jitubisht's HT build thread...

[jitubisht]

..... so the journey of my dream continues!

Now that the civil part of my (going-to-be) HT room is complete and my hunt for a skilled carpenter has also started.. I realize its the right time to start this thread.

The room is on the 3rd floor. It is 14' x 19.5' x 8'3". Under the half the HT is a portion of the Living Room and the under the other half is parent's bedroom (I KNOW!!). The only other rooms on the 3rd floor is a bathroom and mandir.

I currently have no pictures of the room... However I drew some very amateurish diagrams on a copy some time ago. As 'architect' as I was feeling drawing them, they are casual sketches and please forgive. You may need to maximise in some of the sketches.

Aerial View of the HT room. I think the part which says stairs will not be implemented:



The front view. The cdp and amp shelf is missing in this pic since its an old drawing.



I will probably go for a three seater in the front row as well. However.. a big headsup, I will not go for recliners right away.. but I thought its important to consider them in the sketches.


I need assistance from the members on how to go about:

a. Sound proofing - Although the society is rather on the quieter side, I intend to use it in the nights too, so hence the need. So far have thought of going the Santhol2 way. Wooden frames and glasswool, but am open to suggestions.

b. Right amount of absorption. A very simple approach which I read on the forum was to cover 2 feet above and below of tweeter height on side walls & Cover the complete front and rear wall with Acoustic boards of high NRC .75+
For ceiling again, thinking of covering everything in the center with high NRC boards leaving 2 feet on all sides. Is this a good approach? Does it given enought amount of reflection/absorption?

List of equipments to go in:

Dali Ikon 6 (FL and FR)
Dali Ikon Vokal 2 (Center)
Dali Ikon 1 (RR and RL)
Dali Ikon On Wall (SL and SR)
SVS PC-12 NSD Sub

Movies Rack:
Denon 3310 CI
Panasonic DMP-BD60
2 KVA Step Down

Audio Rack:
Arcam FMJ-A32
Emotiva ERC CDP

Display:
Epson 8100 Home Cinema


Would like to thank everyone in advance. This thread is going to be an apple of my eye for coming couple of months atleast!

 

[anm]

looks quite good Jitu. U have done a great job. I am sure you are dreaming of this room all the time and making drawings in your head even when asleep.

I will comment on the long term usability part of the design.
Stairs going down from the door may become a hassle as someone may fall while entering the room. May be you can keep it a slope. And may be take the slope to the side opposite to the door.

How about flipping the front and rear of your room. Another advantage of this would be your wife and kid asking for attention, they can just open the door and you can see them, without them having to shout at you while you are busy listening.
AC mounting may be an issue, but I hope you can move it to the side wall. Since this is third floor, and I am guessing it is the top floor, it can get pretty hot in Delhi. So if you position the AC to point at your favorite listening position you would get "warmed up" for the music faster. 90% of the time 1 or 2 ppl would be watching/ listening.


Front speakers seem to be too close to the side walls. AVR/ bdp right in front of subwoofer may block air movement of the sub, and could shake the bdp a lot.
How about going for 2 subwoofers as that gives better bass? Again, flipping your front/ rear may be helpful in achieving these.

 

[anm]

quoting from Home Theater: HD in Zone 2, Two Subs, Video Conversion

In most cases, both subs play the same signal, but the judicious placement of two subs can substantially improve the low-frequency performance of your system over what one sub can do. Sub placement is a complicated subject, but if you have a closed, rectangular room and you sit near the middle of that room, placing the two subs at the halfway points of the side walls is usually a good starting place.

 

[jitubisht]

anm,
thanks for replying mate.

1. The stairs/slope are completely out of the picture for now.
2. I cannot flip the front and back, the riser has been built (did not go for a wooden, but a solid riser) so i gotta stick to it. I had thought a lot about which side the screen is going to be. But imagine watching a movie(imagine it even when you watch it in a multiplex) and someone enters/exit the room through a door between yourself and the screen. for me its really annoying. So based on that, the screen will be on front wall.
3. Ofcourse, there will eventually be two PC12s doing the duty. For now, I have the money for only one. But definitely,having 2 is the plan.
4. A/C is again a grey area for now. I might go for two 1 ton AC on the side walls OR a 2 TON on the rear wall. I am also toying with an idea of installing a cassette(ceiling) A/C

Cheers

 

[nshankar]

Looks great! A very good conceptual starting point.

Considering the width of your room and size of your screen, the placement of front speakers need to be thought about.

Safety for trip hazard near the door due to proposed stair/slope can be addressed with dim floor light.

