Home theatre layout - a bit of help needed

Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice from the experts on a home theatre.

My house was finished about 18 months ago and I'm now trying to work out how to make use of the home theatre room. Due to budget constraints I never did anything to set this up when the house was being built and a couple of dumb decisions on my part now result in a room which is less than desireable. I've attached a couple of pictures to explain the problem. The room is 4.4m x 3.8m and the columns are about 0.5 x 0.7m and 0.5 x 0.5m.




The main problem is the room has two columns in each corner which are just hollow plaster features. This is pretty much dead on where the front speakers will need to go. The other problem is that the room is open and has no door to close it off from the rest of the house. From a point of view of what is acceptable in terms of noise this is not an issue because I live by myself so there is no WAF.

I've been to a store which specializies in home theatre before and their approach was very much no compromise - rip it all out and start again. Their belief is that the front speakers should be free standing and have space around them to get the best sound. They also didn't like the idea of the room being open and not having a door to shut it off. My total budget including everything would be maybe 15 grand depending on where the money goes. I think some stores have expectations that are out of my league and others will probably sell me anything and tell me it will be fine.

So the way I see it is I have a few options.

1. Use in wall speakers for the fronts and regular speakers everywhere else.
2. Make a boxed section in each column to house floor standing or bookshelf speakers.
3. The most expensive option is to remove both columns completely (they are seperate from the rest of the stud wall and can be removed) and put a door in then have the areas re-plastered, re-carpeted, re-tiled etc. I'd say this will cost at least 2.5 grand and thats if I did some of it myself. Getting tradesmen to actually come and do it will no doubt be a problem.

The in wall speaker option is the easiest by miles and the money I'd save in changing the room could be spent on better speakers anyway. However these would be about 450mm proud of the screen and obviously a permanent fixture.

In some ways I figure just change the room and then I'd have a fairly ideal room (bit small but its only for me) and can do anything. In other ways I really don't want the hassle of having all the work done and the messing around. I've looked at hundreds of home theatres online and I'm yet to see one that is designed the way mine is which makes me figure its a bad design. However I've seen plenty that have the front speakers hidden or in cabinets which is exactly what the audio specialists say not to do.

So any advice (Rod, Matt, anyone...) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Mozzie,
it's not that bad a room really. possibly the only changes you could make is to add a door frame and door to the room. The screen obviously would go between the columns and I would suggest using Axiom in wall speakers for great sound and a nice flush look to the columns (see here http://www.axiomaudio.com/wallspeakers.html )

There is nothing wrong with having the front speakers proud of the screen itself, and going with In-walls is a great idea and if you get good ones then you're really not compromising on the quality of your cinema's performance either (I didn't ). Here is my last dedicated room:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~rnhcork1/G ... h%2003.jpg

There are heaps of brands of quality In-wall speakers available to us. For example the ones pictured above are pretty serious - Elan MP800W (RRP $1799 pair), but you can get as good a result from less $$. Brands like Jamo, Elan, and especially Paradigm make quality In-wall and In-ceiling speakers (heck, Jamo make a pair that retails for about $3900) that are quite affordable and sound great.

Thanks for the replies, Rod and Asha.

That picture makes me feel alot more at ease as it's pretty similar to my scenario, so thanks for posting that up Rod. It sounds like a better find some places which can demo in wall speakers so I can hear them and get an idea of what to expect. Hopefully I can match them with regular centre and rear speakers as there is no reason to use in walls for those.