Our native mobile app has a new name: Fora Communities. Learn more.

First dedicated theater room build

3983 Views 31 Replies 9 Participants Last post by mjpearce023, Sep 26, 2021

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · Dec 9, 2020

Just moved into a new house so I get to have my first theater room. My previous house I had the “theater” in the living room and was working on a 2 channel music room but now I’m just going to have 1 room I use for movies and music.
Here is what I have already.
Sony 85 900f - will eventually upgrade to a projector.
Ascend Sierra 2ex - fronts and ascend Sierra 2 center and side surround.
For the back surround I have a pair of paradigm studio 20 v3 that I’ll be using.
Receiver - anthem Mrx 520 is what I had in my living room because 5.2 was the most I could do. I recently picked up a denon 3600 so I can start off with 7.2 and possibly add In ceiling atmos speakers later on.
Amp - monolith 3x
Subs - HSU vtf3 mk5, HSU uls 15
I had the ported for theater and sealed for the music room but now both will be in the theater room.
Room treatments - I have 10 panels from Gik that I’ll be using. 4 are the 5.25, 4 of the 4 inch with scatter plates and 2 of the 4 inch for ceiling. With the slanted ceiling I’m not exactly sure how I will do the room treatments but any advice will help.
Seating - right now nothing. I’ve ordered a row of 3 Valencia Tuscany recliners and will work on getting a 2nd row with a riser later.

The room - 19.5ft long x 17.5 wide x 8 with slanted ceilings. The middle section of the ceiling is 9ft wide

My first step is going to be painting the room dark grey and adding an area rug. Then I’ll get everything setup and see how it sounds. Eventually I want carpet but that will have to wait for now.
I’ve got an extra computer chair I can use for now but once we get a new sectional for the living room I can steal the couch to use till the Tuscany’s get here. Anyway I’m extremely excited to start this process. I’ve been buying speakers since I was 10 and always wanted my own dedicated theater room. Now it’s finally happening

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Room

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 32 Posts

luv2fly3

· #2 · Dec 11, 2020

Congrats on the new space! It's definitely an exciting thing to see the possibilities and envision what you hope it will be in time. Good luck with putting it all together and enjoying it for years to come!!

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 11, 2020

@Lov2fly3 ; thanks! I’m ready to get it going.

So yesterday I picked up some Behr color digital and I’m almost done painting. Not sure yet about the trip. I’ve seen some people say go black and some have gloss white but I’m still up in the air.

Room Property Wall Ceiling Floor

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

pkinneb

· #4 · Dec 11, 2020

Nice! FWIW I'm in the black or complimentary grey camp white is just too reflective for me

Vince_B

· #5 · Dec 11, 2020

Is the screen going in front of the window or on the slanted wall side?

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 12, 2020

pkinneb said:
Nice! FWIW I'm in the black or complimentary grey camp white is just too reflective for me

Thanks. Your theater is amazing by the way. Love all the detail. I think I’m going to keep it white for now while I’m using my Sony 85 and then paint them black when I go to a projector. I’m tired!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reactions: 1

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 12, 2020

Vince_B said:
Is the screen going in front of the window or on the slanted wall side?

I’m going to black out the window and put the screen on that wall when I go to a projector. For now I’ll just have my TV in front of the window

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Vince_B

· #8 · Dec 12, 2020 (Edited)

mjpearce023 said:
I’m going to black out the window and put the screen on that wall when I go to a projector. For now I’ll just have my TV in front of the window

It’ll be interesting to see your space progress. I have an attic similar but lower ceiling and the flat is only 5’ wide. Depending on your speaker placement you may have first reflections on all three surfaces, ceiling, slant, and knee walls. It seems to make a very busy front environment, I’ve been working on panels for mine. If you have a front speaker near the sloped part, the reflection will be lower on the sloped wall than you’d guess due to the angle. I also have area rug and the advantage of your carpet idea is that it would probably help the area between the side walls and knee walls where there is probably bounce from the sloped ceiling down into those side baseboard areas.

I just hung a 4’x6’ cloud 4” of 703 to help the ceiling craziness. Anyway this is what I’ve ended up with so far, needs more effort but has helped a lot. Panels are at main first reflections for the best seats, ceiling, sloped, side wall.

See less See more

Reactions: 1

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 12, 2020

Vince_B said:
It’ll be interesting to see your space progress. I have an attic similar but lower ceiling and the flat is only 5’ wide. Depending on your speaker placement you may have first reflections on all three surfaces, ceiling, slant, and knee walls. It seems to make a very busy front environment, I’ve been working on panels for mine. If you have a front speaker near the sloped part, the reflection will be lower on the sloped wall than you’d guess due to the angle. I also have area rug and the advantage of your carpet idea is that it would probably help the area between the side walls and knee walls where there is probably bounce from the sloped ceiling down into those side baseboard areas.

