New Home Theater (1 Viewer)

[lyfbyts]

Hi Forum Members,

I'm in the home stretches of my home theater and need help choosing equipment. I have gotten past the stage of the build process and I took into account as much as I could based on these forums in the design and build.

Things incorporated.

1. Separate air return and vent for the room off the basement HVAC system
2. plenty of power on dedicated 20 AMP circuits
3. Room Dimensions seem to fall great in the suggested calculators not perfect but fairly good
4. Room Isolation, This is in a basement.. All walls are double studs with staggering, insulation in all walls and ceiling, acoustical matting under the carpet, separated aluminum rails on the studs before hanging for the sheetrock. Completely floating ceiling with coffers to provide sound dispersion.
5. I will be hanging as well acoustical panels in the wall with star wars designed art on them.
6 all AV equipment with the exception of projector and speakers will be in a room on the other side of the wall where the current front speakers are. All speaker and HDMI wires etc are ran back to a rack where the AV equipment will reside, cooling should not be an issue.

Attached is the diagram for the speaker layout and a few photos of the room.

What I am looking for is any additional feedback to improve the room that can be done after construction I haven't thought of. In addition giving some insight to the AV equipment to use.

Right now I was looking at the receiver to by a Yamaha CX-A5100 with the MX-A5000 amp

7.2.4 - Speakers looking at SVS ultra, Klipsch RP280 line or some JBL reference monitor stuff. (I'm really open to suggestions here and some in ceiling atmos 8 inch speakers to match)
Subs Im fairly set on SVS 16's but open again

Projector looking at 4K Sony VPL or JVC DLAX most likely but again open.

I appreciate any advice and support provided.

 

[JohnRice]

A couple quick things. The Yamaha CX-A5000 is a preamp, not a power amp. You don't use that with a receiver. You use it instead of one, with external power amp(s). So, you can use a receiver alone, a receiver with external power amps for more power, or a preamp with external power amps.

In the price range you're talking, I would change almost every brand you are considering, except maybe the SVS sub. I suggest you look at Marantz for your preamp. Also, considering how much effort and expense you are going to, would encourage you to go the preamp/power amps route, rather than a receiver. The Marantz AV7704 is brand new and the same price, but you can also get the AV7703 on closeout for $1K less, and it's almost identical to the 7704. Also, when it comes to the power amp(s), whether you go Yamaha or Marantz for the preamp/receiver, I'd go with a more specialized brand for the power amp(s), like Emotiva or Outlaw.

Full disclosure, I own quite a bit of both Emotiva and Marantz. My rec for the Marantz preamp is less emphatic than a "amp" company for the power amps. If you like the Yamaha, go for it, but get your amp(s) from another company. What you might do power amp wise with Emotiva is an XPA-3 for the front three channels and (2) A-5175s for the surround/Atmos speakers. You'll have two channels of amplification to spare, in case you decide to add a couple more channels.

At least also look into sub brands like HSU and Power Sound before biting the bullet. You won't lose with any of them, though.

Regarding speakers, none of the brands you listed would be my choice to consider. Maybe SVS. There's an entire world of speakers, and they're the most personal decision in the entire process.

One personal suggestion, you might reconsider having all the hardware in another room. It sounds cool and all, but reality seems to be that you want a couple components easily accessible, like the preamp and UHD/Blu Ray player, for example.

 

[lyfbyts]

A couple quick things. The Yamaha CX-A5000 is a preamp, not a power amp. You don't use that with a receiver. You use it instead of one, with external power amp(s). So, you can use a receiver alone, a receiver with external power amps for more power, or a preamp with external power amps.

In the price range you're talking, I would change almost every brand you are considering, except maybe the SVS sub. I suggest you look at Marantz for your preamp. Also, considering how much effort and expense you are going to, would encourage you to go the preamp/power amps route, rather than a receiver. The Marantz AV7704 is brand new and the same price, but you can also get the AV7703 on closeout for $1K less, and it's almost identical to the 7704. Also, when it comes to the power amp(s), whether you go Yamaha or Marantz for the preamp/receiver, I'd go with a more specialized brand for the power amp(s), like Emotiva or Outlaw.

At least also look into sub brands like HSU and Power Sound before biting the bullet. You won't lose with any of them, though.

Regarding speakers, none of the brands you listed would be my choice to consider. Maybe SVS. There's an entire world of speakers, and they're the most personal decision in the entire process.

One personal suggestion, you might reconsider having all the hardware in another room. It sounds cool and all, but reality seems to be that you want a couple components easily accessible, like the preamp and UHD/Blu Ray player, for example.

Thank you for the feedback, Ill take a look at the receiver/AMP stuff again and also how I can put the blu Ray up front in a hidden shelf system, this should not be hard to do.

What are you suggestions on speakers to look at just curious. I know its a personal thing and all but....

 

[JohnRice]

BTW, I added in this to my original post, after you responded.

Full disclosure, I own quite a bit of both Emotiva and Marantz. My rec for the Marantz preamp is less emphatic than a "amp" company for the power amps. If you like the Yamaha, go for it, but get your amp(s) from another company. What you might do power amp wise with Emotiva is an XPA-3 for the front three channels and (2) A-5175s for the surround/Atmos speakers. You'll have two channels of amplification to spare, in case you decide to add a couple more channels.​

 

[JohnRice]

Also, I read something wrong when I was looking up your Yamaha equipment. I thought it said the CX-A5100 was a receiver, but it's a preamp. It replaced the CX-A5000, so I'm guessing you just got the Yamaha power amp model wrong.

 

[lyfbyts]

Any One else suggestions on speakers specifically or room improvements?

 

[JohnRice]

I'm sorry nobody is responding. So, I'll try to give some speaker suggestions.

Considering the type of total budget you're talking about, I suggest upgrading your speaker choices and dropping the budget in other areas. You seem to be leaning toward dual SVS Ultras. That's $4K-5K on subs alone. I think you can safely knock off quite a bit from that and direct it toward speakers. In most cases, if you get ideal placement with one really good sub, there isn't a big gain from adding a second one. Plus, how a sub interacts with the room is complicated enough with one. It's that much more difficult with two. A lot of people have no idea how truly difficult it is to integrate a sub into the room. It's common these days to be obsessed with dual subs, but a better solution is probably (1) dual driver sub instead. Look at Rythmik or Power Sound for dual driver subs. You actually can get double the benefit with a dual driver sub over two subs placed separately in the room, because the two closely placed drivers actually amplify each other. The Power Sound V3601 would save almost $3K vs dual SVS vented Ultras, which can be put into MUCH better speakers and I think it's a significantly better use of money.

As far as speakers, I'd say the SVS Ultras are the minimum you should consider. I hear good things about Goldenear Tritons. You could look into Seaton Audio. Legacy Audio is making great stuff, but really expensive. If I were looking for myself, I'd definitely give a close listen to the ELAC Adantes. The fact is, there are more speaker lines than you could ever imagine. It's staggering.

Just don't spend $5K on subs and only $1.5K on the rest of the speakers. You can get 98% of total perfection in a sub for about $2K or less.

 

[Bobofbone]

Not much more to add concerning most of the equipment so far. But, I'd suggest something to run as a remote from inside the theater to where the equipment is. My equipment is in a separate area behind a smoked glass door. I put an infra red receiver and used a Niles IR repeated with separate flashers to the equipment. I also have an output to the adjacent room where hung my projector, to beam through an optical glass port. There are other ways you can run things, but I'd make sure you can do it with a remote while watching in the theater.

Nice room. I liked the pictures. It should be really good when you are done.