[RxMan1]

I am in the initial planning stages for my basement home theater. The room is 16.5x18 and completely finished with drywall and paint, etc..(what a waste

) Because it is already finished, I need a way to get wiring to wall sconces, etc... Would it make sense to build out a wall column and put the sconce on it? Could I also place a speaker below the sconce and have the column covered with fabric? I really hope to not have to tear out huge chunks of drywall in the process of building. One problem I see is having the electrical and speaker wire through the same hole in top plate. Any comments?

 

[smithb]

If you look at many of the finished theaters here you will see a lot with speakers in columns. It is very common and an easy way to hide them. You could easily combine sconces and speakers depending on size and placement. Another approach is to do multiple columns with some housing speakers and other sconces.

 

[jeffthx]

Feel free to check out my theater construction/picture page (in my signature). I have many pictures of the columns I built. I have a total of 6 columns (2 on each side, and 2 on the rear wall. The two columns closest to the screen have sconces only. The other 4 columns hide the side and rear surrounds (no sconces).


When I originally planned the room, I thought I would have columns that contained both a speaker and a sconce. As I got deeper into it, however, I realized that I couldn't put both in the same column without messing up the "ideal" height for either the speaker or the sconce.


jj

 

[RxMan1]

jeffthx,


Thanks for the reply. I see what you are saying about speaker and sconce placement. What size of room did you have to work with? You can see my starting design here.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=791905

 

[jeffthx]

My room is 20.5' deep, and 14' wide. The height from the unfinished concrete floor to the bottom of the joists above was exactly 8 feet. However, from that, you need to subtract 12" for ductwork that ran down one side of the theater (which I framed all the way around the room for symmetry), 7/8" for Dricore panels, and 1.25" for double drywall. The rear platform is 13" high, so standing completely upright in the rear row is a bit tricky. I would have loved another foot of height to the room, but it wasn't an option.


In any case, putting sconces on the speaker columns would have presented another issue: Protrusion into the seating area. The front two columns (which have sconces) are not in a walking or seating area, so it's OK that they protrude into the room. However, because I put 4 seats in my front row, and because you have to walk right by a column to get to the front row of seats, putting a sconce on the face of the column would have required people to turn sideways just to walk down the side aisle. Since I had plenty of can lighting, I really didn't need the column sconces for illumination (they are only decorative), so eliminating the sconces from the surround speaker columns wasn't an issue for me. I've seen some theaters that rely on the sconces to actually light up the room, but my main lighting comes from overhead.


jj

 

[MikeN]

hehe.. I just put my columns up this week, with sconces in em. I even lowered them a bit from where they originally were on the wall.


Not the best pics, but... here are some

 

[Andy238]

jj,


Nice looking theater. Just curious - what is your side surround speaker height?


Andy

 

[RxMan1]

I am looking for this answer as well. Just started a new thread on speaker height when placed in columns.

 

[jeffthx]

I'm out of town for the rest of the week. When I get home, I'll measure them. If I forget to do this, please drop me a PM if you still want me to post the info for you. I believe that the cutout in my columns starts 9 inches from the top of the column. So...working backward, my total room height is 8 feet. The soffit (with drywall) is 13 inches from the joists above. Dricore and carpet remove another inch or so. This would make the columns 82 inches high (96-14). If the top of the cutout is 9 inches from the top, and my speakers are all 12 inches high, then the bottom of the speakers would be 61 inches from the floor. I'm doing all of this from memory, however, so I could be way off.


For what it's worth, my rear surrounds are at the same height as my side surrounds (relative to each other). What I mean by this is that I didn't raise up my rear surrounds any higher just because those columns are on the rear seating platform. The soffit is a constant height around the room, and the speaker cutout for all of the columns is the same distance down from the bottom of the soffit.


jj

 

[Andy238]

Thanks jj. Hopefully your trip is down south somewhere

Your set up sounds very similar to mine. I'm just a tad concerned about my surround height in the columns. I've got 71/2 foot high ceiling (after dd), a soffit 11 inches high, and columns with arches (similar to pirates cove but deeper). I have dipoles for the sides so my column cut out has to be below the bottom of the arch. The speakers are 13 inches high. Then the second row is on a 8-10 inch rise to boot!


So that puts me pretty low as far as what I see as typical on other theaters. A tad lower than yours I think. I'm just wondering what that will sound like for the back row. Do you have any concerns and if not how did you get over them?

Andy

 

[R_Willis]

By combining both speakers and sconces in a single column, remember your going to have your speaker wire and romex very close together.