Hi All - I am moving into a new home in 6 weeks which luckily had an unfinished basement. Now I can build a solid dedicated theater from scratch as opposed to makeshifting an existing space. I am at the beginning stages and had a few questions. On the attached picture, sorry for the roughness, I have noted two options for the screen. The one on the left may be ideal as i can put the speakers behind the screen in that oddly shaped area however my big concern in that it is under the kitchen and those scribbled areas are a lot of plumbing coming through the ceiling. For that reason i thought it may not be ideal as the speakers would be closer to the plumbing and hence harder to insulate.
The second option on the right may be better as the speakers would be away from plumbing and also further from the main floor living room and kitchen. The square on the right indicated a section of the ceiling which drops down a foot from the main ceiling. I could place the speakers in that area and the screen in the main area which has the higher ceiling so I can use a larger screen.
What do you think, is this a big enough area? Is placing the speakers and screen in the far right option best and having the back couch near the strange shaped wall fine? Thanks for the help!

Attached Thumbnails

 

If you are planning an acoustically transparent screen, there should be plenty of room behind the screen for the speakers without modifying the walls. Are you planning on tearing into the walls and/or using wall mounted speakers? If so, there is always a concern about what is behind the walls. The chances are, plumbing for a kitchen won't take up too much space. You generally have a 2" drain line and a couple of 1/2" supply lines. Those will often run across the ceiling to join up with the main "central stack" for the bathrooms, which is typically a 4" drain pipe. On the other hand, it is possible that the main stack is behind one of those corners and the plumbing from the bathrooms is running across your ceiling to that area.

I'd suggest reading through the forum to see how others have built their theaters and the problems that they have encountered. The more time you spend, the more you will learn from what others have done. I would suggest taking a look at the soundproofing thread that is stickeyed at the top of the forum. It has become bloated over the years, but it has some good information, especially at the beginning.

Once you can get some pictures of the space, feel free to post them as they will often make answering questions easier and more accurate.

Thanks for the note. The entire basement is totally unfinished an this stage only with pink insulation and a vapour barrier around the exterior walls. The picture I made is only of a section which I identified as the only real option due to support beams etc in other areas. The strangely shaped area are the exterior walls and dont have space behind, that is the way the house was made as there is a portion on the back of the house which is bumped out for the kitchen/master bedroom. I will have the speakers behind the screen on stands. Should I not be concerned with the speakers / subs being closer to the plumbing in the ceiling. Are there steps I should take to wrap the plumbing sittings or sea; the holes in the floor boards above to ensure no sound / vibrations will transfer to the main floor. I will of course plan to fill the ceiling with 2 layers of safe and sound and then decouple the ceiling with 2 layers of drywall.

Do most people place their equipment racks outside of the theater room, perhaps in a close by storage room or closer to the electrical panel to make running new lines easier? If the equipment (receiver, cable box, XBOX etc) is out of the room how to the remotes still function? Thanks

Sound will not transmit through plumbing any more than it will transmit through other solid structures, like the wooden framing. The biggest problem with plumbing is that the water flowing through the plumbing generates noise that you don’t want to hear in the theater. No one wants to hear the sound of a toilet flushing or water flowing in the middle of a movie. The solution to that is mass. The heavier that something is, the harder it is to vibrate. Most plumbing drains are ABS or PVC plastic pipe, which transmits sound very easily. Replacing the plastic pipe with cast iron pipe is one of the best solutions. Another solution is wrapping the pipe in dense material like “Dynamat”, that is generally used for applying to metal car panels to minimize vibration. Another solution is to box in pipes behind multiple layers of drywall and Green Glue.

Of course, if there are any holes where the plumbing, electrical, HVAC or anything else goes through the walls or ceilings, they will need to be properly sealed and caulked.

You may want to do some more research on sound isolation to get a better understanding, particularly the “four elements of soundproofing”. http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...soundproofing/

When all four elements are in place, the insulation provides only a small part of the equation, mainly to minimize resonances in the open cavities. Inexpensive fluffy fiberglass insulation will work just fine in that application and don’t need to spend a lot on brand name insulation that is supposedly designed for sound isolation. The money is usually better spent in other areas. And to be clear, adding two layers of drywall does absolutely nothing to decouple the ceiling. It adds mass, which is critically important, but if you want decoupling, you also need a totally different solution. Normally, decoupling is done with clips and channel.

Placing the equipment outside of the room minimizes noise and heat in the theater. Both are a good idea. There are many solutions to using infrared (IR) remotes that are beyond line of sight. The most common method is to use IR repeaters. I have used Xantech brand for many years and have always had good success. There are many other brands out there.

https://www.xantech.com/xantech-ir/choosing-ir

Thanks for the help guys - I will have to check on the noise for the plumbing around the theater area and what IR repeater options I would have. I think having the equipment outside of the theater is a good idea for heat/sound, not to mention the lights on them.

Is there any benefit generally to having the front soundstage speakers and subs close to an exterior wall in terms of reducing sound in the home vs placing the speakers closer to the middle of the basement?

Low frequency sound is non-directional. Short of placing the sub where it is aimed directly at a wall (which would result in more sound leaking through the wall), placement anywhere in the room will result in sound reaching all areas of the room, enabling it to leak out into other areas of the house.

Thanks Dave!
One other question I had is around wiring. If I was going to get a company to come in and frame everything when is the appropriate time for me to run all of my cabling for the speakers and to get an electrician to come in to install the outlets/dedicated lines etc. I am assuming I should run speaker cables prior to dry wall being put up but how can the electrician come in to install the outlets / boxes and run his lines if the drywall is up? Thanks

Gazzer55,


You frame the room, and HVAC /any Plumbing is installed, then the electrical, then your low voltage. THEN you put up the Drywall.



That pretty basic stuff, and having to even ask suggests you need someone to design and overview the construction. If your acting as your own Contractor, then you need to do some serious boning up lest some other Contractor take advantage of you...and frankly, although there is a wealth of information to be had here on the Forum, you have to know how to use it all to your advantage, and not go off entirely of your own volition. This can be one of the funnest times of your life...or a veritable nightmare......brrrrrr, gave myself a chill!

Be advised that there are many opinions as to what is necessary, required, advised, and essential. And then there is what YOU want, can afford...and will appreciate. Lemmie tell ya sumpthin'.....they don't always jive together.

I'm gonna watch this one.....go as slow as you need to to be in control of whats happening.

Thanks for the note MississippiMan - I am certainly inexperienced when it comes to building a house/room from scratch - I put up an existing theater in my current house however I used what what already in place for electrical / only had to run some speaker cables and cables for the projector. I am moving into my next home at the end of October so I have some time to plan everything out as it is an unfinished basement. I want to be careful that I do everything in the right sequence as we will hire a contractor to finish the basement. Lots of research / planning to do over the next few months! It really cant begin until we get in the house so I know exactly what I'm working with.