"Xzener's Dedicated Theater" Construction Thread

4 Berklines will be at least 10' wide. If you don't need to walk around the chairs, then you should be able to fit them in the 11 foot width.

I'd say a screen size of 110" is as big as you want to go. It'll look huge in that room.

No need for a riser with one row of seats. You can't do two rows of seats in that small of a room.

Again, unless you're going all out, I'd forget the stage as well. In a room that size, it would look cramped.

If it were me, I'd forget the Berklines and go with a nice couch along the back wall for seating. In a room that size, it would be a bit more cozy.

Look online or go shopping in a furniture store for the dimensions of some sectionals that you like, see if they fit in your room. I would have no idea.

There are a few places out there that make pretty large home theater cabinets just as you described. In fact, one of the AVS Forums advertisements at the top of the page is always showing those cabinets.... it says "Nothing but Wood".

If you're going "all out", then I'd think you would want to skip the bookshelf speakers and go with towers. Bookshelves aren't bad for a room that size, but they're certainly not "all out".

Berklines need at least 6 feet for the back row (yes, because they recline).

Even if you put a couch in the back row, it would take up probably 4 feet worth of space (couch + legroom), leaving you only 9 feet to the front wall. Sitting in the Berklines, your eyes will be around 6 or 7 inches ahead of the seat back, so that puts you around 8.5 feet from the screen. That's very close for 110" diagonal. In that case, you would probably have to reduce your screen size. I'm not sure what your goals are, so I can't tell you which is best. You're going to have to weigh the options.

Regarding your projector, you also have to consider where the air INTAKE is located. You can't just worry about the exhaust. So putting it up into the soffit would require some thought as to how you are going to ventilate the projector both IN and OUT.

I agree. In that size room your choices are very limited. You can use a coach or you can get actual cinema chairs. Four cinema chairs will fit fairly well. My room is 11.5' x 13.5' and I was able to fit a 106" AT masking screen along with four subwoofers. I use a couch 2.5' off the back wall. My room is also sound treated. With careful planing you can do a lot with a small room.

I highly disagree. If you want to go all out on a budget. Then you need to look at speakers that are designed for HT. Any good sub will do better than a tower speaker for 100hz and down. I am not recommending a book shelf speaker. You need a speaker with a larger driver for good coverage of 80hz to 1,200hz +/-. Typical book shelf speakers do not have large enough drivers. Good HT speakers have the following traits:

High sensitivity
High power handling
Directivity

I use JTR T8's in my small HT http://jtrspeakers.com/home-audio/triple-8ht/. These are fairly expensive, but there is a new speaker that is coming out that meets the design goals needed for a reference level theater. I would wait for the Tweak City Audio Pro-10's. The Pro-10's are designed to be able to provide reference level sound at 10' to 12' using a 100 watt per channel AVR. Reference level is 105db peaks at the listening position per speaker. If the speaker is 12' away you need a speaker that can produce about 115db peaks so that you get 105db peaks at the listening position. If you want clean reference level, then You need a speaker that can provide an additional 3db to 6db of headroom above that. This is what is needed to provide the dynamics required of HT. The Pro-10's are 96db sensitive, 300 watt power handling. The speakers use a 10" pro driver and a 1" compression driver mounted to a horn. Like most of the good specifically designed HT speakers (JTR, Seaton Sound, Danley and JBL Pro they are designed to be crossed over to a sub/subs around 80hz. I would plan on using multiple subs. I do not like to use a single sub, no matter how good a sub it is.

If you can get 8" behind your screen you can go with an AT screen & the Pro-10's and have a real performance HT. You would need to recess the Pro-10's into your wall 3" and place sound panels around the speakers creating a THX baffle wall http://extranet.thx.com/cinema/builtTHX/baffle.html. If you do not have the room, then you would need to locate the center below a conventional screen.

