Our theater room

[manoj.p]

Here are some of the pictures of our dedicated theater room. This was actually a family room, built by previous owner. We converted it into the dedicated theater room. Room is 13 ft wide x 20 ft long.
The screen is 2.37 aspect ratio, 12 ft wide, approx 58" height.

The speakers are put below the screen. Less than ideal, but these speakers have tweeters on top, and they are tilted up. If looked at the speakers from the seated position, the tweeter are pointed exactly at face. That's the compromise because I could not go for Acoustic Transparent screen. I built a frame and covered it with black speaker grill cloth. There is no grill on the speakers inside. So, only have the frame grill to cover it. This hides all the speakers, subwoofer and cables. Presents a clean view and also helps with immersion while viewing.

Below is the view on the left of the screen. You can see the red blackout cloth curtain covering the window. The front 4 ft from the screen and below the window are the acoustic treatments. Black color reduces the reflections on the screen.


This is right screen window. The front 4 ft is covered in acoustic screen and then the next 8 ft is horizontal is also treated. I left the wall on top open because to match the left side which has a window.


Now, some info on the system. Projector is Infocus 777, used with Panamorph UH-380 anamorphic lens.

Speakers - 7.1 speakers
Left, center and right - JBL 4410a.
Surrounds - JBL 8330 x 4.
Subwoofers - Chase 18.1, sealed subs, 2 nos. Equalized by Behringer feedback destroyer.
receiver - Onkyo 605. (oh yes. )

 

[manoj.p]

Now, some screenshots from my handheld camera. They don't give much idea, but are fun to post and see.










Any questions, comments, you are welcome.

 

[santhosh]

Very nice manoj. Could you please post some pictures of your ceiling and rear portion of the room (seating, surround speakers positioning). Also some info on how your tweaked your subwoofers using the Behringer Feedback Destroyer would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[spirovious]

Congrats Manoj,good HT room.

 

[dlkanth]

nice setup manoj, congrats.. share some more pics about ur speaker place ment in the front..n seating

 

[manoj.p]

thanks guys. It's still work in progress. This hobby is never ending. Good thing, its not our living room.

Here are more pics of the audio setup.

Below is the front left speakers. You will see two speakers in the center. The one with grills is an extra speaker (I bought two pairs) and is not used currently. I just left it there. The entire wall behind the speakers is acoustically treated.


This is the right side of the front.


Right surround speakers. Right side and Right back.


Projector and anamorphic lens. Please excuse the cables hanging. Haven't got to cable management yet. You can also see the left surround back.


These are the two reclining seats. Behind is the main opening to the living room. On left side is the patio door.

 

[manoj.p]

Very nice manoj. Could you please post some pictures of your ceiling and rear portion of the room (seating, surround speakers positioning). Also some info on how your tweaked your subwoofers using the Behringer Feedback Destroyer would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Santhosh. The seating is approx 16 ft from the front. The side surrounds (tweeter and midrange to be exact) are about half ft in front of the sides. Back are approx 60% angle from the mid of two seats. Here is a pic showing the side speaker with respect to the seats.


About the Behiringer feedback destroyer -
I have the model 1124p, with ver 1.4. It allows stereo input and output. I took the subwoofer output from receiver, split it into two and connected that to Behringer. The two outputs of behringer went to each sub. I could have used one input to behringer and split its output into two, but thought of doing it at input itself because it allows to eq each sub individually, if desired. But I didn't had to do it.
The BFD 1124p ver 1.4 support USB connection to PC, through USB to MIDI adapter. I used it along with Room Eq wizard + SPL meter. REW plays the test tones + frequency sweeps. Ran the freq sweep from 10 to 120 Hz. Measured the response. REW comes with automatic eq. Used that as first step to start, then tweaked the eq filters manually. Using the USB connection, REW pushed these eq filters to BFD. It was much simpler and fast than fiddling with buttons on BFD. Measured the freq response again, made some more tweaks to filters. Took couple more iterations to get the almost flat curve from 14 to 100 Hz.

 

[denom]

Hi manoj,

The wooden ceiling looks awesome. Great set-up too, enjoy
BTW, what was the reason for setting up an additional FR Speaker as a centre speaker why not an actual generic centre speaker ?
Please do shed some light on this.

Thanks

 

[manoj.p]

Denom, thanks.
Yes, the wooden ceiling looks nice. Its vaulted ceiling, starts at about 9 ft on sides and increases in height. The height at center is about 12 ft.

I wanted to keep the left, center and right the same speakers, so all the front soundstage is sounding same. I know there are matched centers, but they can never sound the same way as mains. The best setup is where the center is same speaker as mains. An simple example is when sound pans from left, center to right. Pixar Cars movie has lots of scenes which has audio recorded that way. That's the reason generic center speakers are called "matched centers", they are not exact. I ended up buying two pairs of JBL 4410's and have that extra speaker. It's not connected to anything, just left it there. Better to leave it there because its hidden anyway behind the black cloth. Saves some storage space somewhere else.

One thing I like about building the frame and covering it with cloth is how clean the setup looks. Compare the pictures of main speakers to the very first picture I posted. That helps immensely while watching movies. Earlier, I used to see shiny reflections on top of all the speakers. Now, these are gone completely. There is an acoustic benefit too (although its in the viewer/listener's head). When someone walks in, he has never seen the speakers, subs etc. so he does not know what to expect. Also, since the listener does not see/know speaker positions, the his brain is forming the soundstage based on the sound he is listening. Isn't that we all crave for - speakers disappearing and forming of soundstage?

