Home cinema project, involving accoustics, speaker, projector and receiver..

[fiepfiep]

Hi folks,

I'll start with a short introduction.
I'm 18 years old, and an electronics engineering student.
My parents and I are going to convert my attic into a home cinema.
My budget is uhm, quite big

I've made a sketch in google sketchup, see attachment.
The dimensions of the room are 4.1*7.4metres. The problem of this place is that the walls are angled.
I wonder if this has an influence on the accoustics, and what I should do about it.

I also wonder if i should split the room, as done in the attachment. (The wall isn't there right now) Because the room could be too big?

I also wonder if i should buy 7.1 or 5.1 surround, will it be a big difference?

The setup I was thinking about:
Kef Q900 -- front
Kef Q600c
Kef Q100 -- rear (or should i buy Q300 or Q800ds??)
Yamaha RX-V595
BenQ W1070
custom build HTPC with XBMC
and recommend me a good subwoofer under 600$ (kef Q400b?)

jup, i'm a KEF fan, i've got a pair of 25 year old reference's and i love them


Feel free to give your opinion about this post

 

[logiciel]

It looks OK to me, and could be equally OK without the partition wall.
Move the present rears into sides for a 5:1, and add rears for a 7:1.

 

[dante01]

I'd probably suggest using di-pole speakers as rears (on the side walls) in a 7.1 configuration and maybe also using bi-poles as back speakers. This will help disperse the audio effects a little. You'd ordinarily have the surrounds higher up than your walls will facilitate so di-poles and bi-poles will go some way to avoid them becoming too directional in relation to your seated head height.

 

[warrenp]

...The problem of this place is that the walls are angled.

I wonder if this has an influence on the accoustics, and what I should do about it.

I also wonder if i should split the room, as done in the attachment. (The wall isn't there right now) Because the room could be too big?

I also wonder if i should buy 7.1 or 5.1 surround, will it be a big difference?

Hello!

Yes the angled walls will impact your acoustics, but there really isn't anything to do about that (other than re-framing the roof), so make sure you are addressing your side reflections.

Too big is usually not a problem in theaters. I'd base the size on the number of people you want to be in the room, for average use. That will help you determine how much seating you need, and how much room you will need for that seating.

Since you are setting it up new, I would suggest you create a 7.1 theater. Right now most movies do not have a dedicated 7.1 audio mix, but that is changing. You have the space for it, take advantage of that and enjoy the mix.

 

[Joe Fernand]

How hot does it get up in the loft – adding in windows and AV kit is going to increase the heat!

Splitting the room is a good idea as it can help in terms of sound management (In and out) and also gives you somewhere to put the kit – you could have the kit racked up in the smaller room with it accessible via a door/access panel in the ‘rear’ wall of the main zone.

Have you considered an acoustically transparent screen and wall mounted loudspeakers behind the screen – not having the Centre channel in the ideal position (as per your drawing) is not a great starting point where you have a blank canvas to work with.

If money is no object another option would be to pull the Projection screen forward and form a space at the rear of it to take a rear projection rig and take the projector out of the seating area!

Having floor standing cabinets is likely to produce more mid/bass than you really want in your room – consider instead a dedicated speaker system from the likes of M&K Sound designed for a dedicated theatre room - MK Sound | Professional Loudspeakers | Home Loudspeakers | Home Theater Sound Systems

Joe