I just hung a 4’x6’ cloud 4” of 703 to help the ceiling craziness. Anyway this is what I’ve ended up with so far, needs more effort but has helped a lot. Panels are at main first reflections for the best seats, ceiling, sloped, side wall.

Very nice! I’m anxious to get my audio hooked up and see how it sounds. I’m going to try leaving the slanted parts untreated for now. I’m going to have to play around with the panels to see what works best. I do know I want 2 channel music to sound great in there so going to work on setting that up probably before the surround sound. I’ve only treated a room for 2 channel so I’ll need to do a little research on what is required for surround sound

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Vince_B

· #10 · Dec 12, 2020

Thanks! That’s actually exactly where I am with two channel/surround. It hasn’t sounded good until I got treatment on the main first reflections. Get someone to do the mirror thing with you on the slanted and you’ll see what it does, the reflections will be further to the sides than you’d guess and close to the speakers. You’re probably better off with your room dimensions but for my room the slanted is the closest point to the speakers.

This is conjecture but I think one thing that makes this shape of room different is you can have a second reflection that hasn’t hit an opposite parallel wall if that makes sense. So you can have ceiling to sloped wall second reflection that is still high in magnitude so it’s kind of like a first-and-a-half reflection? At one point I experimented with panels just outside the speakers, which would catch stuff that was going to become a second reflection at mlp, and it badly collapsed the stereo image. It was dramatic actually.

The advantage I see is that the sloped ceilings seem to help the bass by reducing ceiling volume, again that is just observation based on previous rooms. Be very interesting to hear your thoughts on how your room sounds!

See less See more

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #11 · Dec 14, 2020 (Edited)

2

Yesterday I put my entertainment center together and went ahead and got all my speakers hooked up. I didn’t have time to run audyssey or rew yet so nothing is calibrated. I’m starting off with the subs in opposing corners. I just guessed on the reflection points and put the panels in here and did diffusion on the back wall. So lots of setup left to do but I can at least listen to music or watch a movie in my dedicated theater room now. Y’all like my lawn chair?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wood Floor Flooring Room Hardwood

See less See more

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #12 · Dec 14, 2020

Vince_B said:
Thanks! That’s actually exactly where I am with two channel/surround. It hasn’t sounded good until I got treatment on the main first reflections. Get someone to do the mirror thing with you on the slanted and you’ll see what it does, the reflections will be further to the sides than you’d guess and close to the speakers. You’re probably better off with your room dimensions but for my room the slanted is the closest point to the speakers.

This is conjecture but I think one thing that makes this shape of room different is you can have a second reflection that hasn’t hit an opposite parallel wall if that makes sense. So you can have ceiling to sloped wall second reflection that is still high in magnitude so it’s kind of like a first-and-a-half reflection? At one point I experimented with panels just outside the speakers, which would catch stuff that was going to become a second reflection at mlp, and it badly collapsed the stereo image. It was dramatic actually.

The advantage I see is that the sloped ceilings seem to help the bass by reducing ceiling volume, again that is just observation based on previous rooms. Be very interesting to hear your thoughts on how your room sounds!

Thanks for the info. So would you say do heavy on center ceiling treatment? I was planning on 2 panels but I could do 4.
I just listed to some 2 channel music and the soundstage was very impressive. My 2 channel room in the old house was 11.5 x 11.5 so going to a much bigger room really opened up the soundstage. I don’t know if I got lucky with the panel placement or what but I’m loving it so far. There is still an echo but I only have a lawn chair in there for furniture and the rug I got looks to be way to small. I just didn’t really want to spend $300 on a 12x9 if I know I’m going to get carpet at some point. I may just look at carpet now.

I have lots of experimentation to do with the treatments. In my old room I did 4 panels across the front wall because there was no tv and did 2 on the back wall, 2 ceiling and 1 on each side wall. I’ve heard that not treating the reflections from the side speaker closest to the wall can extend the soundstage and to just treat the reflection from the furthest speaker. Not sure what will sound best in this room but I have plenty of time to play around with it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

Vince_B

· #13 · Dec 20, 2020

mjpearce023 said:
So would you say do heavy on center ceiling treatment? I was planning on 2 panels but I could do 4.
I just listed to some 2 channel music and the soundstage was very impressive. My 2 channel room in the old house was 11.5 x 11.5 so going to a much bigger room really opened up the soundstage. I don’t know if I got lucky with the panel placement or what but I’m loving it so far.

That’s awesome and the lawn chair I think is required for your first listen.

Not necessarily I guess is the best answer. I have first reflections that are near the ceiling/sloped wall intersection, first I hung a four foot wide panel across the ceiling and it left six inches on each side and it wasn’t enough. I made a six footer and dropped it six inches or so to cover that intersection which is way more effective. Might be too much, but I realized I can make slats and use as brackets to hold the fiberglass panels in place in the middle so it can be tuned.

