Starting to Frame Need Ideas Please!!

[freon]

Hello, I have begun framing out a room in my basement. It was 2 rooms that were there before which I tore out and had my equipment setup down there for a couple months to get a feel for what I might want.

Have a sanyo z2 projector and I had a diy 110" screen.
I have a H/K avr-630.
I am looking into buying some new speakers as I have never had a tru 5.1 setup. Currently I had been using an older pair of cerwin vega vs-150 3 way fronts...a Infinity CC2 center and some infinity minuettes in the rear...I think these are all over 6 yrs old and I used them when i had only prologic reciever, and was listening to mostly music.

The speakers I have been shopping are the HTD lvl 4's. www.hometheaterdirect.com

Ok I have a visio document of what the room is looking like so far, here

https://www.darkoutlet.com/theater.htm

here is the ductwork layout

https://www.darkoutlet.com/theaterhvac.htm

Now I'm not sure If I would just go for 5.1 or 7.1 setup.
For 7.1 I would have to put my side surrounds in the ceiling and the rear surrounds In wall I think.

Should I build a stage with colums in the front...and bring my screen out a foot from the wall..and mount my center behind that? Would that make me have to bring down my screen size for fear of Screen door effect?

If I go for only 5.1 is it ok to have the back row tight to the wall...and just have some In wall rears?

You can see that this room is more of an L shape with the little bar/entrance area in the one side, Is this going to be a bass trap? Should I treat this area with anything special? Would I want to place my sub somewhere special because of this shape of room?

Btw I plan on using Linacoustic/GOM on walls.

Thanks for any thoughts and ideas guys

Jason

[freon]

Is this in the wrong section??

[David Meek]

Hi Jason, the Spaced Out forum is the best place for this thread, so I've moved it.

[David Meek]

Dammit, I posted a long reply using the Quick Reply and it never made it! :M :M :M I'll try again in a bit.

[Patt]

Hi Jason,

You have quite a project going there, maybe sometime I will be doing something similar. Now I'm only running 2 channel so I can't help much with rear speaker placement.

Moving up to a screen and projector, I would think that is a fantastic idea.

The H.K. is a nice reciever, they are conservative with their power ratings and are a good looking unit.

Never heard of those speakers, there are a few other brands out there that may be near or in the same price range if you are still looking. Maybe if during construction you could set something up temporarily to see how it sounds? Regarding the center channel, if you have plenty of room it makes for a clean looking job if it could be hidden behind the screen.

I have had my sub in 4 different locations in the same room, it sounded different every time I moved it.

You seem to be on a roll with all the necessities, keep reading and researching and you will probably have a nice setup in the end.

......................Take your time and enjoy. :T

[freon]

thanks,

I guess I am over concerned about having my rear seats all the way to the back wall, I have never had seats that close to the rear speakers and am not sure if anyone else has a similiar setup.

[Patt]

Freon,

Why not make at least two cable runs, when you figure out which one sounds best bury the other back in the wall or ceiling.

It may make quite a difference. :idea:

[David Meek]

Allrighty, let's try this again.

Several thoughts popped up here:

1) Separate the A/C ducts and return air a bit more. Place one of them further towards the rear of the room in order to get air movement around the seating area. A small amount of flowing air will keep the room fresh even with several people viewing movies for an extended period.

2) With a 14' wide room, you can easily accomodate a 7.1 set up, but it would work better if you pull the seating off the back wall just a bit - say 2 or 3 feet. Your room size will let you do this without problems as your projector throw is 13 feet + to a 110" screen. Separating the seating from the rear speakers will cut down on the listeners being able to localize these channels. You will have some placement issues with the right surrounds as the bar area is offset with respect to the seating. You can mount the speaker on that wall and adjust the volume and time delay settings to compensate, or you can use an arm-type mount and suspend the speaker from the back wall above the bar top or from the ceiling.

3) Is the header (called sister beam) projecting down into the room? This will cause the projector to be lowered closer to the seating position which could cause a noise issue. It could also move the projector (and housing - if needed) down into the line-of-sight of the audience.

4) How are you going to orient the equipment in the closet? Is the closet 1' - 7" deep or 2' -7"? The header covers that dimension. If it's 1' - 7" then you may have problems with equipment if you go with anything that is over-sized or odd-sized. Also think about the need for room to gently bend cabling into the back of the components. That'll add needed depth to things.

5) Pre-running cabling (speaker, component and satellite/cable) inside the walls is always a good thing to give the room a neat, finished appearance.

6) Placing the sub can be an amazingly tedious job, but one way to get a good start is to place the sub in your primary listening position and play test tone sweeps through it. You move around the room to the various locations you want to put the sub and at each location check the sweeps with your SPL for the most even curve. That'll tell you the location to start with for the sub. Move the sub to that point and then you just start tweaking an inch or two in various directions until you get the response curve you want at your seating.

I'm not familiar with those speakers but they certainly look good in that burl finish. They resemble the Avalon Eidolons with that multi-angle front. If they sound anything like them. . . . :T

Also, I can't really help on the FP and rainbow questions. Hopefully someone else with more FP knowledge will hop in here.

I hope this helps some. Good luck!

