speaker and projector placement (1 Viewer)

[ShawnMEC]

Sirs,
I need some advice.
My wife and i are finishing the basement and she's graciously agreed to allow me to build in an HT. The HT room will be ~15.5 x 22 with a kitchenette/bar covering the back wall and extending about 2 feet from it (so the room has about 15.5 x 20 for speaker placement). Ceilings are 8 with a 1 foot beam cutting the room widthwise. The viewing area starts about 10 feet from the screen.
I'm going to start doing the speaker and other low-voltage wiring soon and here's my current plan:
Front Wall:
- right main 14 inches from right wall
- left main 14 inches from left wall
- center ~12 inches from ceiling on swivel
- sub just above base trim
- center spooled and left in wall in case i decide
to get an acoustically transparent screen someday
Right Wall (all on wall-mount swivels):
- surround at ~4 feet from front wall
- surround at ~9 feet from front wall
- surround at ~14 feet from front wall
- surround at ~18 feet from front wall
(needs to leave room for cabinet doors to open
Left Wall:
mirrors right wall
Rear Wall (ceiling-mount swivels):
- rear at ~4 feet from right wall and 2 feet from
cabinets
- rear at ~4 feet from left wall and 2 feet from
cabinets
Ceiling:
- LCD projector mount at ~13 feet from front wall
(this will be a PVC conduit, power, and some extra
supports between the floor joists)
I'm planning to use this wire:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...=2899&CATID=56
So, please hit me with any comments or suggestions! I'm still a novice so feel free to say, "You're out of your gourd! You *never* put rears off the rear wall!", or whatever.
Thanks!!
Shawn

 

[Neil Joseph]

Lots of speakers. Do you actually have all those speakers already or are you planning ahead? What kind of processor are oyu driving them with?
LCD placement looks to be in the ballpark. Have you tried it out against the wall yet, to see what screen size to use. I would estimate about 100-110" at that range. Seating at 10ft may have a bit of stain with a screen that size but the final setup will tell.
orangeman
------------------
Neil's H.T. Site
(plus large selection of H.T.Links and movie images)

 

[ShawnMEC]

Neil Joseph wrote:
| Lots of speakers. Do you actually have all those speakers
| already or are you
| planning ahead?
I'm just planning ahead. I'm just getting started in HT and i don't really have any equipment yet at all (besides an amp with DSS). This will be a *very* long term project limited by budget. I figure i'll add a piece at a time over the years.
| What kind of processor are oyu driving them with?
Honestly i haven't given it much thought. I figured it'd better to have extra copper in the wall that goes unused than to have to tear up double drywall, etc. Do you have a suggestion?
| LCD placement looks to be in the ballpark. Have you tried it out
| against the
| wall yet, to see what screen size to use.
That'd require me actually having a projector. I will probably shoot for a used projector to start. Maybe, i'll end up trying to buy a 10HT from someone on this website sometime after the 11HTs come out. We'll see what bargains present themselves.
| I would estimate about
| 100-110" at
| that range.
I was thinking about 96 x 54 so i'm not too far off. How much play should i expect to get? That is, if the projector is fixed at 13 feet, how much can i expect to change the size of the image?
| Seating at 10ft may have a bit of stain with a
| screen that size
| but the final setup will tell.
Yeah. I'm a little worried about that but the couch can be moved back.
Thanks for the comments!
Shawn

 

[Drew Eckhardt]

As a brief tangent: You can get audio good enough so that if you're a bit intoxicated you can almost mistake it for the real thing. While you'd suspect 360Mbps 1920x1280 HD @ 24 fps projected through anamorphic lenses is really film, I don't think confusion with reality is a concern even in that case, to say nothing of NTSC.
Since you can get somewhat close for a reasonable ammount of money, you might as well try; or at least not take huge steps away from that ideal which can be avoided.
To get good audio with a big picture, you're going to need a perforated screen because speakers need a few feet of breathing room from the walls (or any other surface), and shouldn't be equidistant from any boundary (boundaries include both the walls and line between the main speakers).
2.5 feet in from the side walls and at least 18" into the room would proably be good for the left and right mains. Lossing more room length would be better (here's where seating considerations and how you feel about your guests come into play. I have one loveseat and a few folding chairs in a 15x20' room. It keeps ME happy and provides a near perfect spot for female guests).
The tweeters should all be at the same level, because having the voices up high and other sounds down low is weird. Between this and how close the (reflective) ceiling is, you don't want your center mounted up there.
If you're going to run ported main speakers, for good sub integration it's probably most reasonable to go with floor-standing units that are flat an octave below the 80Hz crossover. They'll have the wires running into their bases. Otherwise, you'll use stands which will have some sort of provision for wire routing. Wiring near the floor will work in either case.
Lexicon Bass Enhance works real well for effects, but requires bass extension from a pair of side surrounds even with your ears or subwoofers there. Given mains 10' apart 18" from the wall the ideal listening position would be 11.5' back from the front wall. Wiring for side subs at that point would be nice.
And speaking of subs, if you're going to pre-wire you want to think about both line and speaker level signals (there are a few good, very affordable subs which need external amps - especially if you build them yourself).
Also note that while wiring through exterior walls with firebreaks is a real PITA, fishing through inside walls isn't too bad, and dry wall is easy so you can do additional wiring after the fact. For that matter, once one wire is run pulling more after the fact is fairly trivial provided you drilled big enough holes.