[Yoda]

I have been told by someone who claims to be in the know that surround sound in the great room part of a Gardenia, "Sucks". Have any of you had the same experience or different? I am trying to decide where to install home theater in our Gardenia. Please help. Please?????

Yoda

[SteveFromNY]

I have mine set up in the family room with the TV & receiver against the wall between the windows. It sounds great.
I think it greatly depends on the equipment - I had this system set up in my prior house in a 20 x 25 room with 14' ceilings. It sounded great there too. I have a large Yamaha receiver (I don't rememer the watts but it's a fairly new 7.1 surround system) with Infinity bookshelf /subwoofer for the front speakers, a KLH centr channel hung above the telvsion and a pair of DCM bokshelfs for the rear speakers, only they are set up more on the side than behind. I didn't run speakers to the rear as I didn't know where to put them.
As it stands right now, it sounds great, especially the Blu-Ray disks. Personally I think the sonic improvement of Blu-Ray is greater than the video improvement.
Anyway, as long as you are running gear that can fill the space, you'll be fine. One of the less expensive, out of the box systems built for a small space probably would suck in a room that large.

[Jeff Hemmingway]

How did you mount and wire the surround speakers?

[SteveFromNY]

The rear surround speakers are on pedestal stands on the left & right side of the room, one near the ned of the sliders the other near the angled wall. They aren't behind me, but they really do sound good there. I couldn't figure out how to get the rear speakers in back of me for the side where the kitchen is. For the side with the slider I could have followed the window. But I am satisfied with how it came out - crank it up a bit and it's like a theater.

[k2at]

Has anyone considered remote rear speakers. If so, what is involved and what hardware does one need?

[mommullr]

We just have a Bose 321 system, brought with us from other home. It sounds better in the Gardenia here. I had thought with the open space it would be sparse. It really sounds great

[kb8tpw]

Best Buy sells a unit that allows for wireless rear speakers that works real well. Rocketfish™ - Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit It is about a $100 plus change and you can use speakers that you have with your surround system. Sounds like ideal answer to your situation. That's what I intend to use in Tuckett Inn on kitchen side of great room.

[RichieLion]

I'm in a Camillia which is the same floorplan as a Gardenia and I put in Samsung HT-BD3252 5.1 Channel 1000W Blu-ray Home Theater System. The rear speakers are wireless from the front speakers. You get a unit that plugs into the outlet on the floor (probably where your sofa is) and the rear speakers are wire to that unit. It's a 1000w system and sounds great. It also has a Blu-ray dvd player and an iPod dock. The only thing is trying to get Comcast to get me a cable box with a HDMI cable outlet so I can get optimum reception and use the auxiliary inputs that I have to use for the Theater System for XM Radio instead. the list price of this unit is $799, but Amazon sells it for $719 and a site called Socket2you.com sells it for $699, where during a promotion I purchased it for $649. It is very easy to set up and Samsung has a great help line if you have trouble.

[batman911]

The type of flooring and the quantity and type of furniture and drapes will affect the quality of sound for any system. Most advance sound systems have variable settings to match the type of environment you place it in.