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HT Layout Feedback Request
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:27 pm    Post subject: HT Layout Feedback Request Reply with quote


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Also posted this on another site:

I'm finally ready to begin working on a theater space in the basement. I'm on a budget, so I'm really mainly concerned with wiring the space and closing off the walls for now, not going too fancy just yet. This is the space I have to work with:



I currently have a projector mounted, with a 110 inch screen on the 13 foot north wall. I've been watching movies down here for a while, just finally getting around to closing things in, all of the walls you see are bare studs, and all are load-bearing walls, so they can't be moved.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the corner knock-out that you see in the southeast corner of the room. There is a load-bearing header there, as it aligns with the top of the staircase. Nothing I can do about that. I do want to close off the theater room for acoustic reasons, and use the second room (in the southwest part of this picture) to have my equipment rack and media storage, and maybe a countertop/dry bar. So, I have two options for closing things off.

The easiest option would be to close off the area in a straight line, this would also leave no odd leftover spaces:



However, I'm concerned about how the asymmetrical nature of this layout would affect acoustics. I am planning for a 7.1 setup, approximate speaker locations are shown. I'm afraid the right surround and rear might both have some odd reflections in this layout. So, the second option would be to have a second notched area, so make things symmetrical:



I'd still have my surrounds and rears sitting in some unfortunate corners, but at least everything would be symmetrical here. It's a few more drywall corners to deal with, and I would have an odd sort of area right by the entry door into the theater.

So I guess my main question is a question of symmetry. How important is symmetry in a case like this? Will I kick myself for making the straight wall down the road, and wish I did the symmetrical option? Or will the symmetrical option be terrible all around due to the surround and rear speakers being in corners?

Any other thoughts or suggestions are welcome as well. Thanks!
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've also added a bit of detail since making those layouts.

I'm thinking of two rows of seating somewhere down the line, but not right away. This layout shows my A/V Rack (brown, outside of the room), cabinet / countertop space (white), the center channel, and a representation of my screen size, in the symmetrical layout.

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HK-Steve




Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 849
Location: Switzerland

TV/Projector: Marquee 9500, Epson 8100


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

symmetrical layout would be best for consistent sound field from left to right across the rear.

The other thing you could think about is a double door, not sure how loud you like your movies etc.



You are at the best bit of planning, an open space, and I am sure many ideas and tips from fellow self builders here. Have fun..

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HK-Steve




Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 849
Location: Switzerland

TV/Projector: Marquee 9500, Epson 8100


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also, are your rear speakers wall or floor mounted/standing???
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HK-Steve wrote:
symmetrical layout would be best for consistent sound field from left to right across the rear.

The other thing you could think about is a double door, not sure how loud you like your movies etc.


You are at the best bit of planning, an open space, and I am sure many ideas and tips from fellow self builders here. Have fun..


Thanks! I'm pretty excited to get started on things, I just wish my bank account matched my excitement level... Taking it one step at a time - that means just wiring, framing and drywall for now.

There is a door at the top of the stairs as well as the doors to the HT, so there should be a decent amount of isolation there. The bigger sound concern will be what goes through the HVAC ducting - I figure I'll have to get a bit of dynamat or something similar, the branch ducting for three upstairs rooms runs through the ceiling. Fortunately, sound isn't really a problem for me at this stage in my life, but I will want to plan ahead a bit for sleeping kids or whatnot further down the road.
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HK-Steve wrote:
Also, are your rear speakers wall or floor mounted/standing???


Rears and surrounds are wall mounted, some cheapie Klipsch speakers for now, and I do plan to stay with wall-mounted speakers going forward.
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HK-Steve




Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 849
Location: Switzerland

TV/Projector: Marquee 9500, Epson 8100


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool, was thinking about which way to open the door etc.

also height of ceiling??
and what projector are you using??

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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 4:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HK-Steve wrote:
Cool, was thinking about which way to open the door etc.

also height of ceiling??
and what projector are you using??


8 foot ceiling, using a Runco DTV-1100. In addition to the RGBHV to the projector, 'll be wiring in 3x CAT6 and HDMI as well, hopefully through a conduit, to future-proof myself a bit in case the projector changes at some point down the road.
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Spanky Ham




Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Honestly, the way you are doing it I wouldn't even worry about the rear speakers and would go with Atmos in a 5.1.4 set up.

I am going to turn this theater upside down and in the process make Crabb jealous. Wink Flip your set up around and put the seating on the north side facing the south side. I would then put up an AT screen the distance of the doorway from the south wall. In this case, three and a half feet. That gives you plenty of room behind the screen for the speakers. You now have a very nice theater arrangement with the sound emanating from behind the screen. The screen would probably be around nine feet wide, which would give you two or so feet of a walkway to get into the theater. You could then place your first row of seating around six to nine feet back. Your second row could be nine to twelve feet back on a riser. I would not put the second row directly against the rear wall.
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do plan to wire for 7.2.4, just to give myself some flexibility. I'm on a tight budget, so wouldn't have the ceiling speakers or Atmos receiver right away, but wiring for it would give me the option to change things up down the road.

