Need help with a new space for both TV and Speakers

[VLAN]

Recently moved into a new townhome and to make a very long story short, Its a new chapter in my life and I want to go all out on my space (I mean no not 10k on a tv kinda thing I'd still like to save some cash thank you). I've never really had the opportunity to build out my own space and now I finally can and ill be honest, I'm not the best decorator and don't know what the best option for TVs and Sound qquality are. I know just because something is the most expensive, doesn't mean its the best and that's where I need your help.

 

Attached is my floor plan for the living room which is where the TV is going to go

 

Room

• SIZE
  • 12x12x9"
  • 
  • 
  • 
• Furniture 
  • Sectional (on back order like everything else for 2 months...)
  • Figured book cases or something as well
  • Some sort of large area room rug from costco?
  • Wasn't sure if having some sort of room sound board panels would help. The ones people put in rooms or theaters to help bounce the sound back at you so it doesn't just leave the area. Linus did this I saw in his house and his video on the workshop area.
• Color of the room
  • Ideally based on the sectional the modern approach is that gray type tone, but haven't picked a color yet. If it helps anyone I'll be going to Sherwin Williams as I get 80% off on paint
• TV
  • I really want to get the new QD-OLED TVs I've been hearing about, but not 100% dead set on it. The use case is for movies and tv shows in HDR and Bluray. I don't have live TV so for tv shows it would come from streaming service providers. Ideally I'm thinking:
    • 65"
    • HDR
    • Dolby Atmos support (unless there's a better option)
    • OLED as its the best you can get to my knowledge
• Sound
  • Support for Dolby Atmos or whatever would be the best option
  • Debating if I want to do hardwired speakers, or just calling it a day and doing a really nice soundbar with surround sound (again Linus showed off in his home that insane sound bar a while back that works wonders)
• Lights
  • I plan on doing can lights. The smaller ones that would be in the 4 edges of the room and remove the one by the front door

 

So honestly any help would be greatly appreciated. Any suggestions on hardware, when to buy, personal experiences etc is always welcomed. This is by no means something I plan on doing over night. I want to do this right the first time and make it amazing to have folks over and watch movies and tv shows.

[Colty]

Yes, OLED is widely considered the best of the best. But I'd advise you get blackout curtains. I can use my OLED all day with the curtains open, but it looks much better with the curtains closed. This goes for all TV's, but OLEDs get even more benefit than LED panels.

As for which OLED to get, the C2 is LG's latest revision of their standard lineup, the C1 and CX are still great if you can find a deal on them. Regardless, try to get a panel with true 120Hz, this is important for reverse 3:2 pulldown so the motion is as smooth as possible without the soap opera effect. 

For speakers, grab an eARC receiver and some good floor standing speakers, maybe a couple surrounds, and a sub. Don't get a soundbar. A soundbar is always, "good for the space/simplicity" it's never outright better than a real system at the same price. I like Klipsch and Denon, but look for deals in your area. I can guarantee you that my $500 setup will outperform even a $1500 2.1 soundbar and it only took me a couple months to gather the pieces off of Facebook/Craigslist. 

Lighting is important, so is bias lighting. Get something "smart" though. Change the color temp/brightness/ect. For the bias lights, I use full brightness for gaming most of the time, 50% for most movies, and like 20% for horror movies. All of the other lights are a voice command away from being turned off for a "cinematic experience."

[VLAN]

15 hours ago, Colty said:

Yes, OLED is widely considered the best of the best. But I'd advise you get blackout curtains. I can use my OLED all day with the curtains open, but it looks much better with the curtains closed. This goes for all TV's, but OLEDs get even more benefit than LED panels. Good call on the blackout curtains. I was only thinking for the bedrooms, but that makes sense.

As for which OLED to get, the C2 is LG's latest revision of their standard lineup, the C1 and CX are still great if you can find a deal on them. Regardless, try to get a panel with true 120Hz, this is important for reverse 3:2 pulldown so the motion is as smooth as possible without the soap opera effect. So is the C2 QD-OLED? Again it doesn't HAVE to be LG, just I know they were the "best" with OLED to my knowledge.

For speakers, grab an eARC receiver and some good floor standing speakers, maybe a couple surrounds, and a sub. Don't get a soundbar. A soundbar is always, "good for the space/simplicity" it's never outright better than a real system at the same price. I like Klipsch and Denon, but look for deals in your area. I can guarantee you that my $500 setup will outperform even a $1500 2.1 soundbar and it only took me a couple months to gather the pieces off of Facebook/Craigslist. I'll take a look around. I do enjoy Klipsch

Lighting is important, so is bias lighting. Get something "smart" though. Change the color temp/brightness/ect. For the bias lights, I use full brightness for gaming most of the time, 50% for most movies, and like 20% for horror movies. All of the other lights are a voice command away from being turned off for a "cinematic experience." Any recommendations on the "smart" lightning? I honestly don't want voice commands in the house. I'm going to have to have an electrician wire in the 4 spots for the lights, but yeah

 

[Colty]

The C2 is not QD-OLED. QD-OLED has a handful of advantages, but is MUCH pricier. If price is not an object the Sony XR-65A95K will likely be the best TV to come out this year. However I don't think there are any QD-OLED TV's you can currently purchase. I'd still suggest OLED for the vast majority of users since I don't see QD-OLED as worth the price jump in the majority of situations. Sony and LG are the two big OLED manufacturer's, technically Sony is typically better, but they do cost a premium for the performance. Basically, get the LG unless the price difference to the equivalent Sony is about $150 or so. 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-type/oled - Good article to get a better idea of the differences. (Note - this hasn't been updated to include the LG C2 lineup) 

Smart lighting is all dependent on how you want to use it and how much $ you want to spend. I went cheap since I only wanted them dimmable, to have variations of white color temperature, and Google home integration.

[VLAN]

4 hours ago, Colty said:

The C2 is not QD-OLED. QD-OLED has a handful of advantages, but is MUCH pricier. If price is not an object the Sony XR-65A95K will likely be the best TV to come out this year. However I don't think there are any QD-OLED TV's you can currently purchase. I'd still suggest OLED for the vast majority of users since I don't see QD-OLED as worth the price jump in the majority of situations. Sony and LG are the two big OLED manufacturer's, technically Sony is typically better, but they do cost a premium for the performance. Basically, get the LG unless the price difference to the equivalent Sony is about $150 or so. 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-type/oled - Good article to get a better idea of the differences. (Note - this hasn't been updated to include the LG C2 lineup) 

Smart lighting is all dependent on how you want to use it and how much $ you want to spend. I went cheap since I only wanted them dimmable, to have variations of white color temperature, and Google home integration.

Hm I do have a costco membership so maybe in 2 months when I get my furniture (which is when I plan on buying the TV anyways since I can't enjoy right now) the new C2 series will on "sale". That said I did see this: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-65-class-b2-series-oled-4k-uhd-smart-webos-tv/6501896.p?skuId=6501896 and not sure what the thoughts on this were let alone when its supposed to even be out.

 

I want dimmable lights that can also change color (thinking like HUE lights) but something can integrate into homekit.