Home theatre update

[Fraoch]

Just wanted to update everyone on the progress of my home theatre!

I finally got my wall mounts (Energy Macro Mounts) in the other day. They were on backorder for 2 months, and they were already paid for. I'm selling the house so I'd vowed not to use them and to keep using my older speakers. However, when I got them and took a look, well, I could reuse the existing mounting screws and I just needed to drill one additional hole to mount these. What the hey, what's two holes when there's already one?

So I proceeded to mount them. I was not impressed with the mounts. Even though they were expensive they felt cheap. The fit was poor. The swivel assembly didn't come off the wall mount easily, and the swivel ball did not swivel easily either. I inserted the threaded post into my Energy C-3s and mounted them. For wall mounting, these speakers are BIG - 7-3/4" wide X 15-1/2" high X 11-1/2" deep and HEAVY at 17.7 lbs! It was quite difficult and stressful to get the swivel mounts attached to the speaker into the channels in the wall mount bracket.

Immediately the speaker began to droop. The swivel mount which had been so hard to move did finally move under the weight of the speaker. Within 2 hours it drooped until it touched the wall.





You also get an idea how huge this speaker looks sticking out from a wall! Good thing there's no significant other to deal with!

Now that one was firmly embedded in a stud. The other one used wall anchors in gyproc. Alarmingly, the top screw was pulling out under the weight!



The screw that I reused simply gave up under the strain! As bad as it looks, the speaker is resting against the wall like the other one, which reduces the force. It hasn't moved since.

I guess overall it's not too bad - the speakers are pointed directly at my ears now. Not quite what Dolby recommends, but very audible nonetheless.



I didn't install my surround back speakers, which are suspended from the ceiling, for several reasons:

1. I hardly use 6-channel mode anymore. DTS:Neo 6 (6-channel) is inferior in every way to Dolby Pro-Logic II (5-channel). I rarely listen to Dolby Digital or DTS material, and most of that is 5-channel anyway. The only true 6-channel material I have is the LOTR extended DVDs, and I've watched them both several times already.

2. Even though Energy clearly states that Macro Mounts can be used for ceiling mounting, you simply cannot pivot the speaker very far forward before it hits the ceiling. Maybe only about 30 degrees or so. This will just barely point the speaker to my ears.

3. The immense strain on the wall anchors meant I would have to drill into a joist. I have a stud sensor, but it doesn't work for joists, and a joist/stud sensor is $35. I'm on a fixed budget, I can't do this now.

4. If the swivel did not hold its position the speaker would droop to a horizontal position. While the droop was still OK for my wall-mounted speakers, a ceiling-mounted speaker would gradually face the floor and become totally useless.

Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to keep everyone who wants to know updated. This is my first failure of the setup...

Note the swivel mounts lock down - a triangular retainer holds the swivel ball in place. I tightened the retainer as much as I could. To have the swivel maintain its position I could tighten it more but it's already very tight and I'm concerned I'll break the plastic.

Oh yes, and how it sounds - well, it's worth it, of course. But I will say for anyone who wants to get into this, spend your money on the L/C/R and subwoofer. The SL/SR/SB speakers just provide "fill" effects and the occasional pinpoint sound effect and are not nearly as critical as L/C/R/sub. If you're into home theatre, spend your money on the centre. 80% of the sound comes from there. If you're into music, spend your money on good floorstanding L/R speakers. I have C-5s and they're awesome.