Ideal size for a dedicated Home Theatre room?

bobby0909

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Hello everyone

I am planning to build a new house and I would like to have a dedicated Home Theatre room. We are a family of eight members.Movies and Music are given equal preference.I currently have the following gear in my drawing room.

*Denon 1909 AVR
*Philips 5996 dvd player
*Panasonic PX80 plasma display
*Wharfedale diamond 9.6 floorstanders for front & Wharfedale diamond 9 CC & SC.Wharfedale SW 300 sub.(7.1 set-up)
*TATA Sky Plus dth

I wanted to know the following things from the pundits of this forum

*Room size and layout taking into consideration my present gear.
*Room treatment for good sound and picture.
*Room wiring.(considerations, tips), seating arrangement.
*Any additions to my present gear.


Thanks:)
 
Well, that's the first time I have heard of something like this. You are gonna build a home around the equipment. I have mostly heard of it happening the other way round :p

Sorry for the off-topic post. Can't provide any inputs, just can wish you good luck :)
 
Go for 'Golden Ratio' that is 1:1.618:1.618 (H:W:L).

Means if your ceiling height is (say) 9 feet then width should be: 9 x 1.618 = 14.562 feet and length should be: 14.562 x 1.618 = 23.56 feet.
 
Sorry to go the other way, but I think Golden ratio's are over rated. All they try to state is that no particular room dimension is an integer multiple of another.

There are bigger problems to deal with such as speaker position, matching components, freq peaks/nulls and equalizaton that bring the best sound out.

If you are building a room, go with a mix of appropriate design (non narrow rectangles work very well as well), preferably theatre seating style and viewing angles. If you can swing a slightly curved wall like the movie theatres then its will lead to better acoustics than a lot of things.


I know I may be rubbing a lot of people differently, but this is my expereince in setting up HT for 5 yrs now. Also I am going through ISF calibration course just now and realize the many nuances that lead to better acoustics.

Go for 'Golden Ratio' that is 1:1.618:1.618 (H:W:L).

Means if your ceiling height is (say) 9 feet then width should be: 9 x 1.618 = 14.562 feet and length should be: 14.562 x 1.618 = 23.56 feet.
 
To mARSILIANS & Cranky & others in this forum , then considering my gear what norms should I follow.

I request you all to provide me with some basic do's & don'ts, tips & tricks when constructing the room.

For me the discussions so far has been very enlightening and is a sort of eye opener to the various facts which should be taken into consideration while curving out a dedicated HT room.

Please contribute more.:)
 
I would say, start with a budget. So that, you won't have too many variables. Fix it and then start with how good you can go about designing your room. There are HT setups from 20 lakhs to 1 crore, but you should realize where you fit into and then tailor your needs.

Just my suggestion :)
 
*Warning : You are starting with a lot of flexibility in building room before setting up the HT, so you need to acquire or assemble the budget, creativity, artistry, knowledge, patience, labour in good measure. Its going to be a long/hard journey but the end benefits could be phenomenol in comparison to most others.

I have asked some of my friends if I could share drawings/pics when I helped them build some rooms and I wil put it up here once I get the go ahead.

In the meantime, here are some teasers.

Layout :
As the saying goes, measure 10 times and break/cut once. So you need to put some plans in place for the room such as nicely rounded walls and placement on paper (visualise amphi-theatre for a bit and model it similarly)

Seating :

with 8 people, you need 2 or 3 (preferred) levels of seating thats graded (typically with a single 1/3 - 1/2 foot step platform with the 2nd and 3rd rows following a curved sitting pattern. Build each of these platforms with a wooden base and fill them with insulation.
Seats could be 2/3/3 or 3/3/2 if the step is higher. If you go 4/4 you need a rather large size room.

Wiring : Prewire using conduits for a projector based system as Cranky has suggested. Projector should be off the ceiling with a dedicated HT rack in the side or back of the room that holds all your coponents. Always go for a bigger sized conduit and put in additional cabling than necessary for future hookup (eg. 2/3 HDMI connectors), digital coax, toslink etc.

Run subwoofer cables to all 4 walls (no I am not kidding). Ideal locaiton is middle of room for single. If you go dual, you can put them on opp walls (front/back) in the opposite corners to nullify the dips/peaks in the freq. response.

Speakes should be on a raised platform as you have graded seating. Center should be behind the screen with height aimed at the chest a person in the middle row(if using perforated screen) or above the screen angled towards the users if using DIY (read below).

Good speaker gauge (16 AWG) with quality cabling. Dont scrimp on the lengths.

Electrical : Run multi-gang power outlets that can handle US rating (20 Amp loads on a dedicated circuit).

Screen : If you are lot into DVD watching than TV, go for 80-100 inch screen. Get a ready to assemble screen or build one using frame and blackout fabric; like a canvas. Paint with Goo Systems digital grey.

Let me know if this coversation is making sense and then I can talk about the remaining like brass traps, speaker selection, ..
 
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