Room Selection for New Home Theater and other FNG questions

GatorPigDog

GatorPigDog

Audioholic
Hi. So I've entered the blackhole of planning a new home theater system, and I could use some guidance.

I have three rooms in my home that I am considering for a new system:
1) Spare Bedroom 14'-8" x 11'-3" x 8' - 1,320sf - 8" Concrete Block walls, Gypsum Ceiling, and wood flooring
2) Living Space 21' x 17'-8" x 7.5' - 2,782sf - Mix of Block and Wood Framed Construction with Gypsum Ceiling and tile floors
3) Other Living Space 28' x 19' x 8'-9" low (11' peak) ~ 5,254sf - Concrete Walls. Cathedral Ceiling is wood and the floors are tile.

Image 6-1-20 at 12.04 AM.jpeg Screen Shot 2020-06-01 at 12.05.50 AM.png

Primary use will be Home Theater for movies and sports : ( although I could see 2 channel stereo becoming the obsession I wasn't looking for. Single row of seating : )
I have a 82" Samsung that I will use for now. Figuring $15k for receiver and speakers for Atmos set up. $1.5k for cable. I don't really have a budget for any construction or sound treatment. I work for a construction firm and can get material/labor fairly cheap.

It sounds like the bedroom may be too small after reading some of the articles on the website. The next larger room has a wall that is Swiss cheese. The big room has a big fireplace, and I would need to mount or suspend the atmos speakers (bookshelf, I guess?) between the rafters because there is no cavity above.

Do you think the big room is the best option?

Additionally:
With a single row of seating, is there still a benefit of have 6 atmos speakers?
Should the atmos speakers be directed toward the listening position?

I've been trying to absorb as much content from the website and YouTube as I can. It's been a formidable challenge navigating the rigid, adversarial opinions out there on the interwebs, so the Audioholics content has been a blessing.

Sorry for the long post. I have even more questions, but I figured I'd start with the room.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
If this theater system is mostly just going to be used by you alone, a smaller room isn't bad. You won't need as powerful speakers, amplifiers, and subwoofers to get the same dynamic range as you would a large room. That would save you a lot of money. You definitely wouldn't need as many surround speakers. Larger rooms have some acoustic advantages but small room have their own advantages.
 
GatorPigDog

GatorPigDog

Audioholic
If this theater system is mostly just going to be used by you alone, a smaller room isn't bad. You won't need as powerful speakers, amplifiers, and subwoofers to get the same dynamic range as you would a large room. That would save you a lot of money. You definitely wouldn't need as many surround speakers. Larger rooms have some acoustic advantages but small room have their own advantages.
Usually just me for movies/tv.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Usually just me for movies/tv.
The larger rooms might be a bit more ideal acoustically for a home theater, but the small room would make for a much simpler and less expensive room to get right. It also look like it could be good for light control in case you ever wanted to run a projector in there. If it were me, I would just do the small room.
 
GatorPigDog

GatorPigDog

Audioholic
With the small room, would something like this be overkill (acoustically, I don't care about the aesthetics)? I could add sound absorption panels as needed.

Screen Shot 2020-06-01 at 4.40.18 PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-06-01 at 4.40.57 PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-06-01 at 4.41.24 PM.png

With:
Denon AVR-X6500H
Klipsch RP-8000F, RC-64 III, RP-600M, CDT-5650-C II
a pair of SVS PB-2000 or 3000

Thank you again for your help.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
With the small room, would something like this be overkill (acoustically, I don't care about the aesthetics)? I could add sound absorption panels as needed.

View attachment 36720View attachment 36721View attachment 36722

With:
Denon AVR-X6500H
Klipsch RP-8000F, RC-64 III, RP-600M, CDT-5650-C II
a pair of SVS PB-2000 or 3000

Thank you again for your help.
That could be pretty good. I like the RP-8000F speakers, but I am not a fan of the Klipsch center design. It probably isn't bad for a single listening position in a room with absorption. You might also consider the Monoprice Monolith THX speakers. A new Monolith tower just came out, that should be pretty good. The Monolith speakers might not have quite as much dynamic range as the Klipsch stuff but I would trust it to have a reliably flatter response, and it will still get plenty loud. Paradigm's Premier 800F and center channels are also outstanding.

As for subs, the SVS stuff is good. The 3000 should be quite a bit better than the 2000. However, in a room like that, I would go for multiple smaller subs rather than a couple big ones, but I would go for subs with a tuning point of around 20 Hz, but also something that has the ability to limit deep bass output in case low-end gain becomes too much. I would be looking at the VTF subs from Hsu Research, the 2000Pro or 3000 subs from SVS, any of the subs from Monoprice Monolith, subs from Outlaw Audio, and also Paradigm's Defiance series. If you don't have multiple electrical circuits running to the room, consider sticking with lower wattage subs. A couple I really like for that is the Outlaw Audio Ultra-X12 and the Hsu VTF-2 mk5. Both have very high performance but only use 350-watt amps, so they could share a circuit very easily with other electrical devices.
 
GatorPigDog

GatorPigDog

Audioholic
That could be pretty good. I like the RP-8000F speakers, but I am not a fan of the Klipsch center design. It probably isn't bad for a single listening position in a room with absorption. You might also consider the Monoprice Monolith THX speakers. A new Monolith tower just came out, that should be pretty good. The Monolith speakers might not have quite as much dynamic range as the Klipsch stuff but I would trust it to have a reliably flatter response, and it will still get plenty loud. Paradigm's Premier 800F and center channels are also outstanding.

As for subs, the SVS stuff is good. The 3000 should be quite a bit better than the 2000. However, in a room like that, I would go for multiple smaller subs rather than a couple big ones, but I would go for subs with a tuning point of around 20 Hz, but also something that has the ability to limit deep bass output in case low-end gain becomes too much. I would be looking at the VTF subs from Hsu Research, the 2000Pro or 3000 subs from SVS, any of the subs from Monoprice Monolith, subs from Outlaw Audio, and also Paradigm's Defiance series. If you don't have multiple electrical circuits running to the room, consider sticking with lower wattage subs. A couple I really like for that is the Outlaw Audio Ultra-X12 and the Hsu VTF-2 mk5. Both have very high performance but only use 350-watt amps, so they could share a circuit very easily with other electrical devices.
Thank you so much for the guidance and recommendations. I will check out those other brands, and I also just joined the YouTube membership to help support the good work you all do.
 
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