Home Theatre in New House (construction under way)

[sfooz32]

Hey all,

I read around the forum as much as I could and tried to soak up the knowledge you guys have spilled in the other threads. Taking what I could find, I put together a small (and crappy) diagram of my room in the basement I am using to for home theatre.

Basically at this point I am getting the plan together to rough everything in. I do not have all the components, etc yet. So my request for help is to make sure I am doing all the ground work as best as possible.

I will try to get as much info down as possible to help you help me!!!

1) The room is 17 X 27 with a few doors and a staircase in it (not the best for sound, but its what I got).
2) I would like to wire for 7.1/7.2 even though I will probably only have 5.1 to start with.
3) I will be using a Front Projector and would prefer a ceiling mount.
4) All components will be stored in the back room (utility room) out of the way. I plan to run a pipe (size?) from the utility room to the projector mount point.
5) I plan to run double speaker wire to all speaker receptacles and possible 3 to the front ones. (sub(s)).
6) Power for the room will include 2-3 on the top wall (diagram) with the screen and speakers, plus one in the celiling for the possible future of a powered screen. Several plugs around the walls and 1 at the projector mount point. Since the components will all be in the back room there is not much need for other power (?).

Ok so that is the basics I have at this point. I have been gathering info for the gauge of wires required based on distances etc, and everything seems in spec for speakers. I have not been able to find a good source for cable lengths of component cables/etc.

Things I need to do:

1) Find the projector mount I will be using
2) Find out what cables I will all need to run from the projector to the back room.
3) Distances for speaker receptacle locations with respect to walls etc (without the speakers this will be rough?)
4) Everything else I am missing.

NOTE: I did not draw the power receptacles on the diagram, only the speaker ones.

Please review my crappy diagram and try to give me some insight as to what I may be doing wrong or am missing, or just things you would suggest.

The concrete is going in this week I believe, and I have the electrician in next week, I may ask him to run the speaker wire for me, or do it myself when he is in.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have. (feel free to just point me to links, I am not afraid of reading).

Scott

 

[ScottMayo]

17'x27' is a good sized room. Look into acoustic treatments to cut down the echo. There's plenty of discussion here on that topic.

Unless you have strange, super twitchy speakers and some sort of weird amp that's prone to instability, 12ga wire should be all you need for the speakers. 10ga if you're nervous.

 

[bpape]

I don't know if the speaker location/screen is to scale or not but assuming it is....

Try to get your speakers out of the corners a bit more. Looks like you have plenty of space to do so. Speakers in the corners will do a better job of exciting more of the room modes and at a higher level. While corners provide the most output due to boundary reinforcement, they also generally provide the worst frequency response in terms of smoothness.

Also, having the speakers closer to the edge of the screen will make the pans more realistic and 'hard' sounds (those all in 1 speaker) stay close to the image as opposed to off the screen.

Bryan