This is the second time an AT layout like that has been recommended to me. I'm not crazy about it, don't really want to cut off access to the east side, though there is an alternate path to get there around the stairs. And I do know that AT would be nice, so I'll play with the layout a bit and see if there is a nice way to make it work out.
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is the only way I could make it work out. 8 foot screen, can barely squeeze in a 30 inch entry door, which would then be right next to the screen. Kinda throws a wrench in my AV rack location too, now I'd have a doorway there.

Not to mention that my projector is already mounted to the ceiling on the south side. Can be re-mounted, sure, but...

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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alright. Played just a little bit more, I think I like this layout quite a bit. It maintains my walkway to the room on the east side, doesn't add the complexity or cost of an AT setup, and gives me a proper two rows of seating. The riser for the second row would need to be a bit... creative, but otherwise should be fairly straightforward. Riser and second row wouldn't happen immediately anyway.

Black box next to second row is an end table to make use of the dead space in that corner, box up front is a sub.

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HK-Steve




Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 849
Location: Switzerland

TV/Projector: Marquee 9500, Epson 8100


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The black box is a beer fridge,

Hmmmmm, Beer

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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Haha I like the way you think!
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Took a look at the actual space again last night, no way I'm getting a riser under the projector with a 7.5 foot ceiling, unless people want to really duck on their way in!

Also measured only 29 inches on either side of the screen, without drywall. So if I were to try the AT screen, I would literally have to do a 2 foot doorway, right at the edge of the screen, and have no room to move up to a larger screen. Either that, or I would have to bump the screen off center, and I just can't imagine that looking good.

Oh well, I think I'll still wire for this configuration, do some sort of 'L' arrangement of the furniture for now, and then worry about a riser and second row if/when I have to go digital some day.
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 1:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alright, alright.

After a bit more thought and advice from one of the 'other forums', I've realized a couple of things:

-I should try to keep as much of the seating as centered as I can and spaced away from speakers where possible

-The model couches in the program I was using were unrealistically wide, I've toned them down a bit

-I had mis-measured the opening on the west side of the room.

So, I've come up with two options, what does everyone think?

Option 1: Standard layout, slightly asymmetrical room, but really not bad at all:




Option 2: AT screen, a bit more cramped between rows, but I have found room for a door on the side of the room, rather than some funky angled door. I'd just need to find a good spot for my rack:



Thanks!
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Nashou66




Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 16171
Location: West Seneca NY


PostLink    Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like this layout the best and use two subs one next to couch one up front.

And may I suggest two SVS PB 1000's for your room size. Very Happy


Also maybe open the door into the room to the left so if someone walks in the light from the other room would not spill
onto the screen.





Nashou

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Spanky Ham




Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central


PostLink    Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't see how the AT layout is cramped. You might want to check out the last blend meet thread and look at Williams layout. Either way, you might want to consider going with five speakers up front with just two surrounds. I would definitely go with the five front speakers with two side surrounds in the firstlayout. Before you ask, this is what Holman of THX has been recommending. The wide speakers are between 50 and 70 degrees of the seating position. You could ask William the difference the two additional Seaton Catalysts made.
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gnnash




Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Posts: 216
Location: Lake Elmo, MN


PostLink    Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spanky Ham wrote:
I don't see how the AT layout is cramped. You might want to check out the last blend meet thread and look at Williams layout. Either way, you might want to consider going with five speakers up front with just two surrounds. I would definitely go with the five front speakers with two side surrounds in the firstlayout. Before you ask, this is what Holman of THX has been recommending. The wide speakers are between 50 and 70 degrees of the seating position. You could ask William the difference the two additional Seaton Catalysts made.


So I'm confused, would you go with the AT layout, or the non AT layout?

Are you saying definitely do the front wides if I choose the first layout, or your overall choice would be front sides and non-AT?

I'd have to read up a bit more about front wide channels. My fronts are definitive and my surrounds are currently cheap klipsch satellites, I don't know that they would do too well as front wide speakers in the short term.
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Spanky Ham




Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central


PostLink    Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, I said you should consider front wides for either layout. The problem with your first layout is you keep putting the rear speakers in the back. The right rear will have problems back there.

I haven't changed my opinion and that is the AT layout is the best. While it is best to bring that second row off of the rear wall, you could put it against the rear wall if you think the first row is to close. The money seat is most important and the guests take a back seat (literally and figuratively).

Are you doing scope or 16x9?
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