Need help with screen size - new HT build

What do you plan on watching? HDTV, lots of movies... what portion of each? If heavily into movies, why not consider a 2.35 (or more) 'scope screen aspect ratio? And put the speakers (either in-walls, or low profile) behind an AT screen. You don't want (or do you?) too big a screen for the size room and the view distance. Several calculators for screen size, view distance, aspect ratio, etc. can be found here. And how important is the quality of the (movie) sound? If you want to impart a real theater experience, consider some way of separating the pool room area from the theater area. At the least, lower the false soffit on the right to give you someplace to position the right surround speaker. Better yet, Enclose the theater area with a wall there and place a double french door (opening into the theater) that can be opened to allow room for pool cues, larger parties, etc. The point of all this is that if good sound is important, the theater area should be as "tight" as possible.
If you decide to go with an AT screen consider either a fabric screen material, either DIY or factory screen. Several threads here discuss the various brands. One I'm partial to is seymourav.com.

fwiw,
steve

I have a friend who is planning to do something very similar to your concept, in his basement. I told him that if it was my setup, there is no doubt I would set it up lengthwise for best audio (it's a big deal this orientation) so that the modal energy would hopefully be less offensive, especially since you can now get off the boundary/backwall, let alone the imbalanced and lopsided audio energy from having the left speaker and listeners against the left boundary. Ideally, you want at least several ft from the back boundary, and anything less calls for broadband absorption on that wall. The muddled bass will mask even the dialogue frequencies.

I also told him I would likely put the PJ over the pool table, up high as it can reasonably go, depending on light control and ceiling height. He is not going to, and he has a single window that he insists must not be covered (this is relevant because the only way to do the lengthwise orientation is by covering the window with the screen/screenwall).

If you do care about audio, lengthwise is the most important thing right now. That same friend asks me for speaker placement advice, setup advice, and I pretty much tell him that I have nothing say, cuz he's basically scrooed himself already, IMO. He wants rear speakers too for crying out loud, against the back wall, wth.

The starting pt for your ears is 38% of room length, doesn't matter from front or back wall.

AT screen will definitely allow you the biggest possible, but bigger is not always better; there will be a limit in terms of things like resolution and projector lumens. The main concern here with AT in particular is if you're too close to the screen, whereby the weave texture may be discernible to the pt of distraction.

When you say "slight degradation", how are you going to define that. What I will say is that your contrast is killed at an exponential rate with the introduction of ambient light.

Lighting, zones, I have no experience, but keep lights away from the screen, and if you do lights by the screen, definitely put them on their own zone, so to speak.

Without knowing all of the selection out there, with your budget, I'd probably get a JVC HD250. Seating, it's just about everybody who uses Berkline, except me, as I saved some money by getting my two rows from Boston Tables from Ohio (free shipping). They matched the best classified prices I could find at the time, but these are new. I've sat in Berklines before, and while they are nicer, well it depends on the pricing I would be able to get at any given time as far as pulling the trigger. That said, people love my seats.

When I referred to "HD", I was really referring to 16:9 content (i.e. netwk/cable/sat) content rather than movies in 2.35 'scope AR. My point being that if you're a big Netflix fan or B-D buyer, most of the later releases are in 2.35->2.40 AR. With a 16:9 (1.78) AR, you'll be watching a lot of letterbox bars. (I watched "Green Zone" last night. Watching in letterbox would have NOT been the same.) That's why I was suggesting a 2.35 AR screen, depending upon your viewing tastes. What I've found with my 2.35 (115"x49") screen and watching 1.78 content is that, depending room lighting, the pillar bars are a non-issue;no masking needed. And if I want to fill the screen (with the Super Bowl game or whatever) I just zoom the pix out. The spillover on the top/bottom gets lost on the black velvet screen frame and wall.
Jostenmeat was spot on about room orientation vs. sound quality.
Suggestion: If you're not entirely emotionally committed to the current room orientation, Don't buy a screen yet. Build a temp one - lots of ideas here on methods - and try it out for awhile. First on your planned wall, then maybe on the window wall (move the temp mount pj over/behind the pool table). And if you really want to live on the edge , try different size/shapes (AR) screen formats before you commit.

