GilesGuthrie's new Home Cinema project

The old:


TV: Pioneer PDP-436XDE
Amp: Denon AVR2805
BluRay: None
Consoles: PS3, Wii
Digital receiver: Sky+ HD
Speakers: 6x B&W M-1; B&W PV-1

The brief: Full HD TV, preferably 3D; speakers to go in the wall; electronics out of the room

Cleared Out


There wasn't enough space in the wall cavities for the speakers, so we had to bring the wall into the room by around six inches.

Strapping


With the walls open, the bracket was replaced, and all the speaker cable was run (70 metres in total). Chord Rumour 2 for the front three, Chord Campana for the back 4, if you're interested. Additionally, cat5 up to the TV and a big 1.4a HDMI cable.

Boarded and Cut


The plasterboard was fitted, and cutouts done for the speakers and the TV. The shot below shows the cutouts for the rear in-walls and in-ceilings. The in-walls are the Surround Left & Right, and the in-ceilings are the Back Left & Right.

Rear 4


We painted the room before the kit was fitted.

All Painted


Electronics
This little lot had to be moved out of the living room



This little nook existed between the buttress wall and the piano:



And here's the nook all filled up



Finished!




TV: Sony KDL-52HX903
Blu-Ray: Sony BD-S470
Receiver: Marantz SR-7005
Consoles: PS3, Wii
Digital receiver: Sky+ HD
Speakers: 3x B&W LCR7 (front three), 2x B&W CWM652 (surround pair), 2x B&W CCM65 (back pair), B&W PV-1.

Total cost, including installation was "holy christ". However, it's absolutely, utterly, awesome. 3d performance on the TV is excellent, although there is crosstalk at times, and you pretty much have to watch in complete darkness in order to not be bothered by flickering light sources.

Completely worth it though. I'm very happy, the wife is very happy, the children can't stop talking about it.

Thoughts?

Massive respect for the effort involved, and it looks like a good job too.

How do you think the sound compares between the Denon and Marantz recievers?


Personally, and this is not meant as a criticism of what you acheived, I would never go for in wall/ceiling speakers myself. Too much of a sonic compromise given the work and cost involved compared to what can be had from a conventional floorstander IMO... easy for me to say though, I don't mind my room looking like a Hifi Shop dem room... those with wives and kids have different priorities

Ha ha, yes, I know what you mean. I'd prefer to have cabinet speakers too, but the brief was in-walls, which give more flexibility than satellite monitors.

And they sound really good. We stuffed the wall cavities with insulation to control the in-cavity echo, and we're left with a really controlled sound.

The Marantz 7005 is a league ahead of the Denon 2805, but that's to be expected. I demoed a Denon 3311, which is almost the same as the Marantz, but with a different tune. They sounded almost identical, but both my wife and I preferred the Marantz for reasons we couldn't quite explain.

Well, the Marantz certainly looks more formidable than the Denon

Well done Giles, I'm impressed by the fit and finish. How's the 903 performing, What HiFi gave it a very glowing review when released. I'm surprised you mounted your display so high, I know from personal experience having the 803 that the LED screen is prone to washed out image at not even extreme viewing angles. I suppose the angel leaning out from the wall helps allot, I wish I hadn't mounted my own so high, it really compromises the image especially in low light scenes.

Sprite

Well done Giles, I'm impressed by the fit and finish. How's the 903 performing, What HiFi gave it a very glowing review when released. I'm surprised you mounted your display so high, I know from personal experience having the 803 that the LED screen is prone to washed out image at not even extreme viewing angles. I suppose the angel leaning out from the wall helps allot, I wish I hadn't mounted my own so high, it really compromises the image especially in low light scenes.

Click to expand...

It doesn't lean out from the wall, that's probably an artefact from using an ultrawide (16mm) lens.

The 903 is fine at that viewing angle. I was constrained to having it a that height because of the relationship between it, the centre speaker, and the table. But it's a comfortable viewing height. Not washed out at all, although I have done some work configuring the brightness & contrast away from the default settings, so perhaps that's had a beneficial effect.

The surprising thing is how effective the local backlight dimming is. It's miles away from the Samsung LCD that we have upstairs. I mean, because it's one of the monolithic design units, you don't see the screen frame. At night, in the dark, it's impossible to tell where the frame ends and the letterboxing of a movie begins. Excellent black levels.

Looks like a great set up, must be great to have it all finished...though what's with your kid being 2D in the first photo?

GilesGuthrie

It doesn't lean out from the wall, that's probably an artefact from using an ultrawide (16mm) lens.

The 903 is fine at that viewing angle. I was constrained to having it a that height because of the relationship between it, the centre speaker, and the table. But it's a comfortable viewing height. Not washed out at all, although I have done some work configuring the brightness & contrast away from the default settings, so perhaps that's had a beneficial effect.

The surprising thing is how effective the local backlight dimming is. It's miles away from the Samsung LCD that we have upstairs. I mean, because it's one of the monolithic design units, you don't see the screen frame. At night, in the dark, it's impossible to tell where the frame ends and the letterboxing of a movie begins. Excellent black levels.

Click to expand...

Yeh I love local dimming it really works well with dark scenes. Allot of noise was made in some AV forums on how effective local dimming was, I was at first reluctant to have it on (doing the usual AV guy stuff of, if it's built to help the image it's going to hinder it), but after running some calibration tests for blacker than black the local dimming pushed the set just that bit more, with or without it's fine but I defiantly like it on.

Is the 903 rear light or side light? the 803 is side light LED and games like GT5, when loading GT logo appears I get a weird band of light running at the top and bottom. It's frustrating but forgivable as the image produced is stunning.

Sprite

Yeh I love local dimming it really works well with dark scenes. Allot of noise was made in some AV forums on how effective local dimming was, I was at first reluctant to have it on (doing the usual AV guy stuff of, if it's built to help the image it's going to hinder it), but after running some calibration tests for blacker than black the local dimming pushed the set just that bit more, with or without it's fine but I defiantly like it on.

Is the 903 rear light or side light? the 803 is side light LED and games like GT5, when loading GT logo appears I get a weird band of light running at the top and bottom. It's frustrating but forgivable as the image produced is stunning.

Click to expand...

The 903 is rear light. It's actually quite a fat beast, although the way I have it semi-recessed makes it look as thin as some of the Samsungs. It's only 44mm out from the wall.

I haven't seen any image artefacts of any kinds yet. Although it is utterly merciless with poor-quality input signals.

I hear you on the poor quality source with Sony HX series, especially compared to my old man's X2000 that's 5 years old or so now, that set is very forgiving and a smooth image but sometimes a bit too slick, almost like DNR is there flattening some detail but the 32EX we have also that set hates poor source and the built in freeview tuner isn't the best either and leaves something to be desired. Also the CCFL backlight in the X2000 seems to produce a more subtle colour palette compared to LED, the LED's tend to lean towards the blue end of the spectrum so if not calibrated can look too cold and people look like they have been in a freezer. But with some greyscale tweaking it can be pulled back.

I love the B&Ws too, not intrusive looking. A well thought out system. Thanks for sharing.

Nice setup!

I'm a little late to the party but, nicely done!