Supreme Home Theater Hall - Where Decor Meets Acoustics - Page 3

I did read the articles you posted and I do understand that the situation is very "complex". This is exactly why I built the room in such a way that nothing is necessarily permanent in terms of room treatments.

There is no inherent guarantee that any design by any designer will necessarily sound perfect. In fact, I'm not really sure there is such a thing as perfect. I literally guessed at some of the surfaces based on pictures from various acoustics websites.

Having been through a ridiculous amount of acoustics articles, forums, user comments, pictures, acoustic products websites, etc... I have come to the conclusion that there are no absolutes. I have seen articles about diffusion behind the listening position that recommend it and others that do not (for example). Sitting too close to some types of diffusers make them not function properly as well. There is no way in the universe I was going to know what exact diffusers would work best, what scale they should be built in, or how it would affect specific listeners in the room.

I knew going into this that I was almost certain to like the sound of an arbitrarily arranged diffusive room with plenty of bass traps compared to a simple rectangular room. I certainly don't like an echo room and I definitely don't like a dead room either. Something in between albeit imperfect ... is ok by me.

I also knew that I wasn't going to get enough of an interesting room architecturally if I simply went with a "home theater designer". Since the room is somewhat modular, I can actually take out the hemifusers and do QRD's or something else based on future budgets for modifications.

There is simply no mathematical computer in the world that is going to accurately model what the diffusion/absorption characteristics are going to be until I get the whole thing running and test it in reality. There are SO many bumpy surfaces and trim of different sizes all over the room. The ceiling is not flat either. Once the furniture/rug/people are added in, there will of course be additional absorption.

Like you said, some of the diffusers may actually demonstrate various levels of absorption. Who can really say in such a complex room what the final results are going to be? As a person with reasonable scientific degrees... I know that there are enough variables in this equation to make "perfection" unknowable a-priori. I'm just going to listen to the whole mess and pray it comes together the first time... If not, time to play with the treatment arrangement a bit with the help of some acoustic measurements.

So far, spoken words in the room sound extremely clear with a very "live" sound without any hint of echo. The noise floor in the room is very low also but I don't have the proper equipment to test the actual numbers yet. Based on my current home as reference (~20db), I would estimate about 15db of ambient noise. With the AC off and when there is no wind outside, It may be closer to 10db noise floor.

Part of the room that is not done yet is the stone on the wall around the base of the room. Each piece of stone will be bumpy and will actually be placed at different depths just like the outside of my house. This will add additional differences in acoustics.

I would imagine that most people simply do not put in this much diffusion and architectural surfaces to really know one way or another how it might sound. It's certainly a fun experiment for me and I will certainly report back if the whole thing sounds like a mess or what.

here are some pictures with most lighting fixtures completed.

Cool i am keeping track of all the refernces, great info.

Ok I listened to the folks here that have said that a standard 1" dome tweeter based speaker was not going to fill this room with appropriate frequency response.

Here is what I just installed:

AvantGarde DUO Omega for mains
AvantGarde SOLO for center
Pass Labs Class A XA30.5 Stereo Amplifier

So far I haven't gotten the Audyssey pre-amp that I need since I am hoping to get the next Denon Flagship with XLR outputs with 11.2 if such a thing ever exists.

The sound so far: STUNNING. The Room sounds right without even doing anything else as far as room correction. The speakers image amazing so far. I am using a old Carver pre-amp and airport express as the dac (both junk with too much hiss). Eventually I will supplant this junk with a proper pre-amp with a good dac. I have been trying to get one component at a time completed.

Once I have the analysis software setup with my mic, I will be able to do room analysis. At this point I will mainly want to equalize the bass of my in-wal subs and adjust the sub in the avant-garde DUO correctly.

A lot more work to do, but pictures of the completed work to follow soon.

updated images... getting close to completion

couple more...

BG Radia subs are in those niches on the sides of the room (1 in each corner of the room). I should have taken a specific picture of one installed.

Here is a picture of the subs attached with their amp (which is on my rack in the closet).

I plugged my mac mini (without a dedicated DAC), directly into my Pass Labs amplifier.... and I am amazed with the results.

