Long time lurker looking for HT opinions


So, looking at doing a feature wall in living room.  Need WAF for whatever I decide.  Current setup is an Onkyo TX NR686 driving Focal 707S bookshelfs, Mirage OMC2 center, and focal 300 ICW6 in ceiling speakers as well as an SVS PB1000 sub.  Very modest and certainly not to the levels most are running here, but it serves me well.  That being said, doing about a 12 inch bump out to mount TV on wall and add some kind of stone look.  Have been considering in wall Focals, namely the 300 LCR for L/R/C and then potentially the new 300 ICA6 at the top of the wall for Atmos.  Is this just a bad idea all the way around?  I'm a fan of the laid back sound of the focals hence having a Mirage center in the mix.  Thoughts, comments are welcome.  Not a ton of In Wall reviews.  Sorry for the long post as a first post.

tigheandjudi

Showing 2 responses by shooter41

I'm setting up a media room based on exactly the same principle as mentioned by the poster above. I started out buying all matching speakers (KEF R-series) but later decided I wanted to upgrade my main L&R to Dutch & Dutch 8c's. They don't make a center channel and buying one to use as such is impractical (and maybe not possible anyway). So I'll definitely be testing the school of thought that matching brands is not super important with even the center being another brand. I'll be using a Lyngdorf pre/pro with their proprietary room correction called Room Perfect. Total of 15 speakers plus subs.

I should note that my priority with the room is music (2-channel and possibly multi-channel) so the center will only be used when in theater mode. If it's too noticeable I can try using a phantom center. My seating is just one enormous sofa so I'm not too worried about different seats having a problem with dialogue.

The D&D's are uniquely equipped to handle what would normally be the acoustic issue of having a 100" flat screen tv between them (they're highly directional). They also have their own room correction that'll come in handy when listening to just them.

I'm still in room prep mode so I'm anxious to get everything going.

@panzrwagn The plan is to set the D&D's up alone first, then when they're dialed in I'll set up the rest of the system with the Lyngdorf.

I get what you're saying about an alternate plan but using on-walls (it's an exterior wall so I don't want to compromise the thermal or acoustic resistance of removing insulation to install in-walls) would be problematic as getting some that are comparable to the R-series KEFS in the rest of the system would be too costly considering that I'm already stretching the budget to get the D&D's.

I could repurpose the speakers that were going to be the front wides as main L&R speakers for HT, but that would mean a pretty crowded front end of the room.

If the dueling technologies do compete I'm not that worried about it unless it turns out to be a complete disaster. It would only happen during theater use, not music since I do plan to listen to the D&D's alone the majority of the time. I'm going to give it a shot as planned and and will adjust accordingly if needed.