(Welcome again to Ryan, one of the finalists vying for a blogging position at the upcoming AT:Home Tech. Comment away.)
Name: Joy and Ryan
Location: Burnaby Canada
Favorites: The big window….and the big screen.
Ryan says: It's funny where your priorities lie when you are renovating. After barely finishing the kitchen and bathroom (we don't even have mirrors hung yet) what's the next logical step in the process? Decorating the master bedroom? Actually hanging a mirror so that fixing your hair in the morning isn't done by feel? Turns out that setting up a media system in the main living space is the correct answer.
After searching for months for a bigger place, we came across a 50's rancher in a great neighbourhood that needed a little help. We were pleasantly surprised to find a nice open floor plan with a huge window at the front of the house and the original oak flooring in amazing shape underneath the dirty carpet . After completely redoing the kitchen and 2 bathrooms (one of which was a new ensuite) there was finally enough time to start putting the media room together.
With such an open space the last thing we wanted was a mess of wires and speakers, yet we still wanted a reasonably large TV with surround sound (my wife was actually the one pushing for the bigger screen believe it or not). What we ended up with was a combination of carefully selected components and Ikea hackery. A Yamaha single speaker surround satisfied the surround sound without wires everywhere problem, while a horizontally wall mounted Ikea Lack shelf hid the rest of the unsightly wires and components which include a Roku Soundbridge, LG Up converting DVD player, and Motorola PVR high definition box…all while leaving a space for either the upcoming Apple TV or Sling Media Slingcatcher so that I can stream my videos and pictures to my TV. A Logitech Harmony remote ties it all together and mitigates the multiple remote issue.
Renovations continue to move along slowly, we might even get a rug and drapes some day.
- Ryan
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Do you have an idea for a house or media room tour? Let us know!
Could I inquire how well the Yamaha virtual surround sound speaker works for you in terms of performance? I am seriously considering purchasing one of the two speaker+built-in receiver models, but want a first person account of how well they simulate surround sound.
Great to see a fellow Canuck! Quite the set-up you have... what's your address? Teehee...
Great job, and your dog is adorable!
Can you provide information on the Custom Door? Was it DIY? What materials?
No offense intended to anyone, but this setup may be suboptimal in terms of reproducing pseudosurround. Yamaha's own manual suggests positioning the speaker equidistant from the left and right walls in order to have the initial reflections arrive at the listening position at the same time. In addition, the processing seems to require a rear wall to be relatively close to the listening position for secondary and tertiary reflections. I can't tell from the pictures, but the window seems to be closer to the TV than the opposing wall, and I don't know where the wall behind the listening position is located, but it seems to be much further than the window is.
Unfortunately, good acoustics and good visual design are often not compatible.
The large white wall and the scale of the room is crying out for a front projection system. I'm thinking 106" diagonal 16x9 electric rolldown screen with a nice complementary dlp projector. Put some cash into some good blinds and voila! An amazing room and experience.
Trust me...it'd worth it!
Tiffany
Instructions (and a link to another AT mention of something similar) here:
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2006/09/no-lack-of-creativity-in-matts-media.html