Sizing and distance opinions (1 Viewer)

[Adil786]

Hi all,

Newbie here. I’m am looking to build a home theatre room in a room which is 347cm in length and 273 cm in width. Per the below pic. Looking to have potentially a motorized drop down or up screen on the window side and seating at the opposite end.

Given the dimensions, do people think there is enough distance between the seats and the screen if i was to go for 120” screen?

 

[Wardog555]

yes... i'm at 3 meters for 133 inch currently.
fyi. dont sit against any walls! 2/3 room distance!
what wall is the window on?

 

[Adil786]

Why can i not sit against any walls? I’m hoping to have an L dhaped couch to the left of the door way as you walk in and a drop down screen infront of the window on the opposite side per the pic

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Why can i not sit against any walls? I’m hoping to have an L dhaped couch to the left of the door way as you walk in and a drop down screen infront of the window on the opposite side per the pic

Walls are generally bad for audio fidelity (due to the acoustics problems they present)... although they can be more beneficial than detrimental for lower bass performance -- that's why you generally only want the subwoofer(s) to be up against walls, etc, not any other regular speakers.

IF you must sit close to a wall (or place good speakers close to them), you should definitely consider adding/using acoustic treatments to reduce those issues (on top of whatever audio processing calibration offered by your AVR/prepro)...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Oh... just noticed that room also has a huge skylight(!). Will you be able to black it out at least for daytime use of the room? IF not, you're probably not gonna want to use a PJ in there during the daytime -- even an OLED display might not look quite so great in there during much of the daytime, if you can't do anything w/ that skylight...

And given how large that skylight might be, can you even install a PJ in there? Can't really tell w/ just that pic...

Given the various issues w/ that room, maybe it's just not the kind of room suitable for a dedicated HT setup w/ a PJ, etc.

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Having said all that, assuming you can (re)solve all those other issues to satisfaction, yes, that room is probably just (barely) big enough for using a 120" display, if you sit very close to the rear wall.

I use a 120" setup myself and am quite happy w/ my ~10ft viewing distance, which is probably roughly what you'll have sitting nearly up against the rear wall, especially if the screen won't be flush against the front wall (due to whatever installation/motorized aspects).

The 120" screen would probably take up the entire width of your front wall though -- and you'd need to make sure any potential side/ancillary aspects fit, including any border matting and whatever installation/motorized aspects since you mentioned that.

Another issue will be where you place the front speakers since there won't be space on either side of the 120" screen. Not sure how high that ceiling is, but doesn't look high at all (and you wouldn't want the screen that high anyway w/ just 10-11ft viewing distance), so placing speakers under the screen may be problematic -- you might only have at most ~2ft clearance under the screen, if that...

I suppose if you can get fairly narrow/small front speakers, you might be able to set them (toed-in, ie. angled toward the main listening position) a couple feet in front of both extreme sides of the screen w/out blocking the projection and view. Again, not generally recommended, but that might be the best you can do given these criteria...

The best, affordable, possibly small/narrow enough speakers I can recommend would be the ELAC Debut and UniFi models -- and there's probably no point spending more than those for that room. I chose them for my own current setup largely for those reasons myself... though my HT space is not nearly as tight/small (and PJ-unfriendly) as that room you plan on using...

_Man_

 

[Adil786]

Why can i not sit against any walls? I’m hoping to have an L dhaped couch to the left of the door way as you walk in and a drop down screen infront of the window on the opposite side per the pic

yes... i'm at 3 meters for 133 inch currently.
fyi. dont sit against any walls! 2/3 room distance!
what wall is the window on?

do your eyes not feel like they get fatigued at that distance with such a big screen?

 

[Adil786]

Walls are generally bad for audio fidelity (due to the acoustics problems they present)... although they can be more beneficial than detrimental for lower bass performance -- that's why you generally only want the subwoofer(s) to be up against walls, etc, not any other regular speakers.

IF you must sit close to a wall (or place good speakers close to them), you should definitely consider adding/using acoustic treatments to reduce those issues (on top of whatever audio processing calibration offered by your AVR/prepro)...

