Small Home Cinema v2

[THX1138UK]

We moved home in September (2020) and I’ve (slowly) been re-creating the home cinema (there’s been other more pressing priorities!).

At my previous house the home cinema was a single garage conversion attached to the side of the property. Now it’s in the 2nd bedroom on the 1st floor.

Dimensions are very similar, however the new room is slightly wider, and the length of the room is slightly shorter.

I considered some equipment & speaker replacements, but as I was entirely satisfied with what I had, in the end I kept everything the same. Sound is delivered by a Monitor Audio Apex 7.1.2 speaker arrangement (with 2 subwoofers) and two overhead Atmos/DTS-X speakers (top middle), being Monitor Audio Shadow 50s which I have mounted on the ceiling. The system is driven from a Denon AVR X6200W.

As the new room is slightly wider, I considered a ‘scoped screen, but the room is too short to accommodate the projector throw necessary. I’m actually pleased that I decided to keep the 92” 16:9 screen. I remain utterly smitten and impressed with my 2018 JVC RS440 projector. It’s perfect for the room.

The only new kit is a Dakin air conditioning unit. I’m very impressed with it - it works great and is very quiet due to the split unit design. The JVC throws out a lot of heat especially in HDR mode, so the air-con is a very welcome edition.

I even managed to find exactly the same wallpaper that I had used in 2011 in my original home cinema. I purchased the very last remaining rolls (it’s long since discontinued).


Room as it was when we moved in (with just the air-con unit professionally installed):



I had the centre light fitting removed and four down-lights installed in the ceiling. This is how it looked after wallpapering & painting:



I constructed a hardboard cover to permanently block the end window (located at the right-hand side of the property). We had internal shutters installed which are always closed.

The finished room with black felt and projection screen installed and IKEA towers for Blu-ray storage. The cabinet houses an Oppo 203 and Humax Freeview HD receiver. There’s an Amazon 4K Fire TV stick plugged into the Denon AVR X6200W:



Side view of the remaining window (looking out to the front of the house). You can see one of the home made acoustic panels on the wall. There are more on the ceiling:


Rear of the room & the ceiling mounted JVC RS440 projector:



All up and running:



It’s not a large space, but perfect for two and a totally immersive experience.

There is one small addition over the original home cinema - a small beer & cold snacks fridge .


Regards,
James.

 

[DavidT]

Very nice setup. What make is the AV unit under the screen?

 

[THX1138UK]

Very nice setup. What make is the AV unit under the screen?

It's a Dome AV EH Cabinet that I purchased from TVStands.co.uk in 2011, but it looks like that site has gone.


Here's the full equipment inventory (Updated 14 October 2021):

Humax HD-FOX T2 Freeview HD (DVB-T/T2) Digital Terrestrial TV Receiver
Fujitsu Lifebook E458 Laptop running Windows 11 Pro
Pluggable Active DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0b Adapter
2 x ATZEBE 10 metre Hybrid Fibre Optic HDMI Cables
APC BX1400UI Uninterruptable Power Supply Unit
AudioQuest DragonFly Black v1.5 USB DAC
Oppo UDP-203 UHD Blu-Ray/DVD Video/DVD Audio/AVCHD/SACD/CD Player
Denon X6200W AVR (Audio/Video Receiver)
JVC RS440 Reference Series D-ILA (Direct-Drive Image Light Amplification) Projector
Sapphire SFSC203 - 92” 16:9 Matt White Stretched Vinyl Fixed Frame Projection Screen
Amazon 4K Fire TV Cube with Alexa (BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, NetFlix, Disney+ etc.)
NetGear GS108Ev3 8 port Smart Managed Plus Gigabit Network Switch
SmartLife Hub and Dimmer providing Alexa integration for voice controlled light dimming
Pro Acoustic AFBT200 Foam Bass Traps
Corelli two seat electric recliner sofa from CSL (now Sofology, previously Sofaworks)
10 x IKEA Gnedby Storage Units in black-brown
Projector ceiling mount and gap plate by Unicol
DCSk 2.25mm German Made OPC Copper Speaker Wire
2 x 3 metre QED Ultra Compact Subwoofer Cable
Dome EH Dash1600 AV Cabinet
Blendworth Anthology Wallpaper - Barcode BL-1002
Black Handicraft Felt
Home Made Rockwool Sound Absorption Panels
Dakin split-system air-conditioning unit
Barcool 30L Silent Mini Fridge in Black (Bar 30 LED)
Dunelm made to measure blackout curtains

Speakers:

Centre Speaker: 1 x Monitor Audio Apex AW-40
Fronts: 2 x Monitor Audio Apex AW-10
Surrounds: 2 x Monitor Audio Apex AW-10
Rear Surrounds: 2 x Monitor Audio Apex AW-10
Overheads: 2 x Monitor Audio Shadow 50
Subwoofers: 2 x Monitor Audio Apex AW-12


Video Calibration:

X-Rite i1 Display Pro 3 Colorimeter
Portrait Displays (SpectraCal) CalMan (Home) Software Package


Audio Calibration:

Denon Audyssey MultEQ XT32
MiniDSP UMIK-1 with Room EQ Wizard (REW) Software Package


Regards,
James.