Two one-ton a/cs recommended to take care of typical Delhi weather (my knowledge of delhi is back in 1989, I dunno what it is now).

Placement of the projector to be fine tuned.

If you do go for recliners with high back, fine tune the placement and type of rear speakers.

All the best with your project, please do keep us posted.

 

[santhosh]

Congrats on the kickoff of your HT build project. Your plans looks very good and your sketches are very good and easy to understand. Wow, you are using raisers - very nice.

Since I know you are into both music and movies, the screen size you have selected is very good. This gives you enough room for Front speaker positioning. I have been experimenting with speaker positioning(for 2 channel) last few days and find that the positioning I like covers portion of the screen:lol:. Check this out:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i10/santhoshl/Home Theatre Project/Picture015.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i10/santhoshl/Home Theatre Project/Picture014.jpg
hyeah:

Is your staircase part of the room or is there a wall closing it off completely thus making your room less wider on the rear portion? If it is part of your room, sound will travel to the floor below and will need addressing. Also, it may act like a resonating port (think of your room as a sub-woofer with a port to comprehend what I am trying to say), so you may want to cover it with Acoustic boards/absorbent material.

4. A/C is again a grey area for now. I might go for two 1 ton AC on the side walls OR a 2 TON on the rear wall. I am also toying with an idea of installing a cassette(ceiling) A/C

My suggestion is to use two 1 ton A/Cs (5 star rated). This will make the room look symmetrical and also I think it will be easier on the power bills. From my limited knowledge, we do not get energy efficient A/Cs beyond 1.5T.
We have an A/C expert amongst us - avidyarthy. Do check with him, he should be help you decide.

Will be glued to your thread buddy.

 

[jitubisht]

Thanks for the inspiring words my friends.

- there are no stairs coming from downstairs. Sorry for the confusing pictures I had initially thought of the stairs only for the risers. It is completely inside the room hence the HT room can definitely be thought of a sealed sub . After the riser completed, i realised it doesnt need a stair and the height isnt too much.

- I am inclined for two 1 Ton a/c's also. Will decide soon.
- I knw the speaker is more to the corners than I'd like. They are currently have 10feet between them to accomodate the screen. They will be toed-in for watching movies. For music, i will keep place them straight with 8 ft between them(as recommended by DALI themselves)
- @nshankar - can you plesae tell me what you meant by fine tuning the pj placement?

 

[nshankar]

Distance between projector and screen is dictated by the projector that you go for.

From a recent experience, after a move in friend's HT, someone got up, stretched his hands upwards, accidently touching the projector.

Your room height is 8'3" and dunno elevation of rear row from floor. Since your projector is in a similar vulnerable position in your pic (IMHO), the recommendation.

Basically, place the projector such that
1) no one can reach it, even accidently, from the floor (this could tough, consider retractable mount?)
2) people walking do not block the movie.
I am sure that you would take care of these.

Again, all the best with your project, please do keep us posted.

 

[jitubisht]

@nshankar - Most definitely buddy. I will try and ensure the best place ment in that regard. The epson being a 3LCD projector has a great tilt flexibility that i will make full use of. Retractable sounds good, havent zeroed in on any mount yet though. Thanks mate.
Cheers!

 

[anm]

2. You may use the riser as a cd/ lp/ br rack if that is the constraint.

Of course, you have to decide your own usability. But I will drag on a little bit more. People do not have to walk across to reach other seats, they can walk along the side wall having the door. Watching movie at home is different from multiplex. You have to pause several times, listen to your kids, parents and most imp, your wife. At times it helps when I know my little kid is walking towards me, and it helps in pausing the movie if there is a violent scene, or any other scene you don't want to be seen by others
At times, you can just wave away people as soon as they appear on the door, if you are facing the door.

ACs can some times leak water drops, so keep that in mind.

anm,
thanks for replying mate.

1. The stairs/slope are completely out of the picture for now.
2. I cannot flip the front and back, the riser has been built (did not go for a wooden, but a solid riser) so i gotta stick to it. I had thought a lot about which side the screen is going to be. But imagine watching a movie(imagine it even when you watch it in a multiplex) and someone enters/exit the room through a door between yourself and the screen. for me its really annoying. So based on that, the screen will be on front wall.
3. Ofcourse, there will eventually be two PC12s doing the duty. For now, I have the money for only one. But definitely,having 2 is the plan.
4. A/C is again a grey area for now. I might go for two 1 ton AC on the side walls OR a 2 TON on the rear wall. I am also toying with an idea of installing a cassette(ceiling) A/C

Cheers

 

[jitubisht]

anm,

your post made me smile, thanks.
Well, thats definitely a different perspective. Me being single do not think from these angles. Will consider it for sure mate.
Cheers

 

[jitubisht]

While researching, I came across these woodwool boards. Looks interesting, anyone heard about this company?

