I need help with home theater questions

[Danzilla31]

When I get off today, I’m going upstairs to see exactly where the wires are located and put a picture up

Please please please get the diagram and pictures up showing us where the prewire locations are going. And your seating and the main listening chair. It's really difficult to know what to suggest without all that info.

I would stay away from the Klipsch and go with the Focal 300 series or the Monolith THX Ultra series either in wall or floor standing

It will be a pain but since your wife is not crazy about floor standers I would consider going in wall. Especially since your room is more narrow it's not just for surrounds on the front stage with that narrow of a room it should be easy to get 3 in wall good speakers and they should be close enough in thar wall size to get good dispersion across all the seats.

Also since you have a 38 foot room? Did I read that right you can always make a fake acoustically transparent front wall and screen and put floor standing gear behind. That way you could do the highly regarded front 3 as identical towers the proffered way to go and everything still looks nice for your wife

20 k budget I would go with monolith as my top pick for speakers and subs. You get so much performance your your dollar with them and they have great affordable prices. That way you can take the savings and put them for the install and the room

Will you be doing a projector how many rows of seats? All that info is important for us to know

 

[-Jim-]

The speaker wire is actually located in the nook where the window is located, if you look at the picture you will see the the nook on the left

That's what I thought. That means you setup is quite "forward" in your 38 foot room. It also dictates, to a large degree where the primary seating should be located. Here's some Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 diagrams for reference.

Basically, you put the main seating between the L&R Surround Speakers (which are at Ear level when seated or slightly above that) or the seating is a bit forward of the L&R Surround Speakers.

 

[Danzilla31]

When I get off today, I’m going upstairs to see exactly where the wires are located and put a picture up

I use the 300 focal in my theater room for my atmos speakers the Focal 300 ICLR5's and am very impressed with Focal. And I own 3 monoprice monolith towers for my bedroom and am very impressed with Monoprice as well

 

[-Jim-]

I'm trying not to suggest speakers until we know the total layout. But based on the location of the side and rear surround speakers, I wonder how much impact the rear surround speakers are going to have 38 feet away from the Fronts. Based on the photo, I'm thinking the start of the nook is less than 10 feet away from the front wall. The nook seems like an outside wall and not a good place to put in-wall speakers. I'm also guessing the speaker cables come out at a foot off the ground beside the wall plug.

If I'm wrong and the speaker cable comes out of the other wall of the nook, then maybe hang a bookshelf speaker off that wall, and put the other one on the cabinet on the right of the photo. Or do in-walls if the cables come out of the main walls of the room.

I just re-read post#30 and it stated "my seating will be 9 feet from wall". So I'm thinking this whole setup, unless there's a lot of rows of seating we aren't aware of, is certainly forward. At 9 feet a large TV (75 to 85 inch 4K or 8K) is definitely the way I'd go. If it's just for a single row of seating, then a 5.2.4 may be the way to go. (You can install in walls at the rear for parties when you use all stereo mode as the wiring is already there. Rear speakers 30 feet away seem too far for a Dolby setup for the rooms & receivers I've done.) The 9 foot width doesn't doesn't really push one towards large towers either. Once you pull them away from the walls a foot or two they'll be crowding the screen. Is there really a need to consume all of the budget? It just seems overkill to me.

Certainly need a good diagram to figure this out. Just draw it on a blank piece of paper and take a photo with your iPhone and post it. Thanks.

 

[Danzilla31]

I'm trying not to suggest speakers until we know the total layout. But based on the location of the side and rear surround speakers, I wonder how much impact the rear surround speakers are going to have 38 feet away from the Fronts. Based on the photo, I'm thinking the start of the nook is less than 10 feet away from the front wall. The nook seems like an outside wall and not a good place to put in-wall speakers. I'm also guessing the speaker cables come out at a foot off the ground beside the wall plug.

If I'm wrong and the speaker cable comes out of the other wall of the nook, then maybe hang a bookshelf speaker off that wall, and put the other one on the cabinet on the right of the photo. Or do in-walls if the cables come out of the main walls of the room.

I just re-read post#30 and it stated "my seating will be 9 feet from wall". So I'm thinking this whole setup, unless there's a lot of rows of seating we aren't aware of, is certainly forward. At 9 feet a large TV (75 to 85 inch 4K or 8K) is definitely the way I'd go. If it's just for a single row of seating, then a 5.2.4 may be the way to go. (You can install in walls at the rear for parties when you use all stereo mode as the wiring is already there. Rear speakers 30 feet away seem too far for a Dolby setup for the rooms & receivers I've done.) The 9 foot width doesn't doesn't really push one towards large towers either. Once you pull them away from the walls a foot or two they'll be crowding the screen. Is there really a need to consume all of the budget? It just seems overkill to me.

Certainly need a good diagram to figure this out. Just draw it on a blank piece of paper and take a photo with your iPhone and post it. Thanks.

Yeah we definetly need more info at 9 foot seating distance I'd go TV route or go acoustic transparent screen and projector for the inmersion and just put 3 good in walls behind you don't have to go crazy on the in walls either because your only 9 feet away.

