Mini 7.2.4 Home Cinema (smallest ever?) - Updated to v1.1

[richardsim7]

Mini 7.2.4 Home Cinema (smallest ever?)​

The Mini Cinema has received a few updates to bring it to v1.1

First, some pictures:

Higher quality ones available here on Flickr

I should note that the room in real life is a lot darker than this, but if I shot it how it actually looks, you wouldn't be able to see anything

So, the changes...

1) I changed the rear surrounds from XTZ S2s to S5s, so now all the surrounds are the same. The "tripole" effect of the S5s gives a larger soundstage behind me, making the speaker location less obvious

2) The TV has been brought forward slightly so it's flush with the front of the speakers. This has allowed the bias light to diffuse a bit more, has mostly hidden the trunking to the L/R speakers, and has slightly increased the perceived image size (I think it's about 1.4m (4'7") from eyes to screen now).
I should also note that although the bias lights still turn on/off automatically, I now leave them on during playback, but can turn them off with one button if I want that pure darkness

3) Probably the biggest (yet completely hidden) change is the addition of a "BOSS Platform". This might replace the Buttkicker LFEs, or compliment them, I'm undecided on that yet. But the hype is certainly real! When testing its limits, I managed to get to the point where my vision had become blurred and I was struggling to get the mouse back to where it needed to be to turn it back down!

Here's a photo of the underside:

It looks intimidating but it's very simple to build and setup

4) I've swapped out the MiniDSP 2x4 Balanced for a MiniDSP 2x4HD, for various frivolous reasons

5) I've moved the HTPC into a different case (Fractal Define Mini C) which is now located next to the rack instead

6) I changed the Buttkicker BKA1000-N amp to a Behringer NX3000D as I needed an extra channel for the BOSS Platform

7) And most importantly, I changed the insides of the cushions from the crap ones they came with

The only thing left to add is acoustic treatments... someday...

Original post here:

So I'm thinking I may have built the smallest ever "full Atmos" setup, at just 3.3*2.5m (10.8*8.2ft) - the room is approx 600ft³

Here's a 3D mockup. My goal was to have a dedicated room with a layout as close as possible to Dolby guidelines, and I pretty much nailed it (to the mm )

And here's the final result:

Uncompressed images available here

TV: LG OLED 65" B7 (1.5m [4.9ft] from eyes to screen!)
HTPC: i5-6600K, 8GB DDR4, GTX1070, 2x 256GB SSD, GA-Z170X-Gaming7, Silverstone GD09, Noctua fans

Speakers
LCR: XTZ Cinema M6
Side Surrounds: XTZ Cinema S5
Rear Surrounds + Atmos: XTZ Cinema S2
Subs: 2x DIY 15" 'Fi Audio SP415' sealed down-firing cubes
Other: 2x Buttkicker LFE

Amps
AVR: NAD T758v3 (with Dirac Live)
Power Amp: Arcam P-1000 (powering LCR + Atmos)
Sub amps: 2x Citronic PLX3600 (dual 2ohm)
Other: Buttkicker BKA1000-N

Bass management is handled by a MiniDSP 2x4, with a chunky house curve applied to the Buttkickers - which are located in the sofa, one inside each armrest, which was serendipitous that they fit there - I suppose it's 7.4.4 if you include them in the sub count

I got sick of putting discs in/loading times/menus etc so I ripped all of my DVDs/Blu-Rays to my NAS, which I play back locally on the HTPC using Kodi DSPlayer (which supports madVR + LAV filters)

The Bias Lighting is the MediaLight Quad
Funnily enough, whilst Bias Lighting was great with my old Plasma setup, I actually perfer it off when viewing my OLED, as there's nothing quite like having the room plunge into absolute darkness. And I don't appear to suffer from eye strain without it.
So what I've done instead is to have them automatically turn on/off when media is playing, paused, etc using a WiFi LED controller + some scripting

Wallpaper is from here

The paint was a custom mix, for which I got the info from here - the aim was to get a neutral grey as not to alter colour perception

The carpet is from here - thanks @PHTheLoverman for the tip

This is only Phase 1 of my project - I plan on adding room treatment in Phase 2

 

[raz77]

I like it, very cosy, how do you find sound separation on action scenes like gun fights or something flying over you with Atmos?

