TV/Surround.S audiophile opinions wanted

[R063R]

I'm getting married in a few months and my fiancée and I are sorting out our present lists at the minute. She gets to argue why a £2k cooker oven thing is more important than my suggestion of £3k Samsung 4K UltraHD 50". Microwave and a George Foreman grill.....DONE. And hundreds saved. Anyway - I have started to create my mancave in our new home and want the opinions and advice from all of you for a few questions.

I have a Panasonic 5.1 system that I had in my previous bedroom, with cables running along the floor... I want to stay away from that this time and am wondering about the best way to set up the 5 speakers if they were to all sit directly in front of the viewing position. I was going to try a few different things -

- front left(FL) and front right(FR) in front of tv facing forward, surround left(SL) and surround right(SR) behind tv facing wall behind tv with a slight outward angle so sound can bounce off and wall and around room

- FL and FR in front of tv facing forward, SL and SR in front of tv facing directly left and right, so if F speakers faced zero degrees then S speakers would face +90 and -90

- FL in front of tv facing 45 degrees inwards, SL in front of tv facing 45 degrees outwards, and same for R. Sides of both L speakers would be at 90 degrees to eachother and if looking down on them from directly above the front edges would form a 'W' shape

Is any of these better than the other? Obviously, testing will be key, but have any of you done something similar and found one to be superior? Or have found a different formation to be superior? Also, any good links for a testing video on YouTube or another site to play to get a good SS effect going?

I also used to do some wedding DJing a few years ago so have huge Behringer monitor speakers that I would love to incorporate into my mancave setup. In a room the size of a tennis court the sound up very loud is crystal clear. I spent quite a lot of money of them and don't want to sell them or not use them. They have a very large input - the correct name for it has slipped my mind, but it is approx an inch in diameter and the cable twists and locks when inserted. How would I go about wiring them into my setup via a Behringer amplifier? Would I need to say goodbye to the SS? That would be fine - them tiny satellite speakers would be no match for the huge monitors.

Last question - is there any positives in forking out for a 4K tv right now if nothing is broadcast in it or available to watch or play currently? Prices are bound to drop as well when 4K is widely used, so buying a £3k 50" now would be daft compared to a £1.5k 55" LED....?

Thanks for any help, guys

 

[Vegard]

I don't think any of these would be very good options.

You could try reverse-phasing your surround speakers for a "virtual surround effect".
Simply connect the surround channels with the cables switched - red on black / positive on negative (on one end only).

 

[LeMansAid]

You'd have to be sitting mighty close to a 4K 50 inch tv to get any benefit from the resolution.

The best bang for buck picture right now (and almost best, full stop) is the Panasonic ST60 plasma series, hands down. One would have to have some very specific needs to not jump on one of those while it's still possible (no new models coming... ever).

 

[wfooshee]

Don't bother with surround if you want them up front. No way to get the intended effect from them, phased correctly or not. If you can't put them behind you or at least beside the viewing seat, then leave them out.

 

[Anomaly]

Don't bother with surround if you want them up front. No way to get the intended effect from them, phased correctly or not. If you can't put them behind you or at least beside the viewing seat, then leave them out.

This. There is absolutely no point in placing surround speakers up front.

 

[bevo]

Unless your receiver supports wide or height speakers just go with a 3.1 setup.

Or just run the wires under a rug if it's hardwood floors or under the carpet if it's carpet.

What your wanting to do though will sound terrible. You would be getting your rear sounds up front. Couldn't you just run the wires behind your base boards along the side of the room or something. Speaker wires are really easy to hide.

 

[Mikeybc]

I agree that rear surrounds up front is useless.

If its just the cables your worried about just get wireless speakers for the rear surround channels. Won't be the absolute best fidelity but will get the job done. I would do what Bevo said, just run wire around the perimeter of the room and hide it under the baseboards.

 

[R063R]

Thanks for the input so far, everyone.

