[Roshy]

Hi all,


I need help with some speaker placement. My wife and I just moved into our first house (new construction) and it had a media room already built, but not how I would have designed it, but it is what I have to work with....


I am having trouble deciding on whether to go for 5.1, or install wires to make it 7.1 (I'm going to recarpet darker, and paint the walls / ceiling black). Here is a general layout how I think the seating is going to be (2 options):

or

And here is a picture of both views of the room:

The 5.1 rear surround are wired up near the two lights up top.


I guess I have a few major speaker questions:


1) Should I go 5.1 or 7.1?

2) Which layout is better above, I'd love to have two rows of seats, but don't want people too far or close to the screen?

3) Should I wall or ceiling mount the back speakers?

4) Where should me speaker placement go? Any help here would be very appreciated on where all the LCR, surrounds, sub should go. The screen will likely be either a 120 diagonal 16:9, or a 138 2.35


Thanks!!

-Jason

 

[Tedd]

Are you open to reframing the back wall and eliminating the double door? It would lengthen the room and you could move a single entry door to the side. 2 rows of 4 seats or a row or a front row of four and riser row of 3 together. This would also provide wall space for rear in wall surround speakers. 7.1


Have your speakers yet? 6" deep front AT wall and 4K AT screen could be used with in wall speakers. Plain black sub(s) out front.


So just what does the other side of that back wall look like?

 

[Tedd]

The av rack as drawn is either outside the room access, or side wall in the room.


Shallow 6" deep AT front wall.


I'd also build soffits and run several conduits in the soffit, from the av rack to the front AT space.


Either a snack bar on the side wall, or simply frame a new wall floor to ceiling.

 

[Roshy]

I have no experience with, or researched AT screens before... I'll have to look into that. I'll also have to talk to my builder and see if anything like HVAC stuff is running in behind the wall there. If theres not, great, I'm sure my father and I can tackle it, if there is, then I'd need someone else to do it, then I'm not sure if I'd be up for that at this time...


The front is already wired to have LCR and sub come out there (in the one picture the sub connection is out of the left wall plate...

 

[Roshy]

This never occurred to me before, I can't do inwall speakers where the screen is, that is an outside wall (so are the bottom walls), so I don't want to gut out insulation...


I think I am going to try and keep the construction work to a minimum for this project (at this time).. and do a second iteration.


So what I'm thinking of doing is having a row of 4 or 5 seats in the middle, no riser, and go with 7.1 surround (5.1 if the read don't look like good positions), then later on have a seperate project that adds a riser, and maybe adds bar table type seating in, that way I don't have to move the door.


That way when my father is here, we arent working on the room 24 hours a day for 2 weeks staight, we can leasurely get the screen, speakers, projector and all the equipment hooked up, and still have plenty of time. I'd love to do everything all in one shot, but also want to spend time with my dad, and give him lots of time to spend with my 4 month old daughter.


Any recommendations on where to put the surrounds for a 7.1 surround system going with the 5 seats in a row? Would on both sides of the doorway work for the back R/L, and in ceiling for surrounds work ok? Here is a mockup of what I might do to start, note that the back ones are in/on wall, and the surrounds are in ceiling (or I could drop them off ceiling). Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Roshy]

According to this:

My speakers should be placed more like this:

Does that look not bad? I'm basing this off the center seat, which will be where I sit

Note that the bar thing behind the seats won't be built to start (or maybe it would be if we have time this trip).


How close to the wall can in-ceiling / on wall speakers be placed? Should I just use all in ceiling? Or go with what I have in the picture?


Also, anyone have recommendations for all the speakers, that is in the 3.5-4k ballpark?


Thanks

 

[bigyela]

i am no expert, looks good to me. i have my side surrounds directly to the sides, does good.


have you thought of 2 rows (3 seats)? might give you a little more room on the sides?

 

[Roshy]

Whenever k try to do 2 rows then it pushes the front row up to 10 feet of the screen, which seems a little close when I look at it. I'll try mocking it up though. Or maybe 3 seats in the front row and then bar style seating behind..

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Roshy /forum/post/20795827


Whenever k try to do 2 rows then it pushes the front row up to 10 feet of the screen, which seems a little close when I look at it. I'll try mocking it up though. Or maybe 3 seats in the front row and then bar style seating behind..

It's a bit of an illusion. But 10' from the screen works great, as I an attest. And even then I'd go with the 120" screen. I'm using 106" and it's very good. A wee bit more would be nice for the widescreen stuff.