[freon]

thanks for the input, First the supply air ducts are the only ones you see in the front the middle one is exhaust fan,as this room will double as my Hold'em tournament room so there may be some cigar smoking going on.

here is my hold'em table I built www.darkoutlet.com/images/table.jpg

anyways...I can allways add a side supply on the duct in the back out the soffit If I am not getting enough air...the return will be cut in the panel near the entrance door so air will be pulled towards the back or room anyways.

The equipment closet is actually deeper than the drawing its about 23" deep and the shelves will protrude halfway through the outside wall so i easily have 2ft for that respect.


The beam will have soffit that does hang down, this is where the screen size problem is going to occur...to cast under the beam i can only get the image a certain distance from the ceiling. Therefore said image is going to be closer to floor than i may want especially if I move my seating foreward and line of sight is different now for the rear seats. I will have to play with this a little more once i have the drywall on bottom of that soffit and see exactly how image will project.

Well today I am trying to finish framing and at least get my can lighting in and nail on some plug boxes. Maybe start building my component rack in the wall too.

[Patt]

Sound's like you are steamrolling along. :conveyer:

Are you maybe using adjustable shelving in your component rack? Might be handy for different size pieces in the future.

[freon]

my rack will be using standard shelving brackets it will look similiar to this http://www.fineelectricco.com/Stacklg.jpg

http://www.fineelectricco.com/Stackrr1lg.jpg

http://www.fineelectricco.com/Closetpic.jpg

[basementjack]

Hey Freon, I like the plans so far.

I agree with David about the HVAC you want a supply on one side and a return on the other - if this is going into a basement, then you'd want them on the walls, as close to the floor as possible. And use a ductliner insulation if you are concerned about sound spreading to the rest of the house.

I have my rear seats against the rear wall - I don't really like it, but my room is only 16 feet deep so I haven't got a choice - in my mind, it makes 7.1 mandatory - with a few feet behind you, 5.1's surrounds can go in the corners - with no distance behind you you'll localize everything - so the rear centers are a must for the proper effect.

three thoughts....
#1 don't be concerned with the L shape - Square and rectangle rooms always sound bad - the more irregular the better, in fact, on your plan it looks like you might have a post on the left wall facing the screen - that would benefit the sound as well - it breaks up the side wall. Also, when I did my home theater, I did a special closet for my CD's and DVD's. I've since read that book cases really help the sound (by diffusing it) and I would have been better off having all the CD's and DVD's in the room.
So in your case I would add a CD/DVD rack in the room somewhere.

#2 If you build a platform under the rear row, fill it with as much dense insulation as possible (Such as the Owens corning rigid 703/704 type products - you'll be building a bass trap into the room, which will go long way to smoothing out the bass response and having a better sounding room)

#3 you don't have any lighting mentioned on your plans. But you Mentioned Can Lighting in one of your posts-...
I have can lights in my home theater.
I hate them.
really really hate them.
3 rows of 3
3 dimmers - one per row
thought it would be great, it's not.
Wish I had more dimmers, for more control.
But I really wish I would have wired for wall mounted "sconce" lights instead of the cans (maybe I would have left a few cans to accent pictures)
(It should be noted that I wear glasses, and the overhead glare from can lights near the seats is a big distraction)


ok that's my 3 cents

- Jack

[freon]

The return air is going in right above the entrance door.
Those are both supply air up by the screen wall.
That post is acutally concrete blocks used to make a column My drywall will actually float over that, the drawing is just a rough draft for me to get my ideas out there.
I have put in some cans and plan on using sconce lights too.
I will update my drawing to include an electrical plan today so you can see what Im thinking. I hooked up my 4" cans last night and I allready think that its not enough light for when Im using the room to play cards in. It will probobly look even darker once the walls are ceiling get darker.

[Patt]

Hey Freon,

What Jack said about the glare of can lights is what happened in my Liv. Rm. Maybe if they were not over the sitting area and they were over a counter or washing down a wall it might have worked.
Installed two or three a few year's ago and finally removed them due to the glare. :sn

Sconces look cool and give it the theatre atmosphere. 8)

[sugarmedia]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.apluselectronics.com/images/wsRustic14LG.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.apluselectronics.com/installations2.htm&h=750&w=500&sz=75&tbnid=YumlqlDxUKUJ:&tbnh=140&tbnw=93&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmartin%2Blogan%2Bscripts%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

[Rolyasm]

Cool Pics sugar. I am not planning on anything that extravagent, but some cool ideas. One thing that came up while reading through this link, or one of many is this. 1) what is a hush box for a projector? I am also in the framing stage and want to get it right. It looks like these guys ran an exhaust from their projector. Is that necessary?
Also, Freon. If you are building a riser, have you thought about throwing some sub drivers under there for a kick-butt bass experience? It would be close to an IB(infinite baffle) but not quite. It is what has been suggested to me and appears cheap for getting down into the 10hz range. Just a thought since you would want to frame the riser for that. Good luck. The table you built rocks.
Roly

[freon]

Last piece of drywall went up tonight....Man this has been some work!!

now for Mud Mud and more Mud!!

I have edited my layout a little to be more exact for how things turned out
my rear riser is taller and larger now, I also have added a few more can lights to highlight my poker table when it is up front.

https://www.darkoutlet.com/theater.htm

I will try to get some pictures up on my site in the next couple days....I just been really busy :lol:

[freon]

I am done with this room. Waiting on carpet.