Home Theater set-up guidance

I've been reading various threads on here the past couple of days and I am impressed with the depth of knowledge and Ascend.

We are having a contractor do some built-in bookshelves and cabinets for our entertainment center and while doing all of this I thought "This would be a good time to get a surround sound system together!"
This room is in our basement, with ceilings just shy of 7', carpet flooring. Quick trip to Magnolia Audio locally and they suggested in-ceiling speakers all around (5.1 system). I thought it looked pretty cool. After reading up on the suggested Martin Logans and in-ceiling reviews though, the in-ceiling solution appears to be a compromise in situations where it's unavoidable. Luckily, I found Ascend. So...

Ideally, I am now thinking of the following set-up:

• Sierra-2 L/R/C
• HTM-200 rears
• Rythmik LV12R
• Marantz NR1604

All of that to ask - can I wait on installing the rears? Run 3.1 for a while? I guess I know it's possible, but maybe not recommended? We aren't too thrilled about hanging speakers off the wall in the back of the room. Anyone mix Martin Logans in-ceiling for the rears with Ascend?

This will be for movies (75%) and music (25%).

About 20 years ago, I was a budding audiophile, but got sidetracked and things seem to have changed a bit.

Thanks for your help!

Hi 2000, welcome to the forums. I am not a pro installer or a self proclaimed audiophile. That being said, I think your speaker choices look great. I myself would steer away from in-ceiling for a couple reasons. First, although in-wall/ceiling speakers have come a long way, I don't see them competing with the HTM 200's. Second, room accoustics are the prodominant factor in the way any speaker is going to sound, in your listening area. The ability to fine tune through placement adjustments is not there with in-ceiling speakers. Once you have them in place, thats where they stay. What if you decide to re-arrange the room? Why is wall mount not an option? Lastly, the ported sub is a good choice since most of your listening will be for HT. Have you considered a dual sub setup?

Cool, thank you for the reply. I ended up buying pretty much my list above. The receiver I decided on is a not as nice (from what I can tell anyway), but should work pretty well for the time being, Denon AVR-E400. I looked at going with separate preamp/amp set-ups, but the functionality of the what I could afford appeared to be lacking (Emotiva & Outlaw). I don't need a ton of features, but I do want to be able to easily play music from my phone since that is where it all resides nowadays (and computer).

I had not considered two subs before. Not sure where I would put a second one... We'll see how this set-up functions for us and go from there. Thanks for the idea!

We're really excited to get everything hooked up and test it out (looks like the speakers should arrive later today, sub next week). We ended up running wires to the back of the room and will be mounting the HTM-200s on the wall. I'll be sure to report back how it all sounds.

Sounds like your ready to go. The Denon is a good unit and it was in your budget, win win. Check out Audioholics online forums for more on the dual sub setup. The folks over there are very helpful and theres a lot of good information. The blue bar at the top of the Audioholics forums has a lot of info so be sure to surf around in there as well. I'll be looking forward to hearing about how it sounds. Enjoy.

Everything arrived and is hooked up! I was impressed just taking everything out of the boxes. Packaging was very well done. We went with the Sierra-2's in dark cherry and they are just gorgeous - really sharp with clearly impressive build quality.

Getting around some of the AVR configuration challenges was new to me, but I think we're all good (probably more to play with). The Ascend set-up of Sierra-2's up front (L/R/C), HTM-200's rear and LV12R sub is outstanding. We ran everything without the sub until it arrived and were really impressed. Once the sub arrived, we went through the Audessy set-up and everything is really impressive all around. I'm really, really happy with the set-up.

The best way I can describe the sound is that it is warm and full. I may add some to this once we have more time on the speakers and watch a full movie. We may upgrade the receiver down the road as I feel like this is the weak point right now. To be fair, we moved from the **** CineMate II system, so our reference point may not be as competitive. Either way, I am very happy to have made the upgrade!

We may need to buy some Sierra Towers for upstairs 2-channel listening :)

Glad it turned out well. Maybe some photos in Ascend owners thread? :D