 

[JuMu]

You did very good job putting all those things to that room
It looks very beautiful
I am also curious about sound separation. ?

 

[richardsim7]

Sound separation is surprisingly good, and is only made better with Dirac, which basically makes the speakers disappear (especially with the lights off).
I hope to improve separation even further this someday with room treatment

This setup was originally in my living room and the surround + atmos speakers were all in a very similar position relative to the MLP as they are now, so I had a good feeling it'd all work. The only thing that's different really is the TV + LCR have come forward (but still creating that equalateral triangle between MLP, Left and Right speaker)

 

[JuMu]

Sound separation is surprisingly good, and is only made better with Dirac, which basically makes the speakers disappear (especially with the lights off).
I hope to improve separation even further this someday with room treatment

This setup was originally in my living room and the surround + atmos speakers were all in a very similar position relative to the MLP as they are now, so I had a good feeling it'd all work. The only thing that's different really is the TV + LCR have come forward (but still creating that equalateral triangle between MLP, Left and Right speaker)

You are right, I think a good room treatment will greatly affect sound quality. Especially considering your 2 huge subwoofers in that room

 

[richardsim7]

You are right, I think a good room treatment will greatly affect sound quality. Especially considering your 2 huge subwoofers in that room

Which, surprisingly, are actually better (tighter, less ringing according to REW) in this room than my living room. Probably because the living room walls were mostly plasterboard, and these are all solid brick. But yes I'm excited to see what improvements room treatment will bring

 

[maverick177uk]

Great setup do think you’d benefit from a bigger screen with your viewing distance or is 65 sufficient, just asking because in my future set up I’d be around 2m from eyes to screen and I was think 75 or possibly going to 92 with a short throw projector.

 

[supersimon50]

I think that is very well laid out & designed considering the obvious space limitations but the proof of the pudding is in the eating...........if you are happy with it and it does all the things you wanted then....its fab u lous!

 

[richardsim7]

Great setup do think you’d benefit from a bigger screen with your viewing distance or is 65 sufficient, just asking because in my future set up I’d be around 2m from eyes to screen and I was think 75 or possibly going to 92 with a short throw projector.

Hah, the last thing I expected is someone would suggest a larger screen

65" is fantastic, very immersive, 4K looks incredible and 1080p still looks great.

Whilst 75-77" would be wonderful for 4K, and even more immersive, I fear 1080p wouldn't look as good, and SDR would look even worse than it already does (though it's still watchable, madVR does a fantastic job at upscaling, and it's very rare that I ever view SDR content nowadays)

But I certainly couldn't justify the extra cost when jumping to that size, plus I'd probably have to slightly compromise my perfect triangle between MLP and the L+R speakers, which would annoy me It's also possible at that size fullscreen content may become uncomfortably big (I know, right) though cinescope content would probably be ok

I probably could have gone with a projector in this space, but the pros of the OLED outweighed the cons of the PJ, for me at least

I think that is very well laid out & designed considering the obvious space limitations but the proof of the pudding is in the eating...........if you are happy with it and it does all the things you wanted then....its fab u lous!

Yeah, it sounds even better than it looks. Sometimes I think the sofa is the one eating me

 

[maverick177uk]

Thanks for the answer guess I’ll have to go demo a few setups before I decide, never thought about SDR looking bad so will have to bear that in mind

 

[richardsim7]

Thanks for the answer guess I’ll have to go demo a few setups before I decide, never thought about SDR looking bad so will have to bear that in mind

Yeah, depends on your usage really, if you watch SDR all the time it'd certainly become more important to you, but as I hardly ever watch SDR it never really came into my thoughts

 

[Doug Pyper]

Nice! I recall when this was a mere glint in your eye - hadn't realised you did it. Looks awesome. I actually think small rooms can work quite well for HT despite the (manageable) bass issues - they give a nice near field experience. Bet that room sounds great

 

[JoeSepi]

Nice one Richard, the room looks great, I bet it sounds incredible.

