Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Lets plan a theater space

Sounds like my attic. Just put ________ up there.

I dread the day that we ever move and I have to haul all of that crap down from the attic.

Sometimes I wish that I could get a dumpster delivered and just start cleanup out crap.

As for the space, how far is it from the "offending" post to the wall? How far to the next post? LVL can hold quite a good span.

16ft total, 8 feet each way.

Changes changes.... I'm now not "allowed" to fill in the basement theater room window openings as planned with cinder block. Married life comes with a price. I will still put a plug into the window behind the screen wall. The others will get some decent blinds I guess. Not ideal.

I did convince her that a door on the space is a good idea. I also pointed out an architectural sound absorber hanging in a store and she liked it. Cedar ceiling cloud sorted. Since cedar is such a pretty material, might as well make the back wall a skyline diffuser array with a media shelf integrated. So I lost one and won some.



This results in some other minor changes. The soffit idea is dead. No rope lighting around the room perimeter. Sucks. I really covet that look in everyone else's rooms I view for inspiration. ahem Nick.

Since I've been halted by waiting on others (who says engineers aren't timely.....) I've had the opportunity to check out some fabric sites to get ideas for covering acoustic treatments. This lead to a complete overhaul of the room color/texture scheme and the inclusion of Western Red Cedar as the highlight tone for the room. I've always liked the smell and look of cedar accents in spaces. Hopefully this idea will jive with carpet later.

The leading contender for fabric so far is "Grey Ages"



I've also scrapped the idea of having the equipment rack flush in the room space. Instead I will have it mounted in a cabinet outside of the room with an IR repeater module in the screen wall. I've read all over that this improves immersion in the movie. Less lights and counters for distraction I guess.

So far it is still in the conceptual stages, but as far as I am concerned the design phase is over. Any changes now will be running changes as the room is built and dimensions vary slightly. I still have to find sconces that will compliment the fabric panel scheme.

The jury is still out on to be or not to be an early ATMOS adopter. 7.2.4 is attractive for this space according to the early literature. But, as mentioned, Dolby's market share for movie soundtracks seems to be dwindling these days.

The only major issue I can see is a speaker in the walking path immediately entering the room. Hopefully it snugs up to the ceiling without too much coloration.

Here are some pics of the new rendering.

Those are great renders. I initially thought they were photographs, but I was struggling to identify the tower speakers in the first pic.

For the two windows, could you make some kind of shutters with strong hinges and heavy material that did a good job of obscuring the window when closed ? I'm seeing a picture in my head of a soffit around the perimeter with a sort of multi-hinged section combining soffit material and painted wood/drywall over each window so you could open it flat against the ceiling when you wanted windows but fold it back to become part of the soffit & wall when doing the HT thing. Sort of an upside-down appliance garage.

While you're at it, I think I remember seeing "powered speakers" somewhere that moved into position when you dimmed the lights. I bet it wouldn't cost much to put a linear actuator on the surround speaker near the door so it normally sat near the ceiling but moved down when you dimmed the lights.

Not only would you gain convenience when the room was being used for non-movie activities, but you would have never-ending hilarity as people walked into the speaker in the dark.

If you get your soffit & rope lights back I guess you could dimly illuminate the speaker, but where's the fun in that ?

Looks good, very nice. Congrats
Having your equipment outside the room lowers the noise floor.

The renders look nice.

You mentioned the rope lighting around the room. Honestly, it pretty much never gets used anyway.

As for Atmos and the "Dolby market share" at home, with most studios going with DTS-HD Master Audio, I agree. However, DTS is working on their own object based audio similar to Atmos, and there is also AURA 3D (which I don't think will ever get traction since it isn't DTS or Dobly), but like I said, there will be something from DTS within the next year. I would say plan and wire for overhead speakers. Run the cables in the ceiling with plenty of wire, mark where they end up in the ceiling, take measurements, and document their location. Leave plenty up there since you might need to "fish" it to a slightly different location later on. Wire is cheap in the scheme of a room, and even if you never use it, that would be better than wanting it later and not having the wires there at all (like me).

It is amazing how much changed in a couple of years for me. I had to have the equipment rack in my room because of the ease of putting a movie into the blu-ray player (without having to go outside of the theater or something. Now I have a nice HTPC and we almost never use discs any more, so it doesn't matter. I have actually been working a little bit on my theater again to finally get some exhaust venting (done now) and the equipment rack in the back of the room actually built in the space and not having an old stand alone audio furniture piece that never fit into the space taken out. I only need to make 2 more shelves and clean up the cabling and it is done. With that said, every device back there has displays or little LEDs that can be dimmed or turned off. The lights from the devices really aren't a problem at all. I wouldn't want them in the front of the room, and while I did run cabling for a IR repeater system when I build my theater, I don't use it at all. I bounce the IR signal off of the screen and it makes it back to the projector and equipment rack perfectly fine (as long as there is line-of-site, which there is now that I am building the rack the way that I want to.

