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General set up questions

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PK1

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Hi everyone,

I recently moved to a new house and I am looking to set up my audio system and have a few questions. In my old house I had a theater room (with in-wall and in-ceiling speakers) and a separate area for listening to music, so I had two separate audio systems, but in the new house I have one main area for both.

My “music” system includes an Arcam PA240 power amp, Denafrips Athena pre-amp, Pontus II DAC and a variety of different sources (CD, Eversolo A6, etc.) I have a pair of Polk audio R700s on order that I haven’t yet received, and I want to use these for both theater and music listening purposes. The “music” system doesn’t have a surround processor, but I have a couple of Yamaha V679 receivers that were perfectly fine for my theater room at the old house so I want to use one of those for my “TV system” (plus two subwoofers that I still have).

I have two questions:
1-I am trying to figure out how to set up this system so that I can use one of the Yamaha receivers for TV watching (using the R700s as the main speakers), while being able to switch to my “music” system still using the same R700 speakers. The most obvious answer that I have come up with is to buy a quality speaker selector so that I can switch between the two systems to feed the same speakers, but I’m wondering if there are other solutions.

2- For TV watching, I am looking to buy center and surround speakers to complement the Polk R700s. It looks like the R400 might be a good choice for the center, and I am thinking either R200s or R100s for the rear. The main question is around my room set up. As you can see in the attached picture, the back of my couch is against the wall, and on one side I have about 4 ft. space to the side wall. I don’t have flexibility to move the couch, so I need to make this set up work. One option is to install surrounds in the ceiling, another would be to buy standalone speakers and put them on either side of the couch, but I obviously can’t go farther back than the side walls, so the speakers would need to be on the back wall facing the couch. The ceiling speakers would be a lot cleaner from a visual perspective, but I’m not sure how they would sound facing down from above sides. If I go with standalone speakers, I’d prefer the smaller R100s since a tall stand would already make this an unstable set up, especially on carpet, so I don’t want to go much heavier, unless I put the speakers on some sort of a wall-mounted shelf, but not sure if I like the look of that set up. Looking for any suggestions on this please.

Thanks.
 

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Seems like interesting project. Surrounds in the ceiling are generally not recommended. For bed channels sound should come from the same level, which is ear level, or a tad above it for the surrounds. Center choice makes sense, but should check the measurements and dispersion that should be wide for the big sofa. Surrounds, the bigger the better, but then we all need to live with some limitations.

Distance between the sofa and back wall should be at least 60cm, so if possible to accomodate, would likely be beneficial.

Not sure how your Yamaha handles any pass through to separate 2 ch gear, so that is up to you. In general, YPAO room correction system is not considered as top of the crop. At the same time, lots of people are transitioning to the AVRs for both 2 ch and HT. D&M and Onkyo have extensive line up with Dirac capabilities that could potentially work well without the need for the separate 2 ch gear.

Finally, subs are what lots of people use for both HT and 2 ch music so something to think about.

Good luck with your project and hope your will enjoy it.
 
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The Yamaha will bypass all processing when in “Straight” mode. Thus, you could plug your stereo pre-amp into a Yamaha input, and then your music sources into the preamp. The Aracam amp could con-nect to to the Yamaha’s L/R preamp outputs. That would give you the music system. Movie / video sources could be plugged into the Yamaha for surround sound.

I’ve had the rear speakers well above ear level in every house I’ve had a system in, and it sounds great. Keep mind that movie theaters also have the rear speakers above ear level. The only problem would be if you plan to have an Atmos system.

I’ve experienced systems with the back speakers in close to the sides of the sofa, and you only hear the closest speaker. Plus the proximity makes them easy to localize, which is a big distraction. It’s really bad if you’re the one stuck on the end of the couch.

Thus, in your situation I’d go with in-ceiling speakers above the couch, if its current location is nailed down.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
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Thank you both.

Wayne: your connection suggestion seems like a great idea. I had forgotten about the “straight” mode in the Yamaha; I’ll look into this. As for the surround speakers, I’ve been reading about bipolar speakers and wondering whether mounting them on the back wall on the sides of the couch and above listening height would sound better than just mounting regular speakers in the ceiling. I’m leaning towards the ceiling option purely for aesthetics and simplicity.
 
I do not believe the RX-V679 is equipped with a Front pre out but only a Zone 2 pre out. This will not work for your purposes and you will need a speaker selector device to connect to the speaker terminals of the Yamaha and the Arcam to keep the systems separate but share the new pair of speakers.

I would pull the couch off of the back wall as much as possible and, if going with bi poles, place them on the side wall even with the couch. This is for older non atmos capable units. If upgrading to new “object” based gear, mono pole speakers are necessary for proper “object” placement of Dolby Atmos signals and only Height speakers would be placed in ceiling with Surround and Surround Back speakers placed at or just above ear level.

The Straight mode in Yamahas is not entirely without processing but only restricts output channels to those within the signal. YPAO, tone adjustment and bass management for output to the subwoofer are still active. For two channel output with no processing at all, select Pure Direct. Results may vary from older to newer models.

Example Selector:
 
The two Yamaha AVRs share a manual; I didn’t notice the picture I was looking at was the 779 and not the 679. Sorry ’bout that, OP. My connection scheme will work, but you’ll need a different AVR to accomplish it.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
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Yep, I went and looked at the back of the Yamaha and this became evident quickly! I think I’ll go the speakers selector route. Surprisingly that it’s hard to find one with banana plug connectors, but I haven’t looked hard enough yet.

Tre2023 said:
I would pull the couch off of the back wall as much as possible and, if going with bi poles, place them on the side wall even with the couch.
Click to expand...

I will play with pulling the couch once I start playing with the position of main speakers. I wish had side walls to mount the surrounds on… on the other side of the couch the closest side wall would be 15-17’ ft away (haven’t measured exactly, picture attached). So my options are either ceiling, back wall, or standalone speakers on stands on either side of the couch.

This is a 15.5 x 25 ft room but given the location of a relatively large window (center of the smaller wall) I have to place the TV and couch along the longer walls. In addition, given the location of a closet door and point of entry in the room, I can’t center the couch/TV on the longer walls and hence both are located closer to one of the side walls. If the windows wasn’t where it is I would turn the room 90 degrees and this would be close to an ideal set up, but I have to deal with what I have.
 

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Power Pop 23 said:
An option for a speaker selector switch with banana plug connectors at Amazon (USA):

Click to expand...
I saw that one, looks pretty sturdy but a couple of the reviews talking about wrong wiring internally and switches failing/leaking current made me pass. I ordered this one instead. It’s a European brand (Swedish?), not sure where it’s manufactured but hoping it’s better quality than the other one:

www.ebay.com

Dynavox Amp-S MKII Amplifier/Speaker Switch black | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dynavox Amp-S MKII Amplifier/Speaker Switch black at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
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