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Heeman - Dedicated HT Room?

I'm at work right now so I'm going to have to be brief, but here goes:

The room really needs to be a minimum of 12' wide, IMHO. That gives you 8' between the speakers, and using the equilateral triangle rule, that puts you roughly 7' back from the screen. That also gives you 2' from the center of the speakers to the walls. Much narrower than that and the sound really starts to suffer (let alone the 10' - 11' wide rooms I've been in just feel small/cramped).

The last pic Zing posted is the best by far. If I have AutoCAD installed on any computer I have, I will happily draw a layout for that room. If I don't have it installed maybe I can find some time to do so next week.

John
 
Hey John,

Thanks for chiming in! Appreciate your feedback/suggestions.

I am stuck with the 11' width, unless I do the Jog, which complicates things.

I am sure there are ways to overcome the obstacles with the 11' wide room?

Keith
 
One thing to remember: EVERY room has compromises.

The 11' width won't be nearly as much of a problem IF you keep it in mind when selecting a screen. If you put a 100" screen in there (approximately 8' wide) you're going to push your speakers into the corners. This will compromise the sound, make placing a decent sized sub in one of those corners difficult, and give that cramped feeling I mentioned. If you go w/ something more reasonable, say 84" or so, you'll eliminate a lot of these issues.

The best thing I did when planning my HT was define and rank my priorities. Once you do that, making decisions gets much easier. For example, if stereo music reproduction is the top priority, then layout the 2.1 channels and sweet spot seating location first, then fit everything else around that. (That's what I did.) If picture size is #1, then figure out how big of a screen you can put in the room and still have your acceptable level of music playback. (Are you OK, w/ the speakers 2' from the walls and the adverse effects of that?) If overall appearance of the room is #1, then do in-wall/ceiling speakers and a drop-down screen and a bunch of plants.

Oh, and the biggest piece of advice I will give (I sort of said this a minute ago) is: DON'T GET GOT UP IN HAVING THE BIGGEST SCREEN YOU CAN FIT ON THE WALL!! A correctly sized and placed screen may not blow everyone away when they walk into the room, but you will enjoy it each time you use it, and the others will remember it better when they leave the room.

I speak somewhat from experience on this. My screen is a little too big for my room (the front row is the audio sweet spot) and a little too high. This is proven by the fact that EVERY time somebody new comes into the room, they sit in the back. The screen was originally going to be 92" - 06" and 6" lower than it is. The size changed because the frame of the screen is the same size (w/ in 1/4") of the size of the window frames. The height was always going to be cheated up a little bit in an effort to keep the center tweeter a little closer to that of the tweeters in the mains.

John
 
Great comments, thanks John!!

Let me think out loud for a few minutes:

1. I have always told friends that I want a dedicated room for better sound, primarily music listening. This is do to my very very bad living-room/den where my current system is. We discussed this at Chris's GTG. I basically have no corners in my current room.

2. Perfect sound may not necessarily be the goal, better sound may be the goal. Being a totally subjective hobby, this is always a variable.

3. Projector/Screen vs. Plasma - you may remember that we upgraded from a 42" Plasma EDTV to a 59" Plasma HDTV Less than one year ago. We really enjoy it and do not regret the upgrade at all. That being said, after going to a couple of GTG's over this past year, the projector/screen is what we really want in your dedicated room, that makes the theater......right??? We are really considering a 100", however will not jump until the addition is complete and we can physically look at the sizes taped on the wall.

4. Having a dedicated room will allow me to treat the room any way needed with out worrying about the way the treatments look. I think that Jeff said it best, my room is to impress my guests when the light are out and watching/listening to material, not to be a visual showcase when you walk in. Our room will be simple without clutter and solely for the purpose of listening and watching. It will not be a hang out room or a room for socializing.

5. A couple of responses earlier, I indicated that I ran some mode plots for the length of the room, the best being 24'. Will 6" either way really have that much of an effect on the audio. If so, I will build to this dimension.

6. The variables I have with the room will be the length and if there is a real benefit, I can play with the ceiling. The rear is set at 8', however I can slope it down to the front if you feel there is a real benefit.

Thanks again for input!!!!
 
Yesterday I spoke with a Professor that teaches Architecture at the local University about having one of his students do the drawings for our addition.

