New house, HT decisions.... (1 Viewer)

I haven't moved yet, but (hopefully) I will next month. This house has an extra bedroom, that I could use for a dedicated theater, but I'll probably go with the family room setup because that's more convenient. That said, I want it to be a clean as possible. Here's the current system (well, not quite).





I said not quite, because when that old Amp died I got a birthday present of a new 7.2 Onkyo, and of course I had to get rid of the sound bar and get some decent speakers, so I now have Klipsch bookshelf (pair) and center channel that I have mounted on the wall. Kinda bulky. Also the 2nd sub takes up some floor space next to the dog kennel.


So, I'm thinking of doing a false wall / equipment closet to camouflage those pieces.

Those components on the wall, so close to the TV would drive me crazy !!

That is exactly why I've never understood wall mounting. A stand that you mount the TV to would be simpler.

Jim517 said:

Those components on the wall, so close to the TV would drive me crazy !!

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It doesn't bother me much, but I do want to hide them next time. And since we will be buying instead of renting, I'm willing to do some renovation to make it work.

Here's a pic of what we were watching before I got the flatscreen.





Here's the current setup with wires that haven't yet been hidden, and won't be since we're moving soon.

Like anything you plan, it's handy to know where you want to end up. what are you looking for? A comfortable area to view, good acoustics, sound isolation, a dedicated space, a large screen? How many people will be using it? Is it for TV programing, sports, movies, listening to music? All those sorts of considerations may have a bearing.


If you are going to be using a flat screen, light control and to a lesser extent, wall color and reflectivity are less of a consideration. If you are thinking of going to a projection system, you also want some degree of light control-the more the better. You also want less reflective and darker neutral colored walls with a projection system. A projection system isn't all that daunting. You can get a fairly decent entry level projector for the same price as a fair sized flat screen TV. I made my screen for less than $150. You can also use a painted screen on a smooth wall for even less.


How many people will be living in the house? If you have kids that will be going to bed early, using an adjacent room at night with the sound up may be a problem. Your wife tends to complain when she walks in your theater space and your 9 year old daughter has woken up and sat behind everybody and is enjoying watching "Red Dragon" with you. You may have to consider sound isolation in that situation.


Acoustics are a consideration. The first two houses I set up a viewing area were very different. Both used a 50" rear projector TV and the same sound system with a Pioneer 5.1 Amp and Polk speakers. The first was in a low open rec room, and sounded fairly good. The second was with a high cathedral ceiling with an open stairwell adjacent to an open hall, and didn't sound nearly as good. It also was adjacent to all the bedrooms, and got a lot of complaints at night.


Figure out what your goals are and go from there. One of the things said in real estate and business is "Location, location and location". To some extent, I think that applies with home theater spaces. And location and room size and preparation can be a bigger consideration than the equipment.

Yes, all important considerations, and the reason I'm where I'm at now.


There are 2.5 people living in the house (my daughter splits time between my house and her mom's). Currently, the TV is in the family room and used for general TV watching, movies, occasional gaming, and sports (mostly football and MMA).


If I was to do a dedicated theater room, the room I have available would be either next to my daughter's room, or next to the Master bedroom, so yeah, sound is definitely an issue. No basement, and the attic is almost certainly too small. The garage is finished, so that's a consideration (I loved the Booth Bijou Garage Theater thread), but not realistic: too much stuff. So for now, I don't plan to go that route. Besides, I think the wife wants kitchen & bath remodel first.


My goals, at least initially, are to use the equipment I have in the family room, but clean up the appearance. I'm not afraid of tearing out drywall building simple boxes or a false wall, running wires (including electricity), etc. I'm no carpenter/cabinet maker, but drywall and paint is pretty forgiving.

Ok, so it sounds like you want to set up something that has wires hidden, is comfortable, and has some sound insulation from adjacent room(s). Yes, rooms.


First, selection of the room. The inside dimensions can have an effect on sound. You don't want the same or multiples of dimensions, That has the potential for echos and sound nodes that may be bothersome. There is a pretty good discussion of room dimensions in the sticky section at the beging of this forum. You may not have much choice in this, but it may be worth considering in the selection of your room. It may not.


If you don't mind patching dry wall, you can make holes and fix them. For an initial set up that you may do more with later, you can fish cable behind the dry wall. You need to use cable that is rated for use in walls-I believe CL2 grade is. This is a consideration because cable behind walls has the potential, in a fire, to act as a conduit or fuse if it is a grade that can burn easily. If you go to the Blue Jeans Cable web site (they are one of the forum sponsors-you can find a link on this site) they have a good discussion about this. They also sell good cable at a low price, as well as custom lengths. They also deliver fast-I've used them. Pass wires for a 5.1 system, at a minimum. Consider passing cable for rear speakers if you want to go 7.1. I ran cable for 3 subwoofer positions, and used 2, because I wasn't sure where to put a subwoofer. I changed my mind and put in two subwoofers. You have an advantage over me-your room, at present, is nearly done. You can try out your subwoofer before you run cable if you want. I'd still run cable to each side of the room, however.