Just trying to learn here, as I may have to set-up the short way, too. Why is lengthwise better than the other way? Standing waves set-up the same way with the largest null in the middle of the room and the largest peaks at the boundaries, especially the corners. Definetely stay away from the corners. As long as you set-up the seating location where you don't have overlapping frequencies peaks and dips from each of the directions (lengthwise and widthwise) and also from the floor to ceiling then would it matter? I've always heard lengthwise is better.......I just don't understand why?



To the OP,

Maybe instead of french doors, you can use some bi-fold doors that basically, get out of the way when you want to open up the pool room to the theater room. However, because of the length you may have to intall a center post (4"x4") or even a narrow wall and have the doors open to each end and to the center post (4 doors).

Thanks,
Greg

Or a pair of pocket doors! Then they disappear into the wall cavity. (I'm determined to build a wall there with doors.)

Regarding lengthwise being better. widthwise for sound, I can think of one reason; I'm sure there are others. If you go with the shorter dim, it would seem to be harder to place seating to avoid peaks and nulls just because there is less space (flexibility) to move stuff. You're either too close to the screen (visibility issues as well as peaks) or too close to the back wall (peaks).

All this arm wrestling over a wall between the theater and the pool room, and the table is the first thing to go?? Seriously, this looks much better. I would have put the pj further back for noise and aesthetic reasons, But I'm not familiar with the specs (lumens, dB, etc.).
Your screen height looks fine for the first row, but the back row may have issues with heads being in the way. On the side view, draw lines from eyeball height to the screen for each row and see how that works with the screen at a higher point on the wall.

The smaller the space, the more intense the modes become, as they pile up on each other. When you are lengthwise, the speakers doing 99% of the work, your front three, are firing most of their energy lengthwise where the modes don't overlap each other as intensely (even if the room as a 3D whole needs to be accounted for). I have read well known acoustic professionals say that they wish they had a larger space for their own system. Sure, it takes more amp, more speaker, more sub, to fill a larger space, but the acoustics will generally be superior in a larger space.


The riser is totally fine as far as "audio guys", but I'll repeat that you don't want to be close to the back wall like that, and if you have to, it's best to load with massive broadband absorption.

I just built a really big box, but if you want to get into acoustic control with your riser, you might start looking into Helmholtz resonator traps (sorry I can't help you understand that stuff, beyond me). Here is also an interesting AH riser build.

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/do...ter-seat-riser

Most speakers need a lot more than just 1' away from wall to perform their best. In walls will be fine otherwise, as long as you're happy with them. In wall speakers do not have BSC (baffle step compensation) built into them, since they are used in an "infinite baffle" setting, but many other speakers do* have this. I have come across some recommendations in the DIY speaker forum for designs that are less compromised when so close to the front boundary, and I believe one of them is called the Khanspires for instance. I have a solid 3' (or more?) between front wall and screen, and even then I'm not sure it's enough space for something like Statements or Mini Statements if that guy ever makes those flatpacks for them.


Just like most specs in AV, the mftr specs for gain are often unrealistic. For instance, the very well reputed Carada brand has a brilliant white rated for 1.4, but a 3rd party test here revealed to only just barely* break a 1.0 gain.

Yes it is very reasonable, but the issue with multi rows is the concept of "Captain's Seat vs Compromise For All". 1/3 from the front . . . means what now for the rear? This philosophical dilemma will pop up a lot for you now, for example, where is now the best place for the side surrounds?

I might recommend getting the PJ first and firing on the blank wall to help figure out riser height, desired screen size, screen height etc.


Good idea. Unfortunately, I haven't been over in the dedicated subforum in quite a while, but there are some extremely smart cookies over there.


Dude, I am already very satisfied with my work here now that I've seen your update!

If you are going to make this more of a dedicated area I'd really consider a good design to start. AVS has a special they worked out with Dennis Erskine (a top HT designer) for reasonable priced layout plans. Trying to piece together a bunch on information from people with various set ups and levels of experience is difficult and unlikely to get the best results. Here is the link for AVS's service.

http://shop.avscience.com/Pro-Theater-Layout_p_44.html

try giving your AV Science sales guy a call. Anyone of them can explain a little more into detail. It's honestly a great service that is being offered simply because of a very high demand! Dennis Erskin is amazing at what he does and the fee that is charged through AV Science is well worth it.

Benny