The student just left our home and will have the drawings completed for me tomorrow late afternoon. The drawings will be sufficient to obtain the building permit.

Moving right along..........
 
Awesome! Students = slave labor, ah the glories of our educational system! :laughing: (and yeah I'm basing this opinion on my own grad school experience...)
 
He graduates this winter..........

It is not free, but not a bad deal at $150.
 
heeman said:
He graduates this winter..........

It is not free, but not a bad deal at $150.
Click to expand...
And a fantastic deal for the student, iirc! :handgestures-thumbup:
 
heeman said:
5. A couple of responses earlier, I indicated that I ran some mode plots for the length of the room, the best being 24'. Will 6" either way really have that much of an effect on the audio. If so, I will build to this dimension.
Click to expand...

6" will have AN effect, certainly. You asked if it will be "that much" but you will have to quantify what you mean by that. Someone like Flint with trained dog's ears will probably be able to perceive the difference and to him that 6" may be worth the extra cash and effort to build.

While on the topic of room dimensions...
Assuming one plans on placing acoustic diffusion/reflection panels in the rear of the room, should the room's length be calculated by measuring the distance between the front wall and the rear wall, or the front of the panels?
 
The one thing that I have found (based on two different rooms...same speakers/electronics) is that room symmetry is, without a doubt, a NEED for great imaging. Just keep that in mind.

Actually, heeman, I would strongly suggest that you go to Ethan Winer's website regarding room acoustics and read his primers first. Then, after reading them (it'll take some time) feel free to ask Ethan advice (he loves pictures and drawings). A couple of acoustics experts, as well as the master Ethan, helped me with my room...and although I'm not done, I am happy.

Start here:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html
 
Regarding the sloped ceiling: If you have a 8' max at the rear, I would not slope the ceiling downward. What about some type of slope/vault at the ends similar to what I did? That would allow you to meet the 8' at the rear and still give you some more overall height? Just a thought.

John
 
yromj said:
Regarding the sloped ceiling: If you have a 8' max at the rear, I would not slope the ceiling downward. What about some type of slope/vault at the ends similar to what I did? That would allow you to meet the 8' at the rear and still give you some more overall height? Just a thought.

John
Click to expand...

Sloping the ceiling to below a 7.5' height may violate building codes. I'd check with local building officials if you are considering it.
 
Sound Test


I have a pair of Studio 20's with a 100 W Parasound Amp in the existing room that we will be adding on to for the HT.

I cranked up the system to 100 db per my hand held Radio Shack SPL Meter.

Then I went outside to measure how loud it is outside and it was about 70 db, much quieter than when we have our patio system on.

The exterior walls are 2 x 4 with blown in cellulose insulation. I am at 5' to the property line and was wondering how loud it would be outside.

I think that I am good, the neighbor on that side is an ASS....................


My constraint now has been getting estimates so that I can get my building permit and start@!@
 
I'm excited for you. Can't wait for you to start breaking ground.
 
You would think that in this economy, there would be a number of contractors and/or subs out there that are hungry for work??? NOPE!!!

There have been numerous no shows for appointments with me to review the scope of work and to quote.

I was hoping to have this completed by Christmas, however not a chance now.

No permit yet based on not have a couple of reasonable quotes.

Thanks for checking in!
 
Hang in there my friend. In Austin, the waiting list for inspectors/permits.....is months & they don't say how many months.
 
Wow it has been since early November since the last post here...............well things do happen for a reason, right?

After months of dealing with contractors and subs, and just getting more and more frustrated, Barb and I have evaluated other options for the Heeman Dedicated HT Room.

Once again consulting with our Architect friend, we decided that if we sacrifice our large utility room and condense it along with modifying a half bathroom we can eliminate the expense and hassle of adding on to our home.

Our original plan was to take our 11' x 12.5' office and bump out the room and end up with an 11' x 24.5' HT.

Well now the plan will be to remove the wall between the office and utility room space leaving us a 12.5' x 17.5" Dedicated HT.

Barb and I will take on 99% of this project ourselves and have some challenges ahead of us, however we now have a concrete plan that will save of Thousands of Dollars and the headache of dealing with contractors and subs.

I will keep you posted on our project! :music-rockout: :music-rockout:
 
That's cool, sounds like a good plan. Looking forward to watching progress!
 
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