New Construction Advice

[panteragstk]

Hey guys, been a while but I know this is the place to get advice for what I'm trying to figure out.

I am in the process of getting approved for a newly built house. I get to choose all the fun stuff that goes in and inspect everything along the way. Those that have done this know what I'm talking about.

I have picked where my main equipment closet will be that will house the media server, file server, switch, route, directv boxes and everything related.

What I haven't decided on is where to put the equipment rack for the theater room.

I have the option for a 7.1 "pre-wire" but who knows what the builder means by that. They won't let me do the wiring or this wouldn't be an issue. I've yet to talk to the person that would do this wiring, but I'm sure they'll either understand my needs, or be totally clueless.

Right now I have a 7.1 setup in my current theater. I have two rows of seats so I did two pairs of "side" speakers. Works great, but isn't common. I also have passive subs which isn't common either.

I also don't know what gauge wire they use. I currently have 12 gauge monoprice which has been working great. I'd like to keep i that way.

I have he option to put the equipment in-room, but I'm worried about heat from the HTPC, receiver and sub amp.

I could also put the rack on the other side of the wall in a nice cabinet that wouldn't really stand out all that much.

The theater is 15x16 so good size, but I don't know whether I'll be able to create a recess to put the equipment in or not. Attic access for that is up in the air at this early stage.

I could potentially put all of the theater equipment in the main closet, but I feel like wire runs that long aren't necessary. Especially considering the expense of HD base T. Plus that's a crapload of heat to get rid of in that closet. With the closet being on the first floor across the house from the second floor theater that may not be a great idea.

Another thing is I'm having them run is 2 dedicated circuits into the theater for all the amps and for future upgrades. I'm also having them do a cat6 run in every rg6 location which will solve my wifi issues (unless I decide to add more video zones, I doubt that).

I didn't do whole house audio just because the current options aren't that great and are expensive when I could just use chromecast/nexus player/shield tv or even squeezebox to get that done. Sonos is another decent option.

So, with all that what do you guys think? Theater equipment in the room or on the other side of the wall? In the main closet? Something else?

Would the floorplan help?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would put all the audio electronics in the ventilated (A/C) equipment closet. The HT room itself would just have the speakers + video display.

2 dedicated 20Amp circuits for HT and CAT6 & RG6 cables to every room is good.

Also:
1. Whole house surge protection
2. Whole house backup generator (use natural gas)
3. One HVAC Zone for each bedroom and HT room (WiFi thermostat for each zone)

If my darn construction loan is ever approved and I get to build my new house, I will also do:

1. Geothermal HVAC & water heating ($1K/Ton of AC local cash rebate + 30% gov rebate expires end of 2016)
2. Foam insulation
3. 20Amp circuits for every room

 

[TheWarrior]

+1 for having an A/C duct IN the closet. Also be mindful that any prewiring (and you should because you can) never runs parallel with electrical wiring, except at distances greater than 16 inches. And when it must cross, make it perpendicular.

12 ga is perfect, any bigger and you could have troubles with banana plugs or terminals themselves accepting 10 ga.

7.1 is meant to have one pair of side firing and one pair firing from the rear. If you are running 7 channels, and using the two rears as side mounted speakers, you could compromise your listener's envelopment.

How many subs do you have? Your overly square room could create some resonances in the form of 'booming' bass. More subs are good, but you may also need to have a budget for corner absorption.

 

[TheWarrior]

If you want a truly dedicated theater room, read the articles Gene posted about having his house custom built, I think it's under the AV Research tab...

 

[panteragstk]

Good points all around. I honestly just tried dual side speakers just to see how it sounded, pretty good.

If I'm going to do this right the first time I'll just grab some new speakers to help with side dispersion.

As for subs, I have two now on either side of the screen. I plan to add two more, but was going to just have two large dual driver subs on either side of the screen. If space allows (it should) I could do one in each corner. That's supposed to be the better way. I may look into an IB sub depending on attic access. That will have to be a discussion with the builder.

I will ventilate the equipment closet in my office using one of these. I'll have the HVAC contractor put that on the return that way it will always pull air into the closet. If I can I'll get them to duct a vent into the closet as well, but in months where the heat will be on I'll have to make sure it isn't open. Is there an article or thread you guys can point me to for a better way?

This is the rack I have. I haven't gotten to use it yet (haven't had time), but it is large enough to put all of my equipment in (including the theater room), but if I do that I'll lose future expandability. I think I'm going to put a smaller rack in the game room on the other side of the wall that way all that is in the theater is screen, projector, speakers and seats. Room treatments will come later. This will save quite a bit of cost since I have to have someone else wire this for me (not happy about that).

I had forgotten about whole house surge protection, I'll look into that.

I'll check Gene's articles again, been a while since I've read those.

 

[panteragstk]

Reading this now. Would have saved me the effort on some of the questions. Nice job by Cliff.

http://www.audioholics.com/diy-audio/tips-to-pre-wire-home-speakers

 

[panteragstk]

Another question would be to pre-wire for atmos/dts:x. Not sure I care, but maybe it would be nice to have in case I do decide to go that route?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Another question would be to pre-wire for atmos/dts:x. Not sure I care, but maybe it would be nice to have in case I do decide to go that route?

Pre-wiring is cheap. Remodeling not so much. Pre wire for any possibility. Just keep good records where the wire end is.
Obviously cannot think what might be in 20 years just do the best, especially that multi location wireless setup.
None of these were imagined when I built, sad to say.

 

[Rickster71]

If you have a basement or attic, install several conduit runs vertically. Make sure their diameters are large enough to accommodate wire with their connectors... and an extra run for future expansion.
Leave a pull string in the conduit for and future wire pulls.