 

[THX1138UK]

Very nice setup. What make is the AV unit under the screen?

This is the actual product I have:

http://www.domeav.com/pdf/dash1600.pdf

I didn't install the glass doors as I prefer equipment to be accessible and it helps with ventilation.

 

[THX1138UK]

Visio diagrams showing interconnects and speaker arrangements:

 

[stblob]

Nice setup. What size is the room?

 

[THX1138UK]

Nice setup. What size is the room?

3.60 metres long, by 2.94 metres wide.
Ceiling height is 2.40 metres.

 

[stblob]

3.60 metres long, by 2.94 metres wide.
Ceiling height is 2.40 metres.

Amazing what you can achieve in a small room.

 

[THX1138UK]

Plan and 3D views that I created on FloorPlanner.com

It's very easy to use - I've just got a free basic account and used the stock room & furniture objects:

 

[CableGuy]

Very nice. Looks like a very tidy room/setup.

 

[Triggaaar]

Amazing what you can achieve in a small room.

Yep. Us Brits don't often have really large spaces, but something more modest can still provide a great cinema.

How far do you sit from the screen?

 

[THX1138UK]

Yep. Us Brits don't often have really large spaces, but something more modest can still provide a great cinema.

How far do you sit from the screen?

When reclined, eyes are about 3 metres from the screen.
It feels like a real big screen experience, but field of view is perfect.

We love it .

Regards,
James.

 

[xavster]

Sorry to dig up old thread, but your room has similarities to mine.
We will need to put sofa in front of the door like you appear to have done. How much clearance have you given for that? Could you possibly post a photo from just outside the room looking in through the doorway?
Thank you!

 

[THX1138UK]

Sorry to dig up old thread, but your room has similarities to mine.
We will need to put sofa in front of the door like you appear to have done. How much clearance have you given for that? Could you possibly post a photo from just outside the room looking in through the doorway?
Thank you!

It's a modern house, so the door is 760mm wide.

The door opens into the Home Cinema room, I did consider having it reversed, so it opened into the landing, but it wasn't necessary. When the door is open, the sofa doesn't cause an obstruction, there's plenty of space at the back of the room, and along both the left and right sides.

One of the things that's very important is to not have an oversized sofa. Give careful consideration to the space you have available. If everything is a squeeze, then it will always feel claustrophobic and awkward. Space consideration was the reason I didn't go for 'proper' home cinema seating. The 2D floorplan is accurate and the sofa is to scale. The square object at the back of the room is a small (and silent) mini fridge.

Regards,
James.

 

[xavster]

Thank you. Really useful. Part of our problem is that we have a large and v comfy sofa that we don’t want to have to replace. We can make it work with about 60cm of space to walk past it, but it would then be up against the wall at the other end. How much space do you have behind and to the sides of yours if you don’t me asking?

 

[Triggaaar]

Thank you. Really useful. Part of our problem is that we have a large and v comfy sofa that we don’t want to have to replace. We can make it work with about 60cm of space to walk past it, but it would then be up against the wall at the other end. How much space do you have behind and to the sides of yours if you don’t me asking?

Ideally start a thread with your layout, so people can advise on all of it

 

[xavster]

Can do that, but THX1138 has a very similar sized room to mine so it is useful to hear his experience.

 

[THX1138UK]

Thank you. Really useful. Part of our problem is that we have a large and v comfy sofa that we don’t want to have to replace. We can make it work with about 60cm of space to walk past it, but it would then be up against the wall at the other end. How much space do you have behind and to the sides of yours if you don’t me asking?

I think 600 mm is plenty wide enough for a walkway.


For reference, our sofa width is: 1440 mm
Sofa front to back is 1040 mm (when not reclined).

The back of the sofa to the rear wall is 670 mm.
Left / Right wall to the sofa arms is 750 mm.

However, I have shelves on both the left and right wall, so the actual space to either side of the sofa is 580 mm.

I also have mini tables at either side of the sofa (you can see one in the photo) for drinks. So at the narrowest point the gap is only 360 mm, but because the the tables are small and low, it doesn't feel constrained - also, they are very lightweight and easy to move when vacuuming etc.

At my previous house, I used to have a coffee table in front of the sofa - but it's impractical to use it when the sofa seats are reclined and it just got in the way. Mini side tables work much better

Regards,
James.