I custom-built a super-tidy TV and hi-fi setup here are 5 mistakes you can avoid based on my experience

Date:
Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Description:
Renting doesn't mean you can't have an awesome home theater setup, but learn some lessons before you start

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When I moved into my new apartment, I wanted my TV setup to feel a bit more deliberate than the usual rented home arrangement of a screen on a TV bench,
a soundbar, and a mess of cables doing their best.

So, with help from family, I built a custom small-scale Tv, soundbar and
hi-fi setup designed to fit the space properly, hiding cables and looking cleaner day-to-day. I've always been happy with how it turned out, but living with it taught me something that product pages and showroom photos do not:
the best setup is not always the one that looks the neatest on day one. Article continues below You may like I made my home audio setup sing using a roomEQ kit here's how you can too The 3 settings you should change on your new TV for better picture quality I added a soundbar to my TV and no longer think they're essential for every screen In a smaller home like mine, the choices that matter most are usually the practical ones: how easy it is to reach a cable, how many remotes you need to juggle, and so on. Some of those lessons came from getting things right, and some came from learning the hard way. Either way, they are useful if you are trying to build a cleaner,
smarter TV setup without turning your living room into a full-time AV
project. What's my setup? My custom TV setup was not a full from-scratch
build so much as an adaptation of what was already there.

We used a buyable record shelf as the base, then added a long wooden top and
a new support leg to create one continuous unit for the TV, turntable, storage, and desk space. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The whole thing was shaped around the built-in white shelving already in the flat, which meant the room itself dictated a lot of the design.

All of this was accomplished on the day I moved in and the day after, so it was a tight and very stressful timeframe, which is an element of the
project that I definitely don't recommend unless absolutely necessary. (Image credit: Future) 1. Leave some cable slack and strain relief One of the least glamorous lessons was also one of the most useful: do not make your cable
runs so neat that they become a pain to live with. What to read next How to set up your new turntable and start collecting vinyl I spent a day at an
elite hi-fi show to pick out 6 affordable speakers and hi-res players even
I'd buy, so maybe you can too Testing Yamaha's elite soundbar made me appreciate the humble rear speaker

In my setup, once everything was tucked away and routed through the furniture properly, even small changes became more annoying than Id expected, albeit with the advantage of being nicer to look at.

In a smaller flat, where the TV stand is likely to sit close to the wall and every inch matters, leaving a bit of slack behind the screen and around your devices makes a real difference. (Image credit: Future) 2. eARC is brilliant until it isnt For me, HDMI ARC was one of the best parts of the whole setup. Running a soundbar through my Samsung TVs eARC port helped cut down the clutter straight away, because it meant simpler audio, fewer visible connections, and less dependence on a pile of remotes.

The catch is that eARC still relies on everything in the chain behaving itself. HDMI handshakes, quirks with HDMI-CEC control system it uses, and the occasional audio oddity can turn a tidy one-cable solution into something
that feels strangely temperamental.

I still think it is well worth prioritizing, especially with one of the best soundbars , but it is smarter to treat it as part of the system that you
might need to play with sometimes, not a magic solution you can set and forget. 3. Dont chase 'flush to the wall' One thing I would be more relaxed about next time is how close the TV sits to the wall, or to whatever is supporting it.

In my experience, it's easy to fixate on that super-slim, ultra-neat look especially if you're wall-mounting but in real life it can create more problems than it solves.

In a smaller space, a bit of extra space behind the screen makes it much easier to reach ports, route cables neatly, and make changes without turning
a simple job into a frustrating one.

And if you're wall-mounting, remember that a fancy mount that keeps the TV flush to the wall will look amazing, but a thicker mount (especially that moves) will make fixing problems way easier. (Image credit: Future) 4. Kill the remote pile A home theater setup can look clean and still feel annoying
to use, and remotes are a big part of that.

One thing I appreciated with my own system was how much better it felt once I was not constantly juggling controls just to switch inputs or adjust the volume.

It is worth thinking about this when you're planning what you're going to include in your setup.

A soundbar with solid eARC support, a streaming device with a good remote, or a universal remote can make a bigger difference than another spec upgrade you only notice occasionally. 5. Plan for the day you move out The final lesson only really clicked afterwards: a setup does not just need to work while you live with it, it needs to be removable without becoming a nightmare.

In a rented flat, it is very easy to make something feel brilliantly custom
in the moment, then discover later that it only really works in that one
exact room.

Removable cable management rather than built-in, furniture that can be reused in a different layout, and mounts or accessories that do not leave you with loads to undo all make far more sense in the long run.

A good setup should suit your space now, but it should not punish you for eventually leaving it. I'm glad I'm staying put for the foreseeable future.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/televisions/home-theater/i-custom-built-a-super-tidy -tv-and-hi-fi-setup-here-are-5-mistakes-you-can-avoid-based-on-my-experience


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