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Finished Home Theater Build (1 Viewer)

K Watson

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Kevin
First time poster but I wanted to share my recent build. Room is in the basement approximately 13' wide x 16' deep. Has a standard 6' window for emergency egress. I tore out the closet that was in there and built a custom riser with steps. I did everything in about two weeks including insulating all of the walls with soundproofing insulation, wiring, paint, new trim, carpet, building sound panels....etc., etc.,
Current setup is 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos
Sony 940D 75"
Emotiva A300 (Front Towers)
Denon AVR 5200 (Everything else)
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Martin Logan Preface front towers
ML Encore Center
ML Motion 4's Back Rear and Surrounds
ML HELOS 20 in ceiling
ML Dynamo 500 (one in front center under tv and other is back center behind second row seating
Room has automated lighting controlled by phone
I built the acoustic panels and wrapped them by hand... the one in the window is on a hinge so I can access the window in an emergency
The cabinet started as an IKEA cabinet that I hacked apart and built out away from the wall for added depth... I added 3 intake fans and 2 exhaust fans that are all controlled by the thermostat I built into the side of the cabinet.
 

JohnRice

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You did a really nice job, and you avoided a lot of the mistakes others insist on making. I'm glad to see you included some external amplification. I don't know why so many people put so much effort and cost into their HTs and stubbornly refuse to have some decent amplification. One thing I'll add, which you can take or leave. but I have mixed external and receiver amps for the front channels, but when I also upgraded the center speaker (in particular) to better amplification, I found the front soundstage became more seamless. That is something you can look into upgrading later.

One suggestion. It's not ideal to have a subwoofer at an equal distance from two surfaces, as in, not in the center of a wall. You're better off to have them closer to a corner, or at least out of the center of a wall. You can put the front toward the left, to the right of the left speaker, and the opposite side in the back. Also, that sub has rear ports, so I'd be certain the back of the sub is at least 1 ft. away from the wall behind it. It's also probably better that the front sub isn't under the shelf. Subs move air, and that air needs to distribute throughout the room without obstruction. As it is, you're severely limiting the air flow from the front sub's ports. Sub placement is tricky and small changes can make big differences.
 

K Watson

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Kevin
Thank you for your response and the detailed explanation. So with the acoustics of the room, three walls are surrounded by earth (basement) and all four walls have sound dampening insulation inside. Acoustic panels are throughout and as such, the room is very dampened. I have played around with the different positions of the subs and given the layout and acoustics of the room, I am surprised that the best setup for balance in all seating positions is as is. I actually toyed around with it yesterday again after reading your post and the results were the same. Off-center the rear seating is very boomy and deep while the front is lacking. Corner to corner is similar results. I will keep messing with it as I "got the itch" again to play around with the setup!
 

Alf S

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Love it! Looks like a cozy place to hang out and watch a movie. :)

So many "home theaters" seem to forget about the viewers comfort and go for a very dry and rigid set up.

Congrats!
 

Bobofbone

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Very nice. It must have been a busy two weeks!

A suggestion regarding your sound. I notice you're using a Denon AVR. Did you use the Audessey Calibration for the room? I tried it, and also tried just setting the distance for all the speakers to the center seat, and using a digital sound meter to set the volume of each to 85db using the pink noise, without the Audessey calibration. My room sounds better without the using the Audessey calibration.
 

K Watson

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Kevin
You did a really nice job, and you avoided a lot of the mistakes others insist on making. I'm glad to see you included some external amplification. I don't know why so many people put so much effort and cost into their HTs and stubbornly refuse to have some decent amplification. One thing I'll add, which you can take or leave. but I have mixed external and receiver amps for the front channels, but when I also upgraded the center speaker (in particular) to better amplification, I found the front soundstage became more seamless. That is something you can look into upgrading later.

One suggestion. It's not ideal to have a subwoofer at an equal distance from two surfaces, as in, not in the center of a wall. You're better off to have them closer to a corner, or at least out of the center of a wall. You can put the front toward the left, to the right of the left speaker, and the opposite side in the back. Also, that sub has rear ports, so I'd be certain the back of the sub is at least 1 ft. away from the wall behind it. It's also probably better that the front sub isn't under the shelf. Subs move air, and that air needs to distribute throughout the room without obstruction. As it is, you're severely limiting the air flow from the front sub's ports. Sub placement is tricky and small changes can make big differences.


So you were absolutely right... I played with the settings and moved both subs to inside of the front speakers and outside of the underneath of the cabinet (between the cabinet and speakers) and I am blown away! This setup seems to work much cleaner than the last. The rumble is more accurate now and not as boomy!
 

Peter Apruzzese

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That's a great looking room - congratulations on a job well done and on your most recent post regarding the subwoofer placement. Best thing about playing with placement is that it's free to do.
 

K Watson

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Kevin
Very nice. It must have been a busy two weeks!

A suggestion regarding your sound. I notice you're using a Denon AVR. Did you use the Audessey Calibration for the room? I tried it, and also tried just setting the distance for all the speakers to the center seat, and using a digital sound meter to set the volume of each to 85db using the pink noise, without the Audessey calibration. My room sounds better without the using the Audessey calibration.

So I initially used the Audessey and found that it really limits the range of my speakers. Certain frequencies were not there and others were too enhanced. I think the Audessey would be great for speakers that are not necessarily mid to high end and have other limitations and rooms that are really unique in design and shape. For me, I just adjusted each level to the appropriate DB level for the dead center of the room which happens to be my main seating position. Adjust the crossovers and be done!
 

JohnRice

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So you were absolutely right... I played with the settings and moved both subs to inside of the front speakers and outside of the underneath of the cabinet (between the cabinet and speakers) and I am blown away! This setup seems to work much cleaner than the last. The rumble is more accurate now and not as boomy!
I'm glad that helped. It's just best to avoid placing subs in the middle of a wall, but constrained areas are bad too. That boominess might have been what I consider to be a hollow sound, kind of like in a tunnel, from the front sub being under the shelf. I've always found it's best to let subs breathe as much as possible. I've always been a little skeptical about rear subs. In the end I always seem to prefer placing them in the front. If you were to do one thing over, I'd recommend spending twice as much on one better sub. When a single, quality sub is well placed in the room, it really can just about disappear, and the entire room just shakes.

I've never been a fan of auto calibration either. I love the sound of my speakers, and when I've used that, they just end up sounding like cheap, mass produced junk. The pre-amp I have now doesn't even have auto calibration. It's just made to sound good, though it does have an extensive parametric EQ, which I do use for video sources.
 

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