I think I will lose the surround speakers, as per what nearly all are suggesting to do. As well as the visible cables running along the floor, I forgot to mention that I would want the surrounds at ear level when seated. As there would be nothing only a wall behind viewing position, I think the only solution there is drilling holes in the wall to set speakers on something - which I also do not want to do.

Will have the Behringers running instead and pushed off to the side. Found a really easy way to wire them up - 3.5mm headphone jack from TV splitting into two 1/4" jacks to go into Behringer amp, then same out to speakers with XLR input. I never use the TV speakers as they are terrible so will be able to have headphone jack in full-time.

And why would a plasma be a better TV than an LED? Samsung are making the best pictures on a TV at the minute, in my opinion. I have a Sharp LED at the minute, and had a Panasonic LCD before that - the Panasonic user interface is the best I've seen, so would nearly buy a TV for that alone. The Sharp is very good, except when watching something dark - like the scene in Avengers when Thor and Loki drop to the ground from the plane and they are standing on a cliff... The screen goes pixelly where the night sky is because it can't take the dark colours. Would that not be an issue for a plasma? The pixels are something I could really do without seeing when I watch something. I also don't like the shakiness of the picture when playing something fast like multiplayer CoD. Sell me the plasma - tell me why I should have it over an LED for my cinema/gaming mancave......

 

[wfooshee]

I like plasma for the complete lack of motion blur. LCDs are simply not fast enough to respond to fast changes in the screen. And LED sets ARE LCDs, just lit with LEDs, so same issue.

I have a Samsung 51" plasma 3D and I love it! Yes, the surface is nearly mirror-reflective. So what? Don't put bright lights in your viewing area and they won't reflect on the screen. The picture is bright enough to view in the daytime, and is spectacular at night.

While shopping for this set in late 2010 (my first HD set,) I saw not one single LCD set I would put in my house. The pixels simply couldn't keep up with the picture!

 

[bevo]

Nothing beats a Panasonic plasma unless it's going to be pit into a very bright room.

 

[LeMansAid]

Nothing beats a Panasonic plasma unless it's going to be pit into a very bright room.

In which case I'd be recommending a Samsung 8500 series plasma anyway. Brightest plasma ever, and very highly regarded in all other areas.

The Sharp is very good, except when watching something dark - like the scene in Avengers when Thor and Loki drop to the ground from the plane and they are standing on a cliff... The screen goes pixelly where the night sky is because it can't take the dark colours. Would that not be an issue for a plasma?

Yeah, that's probably the most important factor right there. The black levels, and also the fact that they don't change when going off axis. That, and pixel response time.

Plasma is the newer tech, and wins in almost every department. It won't show it's true beauty on the showroom floor though.

 

[R063R]

My sound system update - Behringer amp and Behringer speakers all hooked up. Each speaker is 200W RMS and amp is 2x700W. I've never really understood wattage figures, so somebody can maybe jump in and offer an expert opinion.... What I do understand, however, are the sounds that go into my ears - and they are nigh on absolutely perfect. I've only listened to a few tracks so far - Concrete Angel by Gareth Emery, Tick of the Clock by Chromatics and Real Hero by College from Drive, and I now have Sun & Moon on repeat from Above & Beyond's new Acoustic album... The kickdrum is huge, and is not distorted or wobbly at any point. Every other element of each track is sublime.... I actually can't describe it. It is literally almost perfect. There's probably the guts of £1000 of sound equipment there, and is worth every last penny at this point. You can keep your soundbars and surround sound systems - I want brilliant fidelity sound, and I think I've definitely got it with this. Gonna disconnect the surround sound now and get it on eBay or something....

Plasma is the newer tech, and wins in almost every department. It won't show it's true beauty on the showroom floor though.