 

[PHTheLoverman]

Mini 7.2.4 Home Cinema (smallest ever?)​

So I'm thinking I may have built the smallest ever "full Atmos" setup, at just 3.3*2.5m (10.8*8.2ft) - the room is approx 600ft³

Here's a 3D mockup. My goal was to have a dedicated room with a layout as close as possible to Dolby guidelines, and I pretty much nailed it (to the mm )

And here's the final result:

Uncompressed images available here

TV: LG OLED 65" B7 (1.5m [4.9ft] from eyes to screen!)
HTPC: i5-6600K, 8GB DDR4, GTX1070, 2x 256GB SSD, GA-Z170X-Gaming7, Silverstone GD09, Noctua fans

Speakers
LCR: XTZ Cinema M6
Side Surrounds: XTZ Cinema S5
Rear Surrounds + Atmos: XTZ Cinema S2
Subs: 2x DIY 15" 'Fi Audio SP415' sealed down-firing cubes
Other: 2x Buttkicker LFE

Amps
AVR: NAD T758v3 (with Dirac Live)
Power Amp: Arcam P-1000 (powering LCR + Atmos)
Sub amps: 2x Citronic PLX3600 (dual 2ohm)
Other: Buttkicker BKA1000-N

Bass management is handled by a MiniDSP 2x4, with a chunky house curve applied to the Buttkickers - which are located in the sofa, one inside each armrest, which was serendipitous that they fit there - I suppose it's 7.4.4 if you include them in the sub count

I got sick of putting discs in/loading times/menus etc so I ripped all of my DVDs/Blu-Rays to my NAS, which I play back locally on the HTPC using Kodi DSPlayer (which supports madVR + LAV filters)

The Bias Lighting is the MediaLight Quad
Funnily enough, whilst Bias Lighting was great with my old Plasma setup, I actually perfer it off when viewing my OLED, as there's nothing quite like having the room plunge into absolute darkness. And I don't appear to suffer from eye strain without it.
So what I've done instead is to have them automatically turn on/off when media is playing, paused, etc using a WiFi LED controller + some scripting

Wallpaper is from here

The paint was a custom mix, for which I got the info from here - the aim was to get a neutral grey as not to alter colour perception

The carpet is from here - thanks @PHTheLoverman for the tip

This is only Phase 1 of my project - I plan on adding room treatment in Phase 2

Mini 7.2.4 Home Cinema (smallest ever?)​

So I'm thinking I may have built the smallest ever "full Atmos" setup, at just 3.3*2.5m (10.8*8.2ft) - the room is approx 600ft³

Here's a 3D mockup. My goal was to have a dedicated room with a layout as close as possible to Dolby guidelines, and I pretty much nailed it (to the mm )

And here's the final result:

Uncompressed images available here

TV: LG OLED 65" B7 (1.5m [4.9ft] from eyes to screen!)
HTPC: i5-6600K, 8GB DDR4, GTX1070, 2x 256GB SSD, GA-Z170X-Gaming7, Silverstone GD09, Noctua fans

Speakers
LCR: XTZ Cinema M6
Side Surrounds: XTZ Cinema S5
Rear Surrounds + Atmos: XTZ Cinema S2
Subs: 2x DIY 15" 'Fi Audio SP415' sealed down-firing cubes
Other: 2x Buttkicker LFE

Amps
AVR: NAD T758v3 (with Dirac Live)
Power Amp: Arcam P-1000 (powering LCR + Atmos)
Sub amps: 2x Citronic PLX3600 (dual 2ohm)
Other: Buttkicker BKA1000-N

Bass management is handled by a MiniDSP 2x4, with a chunky house curve applied to the Buttkickers - which are located in the sofa, one inside each armrest, which was serendipitous that they fit there - I suppose it's 7.4.4 if you include them in the sub count

