[HiHoStevo]

I have purchased a new house and have the opportunity to set up a theater from scratch.


I have an unobstructed area under the garage that is 22' x 23' ...


The walls and ceiling are concrete with 2 x 4 studs framed on the walls. There is already wiring for electrical, but I will have to supply everything else.


I was considering using Klipsch RCW-5's for front, center, surrounds, and rear center... (I have a Denon 3805 so I can either use a rear center (6.1) or extra surrounds (7.1). I have never had in-wall speakers and do not know if these are strong enough for this size room. My current speakers are just an amalgam of speakers that I have collected over the years. I have Yamaha towers up front, with a Klip center and clip surrounds (the model that have 3 speakers in a half hexagon design), and an Infinity 500w sub. They are better than nothing, but obviously were not designed to work together as they have been assembled over a number of years.


I have had a friend recommend the Rokit speakers (750's and 300's) that are available over the "net" ... as he felt they were a great "bang for the buck" system.


Another friend suggested the Klipsch RCW-5's that I asked about initially. I have heard them at his house... but in a small room they did sound very nice.


As far as what "I" like, I thought the Klipsch's have sounded real good when I was listening to several speakers down at the local Ultimate Electronics store... However, I also have a set of Advent towers that I purchased back in 1978 for my stereo system (of course they had to be reconed after my oldest son blew them out while I was out of town..., but I digress) I found with these Advent towers years ago that if I bought four towers and stacked them tweeter to tweeter and wired them so the + line went to the + on the lower speaker and the - wire went to the - on the top speaker then a single wire connected the - on the bottom to the + on the top speaker.... well anyway to me they sounded "great" as a stereo set. I liked them enough that I am still using them in this configuration as the secondary surround setup in the family room.


I don't know if describing what type of speakers I have enjoyed in the past will help..., but I figured it was worth a try.


I do not have huge dollars to spend, but would like to have a speaker setup that will sound really nice in this new theater, but at a reasonable price. (reasonable for me would be around 2K)


I would be interested in any of the observations from those of you knowledgeable in the speaker arena... one where I am completely without experience or valid opinions.


Thanks,


Steve

 

[Artisn]

I would re-think the room size. A square room is not an accoustically ideal environment. Maybe you could add a wall along one side to make it more of a rectangle.


As far as speakers:

Paradigm Studio

Mains - Studio 40s

Surrounds - ADP-470

Center - CC-570

Rears (two) - Studio 20


Sub - SVS or Velodyne


A dedicated HT room is a beautiful thing... Enjoy!

 

[HiHoStevo]

Yes, the way the room is situated I could put a "hallway" down one side... that would give access to another large storage room in the basement without having to walk through the theater.


Thank you for the speaker suggestions... how big of a sub will I need for this room?


Steve

 

[imagamejunky]

The bigger the better. Buy SVS. Maybe even 2 or more.

My $.02

 

[HiHoStevo]

What is "SVS?"

 

[Terence]

Quote:

Originally posted by HiHoStevo What is "SVS?"

SVS is a subwoofer company, you can check them out HERE .

 

[CUclimber]

It's always a tough subject, but it needs to be asked: what kind of money are you looking to spend on this project? Finishing the room (drywall, a cieling, carpet, ect.) obviously isn't cheap, and you have a lot of equipment to buy. Any kind of budget range would help us give good advice.


Congrats on the new house too!

 

[Terence]

HiHoStevo,


First i would like to say congrats to you because a lot of people are not that lucky to have a dedicated room, and start from scatch at that.


Artisn, is right about the shape of the room square rooms are not best for sound, and since you can change that i would.


Quote:

Yes, the way the room is situated I could put a "hallway" down one side... that would give access to another large storage room in the basement without having to walk through the theater.

Having people cutting thru your theater (when watching movies would be a pain) to ascess other room/s is a NO, NO. So you definatly want take care of that.



CUclimber, is right about the $$$$$$, you need to decide on a budget and factor in everything from construction to accessories. If I were you I would concentrate on construction 1st then come back to gear later. Once you have the room built out it gets easier to see your vision, and gets harder too, because there are so many great choices more than ever now when it comes to A/V equipment.

 

[sethwas]

These are always fun posts because it lets out the masculine interior designer in all of us.


Don't worry about the physical walls of your room or their shape. If this really is a scratch job you can resize as necessary. If it's square, put up an acoustically opaque wall to make it rectangular.

Don't worry about cabling through the walls, you won't want to. You are going to want to put up some treatments and possibly fabric the walls a few inches away so you can run the wires down the walls but behind the fabric. Don't waste time drilling into concrete.

Unless you absolutely have to don't wall mount anything.


re: speakers, don't mix and match get a matched set.


I think we should start with screen size and then relative location of the seating area and then work with speaker placement. Because you want to integrate the audio and video together as a project not do one at a time.

Once you know where the screen is, you know where to put the main 3 speakers. Once you know where the listener is you know where to put the rear 4 speakers. Then you know cable lengths and where to put that new wall to change the boundaries.

see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=461699 about speakers. Of course there are more threads and more details but that one is I think the most recent (last night).


Seth

 

[HiHoStevo]

Seth....... as far as screen goes I was thinking about 104" x 58."


I was planning on having the closest seating at 13' from the screen.


As I was going to have the screen mounted... I had considered putting the Klip RCW-5's in the wall just below and along side the screen... if I used "in-walls" then the rears in the back wall.... if I went 7.1 then I would probably need something different for the side surrounds.


I will be using a Denon 3805 to power the system.


How does one assure the "opaqueness" of a wall?


Steve

 

[sethwas]

Unfortunately since I'm not an audio engineer and don't know the transmission properties of certain objects, the only thing I can say is the denser the object is the better at not allowing sound to pass through it will be.


Sketch out the room (preferably to scale) with the screen and we can give you ideas for locations. A bitmap from MSpaint will work, but a jpeg from another drawing program will be better.

AutoCAD would be great but not everyone can read the file


Seth