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We're in the process of building a new home, and I'm setting up the home theater in the gameroom above the garage. The room is going to be 18'W x 27'L x 8'H (although I think I'm going to ask the builder if the ceilings can be bumped up to 9'). Luckily, the wife gets into the home theater even more than I do. First, here's a list of equipment I currently have:Processor: Denon AVR3300 (I've been thinking of moving this to the living room and replacing it with the Sunfire processor)
Amplifier: Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature
Fronts: Magnepan 3.6
Rears: Magnepan 1.5
Center: Magnepan MGCC
Sub: Velodyne HGS-18
Screen: None yet
Projector: None yetWe were discussing painting the ceiling and possibly the front wall black. How dark do the side and rear walls need to be, or can we go with a medium color? I was thinking a medium blue or something. I've also heard people talk about sound-deadening paint. Any info that can be offered would be helpful.
We were looking at a Dalite screen that is 92" wide. From what I've read, the screen width should be approximately 2 times the distance to the first row of seating. We were planning on putting the first row of seats at 14-16', so this should work if this is good advice.
My biggest question is about center channel and subwoofer placement. I'm concerned about the MGCC not being powerful enough, and that I may have to get another one to back it up. If this is the case, so be it. My bigger concern at this point is placement. If we are to raise the second row of seating 5" and the second row 10", would above the screen or below the screen be better placement? Also, would placing the sub in the corner or center of the room give the room more evenly distributed bass (not particularly volume, as I'm aware that corner placement is best for this)?
We're having a closet converted into an in-wall equipment rack, and I figured once its all in, I'd make a nice oak panel with cutouts for each item in the rack for that professional look. I even had a dedicated 20-amp circuit pulled into the rack, and a dedicated 20-amp circuit installed in the front for the subwoofer.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Brian
Follow Ups:
I finished building my theater and it's way cool. I did a lot of reading and research as you. My room was not as big but there are things to consider. #1 DONT MAKE YOUR ROOM DEAD....Some people have gone over board with acoustic material on the walls. I have a combination of some carpet on the walls and diffusers. I placed the diffuesers at the first reflection for the front row (since that is where I primarily sit) and carpet placed at other areas. #2 SUB placement is important. To know the right spot, which may not be the corner, place the sub at the seated position and walk around the room until you find the best sound, that's where the sub belongs (you'll probably find more than one spot). #3 Control the lighting in the room. My walls are dark red (more like red wine, cabernet). #4 Get good carpet (I bought something called Burber Burber which is a tightly wovern carpet it's red with a pattern and I have some of it placed on the walls with trim around it). Note, there are a lot of nice dark colors other than BLACK, like reds, blues, greens... #5 When you build the platform, fill it up with insulation. #6 Consider bass traps for the corner of the rooms.Also note, if you build the sub into a wall (like I did, built it into the front wall so it wasn't out), you'll want a front firing sub, not a down firing. I went the M&K.
Also, if you don't want to spend a ton for control lighting, check out smarthome.com. I purchased a 3 single button dimmer switch that can be controlled via remote (they're not expensive). Each switch can learn a different remote command and dim to achieve what ever effect you want by pressing the button on the wall or using your remote control.
Furthermore and critical is power. I have 3 circuit switches that I have added to the room. A 15amp for the lights and two 20amps for the equipment (I have four 2-channel amps plus the active sub).
One other thing, I know this is getting long but something else to think about, I added an outlet switch on the platform so I can plug into it a wired remote and the chairs that vibrate on command. You don't want to have wires running where someone will trip and fall.
Have fun building the room. I've seen somepeople build movable platforms, movable walls and even a movable ceiling where sand is added for accoustic purposes....these people are going to the extreme which I think is kinda of cool but not needed.
When everything is done, don't forget to get an SPL meter at radio shack when you calibrate the volume in the room to each speaker.
RAW, sounds like you've got yourself a nice HT, got any pics of it ?
Not yet. I'm waiting to get my new chairs for the room next week. I bought a recline sofa and two recline chairs (which will be on the platform) from Berkline. Then I'll get some pictures taken. Takes forever to get theses chairs, ordered them about a month ago. What I like about the sofa is that the center pulls down for cups and a hidden telephone to order pizza.
the pizza delivery guy will never want to leave !!
I think the projector type is key to the color(s) you choose. What I mean by this is the amount of lumens (brightness) it produces. In my setup, I only have 250 lumens. As a result, any ambient light entering the room will "wash out" the picture. Therefore I painted the ceiling black (flat black to avoid reflections). The walls are a flat burnt-peanut-red (basically a red/maroon) with matching lite-tight vertical blinds. The results were *very* noticeable.
However, if you're going to go with one of those fancy-schmancy DLP's or a CRT that has 750 or 1000 plus lumens, I would think your wall color choices could be brighter than mine were. Either way, the ceiling should still be black in my opinion.
Note that 9' is a factor of both 18' and 27'. Additionally, most tweeters are at ear level, which is around 3'. Standing wave city.I would get the help of a consultant, or at least do a lot of research on room design before committing hard cash to this project. It would truly be a shame to have a bad room ruin this very nice system.
If I was you I would scrub the maggies, not really a good choice for home cinema. Room fussy, limited power and bass handling and large profile. Take a look at the PMC LB1's, (and others from PMC's range) these are often found in film dubbing and mix suites, its what the pro's mostly tend to use, web adress I believe is www.pmcloudspeakers.com The screen obviously is up to you, I would suggest that you buy something not only on the basis of how large it is, but also with the sharpness/definition, colour/brightness that you want. Painting the walls black will reduce the amount of reflected ambient light, but a dark blue or grey may be as effective as you require. Hope this is "sound advice".Roland
***If I was you I would scrub the maggies, not really a good choice for home cinema. Room fussy, limited power and bass handling and large profile.***I don't think that Maggie home theater owners (I'm not one) would agree with you.
Yes, Roland is correct. While the Maggies do give up some on the high-volume end, their clarity and quickness are far above ANY other speaker in the market. Not only that, but the fact that the tweeter is 5' tall, the room (from top to bottom) is clearly more even. And if you heard a properly amplified Maggie system, you would see that their bass is not lacking. In fact, with my speaker/amp combination, any more bass (for music) would be too much (plus the bass is extremely accurate and never muddy).I do agree that they are sensitive to placement, hence the size of the room. I'm definately not willing to give up the Maggie speakers. What I give up in volume is more than made up in clarity and absolute enjoyment. I found that most speakers I've listened to in the same price range ($4000) were a bit harsh on my ears. I've listened to alot of speakers and I feel the Maggies have the most balanced sound, and amazingly achieve this with clarity far beyond anything under $10K...
Sounds like an advertisement... haha, but I've done alot of auditioning of speakers, and I LOVE my Maggies. Any other Maggie HT people out there?
Brian
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