I wish I could do that with the surrounds too. In-wall surrounds can achieve that, but it was lot of work, with opening up walls and cabling.

 

[denom]

Good points you've touched upon manoj. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[rshri]

There is an acoustic benefit too (although its in the viewer/listener's head). When someone walks in, he has never seen the speakers, subs etc. so he does not know what to expect. Also, since the listener does not see/know speaker positions, the his brain is forming the soundstage based on the sound he is listening. Isn't that we all crave for - speakers disappearing and forming of soundstage?

Exactly! As I always say - the true purpose of sound setup is to pull viewer into the movie and not show-off.
An intelligent & informed home theater setup! Didn't expect anything less from you

 

[manoj.p]

Thanks rshri.
It's just built as you go along. The bottom frame for speakers was put in place cause the front was looking full of speakers and cables. Also the reflections off the speaker tops were bothering me. It just worked out very nice in the end.

 

[contentedbloke]

From seeing the ceiling, I'm guessing its somewhere in Kerala?

Anyways your HT looks great. Can you tell me where you got the 2.35 ratio screen? And what have you used to create the screen wall (Gypsum board, acoustic board, plywood etc?).

 

[vinay]

I think it is always often wonderful to show for what we have, and most of us do this show, be the aspect whatever walk of life. If i have spent big money on the set up, i will certainly not like to hide.

If we make a dedicated room, a viewer or our contacts should never be kept in mind, we have to see what we like.

While that is a another story if the viewer gets to see a 5.1 set up, he is going to be very happy to see what all components have gone into the making of a movie room and importantly it adds decor value to the room.

V.

Exactly! As I always say - the true purpose of sound setup is to pull viewer into the movie and not show-off.
An intelligent & informed home theater setup! Didn't expect anything less from you

 

[manoj.p]

From seeing the ceiling, I'm guessing its somewhere in Kerala?

No, I am in US. Although won't mind living in Kerala at all. beautiful place.

Anyways your HT looks great. Can you tell me where you got the 2.35 ratio screen? And what have you used to create the screen wall (Gypsum board, acoustic board, plywood etc?).

Thanks for the compliments. I did not do anything to build the screen wall specifically. Its made of drywall and on top, the previous owner put a cement board to make it more dead. All I did was paint it all black.
The screen is a diy, wilsonart laminate, 5x12 ft size. Its glued to a wooden frame and mounted to the wall using french cleat. The border around the screen is wood stripes, wrapped with triple black velvet. Believe it or not, but having the black border around the image add a big boost to "perceived" contrast.

 

[contentedbloke]

No, I am in US. Although won't mind living in Kerala at all. beautiful place.


Thanks for the compliments. I did not do anything to build the screen wall specifically. Its made of drywall and on top, the previous owner put a cement board to make it more dead. All I did was paint it all black.
The screen is a diy, wilsonart laminate, 5x12 ft size. Its glued to a wooden frame and mounted to the wall using french cleat. The border around the screen is wood stripes, wrapped with triple black velvet. Believe it or not, but having the black border around the image add a big boost to "perceived" contrast.

The reason I asked was because it looked as if the screen was inset into the wall. And masking definitely makes a big difference!

 

[vinay]

Cieling

Manoj,

I am very happy to see the photo's of your theatre, thanks.

The screen looks fantastic, will a 16 x 9 movie, fill the screen full?

The ceiling is just too good and it seems has acoustic benefits too.

I had seen the similar ceiling in a restaurant and wanted to go for it, but had to drop because i wanted a projector lift, so to manage the same in your type of ceiling was not viable.

V.

 

[manoj.p]

Thanks Vinay,

The screen is the Constant Image Height setup. The height remains same for all aspect ratios and image width changes. So for 16:9, whole screen is not filled and there are side bars on both sides. I was planning to do motorized masks to mask down the screen to 16:9 and 4:3 but haven't got to it yet. May be I will never do it and leave it as it is.

 

[anm]

for people having motorized screen, is a fixed width better? I am wondering if I go for a 16:9 screen, most movies would be in wider format, and of course I would be using my screen mostly for movies. However, it should work well for 16:9 content as well.
I was thinking of keeping 16:9, but when watching movie in large format, open the screen a little less, and if the wall is dark, it takes care of the lower portion. What can be done to mask the top part? Is another motored black screen of required size adviced?

 

[manoj.p]

If you plan to go for CIH, then either you have to use an Anamorphic lens or zoom the picture between 16:9 and 2.35 aspect ratios. Zooming is easy if your projector has powered zoom. Otherwise you will have to pickup the ladder and zoom it.

Anyways, for motorized screens I do think to not have the CIH. So, go for constant width. Bars on top and bottom of screen are less bothersome than having the bars on side. If you want to do masking, then there is an easier way. Get the thermacol sheets, cut them to the size of the top and bottom bars. Get triple black velvet with sticky back and put it on the thermacol. Then you can attach it to the screen on top and bottom with big paper clips whenever watching the cinemascope movies.
It will be something like this in thread at avs.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008446
Then use a paper clip like this to attach to screen on both sides. Since the thermocol would be very light, it can go easily on the screen.