I am wanting to upgrade to 7.1 sound. Here is my idea, please let me know if its going to work. Mount left and right speakers on left and right side of tv,center under the tv in the middle, middle speakers on the ceiling in the middle of the room, left and right, then of course the rears in the rear. The question that I have is, Is there a good way to disconect the wires for the speakers because the TV is in a slide and the chairs or in the rear of out 5th wheel. I know I am going to have a tough time hiding the wires. Could anyone give me an idea how to do this.
I ran my rear speaker wires in plastic wire channels from Lowes. The channels are designed for surface mounting. They hide the wires in a beige tube. The tube has adhesive on the back, but in my experience the adhesive doesn't hold them permanently. I had to use brackets spaced along the channels to hold them on the wall up against the ceiling.
backroads65 wrote: I am wanting to upgrade to 7.1 sound . . . I know I am going to have a tough time hiding the wires. Could anyone give me an idea how to do this.
I thought 5.1 wiring was tough -- you've got 2 more speakers to add!
I mounted Front Left, Center, and Front Right like so.
I mounted Rear Left and Right like this -- I used one of the air conditioning raceways on the ceiling to run speaker wire for one rear speaker. Plus, I had to run wire through the back of the kitchen cabinets for the other rear speaker. That was the most difficult.
Use your imagination.
Tom
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backroads65 wrote: I am wanting to upgrade to 7.1 sound. Here is my idea, please let me know if its going to work. Mount left and right speakers on left and right side of tv,center under the tv in the middle, middle speakers on the ceiling in the middle of the room, left and right, then of course the rears in the rear. The question that I have is, Is there a good way to disconect the wires for the speakers because the TV is in a slide and the chairs or in the rear of out 5th wheel. I know I am going to have a tough time hiding the wires. Could anyone give me an idea how to do this.
Thanks
We have a 7.1 receiver in our home, and another one in the fiver. I would suggest to look at the size and shape of the room before deciding to go that route. 7.1 and 7.2 systems were designed for homes where the room was unusually deep, allowing for speakers mounted midway from front to rear. If the distance is not greater than ten feet from front to mid or from mid speaker to rear speaker, you don't have the distance needed to appreciate an additional channel. As you know, those additional speakers, along with rear surrounds, are not being sent very much of a soundtrack to reproduce. Moslty ambient sounds.
I have tried a number of 7.1 variations and finally decided it would be best to return to a 5.1 surround configuration at home and in the fiver. I do, however, take advantage of my 7.1 Onkyo receiver in the fiver by installing some high quality flush mounted speakers above the bed and programming the receiver to send music from my iPod docking station to the bedroom speakers while at the same time I can watch a high-def movie downstairs in 5.1 surround.
I purchased a high end theater-in-a-box, that came with a 7.1 receiver (I think it has seven 75 watt amps), dvd player, iPod docking station, seven wall mounted speakers, and a 210 watt sub-woofer. I enlarged the entertainment area and mounted a 32" LCD tv. Below it I have my high-def direct tv dvr, receiver, dvd player (which I never use because I prerecord high-def movies on the dvr before leaving home), the docking station and the center channel speaker.
I was able to mount the front and rear speakers to the roof and use the existing wires from the cheap factory speakers that hung there. The sub sits just in front of the entertainment cabinet and has a few inches of clearance when the slide-out is brought in.
I am almost never hooked up to shore power and boondock a lot so I use solar power and four 395 amp/hr (6 volts) Crown batteries to power my 2000 watt Magnum inverter, which runs the system. I have the low profile auto-seeking high-def dish on the roof.
As someone already mentioned to the OP, speakers will be a systems weakest link. You have to buy the best speakers to enjoy what you are seeing and hearing. And while I can see some situations where a 7.1 surround system would be beneficial, I think you will get more from your rear speakers if you don't cloud them with a pair of mid-rear speakers. There is not enough distance for the delayed signals to create a proper surround field. I do like the idea of a blue ray player. I'm assuming most of those discs have 7.1 capability, unlike most normal dvd's that do not.
Let us know how you solved your wiring problem.
One last thing the OP asked about. What else could he have over-looked? I have my 32" LCD tv mounted on one on those telescoping mounts, so I can extend it out flush with the front of the entertainment cabinet, where there are views obstructed when sitting in the dinnette. It required reinforcing the wall it was mounted to, but also, when I prepare to travel, I push the tv back into the cabinet, placing several pillows behind it and it front of the screen, and place a ratcheting pole(?) across the span between the cabinet frame. I tighten the pole to secure the pillows against the television, trying to apply presure only to the area of the frame around the tv and not scratch the screen. This is how I protect the system from bouncing around while traveling. This is important as in time, there are a lot of bad things that can happen to the mounts and equipment, as well as speakers not securely mounted to the ceiling.
You absolutely don't need 7.1 in an RV. When we sold our house we moved our Bose Lifestyle 38 to our trailer and it is more than enough. The only problem is this year our network shows have all the music and background sound so loud you have to really crank up the volume to understand the vocal voices.
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