Audioholics Showcase Home Family Room System

This system was primary setup to keep visitors (especially children) away from the main theater room. It’s also a great place for social gatherings since it’s near the kitchen and is augmented by the karaoke system and Nintendo Wii.

At the heart of the system lies a Yamaha RX-VZ7 A/V receiver which not only powers the main 7.1 surround zone of this room but also distributes audio throughout the entire home (sans the upstairs theater room). What’s really neat is I didn’t use a single external controller device to accomplish this. Instead the receiver powers the main 7.1 surround zone and the Emotiva MPS-1 7CH amplifier powers the three other audio zones which includes 2 pairs of speakers in the guest room and dining room, and two pairs of speakers in the work out room, and front yard. Some of the channels of the MPS-1 are parallel connected to two speakers which isn't a problem for this amp as its completely stable down to 2 ohm loads. This configuration allows three additional independent zones of audio while simultaneously having multi channel surround in the main zone. Since the MusicCAST MCX-2000 is upstairs, ethernet was used to stream the music directly to this receiver. This also works for the other zones while the main zone of the RX-Z7's powered down with no extra connections required. We ran 4 COAX connections and Cat5e between the main theater room and this system in case of future expansion or to interconnect the two systems.

   
RBH Sound 44-SE side channels & JL Audio f110 (left) ;  2nd JL Audio f110 sub tucked behind couch (right)

The speakers consist of the Status Acoustics Decimos, RBH Sound 661-SE/R center channel, 44-SE for the side channels and MC-6 in ceilings for the back channels. The front and center channel speakers were placed in the cavity above the TV to keep them out of reach which is especially important during parties when a few well liquored guests get a little carried away with their dance moves. Auralex MoPADs are used to isolate the speakers from cabinet resonance and also angle them down to the listening area. Bass is provided by dual JL Audio f110 Fathom subwoofers which despite this room is open to the rest of the house still manage to provide excellent tactile response which can even be felt upstairs.

We built custom in-wall shelves to house the 57” Samsung DLP and the A/V equipment which consists of the Yamaha RX-Z7, Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-ray player, Emotiva MPS-1, 2 APC AV H15 power conditioners, Motorola FIOS HD DVR, RSQ Karaoke player, and Nintendo Wii. The downside to integrating all of your equipment into a customized in-wall rack is difficult access. Should you decide on doing this, we highly recommend you create an access point behind the equipment. I had a friend do just that where his in-wall rack backed directly into his bedroom closet. This is the way it should be done if you have that luxury.

To control the system, the Harmony 890 RF universal remote control is being utilized which is super easy to program and customize and is an overall nice remote for the asking price. Simple macro commands are preprogrammed to allow a single button press to play a DVD or watch TV. If the wife or kids get stuck, all they have to do is hit the “help” key and the remote guides them to what they want to do.

The End Result

There are no acoustical treatments in this room other than padded carpets, couches and furniture. The room has a very spacious and natural sound quality despite this and provides a very enjoyable surround experience for movie watching and a nice overall sound for music as well. It’s great demoing to people the differences they will hear coming from an untreated room with one sub vs. a properly treated room with four subs. For the record, we do have two additional subwoofer prewires in this room and are considering adding another sub provided it can be done without messing with the room décor. The idea of this room is to NOT intimidate wives or newbies getting that tend to have the misconception that hometheater equipment is typically ugly and obtrusive.

The Samsung DLP is an absolute wonder in that it has a great picture, great viewing angles, isn’t noisy and at a little over 2 years old now, is 100% reliable. The RSQ karaoke player on the other hand is a junker and although it seemed like a good choice on paper, proved to be unreliable and noisy. It’s still entertaining at social gatherings, especially when the grappa bottle and a shot glass get passed around.

Believe it or not, this system gets the most usage out of all of the systems in the house. Between watching movies, karaoke, or gaming, our social gatherings typically wind up in this room. Say what you want about Nintendo Wii not being a serious gaming machine, but all of our guests, including myself typically prefer playing this over XBOX 360 or PS3. Why? Because the games are simple, interactive and offer very enjoyable multi player experiences.

