Last week we kicked off our basement media room project. This week’s post is all about research. Not the stuffy, academic kind or the messy, scientific kind. Instead, this post is about researching fun stuff — like speakers and receivers for our media room! Let’s face it, framing the walls, mudding/taping the drywall, and painting rooms from floor to ceiling can be time consuming and difficult tasks. But finding the best a/v equipment at the best prices can be just as challenging. This post will take you through how we found the components for our basement media room.
SNEAK PEEK – At the end of this post I’ve included some pics of the basement progress!
There are so many receivers and speakers on the market it’s hard to know where to begin. How many speakers should we have? Which receiver will be able to handle all of these speakers? And how do we know if what we choose will work in the media room space? What do the reviews say? Where do I begin!?!
I quickly fell into a technology rabbit hole.
In-Wall Speakers
We knew we wanted a seamless appearance for the speakers. So, when we found ceiling speakers that could mounted in the coffered ceiling, we decided on in-wall speakers for the entire room. These types of speakers can be recessed into a wall cavity and be flush against the outside of the wall. Some speakers even have paintable covers that will blend in with the wall almost completely. What?! Yes!
Dolby Surround Sound
Many people use the Dolby Digital format to design their speaker layout. Initially, we decided to use a 5.1 surround-sound configuration. This would mean 5 speaker channels + one subwoofer = 5.1.
In the end, we also added 2 speakers in the ceiling (height speakers). These height speakers could be successfully mounted in a drywall cutout of the coffered ceiling. In total, this would mean 2 front, 2 rear (surround), 1 center, and 1 sub = 5.1 but adding an additional 2 height speakers = 5.1.2. A little confusing at first, sorry.
In the future, we might want to add more speakers (say 7.2.2 or 9.2.2) but 5.1.2 is a good budget-friendly place for us to start.
Interested in more Dolby stuff? Here is a great site to geek out.
Speaker Price $$
Not sure where to begin, I literally typed “best in-wall speakers” into Google. I found several audiophile websites where speakers were ranked by all the specs and looked the top ranked, mid-price range ones up on Amazon:
- Polk Audio RC85i In-Wall Speakers
- Micca M-8S 2-Way In-Wall Speaker
- 5252W Silver Ticket In-Wall Speaker with Pivoting Tweeter
- Polk Audio 255C-RT In-wall center channel speaker
- Pyle In-Wall Dual 8.0” Enclosed Speaker Systems
- Klipsch R-5650-W II In-Wall Speaker
- Bose Virtually Invisible 891 In-Wall Speaker
- JBL SP6II 2-way, 6-Inch In-Wall Loudspeaker
- Yamaha NS-IW760 6.5″ 2-Way In-Wall Speaker System
- Monoprice Caliber In-Wall Speakers 8 Inch Fiber 3-Way
I reviewed each speaker, but was still a bit overwhelmed with the specs. I needed to narrow further. So, I considered brand names (aka speakers I’ve heard of). Polk, Bose, Yamaha, and JBL are reputable brands I recognized. Each brand offered something that was close to our budget.
Polk — $169/pair of speakers
Bose — $599/pair of speakers
JBL — $144/pair of speakers
I’d love to have the Bose, but at $600/pair, they’d blow our entire budget. I read all the reviews for the Polk and JBL. Polk was listed on all of the “best” audiophile lists I found online, and had 4.5+ stars out of 575 reviews on Amazon. So, Polk speakers it is!
Our Final Plan — Speakers Purchased
- 2 x front speakers (right and left channels)
- 2 x rear surround speakers (right and left channels)
- 1 x center speaker
- 1 x subwoofer
- 2 x height speakers (mounted on the ceiling)
- = 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos
Semi-Pro Tip:
Before choosing a receiver, begin by narrowing down which speakers you want to use and how many. Once you know speaker specifics, you can search for a receiver that has enough power to “drive” everything and still have sound great sound!
Home Theater Receivers
Modern home theater receivers are made up of an a/v receiver and an amplifier in one assembly. For our basement media room project, we (like everyone else!) wanted to have the biggest bang for our buck — the best sound, with the most room for expansion, and the best price. Such a small task! Ha!
Since I knew which speakers we wanted, I decided go directly to Polk. I went to the company website, found a number, called, and asked to speak with a rep. After talking to the Polk sales rep for about 15 minutes, he recommended a couple of receivers from other manufacturers that could comfortably “drive” all the speakers and have plenty of options if we ever wanted to upgrade the systems (Blue-Ray, etc.).
We ultimately chose the Pioneer VSX-LX503 9.2 Channel 4k UltraHD Receiver, largely because it left us room to grow the setup (including more speakers and more devices than we’ll probably ever need).
Our media room components are selected, now we just need to get our rears in gear and finish the space.
Now…..sneak peek time!!!!
Here’s a look at the basement progress. This is a view looking towards my office and the new media room.
From the top (yellow arrow), you can see the coffered ceiling project is almost done in this room. The fiberglass insulation (teal arrow) has been stapled on top of the green foam insulation. Also, this is the first look (coral arrow) at the television and component wall unit all framed out.
Later this week, we’ll share an update on our mushroom project, the new garden, and the new vineyard! Then, next week, we will be revealing the finished basement media room! So much to share – so little time!
[…] sneak peek we posted in our basement media room components update last week gives you a good perspective. I am in the rec room in this photo, adjacent to both […]