Single speaker surround sound solutions

I have a pair of old B&W CDM7 speakers and a new 7.1 receiver to replace the one that just died. Next it’s time to replace the ancient tv. And that means time to finally set up surround sound.

For various reasons I can’t run speaker wires around the room, so I’m looking at the single speaker surround sound solutions, like the Yamaha YSP-800 or the Polk Surround Bar.

Can I use these to supplement the B&W speakers or do they only work as the main unit? The reviews keep saying that you need a subwoofer, but do I? The B&W provide good bass and I don’t watch the kind of movies where the explosions are important. Are there better/different solutions without running wires?

The room is rectangular, long and narrow, with the tv and sitting area on the long walls, if that makes a difference.

cough

Have a lozenge.

Wireless speakers are generally anywhere from craptastic to just tolerable. If they’re not hissing (cheap internal amp) they’re crackling from radio interference. And, unless you have a garage full of D-cells, they still need wires - gotta plug them into power.

I don’t know that these sound projectors would work well with any other speakers - they’re meant to be the 5 of a 5.1 channel system in one box.

If you’ve got a local dealer, listen to one in person. If it’s too weak in the bass, subwoofers have shrunk a lot in the past fifteen years

Bass is nondirectional, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t work…just stick a sub up by your ent. center, and move it around and move it around as much as you can. Actually, if you can get a long enough sub wire, set it up at your listening spot, and then crawl around the room and see where it sounds the best(of you available spots to place it). Then put it where it sounds best.

There is a thread on avsforum.com where a member reviewed several of these units, but the board is down right now. When it’s up, go to the speaker subforum, and you should be able to track down the post.

I work for a home automation/theater/low voltage product company…can I ask what the situation is that is preventing you from running wires?

Aesthetics mostly. We have a lot of art of the walls so I don’t want to run wires along the ceiling, and large openings with wall-to-wall carpeting so I’m not happy with running wires along the floor. Since it would be going from the middle of one long wall to the middle of the other long wall, that’s a lot of wiring.

I agree that wireless speakers are not a solution, unless something magically wonderful has suddenly appeared.

One story or two? Basement? Attic space? What is your house framed with?
also–avs forum link:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=664193

Yes, drilling into the basement and running wires there is the next possibility.

How much would it be for professional installation? My hands don’t work as well as they used to.

We charge 50-75 bucks a wire on home theater jobs(includes jacketed speaker wire). I would actually see if you can find an installer to do it on the side for you, it’s really not worth a company’s time to come out and run 5 wires and make 50 bucks profit. You could use floorstanding speakers, or bookshelf speakers on stands, and have the wires exit the walls at electrical outlet height through a speaker termination plate(it would look like the terminals on the back of a speaker). Your other alternative would be to run the wires up and install speakers built into the walls. Wife Approval Factor(WAF) here is pretty high.
This also allows you to get the speakers at exactly the same height as your listening position.

You definately would want to find the matching center channel for the B&W speakers if you use those for you FL and FR. This might be easier said than done, I just moved from an Athena floorstanding HT set up to Klipsch…found a set of Klipsch KLF30s for my FL and FR, and am having a terrible time finding the matching center and surrounds. It’s not AS important to match timbre from surrounds to front, but pretty important to do it with the center.

I should mention that around here(NE Fl), if you offered a tech 20 bucks a wire cash to do the work you should be fine(you supply the wire). He would make 100 cash for 2 hours work, which is about right for his time, and you don’t have to pay markup