Setting up my new HT - Need advice/experience

[Drewboy]

Alright guys I am new here, so I am looking for a lot of advice. I am currently living in a foreign country, but I have a new house complete with dedicated home theatre room waiting for e when I get back in a few months! I do however have a lot of questions, but I know the knowledge base here can help answer them.

For starters the room is roughly 15ft x 18ft, with a 6ft deep (12in tall) platform in the back for two levels of seating. The ceilings are about 10ft, with a 45 degree loft on the walls due to roof lines.

My first question has to do with speakers. I am looking at the speaker company PTIW6 (budget) or the NT (probably 25) line of in wall speakers for the front 3. My question is are the PT series going to be enough speaker to fill the room? Or should I really step up to the NTIW25s?

Next question has to do with mounting orientation of the speakers. The PT series are straightforward, but the NT I will have to mount vertically. Since they are a MTM design with the tweeter off center, should the tweeter be towards the middle of the room, or towards the walls? Also in looking at pre-paint pictures of the room my genius builder put a stud right in the middle of the room. So the center will be slightly off to one side, I am assuming that 3-4 inches off center will probably not be a very big deal, but I want to make sure. Also I assume mounting an NTIW25 speaker vertically will also not be a big deal even with the off axis tweeter, but please let me know if I am off base with that.

One last point is that the builder pre-wired into the lofted section of the wall/ceiling, so I am inclined to mount the speakers there. With aimable tweeters, I assume that this is an acceptable compromise as they will end up being directly over the screen (front projection) once it is installed.

OK sorry for the longish post, but I am really getting excited about having a dedicated HT, and just can’t wait to get started on it!

Thanks for the help,

Drew

 

[m_vanmeter]

for your front 3, please consider the NTIW26 as the smallest speakers to use and then PTIW6's for the surrounds. If you can possibly stretch your budget, NTIW28's would work even better for the front three, considering the size of your room. You may also want to consider 2 smaller subwoofers instead of one large one, and these should be in-room units.

The slight offset in the center channel speaker should not make much difference, as the tweeter positioning in the L-R units....you will be sitting far enough back you should notice little or no difference.

 

[lsiberian]

Alright guys I am new here, so I am looking for a lot of advice. I am currently living in a foreign country, but I have a new house complete with dedicated home theatre room waiting for e when I get back in a few months! I do however have a lot of questions, but I know the knowledge base here can help answer them.

For starters the room is roughly 15ft x 18ft, with a 6ft deep (12in tall) platform in the back for two levels of seating. The ceilings are about 10ft, with a 45 degree loft on the walls due to roof lines.

My first question has to do with speakers. I am looking at the speaker company PTIW6 (budget) or the NT (probably 25) line of in wall speakers for the front 3. My question is are the PT series going to be enough speaker to fill the room? Or should I really step up to the NTIW25s?

Next question has to do with mounting orientation of the speakers. The PT series are straightforward, but the NT I will have to mount vertically. Since they are a MTM design with the tweeter off center, should the tweeter be towards the middle of the room, or towards the walls? Also in looking at pre-paint pictures of the room my genius builder put a stud right in the middle of the room. So the center will be slightly off to one side, I am assuming that 3-4 inches off center will probably not be a very big deal, but I want to make sure. Also I assume mounting an NTIW25 speaker vertically will also not be a big deal even with the off axis tweeter, but please let me know if I am off base with that.

One last point is that the builder pre-wired into the lofted section of the wall/ceiling, so I am inclined to mount the speakers there. With aimable tweeters, I assume that this is an acceptable compromise as they will end up being directly over the screen (front projection) once it is installed.

OK sorry for the longish post, but I am really getting excited about having a dedicated HT, and just can’t wait to get started on it!

Thanks for the help,

Drew

This is a dedicated theater room. I think you should put real speakers in there. Not budget compromises. Your room is capable of much more. The easiest way to assure quality is to build your own speakers and subwoofers. Due to this being a dedicated room you can put some nice speakers into it.

You could build 7 very nice acoustically neutral speakers and a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect MidVQs. Maybe even four of them.

 

[Drewboy]

Ok, well I woudl be cool with building speakers, I am sure I could handle that, but I really want to go with in-wall, or maybe on wall speakers. I have young kids, and really I know they will just have to put their fingers on the cones of floorstanders. I have prior evidence in the form of plastic fruit in my subwoofer to prove my kids curiosity.

So where would you recommend I look for good speaker kits/plans? I am sure this has been beaten to death, but I haven't looked into this option before.

So what is wrong with the TSC NT series. The MB Quart seem to be really nice speakers, and these are just clones of them.

Thanks,

Drew

 

[bandphan]

Look at Niles Audio, Speakercraft,
Triad, Boston Accoustics, Pioneer, and Focal as some to consider.

 

[AVRat]

If you'd prefer in-walls, go with them. I'll second vanmeter's reply.

 

[Drewboy]

Sounds great, could you recommend any model numbers, or at least give me an idea of what size of speaker I should be looking at to fill the room? Also I would prefer speakers with back boxes (one reason I was attracted to the TSC speakers) to minimize sound transmission through the walls.

Thanks for the tips guys.