"Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan."
-Rear Admiral Joshua Painter - USS Enterprise

So if I plan to build a home theater worthy of the name, I better have a plan too!

So where do we start? A rough layout of the room and equipment would seem to be a good starting point:

The room I have to work with is 13’ wide by 23’ long and 7 ½ tall. The end of the room is open so I need to leave 4’ for a walking space at the back, however I can hang a pair of rear effect speakers and/or the projector in that space. The right side of the room is a ½ height wall opening into a similar sized space (dance floor/exercise area).

Due in part to the size of the room, I plan to use an acoustically transparent screen and locate the L/R and Center speakers behind the screen.

I plan to build a wall 3’ out from the font of the room to hold the screen and allow for placing the center channel behind it. I’m toying with the idea of creating the wall like a gate so that it can swing open to allow access to the speakers/sub as needed.

Positioning the row of seats at the back of the room gives a distance of ~12.5’ to the front of the screen. Using a 146” Diagonal 2.35:1 screen I get a viewing angle of 48º

Positing the Left and Right speakers 1’ from each outside wall I have a 20º off center angle from the center seat.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/Moonliner/DC1.jpg
Please excuse the pathetic drawing which is not quite to scale, I did the best I could with PowerPoint. I’m not much of an architect or artist.

Questions:

1. How big an issue is having only ½ of a right wall going to be sound wise?
2. Are the L/R front speakers far enough apart? Will moving them in front of the screen wall to increase the angle do better?
3. Are there any other major problems with this layout that I’m not seeing?

Well if you what (The Hunt For Red October 1990 70mm six-track Dolby stereo SR) to fully surround you as the Russian torpedo moves overhead you’ll need a few more of the same surround speakers placed lined along the walls two isn’t enough.

Wire them ether with separate power amplifier or in series space them out by several feet mine are spaced out at 4 feet and the room is only 15 feet long, and there are three per sidewall and for the the back wall there are 4 to give a good centre back solid surround. So I’m only by at least 8 feet you need more surrounds even the smallest cinema at Empire Leicester Square Empire 3 uses at least 4 or 6 I think for their 77 seat cinema.

Surround means multiples of groups that will give uniform defused surround with centre monaural effects within stereo surrounds and will work wonders with Dolby stereo monaural and four-track to six-track discrete.

So place at least a few more along the walls and few more sofas I’d say at least 5 surrounds per sidewall and 4 to 6 on the back wall easily.

Interesting concept but I think that I'll start with a pair of multi-directional surround speakers on the sides and see how that goes.

Thanks for the response.

Interesting concept but I think that I'll start with a pair of multi-directional surround speakers on the sides and see how that goes.

Thanks for the response.

No, not interesting that is how it is done! Chances are you haven’t been to cinema lately and looked around.

My guess is they cost you for pair over $100 dollars? Mine only cost £249.90 for ten surrounds now then.

Also all the fronts should be matching identical providing of course you what to hear The Hunt For Red October with smooth pans. That’s how I do it and that’s how it sounded at UCI screen 6, I believe or was it (interlocked between screen 5 and 6) I can’t remember it’s a long time back since I projected that film in 35mm Dolby SR type.;)

No, not interesting that is how it is done! Chances are you haven’t been to cinema lately and looked around.


Chances are that you don't realize how much larger a cinema is compared to a home theater. :rolleyes: The reason for the extra speakers is so that ALL of the rows of listeners will be able to hear a pan. Additional sets of speakers are not required for a 20' room!

Chances are that you don't realize how much larger a cinema is compared to a home theater. :rolleyes: The reason for the extra speakers is so that ALL of the rows of listeners will be able to hear a pan. Additional sets of speakers are not required for a 20' room!

You are dead wrong,:rolleyes: wrong, wrong :rolleyes:mega wrong,:rolleyes: ultra times infinity…Wrong!:rolleyes: Tell you what come on over and put your money where mouth is. 29 year olds good grief!:rolleyes:

Chances are that you don't realize how much larger a cinema is compared to a home theater. :rolleyes: The reason for the extra speakers is so that ALL of the rows of listeners will be able to hear a pan. Additional sets of speakers are not required for a 20' room!

The reason for all the surround speakers in a commercial movie theater is for surround envelopment not panning.

You are dead wrong,:rolleyes: wrong, wrong :rolleyes:mega wrong,:rolleyes: ultra times infinity…Wrong!:rolleyes: Tell you what come on over and put your money where mouth is. 29 year olds good grief!:rolleyes:

Home theater processors/receivers are designed to deliver surround envelopment, in the home, with two to four surround speakers. Adding more speakers without associated delay circuits will actually hamper the surround effect.

The reason for all the surround speakers in a commercial movie theater is for surround envelopment not panning.



Home theater processors/receivers are designed to deliver surround envelopment, in the home, with two to four surround speakers. Adding more speakers without associated delay circuits will actually hamper the surround effect.

No kidding Sherlock I used to work for two major cinema UK chains.;) And the size of some home theatres I’ve seen are about the size of some small dinky toy multiples thou they do come in different sizes and shapes. And the smallest I’ve seen is Empire 3 which is no longer than 30 feet.

And the OP is 23 feet long, and why oh why do most of you placed 16 subs in small room no bigger to swing a cat around in, I ask myself why?

Scamps: Your decision to start with one pair of multi-directional sides is the way to go. JBL is high on his array and that's cool. But the rest of us actually want a room that we can live in, entertain friends, spend time with family, etc.

You are dead wrong,:rolleyes: wrong, wrong :rolleyes:mega wrong,:rolleyes: ultra times infinity…Wrong!:rolleyes: Tell you what come on over and put your money where mouth is. 29 year olds good grief!:rolleyes:

I'm sorry but what exactly does my age have to do with anything? :rolleyes: I will take the high road here and not argue with you in Scamps' thread any longer. Not worth it.

To the OP. I apologize for my part in this ridiculous "discussion".

If you build it, they will come
- T. Voice

Movies, deep bass, huge screen.... These are all well and good but I want more. I want Poker!

In addition to it's duty as a home theater, my room will also play host to a monthly poker tournament. Towards that end, I need some seating that is more flexible than the standard theater chair. So in addition to the single row of loungers show on the plan, I'm thinking about adding a set of chairs along these lines:

http://www.relaxtheback.com/images/full/2390_custom_spr.jpg

Comfortable for movie watching but also on wheels so I can move them around the poker tables. Opinions?

To everything - turn turn turn, There is a season turn turn turn.
- The Byrds

Fast forward two years plus one new kitchen...... And construction is finally underway.

First up, a long sought after wife request to boost my WAF. A handrail leading down to the soon-to-be theater room.
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv243/stevesphotobook/P1020301.jpg

Next up, I dusted off the drywall saw and made some room for my equipment rack.
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv243/stevesphotobook/P1020303.jpg

Then once I had the hole I started work on building said rack. I'm using the basic FleXy Rack (http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html) design.

First up a fitting test, followed by using the last nice day we are likely to have for quite some time to paint the parts.
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv243/stevesphotobook/P1020314.jpg
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv243/stevesphotobook/P1020321.jpg

Tonight I plan to assemble the rack and get it moved into place, although a quick guesstimate of size leads me to think I might need to assemble it in place. Next week I have a meeting with the contractor to discuses all the stuff I don't want to do myself (electrical, drywall, etc....)