Somewhat new to custom home theater

[wmcj311]

Hi all,

In a previous career, I was designing, selling, setting up and sometimes operating LIVE audio setups. Loved it, and know that space fairly well (but it's been a few years.) Current home I'm in had surround sound installed already and came with the house. It's served me OK, but I didn't really feel like spending a whole lot of time finding and buying a new setup.

Currently building a new home that is going to be already WIRED for 5.1 in a dedicated movie room, and I'm looking to build out a custom solution. I firstly considered an in-wall setup, but that is not an option for a few reasons, unless I start tearing our dry wall and starting over with that.

Hoping to just get some ideas for a decent setup, specifically when it comes to the speakers. I already have an idea of the receiver I need, but I'll give an idea below of the plan.

Room is 11'1" X 19'X8", and 8' ceilings. ALL video and speaker lines will be run back to the walk-in closet in the room...and I will be installing a rack in that closet to hold everything.

Thought so far is to have the screen on the long wall, and seating for 4 or so. The home has 5.1 wiring already installed and run back to that closet...but the speaker lines are all run to the ceiling. I have been playing around with the idea of either ceiling mounted bookshelf, or thin on-wall speakers (I like the KEF T305 package),

Video has been run to the long wall already, and I'll be at least STARTING the layout that way with an 80ish" OLED. May consider doing a projector the other way down the line and rotate the room 90 degrees since the distance works better that way (electric is already run to the ceiling.) Seating and the narrow room for audio is the only thing that's kind of making me think twice though.

My real specialty is video, so I really only need help for the audio in this home theatre realm...but always willing to hear opinions.

Some needs:

Video - 4K or 8K with HDMI 2.1 needed (Xbox Series X). 3 minimum 4K inputs.
Audio - this room will ONLY be used for movies/TV and gaming. There will never be a situation for music only. I have another space dedicated for that. Want to start with 5.1 or 5.2, but might consider running Atmos down the line. The ceiling is VERY easy to access, and I have experience running lines in commercial spaces, so it would be a DIY if/when I decide to do that.

ANY help/recommendations are appreciated! Always love hearing

Room layout included.

 

[Wardog555]

Relocate those ceiling wires so it's at the correct placements for Dolby atmos. Add more wires for the base layer speakers in the correct spots.

All locations for speaker placement is based on angles from the main seating position.

I would figure this out first before designing everything else.

 

[Pandaman617]

Welcome to the forum! What’s your budget? Any wife acceptance type factor restraints? Most modern AVR’s will give you multiple HDMI 2.0B inputs but on modern Denon’s there’s only one HDMI 2.1 input and output. Figuring PS5 and Series X are the only devices coming close to using the 48GBPS 2.1 bandwidth recent model Denon’s and Marantz’s would be my suggestion in terms of an AVR. I recently went through a bit of drama going through 3 processors/AVR’s in about a month before finally returning to a Denon x6700h which I run in preamp mode and has performed flawlessly with my Series X and LG C1. If you can post your general budget and if you prefer retail or if second hand is an option I can give you some suggestions, that being said there are guys on here with light years more experience than myself. What I personally enjoy about Denon and Marantz products is the ability to use either the Audyssey MutliEQ Editor app ($19.99) or MultiEQ-X ($199.99 basically $214 with tax) to really dial in the sound in my 7.4.6 setup. Granted I don’t correct past 300-400hz but it’s been immensely helpful in getting great quality sound out of my horrible room. I also implemented a MiniDSP 2x4HD years ago which in unison with REW acoustical measurement software has been a game saver in terms of dialing in my 4 subs but that’s a whole different wormhole.