Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 Sep 13, 2010 1:26 pm I'm wdonering if people could check out the home theatre and give some advice and suggestions as to practical and affordable changes. Some ideas/questions: Put double doors to home theatre instead of walkways? We like glass doors - is this sonically bad? Leave at high ceiling or have standard 28c ceiling - recesses will cost too much I think. What type of wiring and speaker placement - should I plan for wall mounted rears and surrounds? I prefer floor standing speakers and was told to have them wide apart. We are intending to make the window one of those very sall strips at the top of wall instead of large window and use honeycomb blinds to window and doors (if we put them in). Any advice appreciated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: House plans - advice on home theatre plan please 2Sep 13, 2010 2:08 pm Hi Mazstar, Rod will give you great advice but I've also gone through this so I'll chip in my 2cents worth; Definitely have doors. You need to isolate this area as much as you can from what's going on outside and vice versa. Any hard material like glass will bounce the sound so it's usually avoided but as the doors will really be "behind" the front speakers, it probably isn't going to be that bad. Floor standing fronts should be fine. If you meant floor standing rears, I can't see anything wrong with that but I haven't seen many with that configuration. usually they are smaller but they can easily be mounted on floor stands to put them up at the right height. Make sure then to run the speaker wire to a wall panel for easy connection. The external walls will always have some kind of window so that's not a problem. I nice thick blackout curtain will also stop the sound bounce. Definitely pre-wire the 5.1 surround into the walls for speakers. Don't bother with 7.1, the room isn't deep enough. Don't forget to pre-wire between the projector and where the AV gear will sit. Figure out how many power points you'll need too. The tall ceiling is good. 2700 is a good height for the whole house, don't make the theatre room any lower. Think about getting some acoustic batts into the walls. Hope that helps. SK Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34120 Handover 23 Dec 11 Squatting 21 Dec 11 Fixed 12 Oct 11 Plastered 31 Aug 2011 Framed 7 June 2011 Site Start 7 Feb 2011 Land Titled 18 Jan 2010 Land Deposit 25 Jun 2009 Re: House plans - advice on home theatre plan please 3Sep 13, 2010 2:13 pm Eskay40 Hi Mazstar, Definitely have doors. You need to isolate this area as much as you can from what's going on outside and vice versa. Any hard material like glass will bounce the sound so it's usually avoided but as the doors will really be "behind" the front speakers, it probably isn't going to be that bad. Floor standing fronts should be fine. If you meant floor standing rears, I can't see anything wrong with that but I haven't seen many with that configuration. usually they are smaller but they can easily be mounted on floor stands to put them up at the right height. Make sure then to run the speaker wire to a wall panel for easy connection. The external walls will always have some kind of window so that's not a problem. I nice thick blackout curtain will also stop the sound bounce. Definitely pre-wire the 5.1 surround into the walls for speakers. Don't bother with 7.1, the room isn't deep enough. Don't forget to pre-wire between the projector and where the AV gear will sit. Figure out how many power points you'll need too. The tall ceiling is good. 2700 is a good height for the whole house, don't make the theatre room any lower. Think about getting some acoustic batts into the walls. SK Cheers, mate. The way we had thought of changing it is that that we brick the wall where entrances are and on that same wall have double doors in the middle (or corner). We would have our couch against the window wall and face towards the kitchen. So we would have glass doors on the left hand side. I would plan to have either rears on stands or up on the wall. Once again, I'm no expert. Really appreciate advice, thanks! Re: House plans - advice on home theatre plan please 4Sep 14, 2010 9:36 am mazstar1980 The way we had thought of changing it is that that we brick the wall where entrances are and on that same wall have double doors in the middle (or corner). We would have our couch against the window wall and face towards the kitchen. So we would have glass doors on the left hand side. I would also do the above but would not make it a brick wall - plaster/stud will be sufficient, and cheaper, just fill it with decent insulation. Don't know if I'd use glass doors there - just makes another area where controlling light is difficult (if you are going for a projector), however aesthetics are also important so it's up to you. mazstar1980 I would plan to have either rears on stands or up on the wall. Once again, I'm no expert. Really appreciate advice, thanks! I think the only reason to put speakers on stands is if you think their placement is temporary or you are going to use traditional bookshelf speakers and for one reason or another really don't like the idea of bracket-mounting them. Mounting the speakers on the wall or in the wall/ceiling for your surrounds is a very neat way to do it and as the job these speakers do is not quite as critical as your front three then you have a large scope for how you want to do it... Re: House plans - advice on home theatre plan please 5Sep 27, 2010 12:10 am Hi mazstar1980 I like that plan, it was one we considered. I gather you are still in the planning phases of building? If you are wanting a more 'serious' dedicated HT, I would personally move the doors to the kitchen side and brick up the family room wall (assuming it's not built, the builder will want to use brick Rodda since they are in WA). I would also recommend using solid doors. With the doors moved you don't have to worry too much what they look like, and you can better shield the living areas from the HT sound. As Eskay said, with the doors on the side (especially glass) you would have sound reflection to worry about as well. Plus you get a full wall in the family room for furniture etc. And: Eskay40 ...Floor standing fronts should be fine. ....Definitely pre-wire the 5.1 surround into the walls for speakers. Don't bother with 7.1, the room isn't deep enough. And definitely: Eskay40 Don't forget to pre-wire between the projector and where the AV gear will sit. Figure out how many power points you'll need too. Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6884 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 17552 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 5806 |