my journey building a custom home theater

[randomuser]

Speaker choice is a tricky one. If you are looking at Revel, Focal and JBL Synthesis then you must have a healthy budget. You might want to add KEF and RBH to that list. Depends upon what your installer has available. Be very careful choosing in-walls. We have had members purchase expensive in-walls from Focal (for example, not just picking on them) only to learn that they had a nasty impedance curve that made them difficult to drive. Some sound plain bad even though the manufacturer has a good reputation. All five of those companies make great free standing speakers, but for in-walls I would look at JBL, RBH and KEF and use back boxes. Paradigm made great in-walls but I'm not familiar with their current line except for their in-ceiling speakers (which are quite good). I imagine their Elite and Pro series would compare well with the other brands. Try and listen to them in a demo room if at all possible as speaker preference can be a personal choice.

Thanks, I will check on RBH too, didn’t know about them, I currently have a budget of around 6k to 7.5k for the front LR speakers and probably another 2 for tbr center speaker. Surround may be 2k per pair of speakers and 2k for the 4 ceiling speakers.

 

[randomuser]

I don't entirely understand the layout you'd like in the room. Could you sketch up a simple floor plan?

Just to be clear, you don't necessarily need to put the rear speakers in the back wall. The speakers should be placed by degrees and depending on the dimensions of the room, 135° could be in your side walls or corners.

For example, I am planning a 9.4.4 layout in a room with no back wall either. (The side and rear speakers will be the same as 7.x.x)

My rear surrounds will be located (far back) in the side walls.


But also note that I am not suggesting you should do 5.x.x or 7.x.x. I'm not advocating for either per say. All I'm saying is that you should look at Dolby Atmos Studio guidelines/specs, as this version deals properly with speaker placement in degrees and

set your speakers up according to the recommended layout for the format you choose.

You could consider, since your walls are open, to run speaker wire for correct placement of 7 Ch surround, and just leave these on the wall (note the measurements on a floor plan) and build a 5 Ch layout now. That way, if you want to upgrade later, you can place the speakers in the correct spots with minimal damage.

Nicolai, I tried to get a picture of the loft layout, where the home theater is coming up, you will see on the left there are stairs coming from level 1 to level 2 adjacent to the loft, and on the right, we have a big window. this is where I have a challenge placing the side surround speakers, I can only imagine a speaker on a speaker stand but not on a wall, since a wall doesn't exist.

on the back end, I will loose about 2 ft for the door to the room 6 you see from the picute, which means I have 17ft in width in the front and 15ft at the back, and the length is 20 ft.

 

[randomuser]

 

[nicoleise]

Nicolai, I tried to get a picture of the loft layout, where the home theater is coming up, you will see on the left there are stairs coming from level 1 to level 2 adjacent to the loft, and on the right, we have a big window. this is where I have a challenge placing the side surround speakers, I can only imagine a speaker on a speaker stand but not on a wall, since a wall doesn't exist.

on the back end, I will loose about 2 ft for the door to the room 6 you see from the picute, which means I have 17ft in width in the front and 15ft at the back, and the length is 20 ft.

Thanks. The room seems to lend itself better towards a 5.x.x layout, but just to clarify, are you looking for surrounds to be in wall or to be "normal" speakers either mounted to the wall, in shelves, stands, etc.?

 

[randomuser]

Thanks. The room seems to lend itself better towards a 5.x.x layout, but just to clarify, are you looking for surrounds to be in wall or to be "normal" speakers either mounted to the wall, in shelves, stands, etc.?

Surrounds are going to be normal wall mounted speakers.

 

[randomuser]

I would like to seek your help in deciding the acoustic panels, I would like to -

1. understand the science behind how much to treat and not have the room sound dead. How do I calculate how much treatment is needed?

2. Is it necessary to treat the ceiling as well, entirety or a portion of it?

3. Bass traps are I guess important, do we need to treat the corners top to bottom or just a portion of it.

4 any recommendations on the brands? Something affordable and aesthetically good as well?
Thank you…

 

[Eppie]

I would like to seek your help in deciding the acoustic panels, I would like to -

1. understand the science behind how much to treat and not have the room sound dead. How do I calculate how much treatment is needed?

2. Is it necessary to treat the ceiling as well, entirety or a portion of it?

3. Bass traps are I guess important, do we need to treat the corners top to bottom or just a portion of it.

4 any recommendations on the brands? Something affordable and aesthetically good as well?
Thank you…

There is a definite science to proper acoustic treatment and in general forum members do not recommend randomly mounting panels in a room as it can make things worse if not done properly. If it is within your budget, the best option is to have a professional make the measurements in your room and produce a proper treatment plan. John Darko did a video on how he treated his apartment in Portugal:

Things like flooring material, carpeting (area rugs), furniture and window treatments will affect the room acoustics. You should get the room set up first and then think about treatment afterwards. A simple clap test can let you know if the decay time is too long. With no wall along the stairs and a large bay window on the other side, you are going to have very limited options for panel placement.

If you want to do this on a budget, I would recommend GIK Acoustics in Atlanta, GA. You can send them the floor plan with measurements and photographs of the room and they will recommend a panel layout (and they provide that service for free). They make standard monochrome panels but also have a service where you choose the photograph or artwork and they print it on the fabric, turning the panel into artwork. They have been in business for years and while their service would not be as good as having someone measure the room, it would be better than a DIY guessing game and their products are pretty good.

 

[nicoleise]

I would like to seek your help in deciding the acoustic panels, I would like to -

1. understand the science behind how much to treat and not have the room sound dead. How do I calculate how much treatment is needed?

2. Is it necessary to treat the ceiling as well, entirety or a portion of it?

3. Bass traps are I guess important, do we need to treat the corners top to bottom or just a portion of it.

4 any recommendations on the brands? Something affordable and aesthetically good as well?
Thank you…

Ah, sorry. Read your post, forgot to come back and reply.

Generally speaking I'll simply echo Eppie's answer, and add that if you're actually inclined to actually study how it works and what you should do, then these two, very long, videos are worth a watch in my opinion. I base this on your statement that you'd like to understand.

I think these covers all points mentioned, but in the same style there's a few live streams on subwoofers and using them as bass traps. I believe they call it active bass traps. You will likely be able to find them on Audioholics channel by search, but I'm also pretty much certain they'll show up as related to the videos below.

I think you can come away with a lot more understanding and some "actionable knowledge" from these.