Just throwing that out. A separate room is better for any noise/heat isolation, but if you much have some equipment in the room, put it in the back and up high enough to not have the IR signal blocked by things like seating, and you will be just fine without a repeat.

Which reminds me. I need to advertise my 2 IR repeater systems. One is a nice Logitech unit, and the other is a slick setup that connects up via your HDMI cable. Anyway, that is another story.

Thanks for the kind words. I've always loved the planning aspect of all my hobbies. Figuring stuff out is always half the fun. It's kind of hard not to shoot big. You guys have made some pretty inspirational rooms to follow along with others.

I guess I'll let the rope light scenario go. I'm not going to die on that hill when it comes to trying to convince the wife that escape hatch window panels are plausible. It was a great idea that wouldn't have even occured to me.

Another great idea is the motion speaker mount. I totally get it. Kind of like a recessed projector mount. The me a few years ago would have been all over that. Having made a couple of Lumenlab DIY projectors over the years, the wife is tired of frankenstein projects. Probably for the better.

I will scale back the couch from what we were planning for. I have a new render with a new sofa's dimensions in mind. Anyone ever bought a sofa online from www.wayfair.com before?

I think it will be doable. I was hoping for seating for 6. But realistically, it will be just the 2 of us 90% of the time anyway.



Nick, you are absolutely right. I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't at least pull the wire while I had the chance. I'll be sure to add 4 ceiling drops in the squareish pattern at Dolby's site.

It will be a while before I upgrade my receiver to one capable of 11 channels, but I will be prepared for down the road.

Bridgman, the speakers are nondescript in the render by design. They aren't Axioms and I didn't want to make a rude impression here. Axioms were on the table at one time, but when I went shopping for my brother's theater speakers a deal jumped at me I couldn't pass up.

I picked up a package of Mordaunt Short speakers on closeout for about 50% of MSRP. They are fantastic. (For now) I couldn't imagine owning anything else. Until I audition some Axioms in person and get the feel for them I wont know what I'm missing. I did listen to Paradigm studio series speakers, which are often compared to axioms. So I might have an inkling about their flavour.

This is the system I picked up. I opted for 2 floor standers as surrounds at the time because they were such a deal. A year and a half later, I scrambled to get a set of matching bookshelves to make a 7 channel setup. I think I picked up the last "new in box" pair in black in all of Canada out of Montreal. Cutting it close.... 2 SVS sealed subs round out the bunch.

http://www.soundandvision.com/content/mordaunt-short-mezzo-6-speaker-system

I don't mind sharing, as I don't think they can be bought anywhere now.

We auditioned a LOT of speakers at all the big box stores and then out of curiosity went to some of the high end shops back in Calgary. I'm sure glad we did. We listened to some uber dollar setups that completely changed my direction in the hobby. My focus went from feature driven bang for buck products to being purely reproduction obsessed.

My brother picked up a high dollar setup that trounces mine on paper. But my OCD about synergy and setup had always left him scratching his head when we compared the end results.

Thus began my acoustics oddyssey... never ending as I'm sure you know from your experiments. Such a fun hobby! Boy I can ramble on.....

Sounds like you're making great progress -- even the annoying details ("ow, my head") are getting solved.

Making the couch shorter is the kind of idea that would never have occurred to me

I'll just mention one more option for the windows & soffit -- do a Google image search on "egress window". Basically dig down so you can have a taller window in an enlarged window well with steps, in your case starting below the rim of the soffit. You sell it as a safety thing, of course.

That said, if it's the rope light that matters and the soffit is just a way to contain it, the best rope light solutions I have seen involved a free-form structure built down from the ceiling away from the edges of the room, like what you have at the first reflection point on the ceiling now. Just extend it back, give it a cool shape, and run the lights around the perimeter.

BTW I love that slatted wood look you have at the first reflection point, but wondering if it might reflect a bit too much. Maybe space the slats further apart or cut a "wave" shape into the supports so the surface is rippled ? Maybe extend the structure further back and have variable slat spacing, far apart over the FRP so the absorbing material behind the slats can work, then closer over the listeners ?

I could probably move the ceiling cloud back as far as I like. There will be no direct overhead lighting to compete with for space/shadows. I just have to ensure the position wont conflict with the tentative locations of future ATMOS speakers.

I plan on building the room and placing the speakers before the front wall is built. This way I can adjust and cheat the false wall forward or back as needed. Everything is precalculated to be pretty darn close already so far as I can figure. The program I am using makes it hard to triangulate the ceiling FRP with any accuracy. I have to draw it out on paper I think.

Increasing the spaces between slats is a good idea. I dont want to reject mid to high frequencies. I may also mitre the leading edge at 45 degrees to cheat a little more space in without being visible from the seating locations. Every little bit helps I guess.

See, I knew I wasn't done planning yet..... Will I ever be is the question.

It just occurred to me that a big cloud-thing in the middle of the ceiling would probably be an ideal place to hide Atmos speakers.

I've been planning for at least 30 years... it's the building part that I'm not so good at