Small HT room...Possible?

[syzygylock]

Hi all, I have a small room (10' x 10') that I want to turn into a small HT. I wanted to put in a 50" Pioneer Kuro and DIY speakers for a 5.1 setup. I want to post here for comments and advices for what I can do to get the best out of this small space I got.

Thanks,

[dyazdani]

I also have a smallish room, I think it is around 13' square. I've got a front projector and rather large speakers in there and don't really have an issue with it. It's not optimum, but you can still have an enjoyable room out of it.

I would say that you'll want to look into some acoustical treatments and seating arrangements that maximize the space, i.e. along the back wall.

[syzygylock]

Sounds good, as I only wanted to make my own set of speakers. Anyone has any recommendations on what DIY speakers that would fit for a small HT? The popular MTWM in our forum seems too big. Is there any other choices?

[Ovation]

I have mine in a room that is 11 x 15 and it includes a projector, a 64 inch screen, some sizable speakers (on stands, but that takes as much space as a floorstander). It's tight, but when the lights are out, no one cares. So yes, it's doable, but it requires some planning. Acoustic treatments are recommended (I have some, along with a parametric EQ for my sub) and I also recommend (either store-bought or DIY) a speaker that works well as a near-field monitor. It doesn't have to be the stated design goal of the speaker, but there are many excellent sounding speakers that require a lot of "breathing space"--which they won't get in that size space. Something to keep in mind when auditioning or designing speakers.

[David Meek]

The theater room in our old house was 11'-3" x 13'-3", with large floor-standing speakers, so yes you can make it work. I admit I cheated some by recessing the equipment rack into the wall (along with the "big box" RPTV which should work out the same as if you had a flat-screen on the wall). If you'd like some arrangement ideas, here's a link to an old thread that shows it in an almost-complete state.

I hope this helps.

[Chris D]

Oooh, the first thing that pops into my mind, in addition to, "That's small", is, "That's square". I think you're going to get some pretty severe reverberations, standing waves, and nulls in a room like that. Sorry!

[syzygylock]

Can you point me to a place to read up on the reverberations, standing waves, and nulls? Is there a way to solve it? How rectangular does a room needs to be "good"?

[syzygylock]

Wow David, that room looks pretty neat. Do you also notice the problem that Chris mentioned?

[dyazdani]

Can you point me to a place to read up on the reverberations, standing waves, and nulls? Is there a way to solve it? How rectangular does a room needs to be "good"?

You can help the acoustics with the treatments as well as with an EQ on the sub. I've only treated my room and it doesn't seem too bad (mine is also pretty much square).

There is a book, Master Handbook of Acoustics that is good for learning. You can also read online, try this link for starters.

[David Meek]

Wow David, that room looks pretty neat. Do you also notice the problem that Chris mentioned?

Yes, I'd had a fairly arduous period trying to get the sound "up to par" in that room before I began remodeling it. I'd spent days with the arrangement on the short walls, moving the speakers, changing toe-in, moving the chair (singular for testing). I tried modeling the room using a program called CARA and wasn't making much headway, until I tried the setup oriented on the long walls and things looked better on paper. I changed the setup in the room and it did sound much better. After that it was only a matter of completing the remod and tweaking the speaker locations.

Some other things that helped were hanging curtains on the wall behind the chairs, keeping the heavy carpet and adding some decorations on the walls to act as diffusers. Even though it was my HT room, I was trying to keep it from looking too cluttered so I didn't go with engineered wall treatments or anything of that nature.

How rectangular does a room needs to be "good"?

There are several ratios of room length to width to height that are called the "golden ratios" due to their lessening of room modes, peaks, nulls. I'll see if I can find them....

Okay, I found one in the files which is .618 x 1.000 x 1.618 with the measurements taken from the finished wall surface. For example if your room is 10' wide, it would need to have a ceiling height of 6.18' and a length of 16.18'. Now, any reasonable set of sizes will do as long as they correspond to that ratio. There are some other suggested ratios, too....

[syzygylock]

Thanks all for the reply, I have been busy trying to read up on all of these info. Would any of you have a recommendation for what DIY speakers that would fit this small room? or all of them are good? ... I look at all the designs in the forums but lack the experience to know what is really needed and what isn't.

[Chris D]

syzygylock, one thing I'll say is that, rooms are NEVER perfect, and there's always compromises. Even the biggest and best of rooms isn't 100% ideal. So what I think it comes down to is if you'll be able to make any particular room good ENOUGH for your own personal standards, and then choose to be happy with the results! My two previous theaters have been quite different in size, performance, and treatments. I can/could have made either of them MUCH better. But in the end, I've been very happy using both of them.

[Gremal]

I use a small room, too. I haven't remodeled, hidden the wires behind the walls or done anything to make it look as nice as David's room. But it's absolutely possible to put together a reference-level HT system in a small space.