New construction home theatre advice required

[Swatter]

I am currently designing a custom home with an architect. There is a dedicated home theatre room. The only things which have been decided at this point are the room dimensions and its location in the house. Anything and everything else including ceiling height, window layout, wall material, cabinetry, and wiring is open for modification. This room will be used for watching tv and movies and will also be used as a games room. It has no other function. I already own some AV equipment including various amps and speakers (Paradigm and Pioneer). I would like to use some or all of my existing equipment if possible while adding in new bits as required. I will be purchasing a new flat panel or a projection system. The home will be smart wired and I want to integrate this room into the system controlling the rest of the house. I am not a gamer so please don't include this activity in any of your suggestions.

I am looking for advice on every aspect of this theatre build and setup. I am willing to share whatever details are required to gain advice on this forum. My local home theatre "specialists" are complete morons. This is my personal opinion based on prior experience and the opinion of many friends and colleagues who have used them for their own projects. I live in a very small remote area and my home is being built in a rural area which is even more remote. I feel like I need to take charge of this project myself in order to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

My budget is undetermined at this point. My main priorities are future proofing this system and getting the maximum performance for dollar spent. Most if not all my purchasing will be done online given the complete lack of a viable local dealer. Top picks in a given price range are always helpful.

Any and all advice is welcome. Please ask me whatever questions you want and I will fill in the details. Background reading suggestions are also welcome.

Thanks!!

 

[TheWarrior]

Equipment is a matter of personal taste. Its 2015, technology is pretty solid. Gimmicks abound, a studied shopper will do just fine. I'll cover the room.

The actually HxLxW of your room creates 'room modes' where certain frequencies played by your speakers interact with the boundaries of your room. Search for 'Room Mode Calculators'. These will help you identify the ideal size and shape of your room, so that everything else that goes in to its auditory experience will have the best foundation to start with!

If this is a dedicated media room, as close to zero Windows as you can muster. Spend the money on lighting, which also doesn't need to be outrageous. But glass is terrible for reflections and coloring the sound. I have a sound panel that has to be moved in front of my living room window. Not what I'd want in a dedicated theater!

But getting those walls sized, spaced, and built right means the more money you will save on acoustic treatments (sound panels) after the fact.

Construction tips: isolate as much of the room as you can. This rabbit hole goes as deep as you are willing. The actual load bearing structure of your room can be physically disconnected by use of rubber inserts, foams, all sorts of things. This serves to 1) keep wall studs and HVAC ducts from adding their own sound track, 2) to keep the sound in the room. Adequate sound proofing can be attained for not very much money, especially when designed correctly from construction.

- Your speaker wires should be as far from any electrical wiring as possible, if unavoidable, the speaker wire should run perpendicular, NEVER parallel to the electrical wiring. You will hear a hum if you don't.
- PVC electrical conduit (pvc pipe) installed inside the wall makes it very easy to add/remove cable runs after the fact. Most important for future proofing, or rather, making future upgrades much easier.

Thats the 'basics.' After that, do yourself a favor, and commit some hours to reading and studying the articles found under the AV Research Tab. There's a lot of science, but thats good, because it saves you from opinion, and gets you the facts you need to make the best decisions. Enjoy your masterpiece!

 

[Swatter]

The room will have three exterior walls all built out of ICF. No studs, lots of solid concrete surrounded by styrofoam. The entire home is slab on grade IE no basement. The theatre is located at the end of one wing of the house. The adjacent room is a home gym and next to that is a garage so sound transfer to adjacent living space is not a big concern. I am more concerned about the acoustics of the theatre. There are windows in the two side walls so I guess I should start researching motorized acoustic shades. I can easily place conduit in the slab allowing me to place my components anywhere in the room or even in an adjacent closet. I will make sure the wiring runs are isolated from any electrical current. I like the idea of a rack system where everything is exposed and very easily accessible. If all the components are housed in a cabinet or closet out of view then I really couldn't care less what they setup looks like, as long as it performs well.

I will start reading whatever background info is available on this site, and if I have questions, I will post them here.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Few pieces of advice: Plan early for location of Projector, Screen, speakers and subs.
Try to sway away from in-wall speakers, on-wall are better choice.
Any Horizontal centers are inherently inferior - best way to avoid it - is to go with acoustically transparent screen and place 3 identical vertical speakers behind the screen - such cavity needs some advance planning. For dedicated rooms Fixed screens are best and cheapest, but if you must have motorized roll-up one - don't cheap out and get tensioned screen - it will last much longer.
If you planning two second row - the elevated box could be used for folded horn subwoofer like this one:
http://www.danleysoundlabs.com/products/subwoofers/specialty-subs/dts10/