What to do with my room?

[sarge_in]

The room seems to be coming along well! I haven't read the whole thread and you may have got this advice before, but one of the first things I would do is to lift your current speakers up from the floor. The tweeters have the best response on axis, so it is highly recommended to have them at ear level when sitting down.

What are you trying to achieve by having different speakers for HT? Are you looking for high efficiency speakers to get reference levels? Wider sweet spot? Brighter speakers for more detail? What is the budget?

And if you go for satellites, some of the same recommendations apply. Fronts at ear level, surrounds about a couple feet above ear level and slightly behind if possible. Rear surrounds in that room would have to be on the ceiling. I won't worry too much if that doesn't work out - 5.1 will be quite nice!

P.S. Have a speedy recovery!

 

[anm]

hi Sarge. Thanks for your inputs.
Regarding raising the height of the current floorstanders, I am thinking of getting rid of them.
Reason for keeping HT speakers separate from stereo

- ability to use a stereo amp instead of receiver
- decoupling stereo amp from pre-outs of receiver. It requires both systems to be switched on. Or I will have to switch cables when changing stereo to surround sound.
- decoupling dependency of choosing matching center speaker with fronts.

Edit - simplicity is also important to let my wife also be able to use the surround system. merging the two makes it impossible for anyone except me to use it.

 

[sarge_in]

- ability to use a stereo amp instead of receiver
- decoupling stereo amp from pre-outs of receiver. It requires both systems to be switched on. Or I will have to switch cables when changing stereo to surround sound.
- decoupling dependency of choosing matching center speaker with fronts.

Edit - simplicity is also important to let my wife also be able to use the surround system. merging the two makes it impossible for anyone except me to use it.

1. You can use the amp in a dual scenario. In fact, if you ascribe to stereo-amp-is-better-than-receiver theory (and most do), it is good to be able to use the amp for HT as well due to greater headroom available in most amps.

2. Assuming your music setup is source-DAC-preamp-amp and HT is differentsource-receiver-preamp-amp, then only the amp will have to be on at all times. Is thatreally a big deal? I don't see what you want to achieve by "decoupling stereo amp from receiver pre-outs". All you need to ensure is to get a preamp with HT bypass capabilities. There are quite a few out there and with good stereo performance as well. Parasound 2100 is a well known solid-state preamp for the purpose (and one on my shoping list too - $650 new or $400-$450 used in US). It integrated both systems very well, and has sub i/o as well to integrate seamlessly with HT. And HT bypass works without the preamp being on. If you want a tubed preamp, there are other options with similar capabilities but more expensive.

3. Most fronts these days have matching center. So the choice is automatically made once you choose your mains.

4. Using the HT will have the same process. Only HTsource, receiver and amp need to be on (if you get the preamp with HT bypass). And most amps have a 12 volt auto-on feature, and most receivers have 12 volt output. So switching the receiver on will switch the amp on automatically. If for some reason one of your components do not support it, just get a Harmony remote that can make both systems much easier to use - actually this is recommended anyways.

The only reason in my mind to get separate systems for the two would be if you really want to use different speakers for HT to get reference volume with high-efficiency horns or if you are looking for a different sound for whatever reason etc. If that is not a requirement, integrating other components is very doable and common these days and would save you a good amount of money (or free up money to get better speakers / components). My $0.02 anyways..

 

[anm]

thanks sarge. All your points are valid and indeed two amps can be used.
However, I do not know what center channel should I use with maggies or lyrita speakers. So I want to free up my mind on the two channel setup and keep things independent and simple.

 

[vinay]

Acoustic

I had seen some imported acoustic wall paper during the making of my Mini Theatre, and it looked very good.

V.

I dont think wall paper will do the trick-it won't absorb the reflected sound.

 

[vinay]

Carpet

It is indeed difficult to manage carpet in a living room, but if one has a dedicated room for entertainment, then carpet is the way to go forward.

In my case the room is closed and is used only for movies and projector related activities, maintenance is very easy, i get it vacuum cleaned once a week.

I am very firm that no one goes into the room with shoes or dirty feet's and small children are a big "NO", unless really required but to be accompanied by a adult. :yahoo:

An adult will rarely attempt to go in a carpet area with shoes, if he still does so, then better throw one of his shoe in the dust bin, but the problem is how to remove his shoe?

V.

Still undecided on the carpet. It is easier to keep the floor clean than the carpet as entire colonies of germs can develop inside the carpet undetected. I did purchase one carpet for this area long time back, but it is rolled up an kept away. People walk in with their shoes on. My mother thinks it is impolite to ask everyone to take of shoes, and at times it just slips from our minds to ask people to take shoes off.

 

[anm]

Re: Acoustic

I had seen some imported acoustic wall paper during the making of my Mini Theatre, and it looked very good.