Himalyan Acoustics Aphony Cortex 25mm LD, Wall Panels, Cortex Wall Panels

The NRC ratings of these 25mm boards is quite impressive.

 

[captrajesh]

I need assistance from the members on how to go about:

a. Sound proofing - Although the society is rather on the quieter side, I intend to use it in the nights too, so hence the need. So far have thought of going the Santhol2 way. Wooden frames and glasswool, but am open to suggestions.

b. Right amount of absorption. A very simple approach which I read on the forum was to cover 2 feet above and below of tweeter height on side walls & Cover the complete front and rear wall with Acoustic boards of high NRC .75+
For ceiling again, thinking of covering everything in the center with high NRC boards leaving 2 feet on all sides. Is this a good approach? Does it given enought amount of reflection/absorption?

After going through several links posted by forum members in several threads, I feel you need to doe the following to optimise costs: -

1. Consider asymmetric speaker placement.

2. Add sound absorbers only at the first reflection points on the side walls and the ceiling.

3. Put a thick carpet on the first reflection point on the floor.

4. Bass traps on the corners behind speakers.

5. Make the rear wall of the room as dead by putting sound absorbers.

Hope this helps.

Rgds


Rajesh

 

[rallynut]

nice equipment goin into the planned build ,all the best jitu with the proposed "labour of love".would love to see what it turns out like :licklips:.cheers

 

[captrajesh]

You might find this useful.

 

[jitubisht]

After going through several links posted by forum members in several threads, I feel you need to doe the following to optimise costs: -

1. Consider asymmetric speaker placement.

2. Add sound absorbers only at the first reflection points on the side walls and the ceiling.

3. Put a thick carpet on the first reflection point on the floor.

4. Bass traps on the corners behind speakers.

5. Make the read wall of the room as dead by putting sound absorbers.

Rajesh

Thanks Captn, much appreciated.

Regarding point 1 - I thought the speaker placement has to be symmetric! Looking at the sketches, any changes you have in mind?

Regarding point 2 & 3 - If there are 7 speakers in the room for movies, do I need to look for reflection points for all of them? and do i have to find the reflection point from both the rows?

Point 4 - I looking to add bass traps on all four corners but at a later time.

Point 5 - I am still contemplating if I should make the front OR the rear wall fully absorbing. Any reason why you'd say rear instead of front?

nice equipment goin into the planned build ,all the best jitu with the proposed "labour of love".would love to see what it turns out like :licklips:.cheers

Thanks for the encouragement mate.

You might find this useful.

Thanks! Are these available in India?

 

[captrajesh]

Regarding point 1 - I thought the speaker placement has to be symmetric! Looking at the sketches, any changes you have in mind?

You can offset them by about 5 inches and you would be greatly eliminating room related artifacts. You might find this video useful.

Regarding point 2 & 3 - If there are 7 speakers in the room for movies, do I need to look for reflection points for all of them? and do i have to find the reflection point from both the rows?

I guess so but the reflections may not be as much as that of front speakers. Hope I'm right here.

Point 4 - I looking to add bass traps on all four corners but at a later time.

Bass traps would definitely reduce reverberations due to bass overhang.

Point 5 - I am still contemplating if I should make the front OR the rear wall fully absorbing. Any reason why you'd say rear instead of front?

The basic idea of live end and dead end concept (if I'm not mistaken) is to prevent resonances. I reckon that the L/F sound from front and centre speakers would travel frontward and hit the back wall to kick start this process so I guess to nip the phenomenon in the bud is to make the rear wall as the dead end.

Thanks! Are these available in India?

This is very new product and the trials are on. I don't think they are avaialble off the shelf in India.

 

[jitubisht]

hi everyone.

quick question. I got a quote from my carpenter today.
he is asking 150 per sqft as labour for any thing and everything that will happen in HT
for building only the frames, he is asking for 80/sq ft.

are these reasonable?

 

[santhosh]

hi everyone.

quick question. I got a quote from my carpenter today.
he is asking 150 per sqft as labour for any thing and everything that will happen in HT
for building only the frames, he is asking for 80/sq ft.

are these reasonable?

I feel the quotes are on the higher side, not sure about rates in NCR. I paid ~35% of the cost of the materials as labour.

 

[pdhanwada]

If the primary purpose is music dont make any single surface fully dead. That could make sound in the room to be dull.

On the other hand if it is for HT, I am not sure, Other forum members can help on that.

Thanks
Pandu