Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater basement theater HELP!

>>> There is no substitute for walking around the space, dragging boxes around to simulate furniture and drawing HT equipment and wiring diagrams on the wall before the drywall gets primed and you lose all your work


And sometimes even the best laid out plans don't seem to go just right. Whenever building our room I predetermined speaker and subwoofer wall plate locations (aesthetics) by measuring and precisely marking the location of the TV, which set the location for the front speakers in turn using the equidistant idea set the location for the couch.

Whenever real life application came around I hadn't considered the couch being in the middle of a 60hz null so therefore the couch was moved back, the front speakers ended up being way wider and farther from the back wall and the subwoofer not being in the location previously planed ... so the wall plates are visible and speaker/subwoofer wires/cables are crossed which is exactly what I didn't want to do but I must say the sound is tremendous.

If I ever happened to build another dedicated room I would certainly *start* with room acoustics to get a general idea as to how they will effect various arrangements in the room.

"Whenever real life application came around I hadn't considered the couch being in the middle of a 60hz null so therefore the couch was moved back"

you did this by cralling around?



for ht, i think that the 22's would be fine, but if you plan on using them for music i think they would definatly not work, not enough volume.. and as far as placing 2 pair side by side, i would not do that either, get bigger speakers. also for place ment, in a HT its gona be dark so idealy you wouldnt be able to seem them very well anyway..


if you dont make the area "air tight" there is really no point in putting up a 1/2 wall.. just leave the area completly open for entertainment purposes...


good luck.

There may be some benefit from having a partial wall, in the sense that at least you will get more equivalent reflections from both side walls and that will get rid of the "unbalanced" feeling you can feel when one side has a wall and the other is open.

A half-height wall probably won't help as much as a half-width wall (ie open to walk through near the stairs but floor to ceiling near the screen and mains).

>>and as far as placing 2 pair side by side, i would not do that either, get bigger speakers.

Amen to that. Some people have built a carpet-covered "stage" to raise floorstanding speakers so that they are closer to "center of mass" of the screen -- that seems to look really nice as well.

Would it be too much of a hassle to move the lower stairs to land into the wash room? If so, then you could rotate the HT 180.

>>> you did this by cralling around?

Actually this was done using test tones and an SPL meter.

After looking at your basement dimensions a little closer; that would be the best solution. You’d have close to 13’ in width (and believe me, you will want every bit of this).

If you can convince your bride to move the traffic pattern through the laundry area, I’d close that wall completely off to the HT area. I’d then build a wall between the opposite exterior wall and the stair header with a doorway to the HT room all the way against that far wall. You could then put seating at 12’ and 16’ and still have room for HT egress behind the last row.

I’d then look at a good long throw projector (Sanyo Z4 might be a good pick) and mount it as far away from the screen as I could without using the zoom. By doing this you would have the option to install an anamorphic lens as you learn more about this hobby and get up to speed on constant height systems like Randy has. (they are supper trick and you'll want one if you ever see one in action)

With the fronts and center speakers tucked away in their own area away from traffic and side viewing, tower speakers then look as if they belong there. The need for the wall mounted speakers from an appearance perspective becomes a mute point.

On a side note, if it isn’t too late, I’d strongly suggest you reconsider where you’re placing your laundry room. Unless you have a chute / bell waiter system, carrying clothes up/down steps will get very old. I know from personal experience. I have a five level home and carrying them damn bags / baskets of cloths up / down stairs every frigging day is a pain.