Thursday, November 10, 2011

Space Saving Surround Sound Solutions

By Owen Jones


Modern houses are smaller than contemporary houses used to be. Households are not so big, land is costly and building costs are high.

Modern spare bedrooms are tiny, precisely what used to be called box rooms. Often it is these tiny rooms that people want to convert to games rooms or home theatres.

This need not be difficult, but it does mean that more consideration has to be given to planning than would usually have been necessary in a larger bedroom in a house from a past era..

When we are thinking about space, basically we are considering floor space. You want the floor area to be used as wisely as possible.

The difficulty is that big, heavy, floor-standing speakers have always supplied the best sound for the money. The heavier structure permits the manufacturers to make a better bass sound before the speaker either rattles itself to pieces or starts shuffling out of the room.

Manufacturers of speakers do realize the problem of smaller accommodation and less room and there are great wall speakers on the market, but they are dearer and still rattle apart more easily than their larger cousins.

The problem with floor standing surround sound speakers is not just the square foot print, but also the wires running everywhere when you are using seven or eight speakers in your set up. The likelihood of tripping up are high, particularly if you have to leave the room mid-film.

So, there are three solutions to this problem of having many surround sound speakers:

1] you could buy lighter speakers and stand them on shelves or screw them to the wall, but the wires look ugly or you could chase the wires into the wall, but that makes it harder to expand your system or change the layout of them.

This option is fine if you live in an apartment where you do not want to trouble other members of your family or your neighbours. This set up works well if you have numerous speakers.

2] you could design cabinets, a counter and a fridge around the walls like a built-in kitchen and stand your heavier speakers on this with the wiring hanging below and behind the worktop. The cabinets could contain your film, game and music library and a collection of memorabilia.

This is the most stylish way of solving the problem and it allows you to create a display case and a hobby out of your pleasure in films, games and music.

If the worktops are made of toughened glass, people will be easily able to inspect your exhibits and subtle lighting in the compartments would supply background lighting.

3] you could use floor standing wireless speakers. This is the easiest and most expensive option, but it allows you to use the best floor standing, weighty speakers and still save you floor space in your home movie theatre. It is also the most adaptable alternative.




About the Author:



No comments: