A home theater in the making...kind of (1 Viewer)

Greetings one and all!

I am in the planning phase of finishing my 1900 square foot basement. The most exciting feature of this undertaking is creation of a home theater - the first I have ever had (I do not count the Bose system that was on the upstairs television for obvious reasons: no highs, no lows: must be Bose!). The room size is large spanning 20' x 22' in using an open floor plan layout. After much deliberation and research, my finalized equipment list is as follows:

Television: Panasonic TC-P65VT50
Receiver: Integra DTR-70.4
Speakers (FR,FL): Bowers & Wilkins CM9
Speaker (Center): Bowers & Wilkins CM Centre 2
Surrounds: Bowers & Wilkins CCM 818
Amp: TBD
Universal Disc Player: Marantz 5007 Universal Disc Player

I am really excited about this project. The biggest challenge facing my layout is that the area is open to the billiards and game rooms (see attached floor plan). Please note in my floor plans that the walls that look like this "= = =" are invisible walls used for area definition only. Any acoustical recommendations you have would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

HT4ME

I may have missed it in your plans, but how high is your ceiling? You have enough room there are a couple of other possibilities. The area is in a basement, and if you can control incoming light, you might want to consider using a screen and projector. There is enough room for a throw distance to make a good sized image that, when the light is low, would beat a flat screen. With it open, and the lights on, a flatscreen TV might be better, but you could have bothe. When you can control lighting, using a powered drop down screen in front of the flats screen might be a consideration. I use my projector at less than 50% brightness, and the last superbowl looked pretty good with the lights dimmed, but the room not dark. Using a set of dimmers in your space could achieve the same thing. My screen is fixed, using blackout cloth. There are more reflective surfaces available.

Speaker stands for your surrounds where you don't have walls would work. A projector could be mounted and hung from the ceiling.

Bobofbone said:

I may have missed it in your plans, but how high is your ceiling? You have enough room there are a couple of other possibilities. The area is in a basement, and if you can control incoming light, you might want to consider using a screen and projector. There is enough room for a throw distance to make a good sized image that, when the light is low, would beat a flat screen. With it open, and the lights on, a flatscreen TV might be better, but you could have bothe. When you can control lighting, using a powered drop down screen in front of the flats screen might be a consideration. I use my projector at less than 50% brightness, and the last superbowl looked pretty good with the lights dimmed, but the room not dark. Using a set of dimmers in your space could achieve the same thing. My screen is fixed, using blackout cloth. There are more reflective surfaces available.

Speaker stands for your surrounds where you don't have walls would work. A projector could be mounted and hung from the ceiling.

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Hello Bobofbone,

Thanks for the recommendations. My ceilings are only 8' high. While I have full control over light as the windows close to the screen are under a first floor deck. That being said, while I considered a projector, the height of my ceilings made me lean more towards a plasma television. That is when the real work started. I evaluated several models. Then came the TC-P65VT50. Simply put, I fell in love with it. The picture quality is excellent and I feel it will work well with the rest of my system. As far as rear floor standing speakers, because of the layout of my walls, there is no way around having 8 -10 feet of exposed wire going across the floor. That is why I went with the in ceiling Bowers & Wilkins CCM 818. During my audition of the B&W system, the 818s performed exceptionally well. I really like projector technology; however, it just does not work in my basement configuration.

Thanks again for your response!

HT4ME

Speaker wire across the floor "exposed" is not an issue when you buy...Flat adhesive paintable speaker wire.Put that in your Amazon search and you'll come up with thousands of options.

I don't know anything about Marantz (except for a couple of remote controls I had of theirs) but have you considered an Oppo blu-ray player? It also handles DVD (of course), SACD, and DVD-Audio.

Steve Tannehill said:

I don't know anything about Marantz (except for a couple of remote controls I had of theirs) but have you considered an Oppo blu-ray player? It also handles DVD (of course), SACD, and DVD-Audio.

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Greetings Steve,

I am a victim of a copy/paste error on my part. I accidentally brought up my old list. The player I am going with is the Oppo BDP - 105. Everything I have heard and read poises Oppo as a strong company with exceptional products. Thanks for bringing the error to my attention.

~HT4ME

Another thought about exposed speaker wire on the floor-your space is in a basement, and, if the area isn't presently finished, my guess is that the floor is a cement surface. It's going to sound better if you cover it with something.That might also allow running speaker wires on the floor without exposing them (and leaves other possibilities open).

One other though about in ceiling speakers-what is going to be above the theater in your house? Is sound transmission from a ceiling speaker in the area above a potential problem?

I definitely think it's a good call to go with the plasma TV rather than a projector because of the height of your ceilings. Bobofbone has a great point about the exposed speaker wire on your floor. Definitely something to think about if you have not laid down carpet yet. Also, with that being said, if you don't have carpet laid down already, I strongly suggest using carpet over any other kind of hard surface. I have had friends that insisted on using wood floors and regretted it later on because of sound issues. Good luck! Hope everything goes smooth!

Make sure you have enough room to expand out to a really big TV or projection screen.

Creativesound said:

I definitely think it's a good call to go with the plasma TV rather than a projector because of the height of your ceilings.

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Disagree. It's a big mistake. I have a 65" display in my living room (with 5.1 sound) and it's fine for watching TV, but it in no way gives a theater experience. The 126" display in the theater is where we watch all of our movies and sporting events - and the difference is remarkable.

A 120" screen is only 60" tall. You could put it 30" off the floor and still have 6" to spare (plenty of room to ceiling mount a projector, with room to spare), and it would be almost like having 4 of those 65" displays.

Not to mention, it looks like the prime seating area is about 16' away from the display. With a 65" display at that distance, you're barely getting the benefit of 720p and no benefit with 1080p (so you might as well try and get a used 720p display and save some cash as you won't see the difference between the two anyway). A 120" screen, however, from 16' away, is right where you get the full benefit of 1080p (the sweet spot).

have you mede it, woo, much better than mine

Steve Tannehill said:

I don't know anything about Marantz (except for a couple of remote controls I had of theirs) but have you considered an Oppo blu-ray player? It also handles DVD (of course), SACD, and DVD-Audio.

Click to expand...

Hello Steve,

I am going wiht the Oppo BDP-103 universal disc player. It should take care of all my disc read needs!

HT4ME

I have the BDP-93, which is the last model of the BDP-103. There are a couple of nice features of the 103 that were added with the last firmware update, including the ability to play AIFF and ALAC (Apple audio formats) which would sure be nice to have, but I am going to have to stick with FLAC on my old 93. I am able to stream audio and video from my computer to the Oppo, and have it play back on my home theater sound system.

I have the BDP-93, which is the last model of the BDP-103. There are a couple of nice features of the 103 that were added with the last firmware update, including the ability to play AIFF and ALAC (Apple audio formats) which would sure be nice to have, but I am going to have to stick with FLAC on my old 93. I am able to stream audio and video from my computer to the Oppo, and have it play back on my home theater sound system.

Hey Steve!

I hope your day is going well.

There is nothing the matter with the BDP-93. It is STILL an outstanding unit and should provide you with years of enjoyment.

I am in kind of a fun position. This is my first home theater so all the components are, well, new. During the inception of this post, I listed my system as being primarily B&W. Not so anymore!!! The cost of the system including installation was over $20,000. I make a good living but not that kind of money. My new system, scaled back dramatically, is as follows:

7.2 Home Theater
FR, FL - Paradigm SE 3
Center - Paradigm SE Center
Subs - dual SVS SB13-Ultra: Extreme Ultra
In-ceiling surrounds (4) - Paradigm Designer Series: AMS-150R-30
Denon AVR X-4000
Panasonic 65" tcp65st60 plasma television
Media Server running Windows 7 X64, Plex, My Movies
Control4 SR250 Remote
Control4 HC250 Home Controller

I chose the subs based on a number of positive reviews from numerous sources. They will achieve a crisp, clean series of lows and are sure to enhance my movie watching. Regarding the in-ceiling surrounds (4), I chose the R-30s because the speakers are angled. Upon installation, therefore, I will be able to direct the sound towards the "sweet spot" while ensuring secondary locations are within the exposed range. I went with ceiling speakers because my basement layout will not allow for wall speakers and I did not like the wire covering solutions for floor standing speakers. Auditioning the Paradigm speakers convinced me they were the best bang for the buck ($3,200). I really like the sound and feel it will work well for my needs (80% video, 15% gaming, 5% music). Other auditioned items include the AVR X-4000 and the Panasonic plasma, both of which performed beyond my expectations. My new system will cost about $10,000 total including a new media server and all the bells and whistles. I think it is well worth the price!!!

With much appreciation,

HT4ME

Sounds great, Matthew. I'm sure you will enjoy your home theater!

Hi Mathew It seems that it will be great project and set up looking at those information over there. Well I would say that specious area is good enough for better output. Do share a great stuffs like this here.