I also was thinking like you 5 2.4 his rear surrounds would be 30 feet away. He'd have to have monster surrounds more capable then his mains!!!! And the rear surrounds don't have as much content as the front 3 do

Yeah we really need more info single row of seating multiple rows a diagram showing where it all is going to be placed in the room listening habits. But we are getting closer we do have room size a picture of the room seating distance and budget! So we are off to a good start

 

[Redjay]

 

[Redjay]

View attachment 55803

Hey fellas, finally found a diagram, I’m actually putting a sectional upstairs, so that will be one row of seating, my wife also has softened her stance on floor standers up front so that won’t be an issue, so I just got to go in walls for surrounds and rears or I just read in in one of your guys that I may need to go 5:2:4, I m actually open to either tv or projector, thanks again for such great advice guys!!

 

[-Jim-]

Hey fellas, finally found a diagram, I’m actually putting a sectional upstairs, so that will be one row of seating, my wife also has softened her stance on floor standers up front so that won’t be an issue, so I just got to go in walls for surrounds and rears or I just read in in one of your guys that I may need to go 5:2:4, I m actually open to either tv or projector, thanks again for such great advice guys!!

Thanks but the drawing resolution for the Bonus Room is too small. I've tried to manipulate it, but no joy.

I see no cable exit positions (from the walls or Atmos locations in the ceiling) marked, dimensions, nor seating locations. We only need the Bonus Room like I have above. Can you make it legible and reup it?

The window box is larger than I expected at over 1/3 of the room length (over 12 feet!) so based on that, your sectional is forward of it towards the TV wall. 2/3 of the space is not for HT (Home Theater).

Here's a sample of what is involved / needed for a 7.1.4 Atmos setup. This is one of the drafts of my Games Room (not to scale). One of 3 Home Theater setups in the house.

The space between the rear Atmos Speakers and the back wall has a High Table my wife wanted to play games on it. Hence the name of the Bonus Room which is above our garage.

I really should fix the sketch as the doorway, window box, and side surrounds are not in the right perspective with the couch. Everything is to Dolby Atmos Specs. (My wife and her decorator insisted on a sectional too. But I just wanted this sketch for the cable wiring when we did the big Reno about 4 years ago. (The whole Main Floor was done.) Even though the rear surround speakers are installed and wired in, I've never got around to installing a supplemental amplifier (which I have) to light them up. (Our Denon AVR-X4400H "only" drives 9 channels of amplification but will process 11.) There's already 4 speakers behind the main seating area, and I'm extremely doubtful any dramatic change will occur adding 2 more almost 10 fee back from my seat. By the way, 95%+ of the time, I'm the only one using this system. One of these days, just for grins, I'll try it as a 7.2.4. Yes, I added a second Sub as well.

I'm really trying to help you out, but without these details, I'm just guessing.

 

[Wardog555]

The overhead channels do not need to be in line with the fronts. It's all angle based and the diagrams can be misleading.

Yeah a higher resolution picture would definitely assist. And we can figure out where to place from there

 

[Redjay]

 

[Redjay]

The wires are permeating in the nook in the wall

 

[-Jim-]

The overhead channels do not need to be in line with the fronts. It's all angle based and the diagrams can be misleading.

Yeah a higher resolution picture would definitely assist. And we can figure out where to place from there

Why would you put a link to some YouTube in the middle of this Thread?

Have you ever read Dolby's published documents on this subject? Try looking at page 7 & 8 of Dolby Atmos Installation Guidelines

When you design a system of any type, you should try to comply with the specifications. If there is something that prevents you from meeting those specs, and you have to compromise, one should realize what they are doing and what impact it will have.

 

[-Jim-]

The wires are permeating in the nook in the wallView attachment 55819

@Redjay I've asked for a marked up diagram and answers to some very simple questions and I get this in reply. I was trying to assist. I give up.

Maybe another member will ferret out a decent response. I'm done.

 

[Redjay]

@Redjay I've asked for a marked up diagram and answers to some very simple questions and I get this in reply. I was trying to assist. I give up.

Maybe another member will ferret out a decent response. I'm done.

I’m new to home theater and maybe I don’t understand your questions or how to answer your questions or what to look for, I definitely didn’t mean to make anyone frustrated, I just need help with good brands for floor standing speakers, center channel, in walls , subs, av receiver, that’s all, can anyone else help, thanks

 

[Wardog555]

Denon, yamaha and marantz are great brands for av receivers. I'm personally a yamaha fan myself and own 3 now!

As to choosing one it depends on how many speakers your going to have. 7.1 receivers are a good start for Dolby atmos. Then you can get 9 and 11 channels which the cost goes up a decent amount.

 

[Redjay]

Denon, yamaha and marantz are great brands for av receivers. I'm personally a yamaha fan myself and own 3 now!

As to choosing one it depends on how many speakers your going to have. 7.1 receivers are a good start for Dolby atmos. Then you can get 9 and 11 channels which the cost goes up a decent amount.

Thanks, what about in walls or bookshelf speakers, I’m thinking about Kef Q 950’s and Kef Q650 for center channel

 

[Wardog555]

In that video I mentioned above the position of the overhead speakers are all angle based. And the height of the room. It doesn't matter if it lines up with the main front and left speakers.
In fact all the speakers are angle based!

Look between 10 and 14 minutes

I've seen multiple pieces of feedback from the video where people have changed their speakers based on this fact and it's made a difference to be much much better.

 

[Redjay]

In that video I mentioned above the position of the overhead speakers are all angle based. And the height of the room. It doesn't matter if it lines up with the main front and left speakers.
In fact all the speakers are angle based!

Look between 10 and 14 minutes

I've seen multiple pieces of feedback from the video where people have changed their speakers based on this fact and it's made a difference to be much much better.

Okay, thanks bro, I really appreciate your input and advice