The imaging is perfectly centered now and the imaging is nothing short of holographic. Like no other system or room I have heard in my life so far. These speakers are really something to love when setup correctly in the right room.

The BG Radia subwoofers are extremely musical and totally transparent (not noticeable).

The room has NO audible vibrations from the bass so far.

The two stage air conditioner in the room really makes air conditioning inaudible in here.

I still haven't purchased a receiver with Audyssey 11.2 or 9.2 so I cannot yet comment on the integration of the Avantgarde SOLO center channel speaker.

I have ordered an Epson Powerlite 5010 projector which should be exciting to try out.

Control4 is now powering the lights, Lutron shades for the windows, and the 159" Vutec movie screen.

Well basically i am broke now... And this is a good bang for buck unit that will suffice for a few years. Projectors improve so fast anyway and today's runco is tomorrow's epson. The room was more for music anyway.

Equipment Update:

Crown XLS 2000 amplifiers. These are very reasonably priced amplification which I believe use Texas Instruments "Class D" chips. These are practically limitless power for 4 ohm BG Radia speakers. They sound great so far and I don't know of any major limitations while listening. The basic review is that they sound great and are WAY more than powerful enough for this big theater room. I LOVE the SPEAKON connectors (I am using 4 post speakons). I am even going to change my wall plates from banana plugs to speakon just because they are SO GREAT! I wish all speakers and amps had Speakon connectors. The spades on the Pass Labs amp look cheap in comparison.

Integra DHC 80.3 with Audyssey DSX processing. I am doing 9.1 with heights and wides up front. For the rear speakers I cheated and used the rear side speaker channels to also power the surround back speakers since the INTEGRA Does not do 11.2 which my speakers are setup for. The unit is otherwise great and does just about everything I need it to do and almost everything i ever wished a pre-amp could do. I can preset all stereo listening on every input to Audyssey 2 channel and all surround sound on every input to Audyssey DSX. I will never change to other surround modes since these are clearly the best. What is great is that you can setup what will happen for 2 channel vs multichannel on EACH input and these settings will be saved. Thusfar, 2 channel audio sounds fantastic with or without equalization. I used -10dB XLR "Pad" adapters into the amplifier for the main channels since the receiver can't set the volume automatically for these speakers since they are too sensitive.

I also ordered a Furman P-2400 IT (their top of the line PRO power conditioner). I am not a huge believer in this stuff however the horns are SO revealing of minor noise that I figured what the heck, lets try some "balanced power". Lot of good reviews about the positive effects of these types of units. I really only care about whether or not it will improve stereo listening with the Pass Labs XA30.5 amplifier.

Epson Powerlite 5010 projector - was nervous about having a bright enough projector for our long 23' throw distance but this was unfounded. The brightness is just right and I am generally able to use cinema mode with auto iris off and it looks great. It is also a quiet projector when used in "eco" mode so I didn't really need the extra brightness of full power or addition "dynamic" color mode. The only annoying thing on this projector is boot time, but this is a minor quip.

The room thus far at reference 0db sounds EXCELLENT. I haven't done all the EQ curves yet but those should be forthcoming in the future.

Yes the color is a arctic white with brown glaze on top. Very unique looking color I think.

Some new observations: various objects in the room started vibrating at their resonant frequencies. Have been working these out to eliminate vibration as much as possible.

Did frequency analysis extensively and despite all 4 subs there is a null at 65hz. Also the 20hz to 40hz range is not good enough still. Thinking of dropping a pair of JL fathom behind each main speaker and cross them over high at 120 to add some real punch to music while getting the added low bass 20-40hz response.

Forgot to mention i added two more crown xls amps for new clark synthesis platinum bass shakers which blend in great

well just ordered a pair of JL Audio Fathom 212 subs..... these "should" do the trick... should peel the paint from the walls.

Will place them with the main speakers +/- positioning needed to erase any nulls. Will relegate the BG radia subs to the duty of evening out any nulls from the Fathoms in the range of 50-80hz.

If I had it all to do again, I would have made more space for fathoms from the beginning but everything will be "ok"!