New House/New System

[Maximo]

I think this is the right section to put this in. So as you are aware we are buying a new house. House is under construction. In a couple of day will be able to post diagrams and pictures. But basically what I have are two rooms. the downstairs living room and the upstair bonus room. The bonus room is right above the downstairs living room. In fact the bonus room exists because the builder floor in the two story living room (which is fine because I hate two story living rooms.

Anyway, I am ordering the follwoing:

two 30 foot HDMI cables
one 100 foor roll of CL rate 2-12 speaker wire
two 15 foot HDMI cables
one 25 foot HDMI cable
two 25 foot subwoofer cable
and two 15 foot subwoofer cables.

There is a coat closet in the center of the down stairs and I plan on putting all of the downstrairs AV gear in their and chase some speaker wire and the two 30 foor HDMI's to the tv above the fireplace. I only plan on using one, but for an extra $30 I'd rather have the other in place

Ok, so anyway, yeah I can lay PVC or the contractor said he would do it for $150. So I guess I will be layin some pipe in the near future.

The two systems will be opposite each other. And frankly the down stairs system will be some where between 2.0, 2.1, 4.0 or 4.1. Not rather interested in trying to do a tv and a center above the fireplace, but we shall see. Upstairs system will be at least 7.1.

 

[Botch]

If you're planning a 5.1 system in both rooms, faced the same direction, the fact that they're atop one another will make for easy layout.

Might I make a suggestion? I'd lay PVC pipe between the TV, Projector, and Eq. Rack locations, rather than the HDMI cable itself, and then run the cable down the pipe. That way, when HDMI 5.1 comes out with the Thunderbolt connectors (I'm guessing here) you can easily snake out the obsolete cable and replace with the new. (probably not necessary for the speaker cables, but I'd lay cable for 7.1 and high surrounds in front, even if you don't currently have that kind of system.

Anxious to see the pho-toes of the project, good luck!

 

[hawk52]

Congradulations on your new home. All I am going to shout out YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!.. I'll look to the smart people give you guidance. I'm just a smart ass.... :teasing-neener:

 

[Maximo]

Pics:

Standing in foyer. Coat closet to right. Dining to my 7:30 and kitchen to my 10:00 cost closet to my right.

Coat closet where downstairs gear will go.

upstairs standing in hall looking into bonus room. Window is over fireplace

BR corner of bonus room. Will be a triangular bench seat over the HVAC ducting

BL corner, same thing

front area of bonus room

pic of display and front speaker location about 14-16 inches deep

 

[Yesfan70]

Looking good Maximo. Congrats on the new home.

 

[Maximo]

Here is the layout.

Should I start a separate thread to figure out the bass situation?

The thing on the bottom is an 8' window. The tv/screen area is the 14" by 9' area at the top. The 4' 4" space is the door. Ceiling is 8'.

the triangular bench seats will be in the corners flanking the 8' window. Perfect for bass traps? I have no idea.

 

[AndySTL]

What are your goals for the rooms. I'd be tempted to do in ceiling or in walls in that downstairs room.

 

[Maximo]

I am going to prewire for a lot and just see how it goes. Right now my 7.1 setup has 4 in ceiling surrounds. I have access the space above the ceiling in my new screened in porch, so that's covered.

Going to at least prewire for 5.1 down stairs.

 

[AndySTL]

For the upstairs room is the screen going on the 20' wall?

 

[Maximo]

No, I was thinking about putting the screen in the nine foot cubby hole.

 

[Towen7]

My first thought was to center the screen on the 20' wall. You'll want your seating centered on the screen and putting it in the 9' cubby means the seats on the right will be much closer to the wall than the seats on the left. Boundary reinforcement will likely make the bass louder on the right than the left.

Id want to put a TV in the 8'9" cubby with a pub table or two in front of he window.

 

[Flint]

Acoustically, your choice for the TV will make for a truly terrible stereo listening experience. You need your Left & Right speakers as far from any reflective surface as possible and that means having breathing room around them. I recommend putting the TV on the 20' wall. If that isn't an option, then perhaps in front of the huge window. In fact, if you can make the TV retractable, you could put the speakers in the ideal spot in front of that window and listen to music with the window open and enjoy the view while listening to the most amazing music you've ever heard.

General rules for the best sound:
1) Make sure the let & right speakers are placed away from any wall.
2) Make sure the listening position is far from any reflective surface (wall).
3) The listener to front stereo speaker placement should be a perfect equallateral triangle, or close to that (with room to adjust for the ideal stereo image).
4) The front speakers should be between 7 and 10 feet from the primary listening position.

If you get the stereo speaker setup perfect, the other speakers will easily fall into place and the overall audio experience when listening to music AND movies will be the best you've ever heard.

 

[Flint]

Really, the more I look at it, the more convinced I am that the ideal acoustic config is to put the TV on the 20 foot wall, not quite centered but slightly to the right (closer to the window) by about a foot. I would put an IB sub in the ceiling, too, if you want the best sound AND the least about of floor space wasted on gear.

