New House and dedicated Cinema room

warjam1945 · 20-01-2009, 2:56 PM

Hi

I have been looking at avforums for a long time now and reading through posts on home cinema installs and NOW MY TIME HAS COME!!!! HA HA AH AH HAH A H AH A...... Anyway I have a room 6000 my 6000 that I have set aside to use as my home cinema. Me and my brother in law (electrician) will do most of the work ourselves but if someone could tell me what to use equipment wise I would eternally be grateful. I was hoping to send about 8 - 10 at the most on equipment. I am going to America for the house furniture and I am sure I will get something there. I am also top hating the walls and sound insulating them as well as using sound boards. (I run a Plaster boarding company). As I said before any help is a big help.

Thanks in advance

James Bradley

DGracey · 20-01-2009, 8:55 PM

Welcome to the forum. There is all the advice to probably need here. Good Luck and enjoy.

Gary Lightfoot · 20-01-2009, 9:19 PM

If Top Hat is like resilient bars I would try not to use them. They are great for soundproofing but can sometimes cause acoustic problems by turning the walls into diaphragmic absorbers and you can end up with no bass. Use the stud wall/insulation/double plasterboard method and you should be fine (with 1" gap between old wall and new 4x2 stud).

Gary

hornydragon · 20-01-2009, 11:03 PM

8 - 10 what?

warjam1945 · 20-01-2009, 11:56 PM

8000 to 10000 and want the top of the line picture and sound.

The Prof. · 21-01-2009, 12:41 AM

James,

I don't want to burst your bubble..but a room 6M.x 6M. are awful dimensions, acoustically speaking..
You will have extreme peaks and dips in your frequency response..and they are very hard to control, even with acoustic treatments..

My recommendations..if it's within your budget..is to build a false wall down one side to narrow the room to maybe 5M. wide..
That will help things considerably..
It only needs be a basic timber frame, covered with you free plasterboard..

warjam1945 · 21-01-2009, 9:34 AM

I forgot to mention that on one side of the room the room there is a stairwell coming up from downstairs. It will be 1200 wide and probably run 3000 into the room. I was thinking of then run a stud wall all the way to one side which would leave the room 4800 x 6000. What would that come out like?

Da_Rude_Baboon · 21-01-2009, 1:28 PM

Would that also give you a cupboard to keep your kit in?

warjam1945 · 21-01-2009, 2:16 PM

Yep i was thinking that and from reading Avforums it would have to be a glass door maybe tinted black. What i am afraid of is that i will screw up the surround sound and projector settings. What way can i correctly without professional help?

The Prof. · 22-01-2009, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

I forgot to mention that on one side of the room the room there is a stairwell coming up from downstairs. It will be 1200 wide and probably run 3000 into the room. I was thinking of then run a stud wall all the way to one side which would leave the room 4800 x 6000. What would that come out like?

That sounds like it will be OK..
If you can give us a plan drawing of the proposed room area, we can give recommendations for speaker placement etc..

Isco 3 · 22-01-2009, 3:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

8000 to 10000 and want the top of the line picture and sound.

Υοu can buy some decent gear, but nothing close to "top of the line."

If you want to light a big screen up you'd need some serious horsepower. Cheapest 3-chip DLP projector starts at £23k and a transparent screen with motorised masking should be around £15k.

If you have never built a room-in-a room before, you will need to read a bit in the forums. The floor needs to be suspended too. Any hard contacts should be minimised, and a silencer needs to be designed for your HVAC system. The design would be relevant to the branches, type of fan, rpms, fins etc. It is a bit more complicated from what it seems. You can model very accurately the noise that will reach your seating position from the HVAC opening!

I do not want to put you off; I am only suggesting you spend some more time organising things properly. You can update speakers at a later date. You can't do much with a bad room!

hornydragon · 22-01-2009, 9:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

Yep i was thinking that and from reading Avforums it would have to be a glass door maybe tinted black. What i am afraid of is that i will screw up the surround sound and projector settings. What way can i correctly without professional help?

Why a glass door? I would look at putting in a 19" Rack to the space for the kit. As isco suggests £10/€10k isnt going to be top of the line but can be very nice if you went down the fully installed route and budget was just for hardware then its do able

warjam1945 · 22-01-2009, 9:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isco 3

Υοu can buy some decent gear, but nothing close to "top of the line."

If you want to light a big screen up you'd need some serious horsepower. Cheapest 3-chip DLP projector starts at £23k and a transparent screen with motorised masking should be around £15k.

If you have never built a room-in-a room before, you will need to read a bit in the forums. The floor needs to be suspended too. Any hard contacts should be minimised, and a silencer needs to be designed for your HVAC system. The design would be relevant to the branches, type of fan, rpms, fins etc. It is a bit more complicated from what it seems. You can model very accurately the noise that will reach your seating position from the HVAC opening!

I do not want to put you off; I am only suggesting you spend some more time organising things properly. You can update speakers at a later date. You can't do much with a bad room!

23k for projector and 15k for screen boy was i off the mark. Anyway small question what is and why a transparent screen with motorised masking?

what ratio of money would you send on display to sound 70/30?

dj-dulux · 22-01-2009, 10:09 AM

We do a couple of cheaper 3 chip projectors, but not much if you want 1080!

As far as your ratio, I tend to go more towards 50/50, I think that many people consider sound as a second priority and this is wrong in my view. Your budget is OK, for 10k you can get a very special room.

Where are you based?

Dupe...

warjam1945 · 22-01-2009, 10:54 AM

north of Ireland and i was looking at a 3 chip projectors i seen one for 8000. It wouldn't be feasible to come from England to install my home cinema system would it?

dj-dulux · 22-01-2009, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

north of Ireland and i was looking at a 3 chip projectors i seen one for 8000. It wouldn't be feasible to come from England to install my home cinema system would it?

