Hi all,

My wife and I are planning to re-do our family room setup over the next few months. This includes rearranging the furniture and purchasing all new pieces. It likely will also include purchasing some new audio speakers.

Here’s our current family room setup. Note that this is a very rough sketch but the size and scale of all objects is accurate. (Not sure how the "Living" word got in there. I used the free floorplanner website.) The room is 18’ long by 15’ wide. On the long end you can see a large floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. Along the top there is a large custom-made armoire that contains our 55” Sony LCD television, all electronic components, and the center channel speaker. On either side of the armoire are 2 tall tower speakers. On the opposite wall is the sofa and 2 rear speakers, and at an angle is the loveseat. I also have a subwoofer located in the lower right corner of the room behind an end table. All speakers in this setup are about 15-year-old PSB’s. I forget the series name. The family room opens up into our kitchen area.




Here’s the new setup we are planning. The goal is to open up and brighten up the living space, add more seating, and allow the television to be more easily viewed out in the kitchen area. To that end, we are eliminating the large armoire and placing the new loveseat in that spot. The TV will be moved to the corner of the room and angled for viewing from all seat positions. The new sofa will remain in the same spot, and we will add 2 new recliners.




Here’s where I’d like your input:

1. The TV has a 48” horizontal length, and it will need to overhang the edge of the fireplace a bit. Not ideal, but whatever. It actually looks fine. As such, we need to find a TV stand that is somewhat in the shape of a pedestal. I’d like to also keep my electrical components (Sony receiver, Blu-Ray player, and cable box) and center channel in this TV stand. Definitely want something in a wood tone. The stand needs to be 48” wide, 14” deep, and about 20” high. The “cutout” portion on either end of the stand (that essentially makes it like a pedestal) needs to be 8” deep and 10” high to accommodate the fireplace overhang. Hope that makes sense. Any ideas or suggestions on where to look for a piece of furniture like this? It may even need to be custom made.

2. While I do enjoy good quality home audio I am not a true high-end audiophile. Just good quality works for me. I’d like to downsize the speakers a bit, and need to figure out the best placement. I could still fit tower speakers on either side of the TV stand but they would need to be pretty skinny. What are my speaker options here, and do you have suggestions on placement? I plan to keep this setup hard-wired since I already run wires under the room to the far side. Right now I’m thinking: center channel under TV, skinny tower speakers next to TV, and small rear/surround speakers (5.1) in either side of the new recliners along the wall. What are your thoughts? Oh, and budget for the new speaker setup is around $1500.

Thanks for your time! I’m looking forward to this project. We have already tested the TV location and it really makes a world of difference in viewing throughout the room.

Chris

JMHO of course, but if I had to redo my family room I would eliminate the receiver and all speakers to make it cleaner looking. I've heard powered center channel speakers with only a sub that sound absolutely amazing. Also, get a smart TV, Roku, etc and get rid of cable and the cables.

BTW, my family room has a center channel, two tower speakers on the sides and 4 surround speakers in the ceiling all with no exposed wiring. Although it was a nice set up back in the day, it's outdated now IMO. A cleaner, no wire set up will be the way I go next time.

It's hard to tell from the diagram, but it would seem that people in the kitchen would still have a tiny, possibly-occluded view.

If the kitchen's the main thing, as an alternative idea (or as an add-on to the living-room-reformat) could you send a video and audio signal from your receiver to the kitchen, and mount up a TV and speaker set there, placed for the viewing locations in the kitchen itself?

I'd reconsider the room arrangement. I might put the TV on the south wall (if north is top of paper), maybe get a bigger TV and mount it directly to the wall. Then some standard piece of furniture under the TV for the gear. Move the sofa to the north wall, the loveseat in the opening between family room and kitchen. Shuffle the recliners around to your liking.

In my opinion, this gives a better viewing angle to the TVs for more people, and you don't have to worry about interfering with the fireplace aesthetic. I think it would also let you place your speakers at better locations for optimal listening.

You could mount the TV over the fireplace, but I'm not a big fan of that - think front-row theater seating and the crick in the neck.

I'd add another TV in the kitchen. Of course, the down side to that is if the kitchen wants to watch something other than what the family room is watching, or if the two TVs are synced up perfectly.

Sorry I didn't answer your exact question, and you probably already gamed this option through anyway....

In that living area, and wanting to pull the Kitchen into the Family Room entertainment experience, I'd put the TV above the fireplace....NO Question! Seriously, the fireplace is already the focal point of that room anyway! You can get a small cabinet (maybe a corner style w/ a subwoofer behind it) to house any necessary electronics for the area next to the fireplace (where you planned to put the TV), and then relocate the 5.1 Speakers as appropriate.

Thank you for the input, everyone. We're definitely sticking with the layout of the furniture as I described, and I think I'm going to go with one of the new wireless soundbar-based audio systems that support Dolby Atmos:

Sonus 5.1.2 Surround Set with Arc, Sub, & One SL

or

Nakamichi Shockwafe Ultra 9.2


I really don't need (and don't have the proper room) for a true home theatre setup and sound quality. I'm thinking one of these will be more than awesome for my family room. Any thoughts on these 2 options?

Chris

I have that exact Sonus set. Great quality audio, easy setup through the Sonos smartphone app, and the wireless aspect is nice for an open floorplan.

(Note that the rear speakers are not 100% wireless, because they do require power, so you'll have to have some sort of access to an outlet for each of them. That means at least one power cord running from an outlet to a power strip located wherever you want to place them. But that's still a lot less obtrusive than having to run speaker wires across the entire living room.)