Also I would not locate the equipment at the front of the room. The lights are distracting and it creates other problems. Either place in the back of the room or place in another room. Another room (vented closet) would be best. I have all of my equipment Pre/pro, four pro amps, HT amp, pre amp, BD player, PEQ and QAM tuner located in another room. Saves space, reduces noise and it keeps the HT room cooler. You will be surprised at how much heat all the equipment generates.

Can ou stretch your budget to $1,600 for the speakers? http://www.tweakcityaudio.com/forum/...ead.php?t=2856 Here is info on them. http://www.tweakcityaudio.com/forum/...ead.php?t=2579 Should be able to get some listening reports from users in two or three weeks. At the current price point I do not know of any other speaker that will be able to compete against the Pro-10's if they do what I have been told they can do.

That is the cheapest new speaker that I know of that has high sensitivity, high power handling, directivity and can provide a clean reference level theater experience at 10' to 12' with head room. Most audiophile speakers can't provide clean reference levels at 3'.

I saw pictures of the finished cabinets and they are much better than the prototypes. The cabinets are being built by a USA cabinet shop. The cabinets are made from a Maple plywood with a black paint finish and a clear coat over the painted finish. Should look good. I tried to find the pictures, but I do not remember which thread had them.

Welcome to the swamp! Couple questions for you:

1. Given where your door is and the size of the room, your riser idea looks challenging, as it appears you'll either have to immediately step up into the room or make the riser narrower than the room, which is already borderline width for the seating you want. Can you elaborate on your riser plan and show it in Sketchup?

2. A siding door will leak a lot of sound to the house in what seems like a central location. You good with that?

I think a small stage with an AT screen and good in-walls would save space and still look fantastic. The stage wouldn't need to be but a couple feet deep (if that depending on the style you want) with in-wall speakers on an AT screen.

xzener,

I'm having a hard time visualizing how you will fit two rows, a stage & a riser which will have to be angled to accommodate the doorway in a room that is 11' x 13', especially with that door location. I can't access the sketchup file from my work computer - does it show exact dimensions for your riser & seating plan? It kind of seems to me that you're trying to fit the proverbial 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 pound bag, but it is your bag to fill as you see fit!

Secondly, I don't think any sliding door will contain sound well at all, even if it's solid wood, because of the way they are constructed with a pocket in the wall itself. There could be a lot of sound escaping from that dining room/HT.

If in-walls are too expensive, then why not find a set of towers or bookshelf speakers you like, remove them from the cabinet and build your your own in-wall speakers with the components? You would probably want to box them out with a similar volume airspace that the original cabinet held. The only issue I can think of might be the fact that they are going to be mounted onto a different face. Some manufacturers design their speakers/cabinets to be complimentary acoustically, and rather than having two inches of cabinet face on each side of the speaker, you would now have eight feet of flat wall as the cabinet face. This might introduce some acoustical anomalies, but you would need to consult an speaker/cabinet designer to glean some more insight.

I recently made some suggestions for in-wall speakers in another thread, I'll quote it here for your reference...

Have you looked into the heat issue? I had a guest bedroom about your size that I put the projector in. With the projector, and receiver running, the room got very hot fast. I also had bookshelve speakers with small sub and inside that small room, it was pretty loud so you may not need expensive speakers to pressurize that small room. I have since moved everything to our bigger family room, and had to upgrade everything.

If you fit 2 rows in the room and it doesnt look cramped I will be VERY impressed

Also if you arent concerned about sound isolation then I wouldnt do anything. If you have pocket doors and arent going to do anything other than what there leave everything else be. I think its a waste but to each their own. Be absolutely sure you will not want isolation before writing it off. Maybe set up a simple demo setup and crank it to see if people will be able to sleep or are not bothered.

Congrats! Now how about some pics of the house!?!

If it was my space, I'd be tempted to flip it 90 degrees (put the screen over the window), and use one row of 4 seats.

Similar to:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post17354174 (see the last draft of dc_pilgrim's plan).