House Renovation - Which Room?

gpt

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Here we go...

We currently live in a bungalow and are having architects draw up plans to add a first floor. All of the bedrooms are being moved upstairs and there will be a re jig of the downstairs layout. I have shown below an image of my latest sketch up and there are 3 possible rooms for my existing setup (XTZ Cinema Range - Which I dont plan on changing)

What I would like is an opinion on which room you would choose and why. I will discuss my own thoughts below with the selections. It would be nice to have some other input. All rooms have standard 2.4m ceiling in the UK which I cant really alter (except possible room B with extra work). 7.4.4 will be the layout in the selected room


Room A - New Main Lounge - Approx 5.8m Wide x 5.8m Long

Main Problems - Its nearly square! Ive read all of the problems with square rooms and I know this isnt ideal. There will be carpet, sofas, a fire place and other bits that can break up the area but unlikely to be any notable amount of room treatment. Other side of the coin is it will be our main room for day to day use and when guests visit. It is the biggest room. The XTZ's are not imposing and I can hide a nice electric screen for drop down at the front of the room + I will build 4 downward firing sealed subs in the corners. I would get the most use out of the equipment in this room. Hiding AV equipment into a recess in the wall is still more of a challenge and would all require turning on regularly by family members, not ideal

Room B - Pre existing - Approx 3.7m Wide x 4.7m Long

Very close to one of the sepmeyer ratios in terms of ideal length and width (not height). Its Pre existing -minimal work required. All walls are solid block. Front widow and rear door will need to be blocked up, although there will be a small window at the rear of the room to satisfy planning. AV equipment can be recessed at the rear of the room. Room would be dedicated so would have a fixed acoustically transparent screen, Baffle Wall, room treatment done correctly including corner bass traps. Having never been in a room like this before I would hope all of the effort is worth it! The room in my opinion is still reasonably small in length for all of this work. probably less than a 3m viewing distance from the screen and adding a 2nd row would be difficult (at least to be reasonably optimal)

Room C - Current 2nd sitting room - Approx 4.1m Wide x 3m Long (Extended to 6m Long)

The stairs in the image arent currently there but the solid wall (yes currently brick) directly below the letter C is. This room would require the most work and I would have to re locate the planned location for the stairs. I have put 6m long to design the room again to a sepmeyer ratio. It would be a very big room to only use on occasion and going the whole hog on blocking up windows, using dark colours etc doesnt make it an ideal room for just relaxing in. I currently use this as a second sitting room quite a lot. Although if room A or B was my cinema room, this would likely be a dining room with no additional work. This would be the perfect room. A big cinema room, accommodating 2 rows of chairs, pulling out all of the stops! My concern is that its the most work, and its a lot of room to give up to only use on occasion.


Hybrid rooms are obviously the way to go to get the most use out of equipment, but I always feel in these instances we are never getting the most out of our equipment - although ive never heard the "end game" if you like with a room properly treated. Since learning REW from my DIY subs, you do start chasing that perfect line and I know its not possible in the hybrid room so I start to wonder if we can justify the money we spend on home cinema without a dedicated room. Of course a hybrid room is the best option for most as we may not have the room available (I havent for many years). If square rooms didn't present issues with standing waves, I think I would go for Room A, the lounge, and go the hybrid route. Just for maximum usage. Room B is a dedicated room but maybe a little small - but presents the least work. Room C is the best cinema room with the most work. As a family we watch an episode or two from a series every night and maybe a film once a week. Usually after an episode the wife goes and watches some of her crap (yes crap! lol) in the lounge and I will use the 2nd sitting room to do my own thing. In the event of creating a dedicated room, my 2nd sitting room will go and as I said, I use it a lot. I can create my own space in the new upstairs, but then I put myself into the realm of the kids shudders!


So, any thoughts? I think while I await any responses I will see about relocating the stairs, just in case. I guess I would like to hear of any success stories, or regrets from people who have made similar decisions in their own home. Anyone designed rooms using the golden ratios and had success with REW, or had just as many problems as their rooms before? Anyone got hybrid rooms but been able to measure exceptional quality in REW?

As always, Thank you all :)





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Well for anyone interested, i had a mess yesterday and couldnt work out a better way of laying out the stairs without really compromising the upstairs, so room B it is.

Even though im miles away i had a rough plan out of a room even though im probably 18 months away - just because I like to tinker (yes there's a gap at the centre of my baffle wall, I couldnt be bothered to go back and re size it).

So 7.2.4. 4 DIY sealed subs in the corners, 7 x M6 on the bottom layer (front layer at ear height, side and rear speakers 15 degrees above the mlp), 2 x S5 for atmos andgled at listeners. Corner Bass traps with gaps at the back, 50mm ceiling 600 x 900 panels with gaps at the back, 600 x 600 50mm absorption & dispersion panels alternating on the bottom layer with 600mm x 900mm panels at the rear. Only room for a 107" acoustic transparent screen at 16:9. Bigger would have been nice but thats where it falls...

One day, one day....

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