The attached uses a 120" 1.78 screen 10' from the front row. That's a 47 deg view. If the seats are separate chairs, you could do other arrangements than I'm showing in Phase 1, like 4 in row 1. Row 2 has a 5' pitch from the front, which is generous for non-footrest seats, and maybe not so generous with fill recliners. I use seats where only the backs recline, so they can fit in my 17' room.


Phase 2 shows the riser, which is the same height as step #2 leading out of the room. It also shows an idea for adding a wall to create a quiet room for the gear (also hides all those annoying LEDs!). That also provides a place to mount an inwall surround speaker. For phase 1 maybe that speaker could be a bookshelf type sitting on top of the equipment cabinet.


All the speakers are shown where I'd recommend them. It follows the Dolby spec, and if the speakers (or at least the tweeters) can be angled 20 deg, that will help to better reach the further seats.

 

[Tedd]

So no construction.


The problems no one is mentioning is that huge a screen is pushing your speakers into the corners and the center channel down low. You are sacrificing the audio for a large image. The four seats and bar seating are fine, but the room is lacking a proper balance between audio and video.


Have you considered the sources also? Bluray is fine for that large a screen but scaled dvd is going to be less then impressive if you care about video performance. Satellite and cable will be all "over the map". A smaller screen will get you better speaker placement and better audio, and better picture quality too.

 

[Roshy]

How much smaller of a screen? I was thinking of doing a 130" 2.35 ratio screen (for movies), which is equivalent to a 104" screen when watching 1080p content. That would be too large you think? I won't be watching DVDs, just 720p+ content on it. I'm fine going with a smaller screen if that would be better... do you recommend 1.78 or 2.35 screens? I'd rather be safe and go smaller, than too large and have it dim.


With that screen, and placing the screen so its 1 foot from the ceiling, the top of the center channel could come up to be a little over 3 feet off the floor.


If I just have to build a riser to start, I could probably swing that.. but not sure if I can easily get my surrounds to be that far forward... I know the prewire only comes about as far as the back of the 2nd row in your picture, I guess I could always pull those back and use em for the rear surrounds and run new wires for those...


Also, do you recommend speakers on the wall or in ceiling for the 2 rows of 3? I can't decide which I like better, 2 rows of 3 with the back row not reclining, or a bar in the back so you can eat messy foods, etc... I kinda like that idea...

 

[Roshy]

I think I've decided to go with a 1.78 screen to start and try to make everything as simple as possible, then upgrade over time. So probably a 120 inch. I might go ahead and just buy the projector and determine seating distance and screen size using a sheet on the wall.


Question, should I favor in ceiling, in wall, or hung on wall speakers for all the surrounds. I'm willing to fish the wires around if it's worth it.

 

[Roshy]

Also, how close to the ceiling should the screen be? I saw one website saying no closer than 1 foot, but didn't say if further than that is better.

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Roshy /forum/post/20796685


Also, how close to the ceiling should the screen be? I saw one website saying no closer than 1 foot, but didn't say if further than that is better.

The front row viewers should be able to see the top of the screen at an inclination of 15 degrees or less (this is the THX recommendation). Balance that off with the rear viewers seeing the bottom of the screen over the heads of the front row. Between those two boundaries you get max screen height.


If the center speaker will be below the screen, that also adds another constraint as that speaker should not be too low to the floor. If the top pf the speaker is 30-36" above the front row floor level that would be pretty good IMHO.

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Roshy /forum/post/20796665


Question, should I favor in ceiling, in wall, or hung on wall speakers for all the surrounds. I'm willing to fish the wires around if it's worth it.

In ceiling are the last choice as the sounds should not emanate from that location, except maybe for height channels. As to in-wall or on-wall, that's a matter of several factors, like cost, sound quality, mounting/swivel options, clearance, and cosmetics. Good results can be achieved with either style.


I use in-walls with "flush mounted" back boxes for the sides and surface mounted boxes in the corners for the rears so I could toe them in to the desired angle. They all sound great.


None of my speaker wires are in the walls. They run under grill cloth covers and in accessible soffits. If you are going to leave the walls bare then yes maybe you want to run wires in the walls. But without some sort of acoustic treatment it will get a little twangy in there.

 

[Roshy]

I am going to do some treatments, I just haven't looked into that part enough yet.


Is it better then if I wall mount the surround so that they are unevenly placed? Or ceiling? I have the non-symmetrical room...