Your side wall panels do look in the right place and it’s good that your knee walls are tall enough to allow a panel to catch the first from the tweeter, mine aren’t. You’ll have a first from the right speaker on the sloped wall over to the right and so on. Trick someone into the mirror trick and you’ll see where there might be issues. I’m probably a little over damped right now but it is remarkable how much better dialog intelligibility is. Your panels with the semi reflective surface probably would work well, I’ve looked at those.

I ended up using angle bracket on the ceiling which isn’t beautiful depending on what you’re into but with the ceiling mounted atmos you don’t see it. It’s very flexible though if you want to move stuff later which is nice. I might run some on the angle walls to allow flexibility.

See less See more

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #14 · Dec 22, 2020

Vince_B said:
That’s awesome and the lawn chair I think is required for your first listen.

Not necessarily I guess is the best answer. I have first reflections that are near the ceiling/sloped wall intersection, first I hung a four foot wide panel across the ceiling and it left six inches on each side and it wasn’t enough. I made a six footer and dropped it six inches or so to cover that intersection which is way more effective. Might be too much, but I realized I can make slats and use as brackets to hold the fiberglass panels in place in the middle so it can be tuned.

Your side wall panels do look in the right place and it’s good that your knee walls are tall enough to allow a panel to catch the first from the tweeter, mine aren’t. You’ll have a first from the right speaker on the sloped wall over to the right and so on. Trick someone into the mirror trick and you’ll see where there might be issues. I’m probably a little over damped right now but it is remarkable how much better dialog intelligibility is. Your panels with the semi reflective surface probably would work well, I’ve looked at those.

I ended up using angle bracket on the ceiling which isn’t beautiful depending on what you’re into but with the ceiling mounted atmos you don’t see it. It’s very flexible though if you want to move stuff later which is nice. I might run some on the angle walls to allow flexibility.

I see what you mean about your ceiling panel is wider than the center portion. I do like the idea of 1 big panel on the ceiling as opposed to 4 separate ones. I may need to build something for the ceiling.
I’ve heard diffusion works better if there is a longer distance between the seating position and the panel so that’s why I stated off with them on the back wall. I’ll see how they work on the side reflections next.
I did get a small loveseat to use for now until my Tuscanys get here.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jan 7, 2021

Ok latest updates, I hung some black out curtains in front of the window and got a 16x12 black rug from Amazon. I’m still waiting for my Tuscany seats to come in but I was able to steal a recliner from the living room so at least I have a comfortable chair to sit in. Next I need to figure out some sort of cable management but not sure how far to go with it right now. When I do get a projector I don’t know where I will put all the equipment so I don’t want to do anything too permanent with the wires yet. I could just hide them under the rug for now I guess. Still deciding on the trim. I hate painting trim so I’m just trying to avoid it right now.

Room Interior design Floor Flooring Hearth

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

dtsdig

· #16 · Jan 7, 2021

How do you like those GIK trap diffusers you showed in the back of your room? My wife and I spec'd out 4 of those panels for our livingroom but haven't purchased them yet. I think GIK did a great job with those offerings.

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jan 7, 2021

dtsdig said:
How do you like those GIK trap diffusers you showed in the back of your room? My wife and I spec'd out 4 of those panels for our livingroom but haven't purchased them yet. I think GIK did a great job with those offerings.

I love the look of them. I am probably going to paint the diffusor plate flat black. I haven't had enough time to experiment with them to see how much they change the sound compared to the 244 bass traps. Ill post some impressions once I move them around some.

Reactions: 1

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #18 · Jan 26, 2021

2

Ok got my Valencia Tuscany seats in on Friday. They are a little on the firm side but I’ve read they have to break in. They are comfortable and the leather is really nice. Just want them to be more cushy.
Got a chance to watch a couple movies this weekend and it’s awesome. Started messing around with the MultiEQ app and I think I’ve almost got everything dialed in.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

Reactions: 1

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #19 · Sep 10, 2021

I got my epson 5040 refurb last week and have been testing out screen sizes on a table cloth and decided to go with a 138” 2.35:1 acoustically transparent screen from silver ticket. I got the screen built yesterday and watched a movie last night and I’m really happy with it. Next week will be the screen wall construction. I need to mount the projector and swap my ceiling fan for the low profile hunter I got last week. The thing I can’t decide is where to put my components. I thought about behind the screen wall or putting them in the back in one of the knee walls but I’m worried about the heat.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

mjpearce023

Discussion Starter · #20 · Sep 18, 2021

4

Some progress from today. Got the framing done for the screen wall and mounted the epson 5040. Completely blacked out the window behind the screen. Started cutting the pieces for the side panels as well. Here’s some shots of today’s work.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See less See more

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 32 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.