Howdy. New to this forum. Looks like a great resource with lots of helpful folks. Pardon the lengthy intro, but I figure it will save some Q&A to get helpful feedback.
I'm not new to home theater. Have built 5.1 and 7.1 setups in previous homes. Building a new home, and I have a blank slate to work with in the new basement. Room is 31L x 19W x 9H. Likely layout shown below.
In addition to being a home theater, this room will be a pass thru to a back patio for outdoor R&R. The wife and I have discussed that we'd like to use a low maintenance tile or engineered wood floor for the area to the left and behind the seating, and carpet for the seating area (indicated in gray), to better manage inevitable dust and dirt tracking and keeping it out of the home theater seating area.
In my previous 7.1 basement theater, the room was carpeted, the walls (drywall) had some odd angled soffits concealing HVAC ductwork. The net result was outstanding sound quality. I'd like to achieve that again, but the concept of a hard flooring surface, even in only part of the room, has me a bit nervous.
Also, due to the room's shape, with the projection of the image onto a wall shared with the mechanical room, the side speaker layout will have one set of speakers about 4 feet further away from the seating than the other side. Can I assume this can be handled well with the receiver settings for speaker distances, either via automated mic setup or manual setup inputs?
Also, trying to decide if I want to invest in Atmos. We loved the 7.1 sound we had in the last house. Trying to decide if the investment in 9 or 11 channel Atmos capability is a worthwhile upgrade. A nearby lightning strike killed the HDMI out on my Onkyo TX-NR626, so I'm in the market for a new receiver.
Other, miscellaneous comment/questions about the project:
- Projector will likely be a basic 1080P DLP (BenQ, Optoma, or similar) optimized for brightness rather than cinema darks. Our home theater use is characterized by a lot of TV and sports viewing use, as well as movies. We'll have reasonable exterior light control, but it won't be perfectly dark during daylight, and we're fine with that.
- Screen size will be about 110" diagonal.
- Walls and ceiling will be 1/2" drywall.
- The joists above the room are an open web truss system, so there are no obstructions hanging from the ceiling. If I need to add any of diffusion shapes to the sheet rock, that can be done easily enough with a 9' ceiling.
- I'll dedicate a 20 amp circuit to the setup. Any thoughts on better lightning protection for that circuit?
- Receiver, satellite box, media player will either be in the mechanical room indicated on the diagram, or a chimney alcove at the back of the room, with an IR relay at the front of the room.
- 2nd row of seating will be on a raised, carpeted platform. We'll probably have a bar height table and stools behind the 2nd row.
Thanks in advance for any input!
I'm not new to home theater. Have built 5.1 and 7.1 setups in previous homes. Building a new home, and I have a blank slate to work with in the new basement. Room is 31L x 19W x 9H. Likely layout shown below.
In addition to being a home theater, this room will be a pass thru to a back patio for outdoor R&R. The wife and I have discussed that we'd like to use a low maintenance tile or engineered wood floor for the area to the left and behind the seating, and carpet for the seating area (indicated in gray), to better manage inevitable dust and dirt tracking and keeping it out of the home theater seating area.
In my previous 7.1 basement theater, the room was carpeted, the walls (drywall) had some odd angled soffits concealing HVAC ductwork. The net result was outstanding sound quality. I'd like to achieve that again, but the concept of a hard flooring surface, even in only part of the room, has me a bit nervous.
Also, due to the room's shape, with the projection of the image onto a wall shared with the mechanical room, the side speaker layout will have one set of speakers about 4 feet further away from the seating than the other side. Can I assume this can be handled well with the receiver settings for speaker distances, either via automated mic setup or manual setup inputs?
Also, trying to decide if I want to invest in Atmos. We loved the 7.1 sound we had in the last house. Trying to decide if the investment in 9 or 11 channel Atmos capability is a worthwhile upgrade. A nearby lightning strike killed the HDMI out on my Onkyo TX-NR626, so I'm in the market for a new receiver.
Other, miscellaneous comment/questions about the project:
- Projector will likely be a basic 1080P DLP (BenQ, Optoma, or similar) optimized for brightness rather than cinema darks. Our home theater use is characterized by a lot of TV and sports viewing use, as well as movies. We'll have reasonable exterior light control, but it won't be perfectly dark during daylight, and we're fine with that.
- Screen size will be about 110" diagonal.
- Walls and ceiling will be 1/2" drywall.
- The joists above the room are an open web truss system, so there are no obstructions hanging from the ceiling. If I need to add any of diffusion shapes to the sheet rock, that can be done easily enough with a 9' ceiling.
- I'll dedicate a 20 amp circuit to the setup. Any thoughts on better lightning protection for that circuit?
- Receiver, satellite box, media player will either be in the mechanical room indicated on the diagram, or a chimney alcove at the back of the room, with an IR relay at the front of the room.
- 2nd row of seating will be on a raised, carpeted platform. We'll probably have a bar height table and stools behind the 2nd row.
Thanks in advance for any input!