Surround Sound · Receivers · In-Wall Speakers
HOME THEATER
SET UP RIGHT
A surround system is only as good as where the speakers end up and how the receiver is configured. Most of the ones we're called out to fix were assembled correctly and placed wrong. We handle the whole thing — receiver, speakers, subwoofer, wiring — and tune it for the seat you actually watch from.
What we set up
Receivers and amplifiers. Sources in, speakers out, everything labelled so the back of the cabinet isn't a knot in six months. Inputs named on screen, so the remote says Xbox rather than HDMI 3.
Surround speakers. 5.1 and 7.1, on stands, on the wall, or in the wall. Height and angle set for seated ear level rather than wherever the bracket happened to land.
Atmos and in-ceiling. Overhead channels cut into the ceiling and aimed at the seating, where the joists allow it. We'll tell you honestly before we start whether your ceiling allows it.
Subwoofers. Placed and phase-checked. This is the single cheapest improvement in most rooms and the one most often skipped.
Placement is most of the result
People spend months choosing speakers and ten minutes deciding where they go. It's backwards. A mid-range set placed properly beats an expensive set pushed against whatever wall had a free socket.
What actually matters: tweeters near ear height when you're sitting, surrounds slightly behind and above you rather than pointed at the back of your head, and a centre channel aimed at the seats instead of the ceiling — that one channel carries nearly all the dialogue, which is why so many systems have people reaching for subtitles.
Then the subwoofer, which is the least predictable thing in the room. Bass builds up in corners and disappears in others, and the difference between a good spot and a bad one three feet away is not subtle. We check rather than guess.
Speaker wire, and Chicago walls
Surround sound means wire running to the back of the room, and nobody wants to see it. How we hide it depends entirely on what your walls are made of, which in this city varies street by street.
Drywall is the straightforward one — wire drops inside the cavity and comes out at a plate near the speaker.
Plaster and lath, common in older Chicago two-flats and bungalows, is slower and messier to fish and sometimes not worth opening up. We'll say so.
Brick and concrete, including most high-rise interior walls, can't be fished at all. There the honest answer is a low-profile raceway painted to match, run along a baseboard or ceiling line where your eye doesn't follow it.
We'd rather tell you which of those you're dealing with during the estimate than discover it with a drill in our hand.
Why it's quoted per job
The $100 flat rate at the top of this site covers mounting a TV — any TV, any size. Audio work sits outside it, and putting a flat rate on it would mean quoting most people wrongly.
Home theater doesn't have a flat rate, because two jobs with the same speaker count can be a two-hour visit or a full day apart.
What moves the number: how many channels, whether speakers go on the wall or inside it, whether the wire can be fished or has to be surface-run, how far the run is to the rear of the room, and whether there's a rack or cabinet to tie into. Ceilings add a variable of their own.
So you get a free estimate instead of a guess. Describe the room and what you already own, and we'll give you a real figure before anyone turns up.
If you're mounting the TV at the same time, say so — it's one visit and one set of holes in the wall rather than two.
Tell us about the room
Room size, how many speakers, and whether the gear is already bought. That's usually enough to give you a real number instead of a range.