Saga of my Home Theatre Build

[neo9999]

Hello Everybody,

It has been quite a long wait,infact its been a saga, building my first of a kind home theatre room with acoustic treatment et al.

I was setting up my house interiors at same time and never thought of building the HT room so elaborately. Thanks to this forum as well as after talking to Aloklala, and tips from Vinay, Pandu, Manoj - I took the decision to go ahead with acoustic treatment.

In addition, I was tired of visiting multiple audio showrooms and exiting with the thought - "Whats he got that I aint got? " ...when I knew I had decent speaker components myself too.

I actually delayed moving to my new place by couple of months due to this last min decision to setup one of my rooms as dedicated HT room. And boy I feel happy I did it!

Since the room size was not so large ( 12 ' X 10") I did want to confirm whether or not it's worth it and consulted a local home theatre technician regarding what all acoustic options I had. Since initial budget quoted was too much beyond what I planned for acoustic treatment, I tried to seek out cheaper options such as acoustic foam etc but couldnt find appropriate source. Finally after much deliberating, I went in for rockwool and wood paneling all over, but not 100% coverage across the room. As some of the forum members mentioned, the room could have sounded dead too so I have left some spaces open deliberately, and plan to place some artifact or something to cover some of the open spaces.

I have attached pics of front side ( facing screen), one back side facing the seating area, one pic with lights off and watching Dostana blu ray ( watchin Priyanka Chopra on this huge screen - priceless experience )...one pic with two way lights and another which shows how the screen looks like. Pardon for the quality of pics, they are taken using a compact cam. I can try posting more pics.

My components are -

(1) BD player - Oppo BDP93
(2) A/V Receiver - Denon 2112 CI
(3) Speakers - Martin Logan Motion 12s for fronts, Motion 10s as sides and Motion 8 as center.
For Surround - Definitive Technology BP 1.2X bipolar/dipolar speakers
Subwoofer - Velodyne Impact 10
(4) Projector - Epson Powerlite 8350 HD projector
(5) Display screen - Liberty Grandview 106" diag(remote controlled motorized)

I have used banana clips for speaker connections and pro fx speaker cables - 12 gauge for main speakers and 16 for surrounds.

I have used wood panels filled with rockwool for acoustic treatment. Done this over side walls as well as ceiling. On one corner I have used one triangular panel for bass trap. The room had enclosure within wall on the screen side so I used that space to fit in cd racks. For seating, I have a leather recliner which has a tray to place soda or popcorn to get feel of real theatre effect.

I have used two way lighting system for side walls. Once the rockwool was filled, the panels were covered with thin 4 mm plywood and then covered with cloth.

For flooring, I've used one layer of carpet wall to wall. Below the carpet is another layer of sponge/foam material, to give acoustic as well as additional thickness to the carpet.

A lot of decision making was taken into color combination of walls, cloth color and aesthetics as well. I didnt want too jazzy color but I also didn't want something very ordinary. This combination of mild crimson along with a contrast carpet color proved to be deadly combination, especially with the lights. I had to search through lot of places to get the right design and color of the cotton cloth covering the panels.

I have a window that is not not going to be opened 98% of the time - probably once in a while to let some air in. Since I didn't want to remove the window and needed to keep a thin curtain, I opted for black out blinds curtain which will ensure no sunlight shadow enters the room as well as cover the window. Fortunately I could get a curtain matching wall color as well

For cooling, I have setup a 1 ton split AC in the room. The projector is connected to an online Champion UPS which would support 1 KV load.

I finally tested the setup using my fav Star Wars blu ray collection for movies and hearing sound of the xwing fighters flying around my ears was an awesome feeling. I've currently setup 7.1 speakers though the 7.1 channel is used only with media that is processed in 7.1 channel. Nowadays blu ray movies with 7.1 audio are also being released.

2 channel audio stream from audio cd is equally outstanding. I was testing Norah Jones Come away with me album and the tonal clarity of each instrument from the fronts totally floored me.

