more thinking about speakers

Last night I gave some serious thought to getting a surround setup. I got as far as deciding on a 5.1 speaker set and a reciever. They’re still sitting in my Amazon cart.

This morning, while having my breakfast, I measured the size of the living room so I could make sure to order enough speaker wire. My rough calculations suggest that I’d have to run about 74 feet of wire through the place. Or maybe like 114 feet if I decided to hang the speakers on the ceiling. And I’m imagining the awkwardness of a center channel speaker sitting on the floor right in front of the closet door I project my video onto. And of finding places for the l/r rear speakers. And it just doesn’t feel like enough of an upgrade to be worth all that hassle.

So I guess I now get to go digging for 2.1 sub/satellite reviews. Which is turning out to be a bitch as most hits I’m finding so far are for super tiny things you plug your iPod into. I really like the form factor of “sub under the table with consoles on top of it, tiny satellites in the corners of the room”; I don’t want the speakers to be a dominant note in my decor like the giant speakers I grew up with that supported all the reast of the A/V gear.

Aaand as I dig I realize there are a few important details: how the satellites connect, and where the volume controls are. A lot of these connect the satellites with weird proprietary cables rather than plain old speaker wire that I can run however far I need; many of them choose to put the volume controls on one of the satellites, with the assumption that you’ll be sticking the sub under your computer desk and the satellites atop it, rather than slouching in a beanbag chair with the satellites across the room.

…I wonder if keeping my existing satellites and getting a reciever and separate sub would make sense. Hmm. I am also idly fantasizing about some of Bang & Olufsen’s sexy, sexy speakers. I think their prices are just a little more than I’m willing to pay though…