Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 1814 times.

ton1313

If you had the opportunity to build a house, & the Family Room 14' x 20' would be the dedicated "Theater Room", what woud you suggest be installed prior to drywall? There is a sliding glass door on what would be considered the Left Channel side (20'). The things that would be a must do are 2 - 20 amp dedicated lines (2 recepticals on each line) on the front wall, and surround speaker wires.

JLM

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 10760
  • The elephant normally IS the room
Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #1 on: 6 Sep 2004, 02:26 am »
Separate grounds for the dedicated circuits.

Try this site to optimise room dimensions and materials:  http://www.mhsoft.nl/default1.asp

Behind the drywall try metal "Z" or "U" shaped furring strips to allow the gypsum board to float on the wall.

Use insulated/weather sealed exterior doors.

Replace metal ductwork with lined fiberglass.

Leave room for acoustical room treatments, especially in the corners and first reflection points.

nature boy

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #2 on: 6 Sep 2004, 03:17 pm »
Ton,

Me, I would opt for getting high quality wiring done behind the walls for the system if possible. This limits equipment positioning, but looks a lot better. Trying to do this at a later date is more expensive, unless you are dealing with a basement refinishing job and drop ceilings.  Your selected room dimensions are an excellent starting point.  Consider a good quality cloth vertical blind to cover the glass door.  This will reduce sunlight glare and upper frequency sound reflection.  You might also require some room treatments.

Here are some other helpful hints I offer to friends considering putting in an HT system:

Home theater is really starting to come into its own.  There are a lot of options with video displays, video and audio sources and speakers - I encourage folks to hit the HT stores to look at and listen to various set ups as a start.  

If you are starting from scratch, visit good HT stores in your area, not so much to select equipment, but to see how the rooms are set up.  There is a myriad of different types of set ups depending upon the goals for your HT system.  Some rooms sound great, but look awful and vice-versa.  

I encourage you to give thought to your equipment selection/positioning and furniture selection/positioning before room construction.  The reason for this is you can run interconnects and speaker cable through the walls or ceiling.  While this limits flexibility of moving equipment around, it makes the room look a lot nicer and has much greater WAF.  

One of the more critical factors in you equipment selection is the video source - there are a lot of options - flat panels, monitors, rear projection, etc.  It's tough to beat a quality 16:9 projector system with a good screen for home theater.  Projectors are often ceiling mounted.

You should also think about where you want your audio and video source equipment positioned.  Some people don't like source equipment under or next to a video screen or monitor.  An A/V cabinet or built in cabinets on the side of the room offer a good option.  

After selecting your audio and video equipment sources, figure out where you want your furniture located.  With a projector system, primary viewing positions should be ~10' from the screen.  Positioning furniture on the side of rooms do not offer optimal viewing and listening.  Also furniture position can have an impact on sound quality.  Once furniture is positioned, you can determine your speaker placement.  

I have listened to a lot of HT set ups.  It's tough to beat the sound quality of free standing speakers - but if space or looks are the primary concern there is always in or on wall speakers.  Even Thiel and Joseph Audio, two highly respected speaker companies now have offerings.

The front center speaker is best located directly below or above the monitor or screen for realistic dialogue.  Front right and left speakers adjacent to the monitor or screen.  Five channel dolby digital processing requires the center speaker to carry most of the information - don't skimp on your center channel speaker.  It is also important front speakers tonally match, as a result I encourage front speakers from the same manufacturer.  Rears (in a 5.1) and side effects (6.1 or greater) are not as critical.  If you need to save a little $ on your set up, add the rear and side effect speakers later.

Maybe a little more information than you wanted but hope this helps.

NB

warnerwh

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #3 on: 7 Sep 2004, 12:00 am »
Some resilient channel on the ceiling/walls before drywall or between drywall layers to let a layer float is a good idea. I just did this with very good results.  Also check out the Rives forum at AA and ask there.  Room acoustics are a Huge part of the sound of your system.  Way more than I would have suspected.  Room acoustics can make horror or bliss out of any system. The only other component with such a large difference in sound is speakers.  I'd say room and speakers are 95%+ of the sound of your system.  Also check out soundproofing.org.   Here's a great site for you: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html#big%20waves

orthobiz

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #4 on: 7 Sep 2004, 12:56 am »
What about non-parallel walls?

biz

ton1313

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #5 on: 7 Sep 2004, 03:54 pm »
Thanks for all of the info.

As far as equipment goes, I am set.
Integra research RDC-7
Integra research RDA-7
Sony DVPNS-999ES
Toshiba 40H80 16:9
Zu Cable Definition Loudspeakers, Druid 2 center, & Retro sub.
All Zu top end cableing.

My main focus was for what would/could be behind the drywall and/or room treatments.

I just got a copy of the floor plans & we will see if this is the route to take.

orthobiz

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #6 on: 7 Sep 2004, 07:54 pm »
PS Audio's website had an article about their soundroom and they went into detail regarding ceiling/walls damping. It was a featured series of articles.

biz

bubba966

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #7 on: 7 Sep 2004, 08:00 pm »
While you're not going with a PJ now, it might not be a bad idea to run a conduit & power up to the ceiling where a PJ would be mounted (somewhere around 12'-15' back). And make some sort of re-inforced mounting area to mount the PJ to.

That way should you decide at some point that your Tosh is a little too small, you're ready to go. Just pull the video cable through the conduit, and plug it in.

JLM

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 10760
  • The elephant normally IS the room
Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #8 on: 8 Sep 2004, 12:31 am »
Rectangular rooms are one of the worst shapes imaginable, but the best understood.  I had a bit more room I would have angled the back wall  about 15 degrees to break up standing waves for the listening room I'm building.

ton1313

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #9 on: 8 Sep 2004, 04:03 pm »
I am stuck with the rectangle room. This is from builders plans, & the back wall is common with a laundry & bathroom. Thanks for the tip on the projector, I will have to keep that in mind.

JLM

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 10760
  • The elephant normally IS the room
Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #10 on: 9 Sep 2004, 12:22 am »
Could you reduce the size of the room to provide a skewed wall?

ton1313

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #11 on: 9 Sep 2004, 04:02 am »
Not really, as the back wall of the room, has to remain clear for a walkway to the sliding glasss door. If a hall way was added, it would make the room too small.

JLM

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 10760
  • The elephant normally IS the room
Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #12 on: 9 Sep 2004, 10:44 am »
Could you turn the room around (switch front and back) and then make the new back wall skewed?  (And if needed create a      space.  BTW the      space could be used for built in shelves, etc.

ton1313

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #13 on: 9 Sep 2004, 04:19 pm »
I am not sure that my wife would approve of that. She is VERY audio gear friendly, but with this being our first official "Brand New House", I think that would be a little too much. Plus the fact that we have a little extra cash for modifications to the plans, that would take precidence over the audio room at this time.

JoshK

Possible New House = New Audio Room ? Suggestions ?
« Reply #14 on: 9 Sep 2004, 04:44 pm »
I second Brian's suggestion to pre-install conduit for future PJ upgrades.  Very good idea before the drywall is on and not too expensive to do.   I would highly recommend running conduit for all speaker and cabling as well in case you want to upgrade, it is easy to do and it hides everything for nice aesthetics.  

I don't have these options, which would have made life much easier for me.