I'm in the early planning stages of my dedicated home theater & at this point have lost of unknowns & few knowns. We're hoping to start the framing in a few weeks so some things will need to be determined sooner than later. I've done a lot of research on this forum & as always, more knowledge tends to create more questions. The room is 13'6" x 16'. In reference to the room when I speak of front/back wall that will be the 16' walls, side walls will be the 13'6" walls. Full ceiling height is 8'9", but we will have a soffit around the perimeter of the room approx 10" high x ~14". We are not doing a riser in the room - I don't think 13'6 is enough space for 2 rows. Seating will be along the back wall (very large section, with recliners). I believe the rear seating should be a few feet 'in' from the back wall, but I don't think the room is big enough (there are several reasons that I won't get into as to why I don't want to run the theater the 'long' way, which give the length for 2 rows, but there are other compromises). Front 'row' seating will be in the form of floor cushions/bean bags, etc for kids if needed.
So, with that in mind, here are my questions.
1. Screen Size - I'm leaning towards a Epson Powerlite 1080 projector. Mounting point will provide a throw distance of ~12' - 12'6", which can produce a diagonal size of 100" (zoom would be 1.66x). Is this screen size too large for the room? What size would be better?
2. Projector Mount - I'm planning on mounting the projector on the bottom of the rear soffit. There will be approx 7' clearance under the projector. Is that ok? Are there any advantages to having the projector higher? I could mount it in front of the soffit but then my throw distance will be more like 11' - 11'6".
3. Speaker Placement - I'm planning on doing a 7.1 speaker setup. I would like in-walls (I know there are some compromises to use inwalls) Fronts are not a issue. Not sure where side placement shoud be - since our seats are going to be along the back wall, do I put the sides inline with the seats, slightly in front of, or as far into the corner as possible? What about the rears - our back wall has a window (which will be blacked out) - the clearance between the top of the window & the bottom of the soffit will only be ~ 14" so it is nip & tuck to get an in-wall in that height. If I place them together (as recommended for THX setup), the projector will be immediately infront of (maybe 6 - 8") the speakers. Is that ok? What other alternatives to I have... ceiling mounts in the soffit or wall mounts on either size of the window at the same height as the side & front mounts (approx 4' between windos & wall on each side).
4. Speaker Selection - Initially I am going to do speakers on a low budget. When it comes time to upgrade I'll reuse the theater speakers in other areas of the house that have been prewired for inwalls, so they won't go to waste. Currently I have 5 pairs of Sonance Symphonay S621 & S622 throught the house for multiroom audio. I find the sound performance is acceptable (for the money) & I would be happy with this performance in the theater (again, may upgrade a few years down the road). But, the notion of the Sonance/HiFi Works THX speakers available through Costco keeps coming into mind. The specs aren't any different than my 621/622s. I've seen lots of others asking about the quality, but haven't been able to find any 'field' reviews. Any thoughts? I realize the THX certification is only the 'select' level, but my room isn't overly large so I don't know how high quality speaker is required for a 13x18 room. I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for, but I also know costco can get some fenominal buying power on certain items so these could fall into 'good value for dollar' purchase.
Thanks in advance for the info.
So, with that in mind, here are my questions.
1. Screen Size - I'm leaning towards a Epson Powerlite 1080 projector. Mounting point will provide a throw distance of ~12' - 12'6", which can produce a diagonal size of 100" (zoom would be 1.66x). Is this screen size too large for the room? What size would be better?
2. Projector Mount - I'm planning on mounting the projector on the bottom of the rear soffit. There will be approx 7' clearance under the projector. Is that ok? Are there any advantages to having the projector higher? I could mount it in front of the soffit but then my throw distance will be more like 11' - 11'6".
3. Speaker Placement - I'm planning on doing a 7.1 speaker setup. I would like in-walls (I know there are some compromises to use inwalls) Fronts are not a issue. Not sure where side placement shoud be - since our seats are going to be along the back wall, do I put the sides inline with the seats, slightly in front of, or as far into the corner as possible? What about the rears - our back wall has a window (which will be blacked out) - the clearance between the top of the window & the bottom of the soffit will only be ~ 14" so it is nip & tuck to get an in-wall in that height. If I place them together (as recommended for THX setup), the projector will be immediately infront of (maybe 6 - 8") the speakers. Is that ok? What other alternatives to I have... ceiling mounts in the soffit or wall mounts on either size of the window at the same height as the side & front mounts (approx 4' between windos & wall on each side).
4. Speaker Selection - Initially I am going to do speakers on a low budget. When it comes time to upgrade I'll reuse the theater speakers in other areas of the house that have been prewired for inwalls, so they won't go to waste. Currently I have 5 pairs of Sonance Symphonay S621 & S622 throught the house for multiroom audio. I find the sound performance is acceptable (for the money) & I would be happy with this performance in the theater (again, may upgrade a few years down the road). But, the notion of the Sonance/HiFi Works THX speakers available through Costco keeps coming into mind. The specs aren't any different than my 621/622s. I've seen lots of others asking about the quality, but haven't been able to find any 'field' reviews. Any thoughts? I realize the THX certification is only the 'select' level, but my room isn't overly large so I don't know how high quality speaker is required for a 13x18 room. I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for, but I also know costco can get some fenominal buying power on certain items so these could fall into 'good value for dollar' purchase.
Thanks in advance for the info.
