My Stealthy 9.3.2 Living Room Cinema

BriD

Prominent Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2016
Messages
1,328
Reaction score
793
Points
610
Age
45
Location
UK
EDIT 14/10/21 - All redecorated if you just want to skip to the latest pics:

My Stealthy 9.3.2 Living Room Cinema






First of all, I totally forgot to take any pics of before the refresh or during it. I've managed to find this one picture.

You have to imagine you're sat on a 3.5 seat sofa.

Problems were, it was right up the end of the room (8m x 3.5m so annoyingly shaped) and there was no room for any extra seating as I couldn't move the floorstanders anywhere so we were a bit stuck. The little white chairs were 'ok' but not ideal...

Old setup:

20171005_130022.jpg


Pics of refresh in next post...
 
Last edited:
I had a few ideas in my head about on wall speakers so we took a trip down to @Rob Sinden at Gecko. Whilst there he showed us a few pics of @orange55 's lovely setup documented here:

Living Room Luxury

Seeing that pic, my wife got incredibly enthusiastic and pretty much the minute we got home we spent the afternoon doing a floor plan:

layout.png



Once I'd triple checked the dimensions and angles, I placed the order for 3 x MK IW150's with @Seriously Ltd


Unfortunately no progress pics, but I'm really pleased with the overall result. We've managed to get 2 x 2 seat sofas in there as well as the 3.5 seat yet the room feels much larger. Budget wasn't massive and most of it was blown on the IW150s! Some compromises had to be made particularly with the rears and the old Atmos positions.

Kit list is:

* Panasonic 65 DX902B
* Panasonic UB900 UHD player
* Marantz SR7010 AVR
* MK IW150MkII for LCR
* MK K4Ts from eBay for L/R Surround
* DIY rears (honestly, they sound great): My DIY rear speakers for behind sofa.
* 2 x Monitor Audio ceiling speakers for Atmos
* REL HT1205 sub for normal day to day sub duties
* 15" Peerless ST350 DIY build run off an iNuke3000DSP: Another Peerless/Tymphany STW-350F 15" sub build



I built a 2.5m long by 10cm deep false wall using 2 layers of soundbloc plasterboard (gosh that's heavy!) using a LOT of battening to the wall, which was then stuffed with sheep wool insulation (gosh that stank!) and then cut some slate effect porcelain tiles to use as the top (gosh those are hard to cut!). Took about 2 full days by the time I'd built it, painted it, done the skirting, cut the carpet back 10cm and refitted it. The equipment 'table' to the right of the wall took an afternoon and I think finishes it off nicely.

Main view:
20190213_145106.jpg


For anyone concerned about the proximity to the stove, I tested that before I built the wall (incidentally my wife kept yelling "BUILD THE WALL!" during the project). With the stove raging at 300degC the side return gets to a max of 45degC. That side bit is also Hardieboard, i.e. concrete so no problems there. Where the left speaker is barely gets above room temp even after hours of the stove on...


Kit lives under a table I made from a worktop, normally hidden by the sofa, but pulling it away slightly for this pic:
20190213_145152.jpg



Over to the left, behind the wood basket and hidden under the table with the lava lamp on is a REL HT1205. I've done REW sweeps with and without the basket and there's no measurable difference..

20190213_145122.jpg




My DIY Sub lurking in the back corner under another table I made from worktop:

20190213_145207.jpg




Annoyingly the Atmos speakers are now in the wrong place as the TV shifted 1m to the left. Maybe later this year I'll look at moving them and patching up the holes. Possibly a .4 setup too.

20190213_145237.jpg



Down the other end of the room is a reading area for the kids along with the L surround on the bookcase. It's a bit of a pain as it does mean we have to shut the doors for proper surround but hardly the end of the world

20190213_150020.jpg


Close up of the L surround, with a Sonos 5 behind it that I covered in 'book pattern' fabric so it blends in !
20190213_150054.jpg
 
Last edited:
Pulled the blackouts down to take some pics, couldn't be bothered to close the curtains too, but I can get the room completely dark even in the middle of the day.

Lighting wise I've got 3 x Hue table lamps and a Hue Strip above the curtain rail and one in/above the book case. Here's the lighting we have for general TV watching:


20190213_150316.jpg



And at the other end in the 'cozy area'

20190213_150515.jpg



Normally have the TV backlight on for movies else my young kids can't see their snacks...

20190213_150436.jpg



Few bits of tidying up left to do and a few rough edges, but 99% there I think!
 
Looks good ... and familiar. ;)

The effort has been worth it from the pictures.
 
I like that, really neat.
 
Really nice. I have a similarly annoying room, similar in size and shape to yours. Can make it really difficult to blend the 'home cinema but living room first feel'.

You pulled it off better than I did :rotfl:.
 