I got sick of putting discs in/loading times/menus etc so I ripped all of my DVDs/Blu-Rays to my NAS, which I play back locally on the HTPC using Kodi DSPlayer (which supports madVR + LAV filters)

The Bias Lighting is the MediaLight Quad
Funnily enough, whilst Bias Lighting was great with my old Plasma setup, I actually perfer it off when viewing my OLED, as there's nothing quite like having the room plunge into absolute darkness. And I don't appear to suffer from eye strain without it.
So what I've done instead is to have them automatically turn on/off when media is playing, paused, etc using a WiFi LED controller + some scripting

Wallpaper is from here

The paint was a custom mix, for which I got the info from here - the aim was to get a neutral grey as not to alter colour perception

The carpet is from here - thanks @PHTheLoverman for the tip

This is only Phase 1 of my project - I plan on adding room treatment in Phase 2

Yes that carpet is sumptuous! Congrats on the room. Very inspirational.

 

[Olliefreddie1]

Stunning set up

 

[DartonDave]

Looks fantastic. You must love it. Can I ask you where you got your AV rack from and what its called?

 

[richardsim7]

Looks fantastic. You must love it. Can I ask you where you got your AV rack from and what its called?

Yup, with a stupid grin on my face every time I use it

I got it off gumtree, it's just a basic studio rack, I believe it's this one: https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_sr2018.htm

It's not perfect, I might replace it someday, but hey, it works on a basic level

 

[RobinDB]

Is that a real photo ?

Looks good.

The atmos speakers cinema 2 look a lot boxer (deeper) than the XTZ sales blurb.
Looking at some ceiling mounting, though would prefer not to insert into the ceiling, rather fix on.

 

[richardsim7]

Is that a real photo ?

Looks good.

The atmos speakers cinema 2 look a lot boxer (deeper) than the XTZ sales blurb.
Looking at some ceiling mounting, though would prefer not to insert into the ceiling, rather fix on.

That's probably because of the wide angle lens causing a distortion, the XTZ dimensions should give you a better idea of their real size

 

[apostolost]

hi, thanks for sharing.
do you have any more pictures of your rack. it looks very clean, no wires. how is it at the back? what about cable management?

 

[richardsim7]

hi, thanks for sharing.
do you have any more pictures of your rack. it looks very clean, no wires. how is it at the back? what about cable management?

Here's a few more pics:

https://i.imgur.com/pvbKBMN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XZ4PqPr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tCgHNRC.jpg

Obviously doesn't look as wonderful as the front, but it's more organised than it looks, lots of velcro etc
Bit of a mess as I haven't given it a proper tidy since messing about with it, removing the HTPC, AVR and sub amp, and putting them back - but at the moment it's very much a case of "I can't see it and it doesn't rattle so I don't care"

 

[slave1]

I would not be too worried about 1080p and how it looks on a bigger screen, it all depends on the quality of the panel or (I know not in your case) projection system.
Just bring some 1080p source on a USB stick and audition yourself and your viewing distance and wherever you can find with say, a 75" TV setup

 

[richardsim7]

I would not be too worried about 1080p and how it looks on a bigger screen, it all depends on the quality of the panel or (I know not in your case) projection system.
Just bring some 1080p source on a USB stick and audition yourself and your viewing distance and wherever you can find with say, a 75" TV setup

Yeah, it's definitely not something I'd be doing any time soon, but I could just emulate it with the 65" screen and sit a big closer

 

[slave1]

Actually, now you mention it you are sitting v close so perhaps you've hit your sweet spot.
I'm around 12' from a 136" screen and 1080P looks perfect still but under 5 feet is very close in all honesty.

 

[richardsim7]

Actually, now you mention it you are sitting v close so perhaps you've hit your sweet spot.
I'm around 12' from a 136" screen and 1080P looks perfect still but under 5 feet is very close in all honesty.

Heh, yeah it is. Can't say I've got any complaints with the viewing distance though