V.

Thanks Vinay. what I meant was that can I use wall paper to cover the panels so that they do not stick out. Indeed, paper is too thin to offer any absorption.

 

[sarge_in]

Re: Acoustic

Thanks Vinay. what I meant was that can I use wall paper to cover the panels so that they do not stick out. Indeed, paper is too thin to offer any absorption.

FYI - Wall paper as cover for panels will not work. The cover should allow the sound to get through freely, so a cloth has to be used. A recommended test is to hold the cloth close to the mouth and blow through it. If you can feel the air through it on other side over ur hand, then it will work fine.

 

[vinay]

Re: Acoustic

I was told that the wall paper had some acoustic properties so in other words if one wanted the basic acoustic treatment with minimum hassles, this was the way out and one do gets a good decor for the room too.

If the panels are covered with something like wall paper etc which does not have ventilation, the purpose of acoustic is near about defeated.

V.

Thanks Vinay. what I meant was that can I use wall paper to cover the panels so that they do not stick out. Indeed, paper is too thin to offer any absorption.

 

[vinay]

Re: Acoustic

The other way is to to take the cloth near light and see if it passes partially.

During the making of my Mini Theatre, i had to reject several fabrics dues to various reasons one of them being that the cloth did not have ventilation.

I remeber when i used to do this light & air test in the stores, they had a weird look on their face.

I have used the fabric on my walls which leading sports brands use on shoes.

V.

FYI -A recommended test is to hold the cloth close to the mouth and blow through it. If you can feel the air through it on other side over ur hand, then it will work fine.

 

[anm]

I have created another thread for my HT speaker hunt - http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/20330-5-x-7-x-system-wall-mountable-fronts-center.html

In short - I want to keep music and movie speaker systems separate to simplify connectivity, choice of equipment etc. Need them to be wall mountable to free up space for music speakers, floorstanders most probably

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Anant why don't you consider Violet for your Surround Sound Solution with Wireless application and also with Wall Mountable Option, people at the last Delhi Hifi meet were simply amazed with this product and its adaptability factor.

 

[anm]

ashish - I am waiting for my stitches to be cut, and then I will eat up a day of yours at the showroom. PSB and violet both are on my list of auditions.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

ashish - I am waiting for my stitches to be cut, and then I will eat up a day of yours at the showroom. PSB and violet both are on my list of auditions.

Get well soon, and u r welcome to audition anything as per your heart's desire.

 

[anm]

I just listened to my setup with xmen br. I think the sound is very good with 3.0 with JBL fs doing left/ right duty. The center jamo speaker can be replaced by a larger speaker, but I like the overall big sound. Even without sub, it is sounding quite good.

 

[santhosh]

Hi Anant,
Saw you have been unwell. Hope you are feeling better now. Get well soon.

You have a challenging task at hand as it is easy to do up a dedicated room than doing up a living room for acoustics since Aesthetics and WAF take precedence over acoustics. But not to worry, you have the support of the right people.

For acoustically transparent cloth, I have used Raw Silk(real silk not polyester based) and found it to work well. If you can make it gel with your drawing room theme, then go for it.

Vinay has also used an acoustically transparent which works very well. It is a net like soft material like the one used in sport shoes. See if you can source that.

For WAF, you can spray paint some art on the panels. Remember to spray paint it as brush painting will clog the pores. Remember to mask remaining portions of the panel as spray tends to settle down.

 

[vinay]

I had originally planned to make my Mini Theatre in living room but had to give up the idea because there were too many obstacles in spite of a brilliant room length of about 25 Feet.

V.

I am thinking of getting surround sound setup done. Since the back wall is too far behind, I am struggling to figure out where to put the surround speakers. For a 5.x setup I will have to mount them on side walls closer to the ceiling, and toe them down to aim at the ears. Can't figure out how to do a 7.x as there is no backwall. I can only mount them on ceiling pointing downwards.

 

[anm]

Vinay, are your speakers upto the ear level or much below?

 

[anm]

hi - I have uploaded recent pics after these changes
1. new sofa, L shaped - so this gives me more space to separate out the speakers along the rear wall.
2. a carpet
3. a recliner matching the sofa (made by the same person) - all optimizations need to be done for this listening position
4. eliminated the center table and hence direct reflections off the top glass - the sofa is designed such that for regular usage, we do not need center table to place chai/ snacks. In case there is a larger gathering, a center table can be pulled in.
5. a wall unit on right side wall. This adds to the WAF rather than anything else.

Still wondering what to do with old sofa.

Here are the pictures, taken by BB so excuse the quality (actually it has more to do with the photographer than the camera ) - ImageShack Album - 12 images

 

[anm]

are you guys able to see images here - ImageShack Album - 12 images