_Man_

Tbh given the room isnt huge, and its meant to be kinda of a make shift cinema room as it needs to be able to also be used as a regular room at times, stuff like acoustics is way on the back burner for me. Most probably just go with a soundbar and a sub somewhere and make do with how it is. Thats pretty much the combo i’ve used all the time and does the job for me. Also i dont think my ears are that well trained to benefit from splashing out to try make the room more acousticly friendly

 

[Adil786]

Oh... just noticed that room also has a huge skylight(!). Will you be able to black it out at least for daytime use of the room? IF not, you're probably not gonna want to use a PJ in there during the daytime -- even an OLED display might not look quite so great in there during much of the daytime, if you can't do anything w/ that skylight...

And given how large that skylight might be, can you even install a PJ in there? Can't really tell w/ just that pic...

Given the various issues w/ that room, maybe it's just not the kind of room suitable for a dedicated HT setup w/ a PJ, etc.

_Man_

Ye so im hoping to get a black out blind for the skylight. Theres lot of companies online that sell them so shluldnt be an issue. Not sure how tight to the edges the blind will be so there could be some light seepage but i think it will be minimal. Then with blackout curtains for the otherwindows the light hopefully wont be much of an issue, particularly if i use an alr screen? Ive seen them being used in the day time with curtains wide open on youtube and the picture looks more than watchable for daytime viewing

 

[Adil786]

Issue with using a oled tv is that it would have to be fixed in there and i dont want anything to blocm thenwindow for the times when i want to put the room back to a regular room hence why a motorised screen would be better for the double duty the room would be doing

 

[Adil786]

Having said all that, assuming you can (re)solve all those other issues to satisfaction, yes, that room is probably just (barely) big enough for using a 120" display, if you sit very close to the rear wall.

I use a 120" setup myself and am quite happy w/ my ~10ft viewing distance, which is probably roughly what you'll have sitting nearly up against the rear wall, especially if the screen won't be flush against the front wall (due to whatever installation/motorized aspects).

The 120" screen would probably take up the entire width of your front wall though -- and you'd need to make sure any potential side/ancillary aspects fit, including any border matting and whatever installation/motorized aspects since you mentioned that.

Another issue will be where you place the front speakers since there won't be space on either side of the 120" screen. Not sure how high that ceiling is, but doesn't look high at all (and you wouldn't want the screen that high anyway w/ just 10-11ft viewing distance), so placing speakers under the screen may be problematic -- you might only have at most ~2ft clearance under the screen, if that...

I suppose if you can get fairly narrow/small front speakers, you might be able to set them (toed-in, ie. angled toward the main listening position) a couple feet in front of both extreme sides of the screen w/out blocking the projection and view. Again, not generally recommended, but that might be the best you can do given these criteria...

The best, affordable, possibly small/narrow enough speakers I can recommend would be the ELAC Debut and UniFi models -- and there's probably no point spending more than those for that room. I chose them for my own current setup largely for those reasons myself... though my HT space is not nearly as tight/small (and PJ-unfriendly) as that room you plan on using...

_Man_

Thanks for all your feedback.

You raise some things i hadnt thought about too much. I just assumed that there would be more than enough clearance to put a soundbar under the screen or even behind it on the window sill.

Perhaps i would be better just sticking with 100” screen max. Just for reference i believe the diagnol measurement of the window area is about the same as an 80” screen so if i have a drop down screen mounted on the top of the window wall ti would hope there would be enough cleareanxe by the time it comes down and also be at a good viewing height? The total height of the ceiling is 244cm

 

[Wardog555]

There are issues when sitting too close to walls.
Speakers too close to listening position you want a minimum of 1.2m away. Bass will.be impacted. Sometimes too far from screen.
Inability to achieve 4 atmos speakers as the angle will be on the wall and doesn't have enough seperation between the two layers of speakers.

Start thinking like a home theater and you will be successful in achieving your goal.
Make bad decisions and you will not have a good experience.

Both the picture and audio component of it just as important. Even seating position plays a role in how good the audio experience is.

I hope this is helpful.