Looking for general design ideas for basement space (pictures)

[wmilas]

First let me start off by stating I've been lurking here for a few years. I've really enjoyed reading build threads and learning as I go.

I'm in the process of building my "dream" basement. The wife has the rest of the house, I have the garage and basement. The basement has 6 distinct areas. 1) My study, 2) The fishtank and sump/pump/equipment rooms, 3) Bathroom, 4) Pool table area, 5) Bar, and lastly 6) the Entertainment area.

Its this last area I'm looking for help with. Well not so much help but general design ideas pertaining to speaker building and layout. I've build a few speakers of my own design (just messing around.. no finished cabs just as learning tools). I've held off building and "real" speakers because I wanted to have a place to put them where I could twiddle with them.

I've owned many commercial speakers over the years. I've owned dozens of pairs of Klipsch from the classics to the newer reference lines. Currently upstairs in the family room I'm klipsch free and have a 5.1 system consisting of Axiom for speakers and a massive SVS sub. One day I'll probably replace the Axioms with build speakers but its the family room, the wife demanded high WAF, and I needed something that just "worked".

First let me post some pictures of the space, then some dimensions. First looking at the front wall:


Here is a shot of the space looking backwards from the front wall:


Here are the left and right shots of the space:




Ok some dimensions. The ceiling is exactly 8' high to the bottom of the drop (Its a 9' ceiling). The front wall is 11' 1" from the bar to the little room that jsuts out. That little room btw is the electronics closet and the sump room. That room comes out 5' 2" then jogs over 4'. The base of the bar comes off the front wall 2' 10". The top obviously comes out farther. From the front wall to the post is 14' 9". The sitting area for the sectional will be at approximately this point. It will then wrap around to the right and back to the front wall. Its not a huge sectional. Its just a long front couch with a L thats smaller and converts into a queen sleeper. Width from the post to the other side wall is 14' 5". Obviously there is no "back" wall. The back wall is a bit over 38' feet from the front wall. I know, I know its not optimum but heh I wanted an open floor plan for entertaining.

as far as wiring goes you can see on the front wall I've wired for 7.2. I'm trained as an engineer so I don't go into all the mumbo jumbo about fancy cables, but I did run Belden 10 gage every where. The front walls have 2 sets left and right for subs/bass bin/mid-tweeter. There is a center run up at the plasma box. The side is wired opposite the column with another coming out at the base of the column. There are left and right rears in the ceiling with boxes in the drywall on the backside.

With all that said, I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with this layout. I have no WAF worries, its my space. However I've taken great effort to really class the basement up with woodwork. I'm going for a pub like feel. Here is a shot of the cherry "paneling" I built to ring the pool table. I wanted something to protect the walls from cues, and a place to put drinks. Its solid cherry except for the panels which are 3/4" cherry ply.


The space will mostly be used for HT but it will also be my space for critical listening of 2 channel music. I'm not a complete HI-FI snob, so I'm not looking for massive 3 ways with no sub for critical listening. I'm more looking for a combined bass bin/ hybrid system or something. I'm not sure. I'm worried about speaker placement on that front wall with the bar and that room jutting out. I'm going to get a nasty hump somewhere down low from that I'm thinking. I could throw a sub over past where the wall just back past the room but that only leads me with a single sub. I was kind of dreaming of dual subs possibly as the base of my fronts.

Anyways I'm looking for general ideas. I'll probably build a kit set of some sort in BB to hold me over before I start a custom build and design, but I'd like to take some time to start rolling things over in my head.

Thanks for your time!

Btw if you are interested in current shots of the whole basement, they start at:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13304025#post13304025

The complete Tank build thread is at:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1354165

Oh also if some of the pictures look "warped" like the paneling shot with the floor that looks like it comes up in places, its because I was using a very wide angled lens (barrel distortion). Everything is perfectly flat/square

[ThomasW]

Hi,

In the other thread you refer to the front wall as the 'plasma wall'. So the idea is to have a flat screen and speakers in that alcove?

[wmilas]

Hi,

In the other thread you refer to the front wall as the 'plasma wall'. So the idea is to have a flat screen and speakers in that alcove?

Yes sorry if I was unclear on that. The alcove will be the front.

[ThomasW]

The sound quality will be impaired by the boundary loading effects created by the wall with the door and the end of the bar.

That's too bad since the room is so large it has a lot of potential that will go unused...

[Scottg]

Have built-ins for your TV/HT with modest ceiling surrounds and plenty of digital eq..

Your critical listening speakers should be separate and well out into the room to avoid reflections from side-walls. (..perhaps out nearly into the center of the room.)

Consider a swivel chair for both listening and viewing. Obviously with the chair facing the TV at one angle and then swiveling out into the room (90-180 deg.s) for listening to music.

The key is keeping the loudspeakers much closer to your listening position than any wall.

..well, something to consider.

[wmilas]

Scott: thats an idea. I have complete flexibility on the mains. I can pull them forward. What I can't do is change the layout of the couches and the wall the plasma is on.

ThomasW: While I understand the boundary effects I'm also approaching the whole basement as a balanced system. I love fish, I love to play pool, I love to drink beer, I love to entertain. So going into it there are trade off for each section. The bar could be much bigger for instance and eliminate the HT area. At the end of the day, just like in speaker building there are compromises made and you have to work with what you have.

I wonder if it makes sense to build critical listening speakers or simply pull them forward when doing critical listening.

Another thing that occurs to me is that the boundary effect doest have to be limiting if build into the speaker. I'm not saying I want to go this way but I did own a pair of Klipschhorns. They were MADE to sit in a corner, and they were one of the sweetest sounding pairs of speakers I ever owned. True they would never do for HT duty but for classical music and chamber they were unreal.

If it helps this is my breakdown nowadays. Its probably 80/85% ht, 20/15% music. When I do listen to music I listen to mostly stuff from my teenage years which is early/mid 80's. I also listen to a hodge podge of classical music and some older rock.

With all of this said i'm not going to be heart broken if I can't obtain listening nirvana like I could in a perfectly designed listening room. On the other hand I'd like to use the skills at my disposal (and yours! to try and figure out how to optimize the space I have and the the speakers being that I'll most likely be building them.

[ThomasW]

The effect we're taking about has nothing to do with K-Horns. They're corner loaded to make the walls of the room form the sides of the horn to increase the bass output.