Bedroom System

Since we polluted nearly the entire house with audio gear, a compromise was made for the bedroom system. Our goal was no visible equipment other than a wall mounted flat panel display to prove that you can have quality audio that doesn't destroy a room decor or draw attention to itself when its not powered on. Thus during the pre-construction phase, we pre-wired the entire room to route directly upstairs to the main theater room. We also installed two RBH Sound SI-10 in-wall subwoofer enclosures. The rest of the speakers consist of two pairs of RBH Sound MC-6 and 1 MC-414 in-wall speakers.

We retrofit back boxes after the drywall was up per our article: In-Wall Speaker Selection & Installation Basics

We upgraded the bedroom display to a 1080p 42" THX Certified Panasonic Plasma (model TC-P42G15) which is a fabulous display for both HD and standard definition video sources.  There are 6 COAX feeds and two Cat5 running from the bedroom to the main theater room for all of the A/V connections and an extra RF antenna for the RTI remote system.

Check out our: Tips for a Clean HDTV Install where we show how to clean up that cabling mess for the most aesthetically pleasing installation possible.

The End Result

For a bedroom, this system doesn’t disappoint. It allows us to have a very good theater like experience in the comfort of our own bed when we simply don’t feel like going upstairs. The dual subs really slam well in the room thanks to them being ideally located ¼” length of the front wall and equidistant to our bed which is located on the direct opposite wall. This provides excellent room gain to get those little 10” subs really pounding and feeling more like larger boxed subs.

Distributed Audio

We wanted to ensure the whole home had audio for when we’re entertaining guests or simply want to relax outside and hear good tunes. As a result, we pre-wired audio connections in the dining room, guest bedroom, workout room, front and back yard. Each room contains Speakercraft décora style high power impedance matched volume controls. But, with the collocated CAT5e and power runs to each spot, we’re ready to upgrade to touch panel control solutions should it later be decided a necessary.

Axiom W3 in/onwalls (left); workout room (center); Axiom Algonquins (right)

See our instructional video on: How to Install the Axiom W3 In/On-Wall Hybrid Speakers

For the guest room, we’re running Axiom Audio W3 on-wall speakers which ensure visiting friends/family aren’t deprived of good audio. The workout room has the new Axiom Algonquin outdoor speakers which are color matched to the room to seamlessly blend in. Being placed near the wall gives them plenty of bass reinforcement to not require a sub in that room. And yes, here at Audioholics, we have a strict regimen for physical fitness.  If you can't lift the gear you're reviewing, you aren't qualified to review it. 

RBH Sound MC-6 In-ceiling (left) ; Boston Acoustics Voyager RK6T2 (right)

The dining room is running RBH Sound MC-6 in-ceiling speakers which do a great job of piping in music during dining events. The front yard contains two Boston Acoustics Voyager RK6T2 rock speakers which to date are the finest pair of rocks we’ve ever heard. We also have a pair of Paradigm 60-SM rock speakers to provide more coverage around the house. During holidays, our entire outside is rocking with holiday theme music which always draws neighbors that enjoy sharing some food and wine while listening to some tunes.

Conclusion

After two grueling years of plotting, planning, installing and configuring, we’ve finally completed the Audioholics Showcase Home. With over two miles of cable run behind dry wall, more than 40 speakers located around the house, and over 40 channels of amplification, we’ve got enough equipment to make a few IMAX theaters envious. All of the hard work has paid off as we are happy to report this project has gone pretty much according to design. Sure we ran into some snags during the way such as HVAC noise issues, some non-ideally located speaker pre-wires, and a couple of not so great choices in components, but for the most part if we had the chance to do it all over again, we would change very little. One thing we do recommend is going with 14/4 CL2 approved in wall speaker cable instead of 10/2. It’s much easier to work with and terminate and you have a redundant pair incase a cable runs into a snag when being run through the walls. If you parallel 14/4 you get an effective 11AWG cable resistance which is very close to the 10AWG cable we used. It was nearly impossible (even after we shaved the leads down) for us to terminate this cable to the Speakercraft volume controls since the wire is so inflexible and thick, and space in the walls so limited.

With three independent theater rooms and distributed audio around the house, the Audioholics Showcase home often sounds like you’re in a local hifi store. This is a good thing as it means we are bringing our friends and family together, educating them on good A/V and saving money on unnecessary traveling to the local theaters. Our only pre-request when people come to watch a movie in the main theater room is to bring the popcorn. If they bring good beer, they get first dibs at sitting in the front row.

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