Home theater build

Hey all!

Right now I have a dumb old Sony receiver with 5.1 speakers in the living room…

I was thinking of upgrading it to something more automatable… and also get rid of the mess of speakers in the process… so my focus went to soundbars…

I was thinking of something along the lines of the Sonos Beam… along with a couple of Play 1’s (one of which I already have)…

All that would be connected to my Sony KS8000 tv as well as a Chromecast and a gaming console (Wii U right now, who knows what in the future?)

I’ve got a collection of CDs, DVDs and Blurays but I will soon be setting up a NAS so no need for a physical reader…

What do you guys think? what other options do I have? Does the Beam sound good, both in sound and in concept? What other setups do you guys have?

Open to suggestions…

(PS: Tried going to the Sonos community, but they never answer! lol!)

Consider going the immersive sound route. Dolby Atmos and DTS-X are the two major players.

Vizio has a Dolby Atmos Soundbar…5.1.4 for 10 discrete channels of audio.

As far as Automation, Harmony Hub is a good choice.

I was hoping for something more integrated… being a Samsung TV and all that… lol! I already have the Harmony… don’t really enjoy it that much… it’s too flaky… you’re always hoping for it to work…

I’ve found the Harmony Hubs to be pretty reliable. Most issues are from bad placement of the IR blasters.

My current setup is:
AV EQUIPMENT:
AVR-Yamaha RX-a3060
Amp-Pioneer VSX-917V (4 Atmost Speakers)
SPEAKERS:
Front Speakers-Polk Audio RTi A7 (2)
Center Speaker-Polk Audio CSi A6 (1)
Sides and Rear Speakers- RTi A4 (4)
Ceiling Speaker-Micca M-8C (4)
Subs-HSU Research ULS-15 MK2 (2)
DISPLAYS:
Display 1-Vizio P65
Display 2-Optoma HD33 (120" 16:9 Screen)
MEDIA PLAYERS:
Fire TV
XB1
Roku
PC
PS4
SMARTS:
Harmony Hub
Aeon Labs Power Strip
Pi3 running KuKu Harmony

I haven’t had any issues controlling any of this in ST.

YMMV

1 Like

What is that?

I have 2 Harmony hubs. Living room and bedroom. Only issue i had was living room and it was the IR signal not getting to the cable box reliably. I added one of the IR extenders to the hub and it works flawlessly ever since. Most everything is done via ST automation or voice using a Google home. Have been very happy with the Harmony Hubs.