Which way would you orientate your home theater setup

[3db]

This is the basement layout of the townhouse I bought. Which wall would you put your equipment on?
There will be no corner fireplace nor will there be a bathroom in the basement.

 

[mtrycrafts]

This is the basement layout of the townhouse I bought. Which wall would you put your equipment on?
There will be no corner fireplace nor will there be a bathroom in the basement.

Will the mechanical room be still there? with that long wall? Washer and dryer too?

I would do it the length wise, TV by that window; maybe even block it up?
Equipment rack in the mech room behind that door and into the corner opening to the room?

 

[3db]

Will the mechanical room be still there? with that long wall? Washer and dryer too?

Yes to both questions

I would do it the length wise, TV by that window; maybe even block it up?
Equipment rack in the mech room behind that door and into the corner opening to the room?

I need teh equipment out in the open so that I can acess the bluray and turntable as well as having my Harmony remote have line of sight to the equioment.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yes to both questions



I need teh equipment out in the open so that I can acess the bluray and turntable as well as having my Harmony remote have line of sight to the equioment.

What I was thinking is cutting that wall so the equipment rack with the gear visible to the room. You can also attach a sensor to be up front for remote operation wired back the the rack. Just a thought.
Or, do the cut out in the wall near that window, not to interfere with your front left speaker. Yes, you'd have to do a bit of remodeling on that wall.

 

[KenM10759]

I'd also do it so the screen is on the 11' wide wall, though how big will that be?

Also, how tall is the ceiling and is it already finished? Would be nice if you could run speaker wire in the off chance you might ever consider Atmos/DTS:X ceiling speakers.

 

[Latent]

Turn that wall into a baffle wall with holes cut for your speakers. Rack of equipment below the center speaker in the other room. Then just need to treat that mechanical room to suck out all the reverse sound you can. Surround speakers look just too close in this setup though...

So move the door down

​

Could also go down to 5.1 instead of 7.1 and move the surrounds to the back wall so there is a more equal distance to all 5 speakers.

 

[Latent]

You wren't going to use that extra room of the the side anyway right?...

 

[highfigh]

This is the basement layout of the townhouse I bought. Which wall would you put your equipment on?
There will be no corner fireplace nor will there be a bathroom in the basement.

View attachment 17585

The window on the long wall stays? The window on the short wall- looks like it might be an egress window- if the restroom isn't going to be there (personally, I would plumb for the drain, but adjacent to the un-excavated area) and the other unfinished space is more central to the house, I think the HVAC people would like that location more because the duct lengths will be closer to the same. If the laundry and heat can be moved out of the current plan location, you could rotate the theater- looks like the width is close to 18' and you could use 13' of width, leaving a fairly large L-shaped area and you could do a lot with that. Is it safe to assume the egress window is at the rear of the house? Maybe you could close it off with a panel that can be easily opened. If that's not a room where people would sleep, does your local/state code even call for an egress window?

 

[Alex2507]

Those windows might be the little ones basements get way up by the ceiling line which would be nice. The obvious place to put the TV is along the 11'10" wall. I would put the couch behind the mechanical room door and pull the TV and entertainment center off the wall and closer to the TV. The first thing that does is effectively increase your screen size and secondly it will allow you to wire it up from behind not to mention allowing you to dig the speakers out of those corners.

My room is 12' wide. That's barely wide enough but it's doable. I like that your couch would not be up against a wall. Mine is and I can hear the sound change as I go from a seated to a reclined position.

 

[Rickster71]

Nice! Enjoy the dedicated HT.
Hopefully this is still in the construction stage and some extra sound proofing can be added to the Mec-room. Otherwise being so close may be noisy when the HVAC operates.

 

[3db]

View attachment 17588​

Turn that wall into a baffle wall with holes cut for your speakers. Rack of equipment below the center speaker in the other room. Then just need to treat that mechanical room to suck out all the reverse sound you can. Surround speakers look just too close in this setup though...

So move the door down

View attachment 17589
​

Could also go down to 5.1 instead of 7.1 and move the surrounds to the back wall so there is a more equal distance to all 5 speakers.

Thank you for taking the time to draw things out for me. That wall you suggested I push back hides a support beam that runs the length of the basement and the furnace is placed right behind the door. It really sucks the way they have layed this out.

 

[KenM10759]

One of the reasons I might go the long way (screen on the 11' 10" wall) is because you can easily stretch out the viewing/listening positions, adding a row and raising it a few inches. The nearly 12' width is ideal for seating with a little distance from the walls and if using bipole/dipole type surrounds you get a cool effect.

Yes it does limit the width of the screen in relation to position of the mains though easier to place the MLP in relation to the screen.

 

[3db]

Those windows might be the little ones basements get way up by the ceiling line which would be nice. The obvious place to put the TV is along the 11'10" wall. I would put the couch behind the mechanical room door and pull the TV and entertainment center off the wall and closer to the TV. The first thing that does is effectively increase your screen size and secondly it will allow you to wire it up from behind not to mention allowing you to dig the speakers out of those corners.

My room is 12' wide. That's barely wide enough but it's doable. I like that your couch would not be up against a wall. Mine is and I can hear the sound change as I go from a seated to a reclined position.

My current HT room is 11'9" wide and I managed to get it to work quite well. I think I will take mytrcrafts and your advice placing the equipment all the 11' foot underneath the window. I will also ask the builders to add extra framing on that wall so that I can hang a display directly on that wall.

I found new equipment racks that were much narrower than I'm currently using in case I'm forced into setting up like latent suggested. However the couch would be almost up against the wall and I would hear the same changes in sound that you are currently experiencing.

 

[Latent]

Yeah my earlier suggestions of cutting holes in the side wall to place speakers was just an out their idea to get you thinking of alternative options. would be simpler just to go with the top wall. What is that 11'10" wall lined with that requires extra framing to support a TV? One idea is to use an articulated screen mount like I have:

http://www.aavara.com/en/products/product.php?id=71

This allows the tv to be positioned out into the room from 4" to 22" out which allows it to float out from the wall and be more in line with where your speakers will be placed in the room. Also allows you to tilt the screen a few degrees down so the seated person is looking straight at the screen (very important for passive 3D TV's)

Equipment Rack could be located anywhere you want or if you want a tidy look put it in the mechanical room and run IR transmitter to there.

And one final crazy idea to think about just for fun:

Build a baffle wall a couple of feet out from the top wall with holes for your speakers. You can access this area from the mechanical room through the side and mount your equipment rack in here hidden behind glass cupboard doors. Wall mounted TV or acoustically transparent projection screen.