You can use holes in the wall to blow in insulation. I'd put it in the wall between the adjacent room. Just using insulation isn't the best approach, but it result in some decrease to the next room, and is easy to undo if you do a major renovation. When I built, I had 6" studs in the wall separating the great room from a guest bedroom, mounting a TV with a sound bar on the same wall. I used 6" rolled spun fiberglass insulation in the wall. Compared to the last house I was in, with a similar situation and no insulation in a wall, it made quite a difference. It's not perfect, but it may help. If your putting holes in the wall to fish cable, your going to patch and paint the walls anyway. So, why not make more holes and blow in insulation?


There are additional areas of sound transmission to consider. If you have an HVAC, forced air or air vent system going into the room, it can transmit sound throughout your house. You can eliminate this by using a separate system, or building dead vents (a blower that brings air into and out of the room through serpentine configured insulated flexible ducting) and having no direct connection to the HVAC system. I used this latter technique. You can use the HVAC system, but insert a muffler or use serpentine configured insulated flex ducting (both would entail tearing the wall apart. Or, you could take the simple route and just block any vents if it was a problem-some Velcro and plywood wood or plywood covered with drywall would probably work. Just make sure you ventilate the place occasionally when it's in use. The door is also an area that can transmit sound. The things that help minimize sound through the doorway to the rest of the house are 1) shutting the door 2) using a foam core door 3) using an insulated exterior quality door 4) weather stripping the door.


You can try some additional measures you haven't mentioned. The switches can probably be rewired to put in dimmers. Lutron has IR remote dimmers that you can control from anyplace with a clear shot at the switch. They also have some presets and delayed and slow dimming that have a nice effect. I combined them with rope light (you have to use the incandescent, and not the LED rope lights) behind offset molding for a nice effect.


You can do most of these things sequentially and see how they work. I'd set up the system first, and get it configured the way you like it. See how much of a problem sound transmission is. Enjoy looking at the wires on the floor, and think about how much better it would look if you couldn't see them. Steal you wife's artificial potted plants to hide the wiring (and if you get away with that one, it might buy a couple of years before you do anything else). Go from there.


And post pictures.

Haha, I hate wires.


I have dogs and a roomba, wires are very very bad. I should have good attic access that's a plus.


Talked to the wife about a dedicated HT room, and she said not until we remodel the kitchen and bath.

So apparently, my AVR is "Atmos ready". What does that mean? It's an Onkyo TX-NR636.


It's only a 7 channel receiver, so I guess that means instead of 7.2, I could arrange it as 5.2.2. not sure if that's worthwhile.

BigJim said:

So apparently, my AVR is "Atmos ready". What does that mean? It's an Onkyo TX-NR636.
It's only a 7 channel receiver, so I guess that means instead of 7.2, I could arrange it as 5.2.2. not sure if that's worthwhile.

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I've been using IIz for years. DSU, as I gather, is an extension.

Yes, worth it...even the movie isn't in Atmos.

Finally closed on the house, took a month longer than it should have.


I was excited to discover that behind the TV is a closet for the spare bedroom. I can use part of this closet as my equipment rack, so the components can be hidden from the viewing area, give me easy access, and be line-of-sight for the remote. I'll just take out a section of the wall and cover it with speaker cloth so the IR can work.I can also install all my front speakers in this closet so it will look totally clean from the room (so long as the speaker cloth on the wall doesn't look out of place.

We've been in the new house for 8 months, and this is how we've been watching TV. The wires are annoying. Sorry about the lighting. That's an ethernet cable coming in through the door on left and speaker wires for all the rear and surround speakers wrap around the room to the right. There's a huge rats nest of wires under the little table that all the equipment is sitting on. It's mostly hidden by the dog kennel under that table.



So finally started the project this weekend. On Saturday I framed a new wall.


And on Sunday we stood it up.


I'm building in dog kennels on the bottom right, and the roomba has her own entrance on the left. It's only 3' from the back wall to the front of the new wall, so it's a tight squeeze inside the closet, but I'll be able to get to the back of all the equipment. Of course all the wires will be re-routed through the ceiling.

Might want to consider using a larger dog cage, and putting a subwoofer inside. One of my cats likes to sit on one of the subwoofers during movies. Who knows? The dog might like it too... even if he can already woof.

oops

Bobofbone said:

Might want to consider using a larger dog cage, and putting a subwoofer inside. One of my cats likes to sit on one of the subwoofers during movies. Who knows? The dog might like it too... even if he can already woof.

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Once I drywalled the dog kennels, the cat started hanging out in the space above them, so I added an upstairs apartment for the cat.

Annual update time, I guess. I finally ran the rear/surround wires through the attic so I have all the speakers including rear sub and seat shaker on the couch working. I watched Fury Road today and it was awesome.

I haven't finished the pet kennels or the baseboard, but I have covered the speaker openings. and trimmed the TV cutout.


My wife is very patient.