Hope folks find this useful and can provide their comments.

Thanks once again to all forum members who helped me take this decision.

My next project is to setup universal remote as well as remotely control the lights - waiting for next budget to get sanctioned

Thanks,
Neo

 

[iaudio]

Neo, your HT room seems like " Neighbors envy, Owners pride!"
But please post some better pictures, your set up deserves it. Wow,you have floorstanders as surround speakers. A bit of overkill? Or does it make a difference?

 

[spirovious]

Congrats neo,nice treatment done,surrounds are little closer though.

 

[musicbee]

Very nice... though Priyanka Chopra would not be my choice.

I agree with spiro... you need to spread the rears (though it does not look like an option seeing the door).

 

[neo9999]

Thanks iaudio and folks for your comments.

I'm using the smaller floor standers for the 6th and 7th channel(left and right surround) , and placing them to the side of the wall. The rears are the Def Tech bipolar speakers which you can see fixed to the wall, just above the couch.

I have a challenge of keeping the rears more apart, due to the door. I would then had to keep one speaker somewhere above the couch in one corner (just like now) and the other rear speaker (left on my side) on the next wall, which could have resulted in not achieving good surround effect I suppose. Hence I kept the rear speakers on the same wall but as far away from each other. As of now it seems to sound good with this placement.

Now with the left and right surrounds, the smaller floor standers, I have not been able to find best position and that's because they are floor standers . But since I love those speakers I didnt want to just throw them away, so I want to use them whenever I'm watching 7.1 media.

By the way I have two bags of rockwool totally packed and unopened, and if anyone is interested in purchasing them please let me know.

Will try to post better pics.

Neo.

 

[Santy]

Thats a nice setup neo...! Congrats. I love the recliners!

Are you happy with the sub's performance? I ask so because everything else seems to be in a different league as far as cost is concerned.

I am quite intrigued by the fact that 4mm of plywood is sufficient enough to reflect audio waves (atleast the mids and highs) leaving the stuff behind it totally untouched. I mean whats the point of rockwool if no sound reaches it? Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Nice setup there. Enjoy.

How good is 7.1 in this 12 x 10 space.

 

[anujmishra]

You may need this Amazon.com: Pinpoint AM-40B Side Clamping Bookshelf Speaker Wall Mount (Pair): Electronics if you want to separate rears. I am using this with my rears. Brought 2 pairs from US. 1 pair is used and 1 pair is kept aside.

With this you can place it at little height but angle in this stand can compensate .

By the way overall nice setup.

 

[AtheK]

looks very good, congrats.

 

[anm]

looks quite good. you have done very well in that small space.

 

[manoj.p]

Neo,

Congratulations on the theater. very well done.

I agree with rest of crowd with surround speakers. I see you are using two floorstandars as side. I believe they are quite front to the listening position. That may mess up with sound field. Side speakers are supposed to be on side. You can put them little towards front, may be a foot. But anything more and you will lose the surround field. The surround will become part of front sound stage. About the rears - We have very weak capabilities as far as sounds coming behind us. If the speakers are too close to each other, then we can't differentiate whether its coming from left or right rear speaker.

Looking at your room dimension, I think you will get better result by going with 5.1 setup instead. Have the two rear speakers mounted in two back corners, towards ceiling (so you will definitely clear the door) and point them down towards listening position. Having them above will have one more benefit. The speaker will be directly pointed at your ear. In its current position, I think the recliner will come in between your ear and speaker. Seat in the position and see whether the recliner top is above your shoulder. Give it a try, you may like the setup this way.

For effective 7.1, you need few basic things:
* Some separation between side and rear speakers (preferably 4~5 ft atleast)
* Separation between rear speakers. Those should be approx 120 deg angle between center listening position and speakers.

Without these you will have hard time identifying where the sound is coming from. In that case, beats the purpose of having more speakers there.