I am so glad you said this. I actually went into a Currys store this afternoon to check out a plasma. They only had one in their display of maybe 30 sets. It was an awful experience, mostly down to the douchebag sales guy. I asked was that the only plasma they had on display and he said it was, and I then said I wanted to compare a plasma to an LED, at which he stopped me mid-sentence and said 'why?!?!?!' with a look of pure disgust on his face. I think if I wanted a plasma he should respect the customer's requests and deal accordingly. But he was a dick. He said they only have a plasma out to show how bad it is next to an LED. He said look at the colours on the LED compared to the plasma, the plasma is so dull, I said you have your colour saturation and brightness cranked up way too far on that LED, look at that grass (there was a rugby match on...) when have you ever seen grass that colour, it's almost frickin fluorescent, the plasma is a closer representation of life-like colours than that LED so your argument is wrong at the very first hurdle. He never said another word, just stood there, awkward as frick, realising that this particular customer knew more about the televisions than he did. We just left.

ANYWAY - I did find that the plasma had a very soft image compared to the LED next to it. I like a pin-sharp image, although that might've just been a low sharpness setting giving it that soft image. When I get the plasma home, and into this dark mancave, what will it be that will blow me away and make me thank each one of you individually for making such a decision? Because I would not have bought that one today.....

 

[LeMansAid]

It looks like you're on the right track with recognising the absolute rubbish that comes from many of these sales people.

The difference between store mode settings and what makes sense at home is vast. Store settings in a home environment would be utterly blinding. Also, tvs are usually hideously oversharpened in store mode, with dynamic contrast on, and colour temperature set to the coolest, which will give nowhere near an accurate picture.

I know someone with a Panasonic ST60 series plasma, and it's stunning. Even a base model Samsung plasma will give a fantastic picture, and one that would likely beat lcds of twice the price. Don't go LG though.

If you buy a ST60 or Samsung 8500 series plasma, I would be amazed if you are at all disappointed. There's a reason that plasmas top the awards lists of review sites and magazines each year.

 

[R063R]

I've really started to appreciate a realistic picture on my TV since I bought a DVE calibration BD and noticed the ridiculous difference between a correct display and a showroom display. So I have kept feeding that hunger, googling articles and reviews and whatnot, and while I do not claim to know it all, it did feel good to know that I knew more than the guy who does it for a living. A big franchise like Currys probably isn't the best place to go for an enquiry - we had only been in the independent dealer doing our wedding list last week and didn't want to be a nuisance with them asking about a plasma the week after. But Currys was horrific - I left the shop so angry. I'll be back to the smaller outfit where we have our list this weekend to speak plasma and look at a few. Wondering would they even let me take a display model out for a day or two to see it in it's natural habitat... If you don't ask, you don't get.

Re-calibrated the picture on my Sharp LED there and then watched Thor The Dark World, and tried to pay some attention to the blacks and darker colours. I had my backlight set to 30 (out of 100) previously, but turned it down to 0 with this calibration - there's nothing on the disc about the backlight, just suggesting to have it at personal preference. There was no pixelly images while watching it, but would need to check back with that Avengers scene I mentioned in a previous comment.

But you guys have really caught my interest in a plasma.... I seen a 60" Samsung (not sure of exact model) online for under £1000 - you wouldn't get that size of an LED for even double that sort of money. It is really turning into a no-brainer decision - huge screen and superior picture for much less money. If I was able to get one into this room before buying it would be awesome....

EDIT: wanted to check that Samsung model for you - I believe it's a 5500 series. Worth buying still, or old hat? An 8500 series 64" is going for £2500......!

 

[LeMansAid]

Panasonic ST60 series is equal or better than 8500 and is much cheaper. It is indeed a no-brainer, which means that many people's brain capacity must be in the negative. The cheaper Samsung would be great, but the ST60 would be amazing.

 

[MatskiMonk]

You could try reverse-phasing your surround speakers for a "virtual surround effect".

LOL. Do people still do that?

 

[Vegard]

LOL. Do people still do that?

LOL. I don't know what people still do.