Which town?

For your budget a Sim2 D80e would fit the bill nicely, single chip 1080p.

Dupe...

warjam1945 · 22-01-2009, 5:35 PM

Outside omagh. Why would you travel and could i get the 7.1 and full hd projector with all the bells and whistles for 10k?

warjam1945 · 23-01-2009, 12:32 PM

Looking at her room again it seems small but thats maybe the impression the block walls give off. Would i be better to send the money on sound proofing the walls or on a decent screen and surround system I will post pics soon.

geo99 · 23-01-2009, 1:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

north of Ireland and i was looking at a 3 chip projectors i seen one for 8000. It wouldn't be feasible to come from England to install my home cinema system would it?

Hi mate,

Can't tell if your in Rep Ireland or Northern Ireland mate but i have a contact in Belfast (Northern Ireland).

And if your from this neck of the woods - Good to have yet another Norn Iron AVF'er!!!

Cheers and good luck

warjam1945 · 25-01-2009, 11:11 AM

Must get a closer picture and one of the cinema room itself but here a few pics of the house to get an idea. Tell me what you think and don't be shy!!

warjam1945 · 18-02-2009, 9:05 AM

Bite the bullet and told the local av guy to get cracking wiring the whole house for tv,Sky,data and phone and alos nuvo sound system in 8 rooms is £3700. (The cost of the nuvo not included just the speakers)

warjam1945 · 10-03-2009, 3:44 PM

Hi

I know i posting in my own page but i was wondering if you Av heads could look at my home cinema room now and give me some suggestions before it goes to far forward. Like jousted floor or sound damping wall materials. What speakers system and what fixed screen and projector.

thanks

James Bradley

Gary Lightfoot · 10-03-2009, 5:59 PM

Is that resiliant bar on the walls? Usually for soundproofing, you'd build a stud wall from 4 x 2s one inch away from your existing walls and fill it with insulation. Then you fit two layers of plasterboard over that and seal all edges with silicon rubber to ensure no leaks (make sure the second layer of pb overlaps the joins in the first layer).

You could start with teh floor - beams on islolation mounts to insualte from the floor (and not touching the walls), then the walls on top of that followed by the ceiling. That way you've built a room within a room that is isolated from the existing structure and removed a great deal of the pathways for sound to get to the outside.

If you're not bothered about sound isolation then ignore the above.

Acoustics are a different kettle of fish of course and are additional to the soundproofing.

Gary

warjam1945 · 10-03-2009, 7:39 PM

Whats the need for the sound proofing? Too stop it bleeding inot other rooms or the the other rooms bleeding into it?

Gary Lightfoot · 10-03-2009, 8:18 PM

Either or both, or to stop the neighbours from hearing. Doesn't matter if none of those apply to you though.

Gary

warjam1945 · 11-03-2009, 9:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Lightfoot

Either or both, or to stop the neighbours from hearing. Doesn't matter if none of those apply to you though.

Gary

That's not a issue. I live in the middle of no where. But i want the acoustics right. What steps should i take? I seen stuff that you stick to the wall. The same stuff you get at the cinema. Like a fabric wall?

Gary Lightfoot · 11-03-2009, 7:47 PM

There's a lot to be said being detached.

For multi channel audio (i.e 5.1 or more), you'll want the walls below ear height to be acoustically dead, and the walls above reflective. The cheapest method with unpredictable results is foam backed carpet glued to the walls (worked for me - use thick wallpaper paste so it can be steam removed later if necessary). Use a dado rail or similar to make a nice finish. Leave the walls above but if you want to make them less reflective for light (so light from the screen doesn't bounce back from the walls back onto the screen) you can use a black material like velvet or maplins speaker grill felt. Being accoustically transparent it won't effect the audio too much.

The screen wall should be totally dead as well, and put carpet on the floor. Try and make the room decor as dark as possible to reduce light reflections - you can get a lot of reflected light from the ceiling so don't forget about that.

A better alternative is to get in a professional who will use software to map the room reflections and use proper treatments to tame first reflections and use diffusers where needed for better and more predictable results.

If you're more of an audio perrson the pro route may be a better solution. I'm less concerned with the audio so the diy route was fine for me.

What you could do is see what the room sounds like before adding any treatments to it and then decide if it needs them. I had a lot of echo in my room but the carpet cured that for me.

Gary

warjam1945 · 12-03-2009, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Lightfoot

There's a lot to be said being detached.

For multi channel audio (i.e 5.1 or more), you'll want the walls below ear height to be acoustically dead, and the walls above reflective. The cheapest method with unpredictable results is foam backed carpet glued to the walls (worked for me - use thick wallpaper paste so it can be steam removed later if necessary). Use a dado rail or similar to make a nice finish. Leave the walls above but if you want to make them less reflective for light (so light from the screen doesn't bounce back from the walls back onto the screen) you can use a black material like velvet or maplins speaker grill felt. Being accoustically transparent it won't effect the audio too much.

Gary

This there any wood that is acoustically dead i.e oak,cedar,walnut?

Gary Lightfoot · 12-03-2009, 9:33 PM

I would think that being a hard surface, wood would be quite reflective. If you're thinking of wood for flooring, then a rug might help tame any audio reflections.

Gary

Isco 3 · 12-03-2009, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warjam1945

Whats the need for the sound proofing? Too stop it bleeding inot other rooms or the the other rooms bleeding into it?

The idea is creating a quiet room of a very low NC rating. That would give you a bigger dynamic range, regardless if you have neighbours or not.
Avoid the wooden floor, like Gary said.