Again, Congratulations on a job well done. Enjoy your theater.

 

[kaptan]

Congrats for your setup . Enjoy :clapping:

 

[cmsajith]

Congrats and kudos for your effort.

BTW, you had mentioned that the rockwool is covered with 4/6mm ply through out, is it perforated?

Also you can lower the side panels leaving 1ft from the ground as the speaker reflections on the side walls doesnt seem to cover fully. Also change the sub as you will miss a lot of LF with Vel10.

 

[neo9999]

Thanks folks for your comments.

Santy & csmajith - The plywood is perforated with series of holes at distance of around 2.5 to 3" from each other.

I'm surprised at the question about the Vel10 sub, since I have by far found it to the best providing LF. I have been using this sub for almost 2 yrs and never found it faltering. But yes, somehow after connecting with this current setup in new place, I'm actually not able to find that exact sweet point of perfect punch, sometimes I get too much or too little and I'm trying to tweak the speaker config settings in the Denon AVR.

I desperately am looking for a demo disc to test the sub and if anyone can share or has any pointers to where I can get this DTS / home theatre demo disc, would really appreciate.

anujmishra - Thanks for your suggestion about the speaker clamps/hooks. My biggest challenge is I have already done the internal concealed wiring and if I try to change, risk I'll face is the speaker cables will be visible. Will explore what options I can try.

ukjeyaraj - Thanks for your comment. Frankly speaking 7.1 can be avoided perhaps for this room size. If you don't have that 7.1 speakers, and if you have same room size you can avoid 7.1. I'm trying to reduce the output from my current side speakers inorder to sound good in this space.

manoj.p - Thanks for your feedback. You are right about the sides, I will move them more towards the recliner but just a foot apart. Good part is those speakers will not be used in 5.1.

Regarding the rear speakers, I will try exploring how far up above I can place them. Just like I replied to anujmishra, I'm running out of speaker cable length so I could probably shift maybe 3-4" max. I will need to confirm this and then I will need to think some intuitive way to conceal them Aesthetics and placement always conflict each other. Since the BP1.2x speakers are bipolar my understanding was that you don't necessarily need to angle them like typical rear speakers. You are right, currently the recliner top is slightly above my shoulder I think. Will definitely give it a try.

Neo

 

[cmsajith]

IMO, A gap of 1" - 1.5" is preferred for the perforated holes for mid-high freqs

Try to listen to some other subs, you will find what you are missing.

 

[neo9999]

Thanks cmsajith,

I did try auditioning some subs - Polk PSW, Boston Acoustics, Sonodyne Roarr which itsef has huge LF response, and couple more before going for the Velodyne 10. I plan to close configuring the Vel10 in my new place by this weekend and post an update.

Neo.

 

[kaushik]

very well planned for the wall coverings , but there is missing luxury look as compared to the seating


things to add :
Spend 6k for velvet curtain on the walls in a weavy pattern (use the thick sofa cloth for it 150 metre here ).

Spend 1,5k for 6 LED spotlight..
On top of curtails i can have a blue glow with led strips .

This will turn into PVR mini.

 

[neo9999]

Kaushik bhai - I hope you are not making fun of me ...mini PVR is too much comparison..thanks a lot for the comment.

I will have to check with electrician regrding the spot light and led strip, since I would like to make wiring concealed.

Neo

 

[neo9999]

Configured the Velodyne 10 last weekend and sampled Jurassic Park: Lost World.

One word - boisterous! the scene where the TRexs are trying to throw the bus off the cliff, its like as if the dynos are live in the room.

Will try more samples and post results.

Neo.

 

[vinay]

Neo,

Many congratulations.

Further to the good suggestions etc adviced by others , i will like to add that the entrance door (From Inside) also should have same room fabric or a wall paper, by doing this your room's interior will improve by leaps and bounds. If you can consider to put colored plate/switches below rear speakers, it would make the room look more better. V.