 

[Maximo]

Ok, here is option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Like all three ideas.

Option 1: Gives more acoustic challange to the experience but make the most of the room space. There can be a fooseball table behind the couch, even a bar built in the bump out in the BL of the room. Also and option, I can build a false wall and soffit mount everything in that 14" space. I think there is enough room that I can have the right speaker 2' from the right wall.

Option 2: Is pretty cool, especially for the thought of listening to music and looking out the window. That's neat. Also, I can use a drop down screen to control light in the summer months.

Option 3: Really does look like the best option. I can put and l-shaped sectional in there with room to walk behind it and if needed there is room between the vewing are and the tv for the kids to have toys or play or whatever, although I think in the end that will all happen in another room.

I have never dealth with bass traps before. considering that I have an ideal location for them in the corners flanking the window, does that make one config better than another?

If I do option 2 or 3 I am thinking about building a floor to ceiling bookshelf in the 9' x 14" cubby. All the gear would go in a rack or closet in the

 

[AndySTL]

Is this going to be a media room only? Or will there be other uses? Also, what kind of seating do you plan to have?

 

[jamhead]

I agree with Flint, but I'll throw my own personal experiences at you as well.

My speakers are on the 21' wall (my room is 15 wide by 21ft deep). Acoustically, the room is symmetrical at this position. The side walls are 5ft away from each speaker and there is nothing between the speakers and the listening position. My speakers are appox. 10' apart, and my listening position is 11' from the speakers. The strong point of my sound is the imaging. It is, amazing, as everyone who has listened to my system thinks the center channel is on and even the surrounds at times. Now, the negative...

Being that I have the speakers on the long wall for symmetry, I have problems with bass peaks and nulls. So, I have some 4" panels behind the listening position; and a superchunk bass trap near the sub. I KNOW I need bass trapping in at least three other corners to help smooth the bass.

What I'm saying is that I agree with Flint's speaker placement, but bass trapping may be a "requirement" instead of a "luxury".

 

[Flint]

My preference is option three, but I would move the side surround speakers farther to the sides.

I would use the cubby area next to the window as a large bass trap - imagine what looks like a row of cabinets along the ceiling hanging down 18" with a fabric faced open frame cover designed to blend into your decor. Fill that entire length of "cabinet" with fiberglass batting and you'll have a phenomenal bass trap in a good location. Bass energy is inherently attracted to smaller cubbies and cavities (as well as corners).

 

[Maximo]

It is hard to say exactly what this room will be. We have four rooms up stairs. Three bedrooms and a bonus, 1 small bedroom, one decent sized bedroom and on very large bedroom. We have two options:

Option 1: Put my son in the msallest bedroom, the two girls in the decent sized bedroom and give them the very large bedroom as a playroom and then the bonus room becomes a full on man cave.

Option 2: Put son oin decent sized bedroom, girls in very large bedroom, give wife small bedroom as a guest/sewing room. Which means the bonus will be more mixed use.

I guess Right now, there is not a ton of need to prewire anything until we figure that out. Given that I have attic access I can run wires anywhere with little difficulty.


Also, if you look at option 3. I have side attic access where I can soffit mount a traditional subwoofer or mount a floor bondaried IB sub woofer in the wall between the center and front right speaker and also in the exact location on the back wall as well.

Here is another question. How woulf the acoustics change if I squared off the top wall with a book shelf and the back wall with either base and wall cabinets (bar = preferred) or a closet?

 

[Maximo]

My preference is option three, but I would move the side surround speakers farther to the sides.

I would use the cubby area next to the window as a large bass trap - imagine what looks like a row of cabinets along the ceiling hanging down 18" with a fabric faced open frame cover designed to blend into your decor. Fill that entire length of "cabinet" with fiberglass batting and you'll have a phenomenal bass trap in a good location. Bass energy is inherently attracted to smaller cubbies and cavities (as well as corners).

Forgive my ignorance. But I am assuming that means that less bass energy will escape the room because it is being trapped in that soffitt or that it will help me tame standing waves, etc...increasing the quality of the bass.

 

[Flint]

Bookshelves are good. Especially if lots of different sized books and trinkets are on the shelves. You could also cut some 2" acoustic foam or some 2" OC703 fiberglass and slide in the shelves against the back with trinkets in front of that to get some good, balanced absorption without causing any aesthetic issues. Bookcases are good, if they are not too tidy.

Closet? Forget that! Get a wardrobe and place it against the wall in that area. You don't want to permamently limit the room and a wardrobe is considerably more flexible when it comes to acoustic treatments. You could put a wardrobe on the wall with a layer of 4" OC703 fiberglass between it and the wall and a 1" air gap. That would make for a good mid-bass absorber and gently dampen the bass in the room. You see, more and more mid-sized individual items in a room are much better for acoustics than built in massive structures.