GregoryP
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Dec 2, 1998
- Messages
- 590
Hello everyone! I recently bought a new house and one of the considerations was having enough space for a Home Theater room. This house has a large bonus room on the 2nd floor over the garage. In my old house, I used the living room as my Home Theater and had a projector screen I pulled down in front of the TV for movies. Not too long after having kids, I packed up my speakers because I didn't want them to be destroyed. I've been watching movies with Dolby Headphone for the last 8 years. I'm very excited to finally have my speakers again.
Here is a sketch of the bonus room with very rough measurements. There's a fan in the middle of the room.
The wall in the bottom right of the sketch is approximately 14'5" and that's where I want to put a projector screen. We currently have a 55" TV and I'm debating whether to save some projector bulb life by keeping the TV in there and having the projector screen come down over it. I don't necessarily need a huge screen for random TV watching, but I'm not opposed to it.
1) Is a fixed frame projector screen hanging on the wall preferable to a motorized one that comes down in front of the TV?
2) What size screen should I be looking at? It all seems to come down to my seating arrangements, so I need to get that figured out. I want to buy a 4k projector, but I'll start a thread in the displays area to talk about that.
We have a family of 4, so I want to plan enough seating for the whole family plus seating for friends. We're thinking we should have seating for maybe 6-8. I imagine that 90% of the time it will be just me watching stuff, though, so setting everything up for the sweet spot is very important. I want to have at least 4 nice home theater seats, but not all of the seating needs to be too fancy. I think I'd prefer not to have a riser for a second row of seating because it feels to me like it might be weird in the room, but I'm definitely open to ideas.
3) How do I arrange seating for approximately 6-8 while maintaining the sweet spot? Do I need to plan for an odd number of seats to keep everything aesthetically balanced?
My plan is to wire the room for a 7.1.4 setup, but I'll start with a 5.1.4 setup since I have 5.1 now.
These guides from Dolby seem like exactly what I need:
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide.html
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/7.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide.html
Some of my current equipment:
TV: TCL 55R615
Speakers: B&W CDM 7SE
Center: B&W CDM CSE
Rear: B&W DM601
Sub: SVS 16-46PC with upgraded (ultra?) driver
BD Player: Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD
Definitely replacing:
Receiver: Marantz SR7005 - Gotta upgrade to Atmos.
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE1000U - the motor in the dynamic iris is sticking, so this needs to be replaced ASAP.
At first I thought I'd need to do some major soundproofing to the room, but the noise level outside of the bonus room is lower than I expected. I probably need to do something, though. The door feels like the first thing that should be changed because it has a gap at the bottom and seems pretty thin.
4) What are the best "bang for your buck" soundproofing items I should consider?
5) Any recommendations for center and rear speaker stands? I don't have anything for my center at the moment and my rear speakers are just sitting on random side tables.
6) What should I put my equipment in and where should that go? Right now I have a TV stand, but the center speaker completely blocks the equipment in it, so I want to get rid of the stand.
7) Do I run conduit through the floor for speaker wiring? The floors need to be re-carpeted anyway.
I've been reading everything I can on here and other forums, but honestly I'm pretty overwhelmed trying to figure out all of the pieces. I think I'm going to talk with some of the folks at a nice Home Theater store in the area to see if I can get some recommendations, but I want to try to keep my expenses from getting out of control. I probably need a professional to install the ceiling speakers and projector wiring.
I know I'll have a million other questions as I go, but I appreciate any help I can get.
Here is a sketch of the bonus room with very rough measurements. There's a fan in the middle of the room.
The wall in the bottom right of the sketch is approximately 14'5" and that's where I want to put a projector screen. We currently have a 55" TV and I'm debating whether to save some projector bulb life by keeping the TV in there and having the projector screen come down over it. I don't necessarily need a huge screen for random TV watching, but I'm not opposed to it.
1) Is a fixed frame projector screen hanging on the wall preferable to a motorized one that comes down in front of the TV?
2) What size screen should I be looking at? It all seems to come down to my seating arrangements, so I need to get that figured out. I want to buy a 4k projector, but I'll start a thread in the displays area to talk about that.
We have a family of 4, so I want to plan enough seating for the whole family plus seating for friends. We're thinking we should have seating for maybe 6-8. I imagine that 90% of the time it will be just me watching stuff, though, so setting everything up for the sweet spot is very important. I want to have at least 4 nice home theater seats, but not all of the seating needs to be too fancy. I think I'd prefer not to have a riser for a second row of seating because it feels to me like it might be weird in the room, but I'm definitely open to ideas.
3) How do I arrange seating for approximately 6-8 while maintaining the sweet spot? Do I need to plan for an odd number of seats to keep everything aesthetically balanced?
My plan is to wire the room for a 7.1.4 setup, but I'll start with a 5.1.4 setup since I have 5.1 now.
These guides from Dolby seem like exactly what I need:
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide.html
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/7.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide.html
Some of my current equipment:
TV: TCL 55R615
Speakers: B&W CDM 7SE
Center: B&W CDM CSE
Rear: B&W DM601
Sub: SVS 16-46PC with upgraded (ultra?) driver
BD Player: Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD
Definitely replacing:
Receiver: Marantz SR7005 - Gotta upgrade to Atmos.
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE1000U - the motor in the dynamic iris is sticking, so this needs to be replaced ASAP.
At first I thought I'd need to do some major soundproofing to the room, but the noise level outside of the bonus room is lower than I expected. I probably need to do something, though. The door feels like the first thing that should be changed because it has a gap at the bottom and seems pretty thin.
4) What are the best "bang for your buck" soundproofing items I should consider?
5) Any recommendations for center and rear speaker stands? I don't have anything for my center at the moment and my rear speakers are just sitting on random side tables.
6) What should I put my equipment in and where should that go? Right now I have a TV stand, but the center speaker completely blocks the equipment in it, so I want to get rid of the stand.
7) Do I run conduit through the floor for speaker wiring? The floors need to be re-carpeted anyway.
I've been reading everything I can on here and other forums, but honestly I'm pretty overwhelmed trying to figure out all of the pieces. I think I'm going to talk with some of the folks at a nice Home Theater store in the area to see if I can get some recommendations, but I want to try to keep my expenses from getting out of control. I probably need a professional to install the ceiling speakers and projector wiring.
I know I'll have a million other questions as I go, but I appreciate any help I can get.