 4 meters wide and 3.3 meter deep.

Picture ( the room behind the stairs will be the living room )
http://picasaweb.google.com/da...to#5136710163000449906

Some 3D Renders that show where the furniture will go :
http://picasaweb.google.com/davyvanlaere/HuisRender

As you might see on the picture, there are some square openings in the ceiling. Some are for lighting fixtures, some are for speakers ( 4 of them ). The speakers will be Artsound sq525 ( small belgian firm that makes decent speakers ). I fully realise that the placement isn't really good for home cinema speakers, but the small space i have limits my options.

I am going to buy an xbox360 and set it up as a media center extender.

What am i still missing now :
- subwoofer
- center speaker
- amp/decoder

First i though about buying a Pioneer VSX-817-K as amp/decoder, since i can get that for less than 300?.

But then i started checking prices of centerspeakers and subwoofers. If i buy the cheapest i can find, those 2 will set me back at least another 300? which is a bit over my small budget ( if anyone knows where to buy decent afforable center speakers and/or subwoofers for cheapo's like me ... )

Solutions i am now considering :

Option A : buy the Pioneer amp, and configure it to use only 4 speakers Probably not a very good home cinema setup, but still better than plain stereo. I can buy center/subwoofer later. But i'm not sure if its even possible to use only 4 speakers and get the center/sub channel mixed over those 4 channels?

Option B : buy one of those kits that include amp/decoder and an 5.1 entire speaker set, and use the 4 speakers in my ceiling instead of the 4 sattelites in the set.

Example : http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_HT_DDW_790__6763491

I really don't understand why you can buy such an entire set for less than 300?, while a sub/center pair cannot be bought for 300?. I've heard these cheap sets, and their quality is quite ok for their price.