@BriD

You have made a fantastic looking room while still keeping it cozy and welcoming :thumbsup:

Can I ask what you used for the designing of the room ?

Regards Bacus.
 
You've worked wonders in an awkward room!

I'm curious though, I notice your surround speakers are at ear level. Have you always preferred it like that? Personally I've always liked them to be higher. Isn't that how it's supposed to be? Surround speakers are always higher in cinemas after all.

I was also wondering why you have a Sonos speaker at all in that room. With all those speakers and amplification, a Sonos Connect hooked up to your amp would probably sound a lot better and still give you the Sonos playback system.
 
You've worked wonders in an awkward room!

I'm curious though, I notice your surround speakers are at ear level. Have you always preferred it like that? Personally I've always liked them to be higher. Isn't that how it's supposed to be? Surround speakers are always higher in cinemas after all.

I was also wondering why you have a Sonos speaker at all in that room. With all those speakers and amplification, a Sonos Connect hooked up to your amp would probably sound a lot better and still give you the Sonos playback system.

Thank you!

With Dolby Atmos the recommendation is to have the surrounds at head height so there's a 'base layer' and then the height channels seem distinct. If the surrounds are high up they can interfere with the Atmos effect.

With the Sonos thing I get the hump about why the Connect is so expensive. Makes no sense. Anyway, it's nice to just have music come on without having to switch on the whole system and I use it for some home automation stuff. For example, I have some motion sensors so when the first person comes downstairs in the morning it plays Radio2 at a background level in all the downstairs rooms. (6 Music on a weekend!). The CCTV plays a doorbell noise if it senses motion on the driveway etc etc :)
 
Ah, that base layer thing makes sense in an Atmos context. I was a little concerned that there wasn't enough distance between my surrounds and my ceiling speakers (which are actually just higher up on the side-walls).
 
Looks like you have done a great job. The time you must have put in has been worth it looking at the results.

For the in ceiling speakers how did you go about getting the cabling into the ceiling with no cables or trunking showing (that I can see from your pics) on your walls?

Cheers,

Nigel.
 
Looks like you have done a great job. The time you must have put in has been worth it looking at the results.

For the in ceiling speakers how did you go about getting the cabling into the ceiling with no cables or trunking showing (that I can see from your pics) on your walls?

Cheers,

Nigel.

I've got a cable run that goes out the wall and up the side of the house and back in to the room above. Did it years ago for ethernet to my office. I've used the same holes, then the cable goes round the skirting in the room upstairs and down through the floor. :)
 
I've got a cable run that goes out the wall and up the side of the house and back in to the room above. Did it years ago for ethernet to my office. I've used the same holes, then the cable goes round the skirting in the room upstairs and down through the floor. :)

Thanks, I think out the wall for what I'm looking at is the way to go.
 
New addition (sort of). We've now got a bunch of tablets around the house that run a custom home automation webpage I've done. Can control all the Hue lights, Sonos presets, our heating, switch the TV on, shows the CCTV, our Google Cal etc etc. Couple of screenshots:

homeautomation1.png




And then for example once you press 'L':

homeautomation2.png
 
Great setup mate.

Did you use Hue strips behind the TV as well?

Could I trouble you to share the model number with me as i'm thinking about doing this myself.
 
MK V12 now replaces the REL HT1205 (Which is now in the classifieds)

Is it better? Yes. Is it worth double the price? No.

Extension seems about the same. Integration with the IW150s seems a bit better.

It's too tall for the table to go over it though so I'm going to have to build something to go over it!


IMG_20190701_24616.jpg
IMG_20190701_2558.jpg
 
Last edited:
I've got my sub hidden inside an Ikea lattice table. Not sure of the height and I've seen they've now changed the design so the bottom isn't removable, however a jigsaw will soon sort it.
 
I've got my sub hidden inside an Ikea lattice table. Not sure of the height and I've seen they've now changed the design so the bottom isn't removable, however a jigsaw will soon sort it.

Great idea... I shall go measure !

EDIT: The MK V12 fits width and height wise but it's about 10cm too deep. I could have a go at a cut n shut of one of the rectangular tables but it's probably easier to build something from scratch!
 
Last edited:
Not a particularly photogenic update but managed to get a bargain Nakamichi AVP1 from the classifieds.

Annoyingly it's 2cm too long to fit in forwards so I've had to rotate the kit 90deg. In use it's obscured by the sofa anyway so doesn't matter.

20191102_075218.jpg


Using it to run the full 7ch base layer leaving the Marantz to run just the Atmos and do all the processing magic...
 
Small change. Popped the MK V12 on it's side and made a small side table to go over it. There's a wood basket in the way so you can't see the sub. REW shows absolutely no difference with it there or not.

20200204_131310.jpg
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is Home Theater DEAD in 2024?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom