Building dedicated HT room from scratch

RxPolksterRx

Just recently bought a new house with an unfinished basement and need some help or thoughts about setting up a HT room. The basement is around 1400 sq ft- I would have 2 options where I could place it. First making it an enclosed room (15x18 or so) or an open room when you walk into the main room of the basement.

It is going to be used for HT> 60% TV/sports 30% Gaming<10%. my budget is around $8,500 to $10,000 after the drywall ect is done. Will be doing most of the work- may hire out to ask about placements/mountings.

Was looking at using a projector and hopefully doing a 9.1 setup- I know this isn't a lot of info but any suggestions would be great on what speakers/avr/projector + screen/ect you all think would be worth my while. I can post pics later of the different options.

Thanks in advance!

-Josh

jaritta

I am a big fan of both panasonic and epson projectors, I think the epson looks a little better than the panasonic. I have the epson 8700ub and am happy with it. The panasonic ae4000 gives you more setup options, better fine adjustments.

You can go with more expensive projectors but i dont see a huge performance increase for the money.

I would suggest that you get a chief mount for the projector. They are a little more expensive than others but the fine adjustments and the ability to hold the projector in place while doing adjustments are seccond to none.

Have you thought about the screen aspect ratio, are you planning on going with a 16x9 or 325. Understand the differences and how they will work with your projector.

When you wire for your projector, 25ft hdmi is the longest I would go. You can add line amplifiers if needed, and this will help. However I would run at least 1(probably 2) cat5 cables along with your hdmi, incase you ever have problems with the hdmi you can add a hdmi balun that converts hdmi to cat5 and back to hdmi, this is a more reliable way to go. I would use cat5 shielded cable to help with electrical disruptions that can cause video drop out.

On the room, I would enclose the room, this allows the sound to stay in the room and you can add accoustical treatments if need be.

The screen is an very important. If you have a room with some ambiant light then you might look into a grey screen or if you can afford it the Black Diamond by Screen Innovations is the best out the in my opinion. If you room is light controled than a white screen might be your best bet. I peresonally have a screen innovations white screen that I could not be happier with( i couldnt afford the black diamond).

Speakers- Go to you local hi-fi/home theater shop and listen to several different speakers, Find what you like the best; look at what type of equipment they are running the speakers on, and how they have the speakers placed. I peresonally have the polk rti line, but i am going to be upgrading the the kef q series, I have been converted to a kef fan after hearing the q series, they work great for a home theater setup.

Look for good bargens, close out sales and lightly used items. Most AV shops are constantly trying out new product, try to cut a deal with them for showroom items that are usually well taken care of. Just look for a deal.

Most of all DO YOUR HOMEWORK on screen placement and projector setup, the more planning the better. Understand where and why you should mount your projector where you do.


Hope this helps, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask

Gadabout

Welcome to Club Polk....

Since everything is starting from scratch and your in search of ideas on where to start for room construction, I would suggest starting in the Polk System Showcase. You should be able to start gathering ideas of what you like and how the construction was done. There are also several search able threads in the Clubhouse for HT construction that guys have done recently.

Just to get things rolling about room design.....

Built in Audio rack or Audio equipment in a rack / stand of some sort?
- If it's a built in system, how are you going to access the back panels? Will you need extra cooling.

Power. It's best if you can run a new dedicated line from your breaker box. HT systems are pretty power hungry. 20a line would be best, 15a line will still work.

Speaker locations. I'm assuming since your building from scratch, you will want in wall / ceiling speaker wiring.
- Plan out where you want to put your speakers in advance and wire to those positions.
- Use wall adapters to plug everything into for a nice clean install.
- If speakers or going to be on the wall, how will you mount them?
- Adjust your speaker wire gauge for how long the runs will be.

Speakers - In- wall / ceiling or freestanding?

If you go projector, plan in advance for its location and hardwire the HDMI cable (or Cat5 cable if thats what your going to use)

Lighting. Are you going to install theater style lighting (Ropes / LEDs) for when the movie is going? Just going to go with normal room lighting? (Remote control dimmers are nice to have in a HT room.)

Since your starting from the beginning, think about the construction aspects first and get that right before the drywall goes up.

We will be able to help a bit more, if you can be more specific about exactly what you are going to do (free standing vs in wall speakers, projector vs wall mount TV's etc... ) Also, you might want to save a bit of money and go with a 7.1 system. Not many movies out there have 9.1 sound tracks, some are starting to have 7.1 or 7.2, most are still in 5.1. (No reason you couldn't wire for a 9.2 system and add speakers later.)

Draw out your room on some graph paper, including the seating areas and start figuring out what will work best and where to locate it.

Couple of links for the suggestions I made.
- Dayton 7.1 wall plate
- In wall speaker cable - Parts Express or Blue Jeans Cable.
- For other in-wall needs - DataComm

Scott

TECHNOKID

Welcome to Club Polk RxPolksterRx!

Epson projectors and furthermore Panasonic are great buys if you want optimum visual experience. I agree that "window shopping" for set-up ideas in the show case would be a wise decision. I think the RTI line might be a good speaker for your needs however, at this point I would concentrate on the foundation of your HT room which is proper soundproofing and sound management while building. I would go for a fully enclosed room for the ultimate audio HT experience.

jaritta

Where are you located at polkster??

A website that you might look at is outdoorspeakerdepot.com, It is very similar to suppliers that av dealers use for good mid grade quality cable, interconnects and hdmi.

Also Parts-express.com is a good one to look at

RxPolksterRx

Thanks for the input-

I am in central Ky. Have been looking at the rti A9s and the timbered matched speakers to go along with those. I have the elite sc-37 running my 7.1 setup in my living room right now. I have been extremely happy with that AVR. Any thoughts on the new sc-57?

As far as cables I plan on pre-wiring the whole room before any finishing touches are done- will prb wire for the conventional 7.1 and also for front height and front wide- so I could decide which I like better or be able to change if I want. Just installed my 7.1 upstairs with faceplates and about 35 banana plugs- took about 15 hours after all it was done and it wasn't fun fishing through insulation at all! Not real familiar with the cat-5 line you were referring to though in regards to the hdmi connection?

What projectors (any models) you all like better than others and what are your thoughts on the 3D models? The room will gave a window but light should not be an issue - under the deck and plan on making a latchable door or blackout shade for it. With that type of setup what screen would you suggest?

Aldo the ceilings are going to be around 8 feet I would estimate to cover the duct work- is it a bad idea to plan on a drop ceiling? Not worried about sounds throughout the house or bothering others - 27 bachelor and all BRs are on 3rd floor...

Oh one last thing...what sub do you all think and external amp for maybe front 3. Looking to get the most out of my money...

chumlie

You could save alot looking at used or refurbished gear. Chack ebay polk store or serch for sale here. I just seen a pair of a9's for $500 i'm pretty sure. Pickup in Virginia i think.

chumlie

Sorry . look for cstmor01 in Wisconsin. Still there. a9's $500. Hell of a bargain.

Gadabout

Can't go wrong with the a9's and the matching speakers for them (FXi A4 or A6, CSi 6, and RTi A3). DSW Pro 500 or 600. There have recently been pretty good deals on all these speakers and with Xmas coming, I expect that to continue. I have not heard the newer LSiM line, but for what appears to be a mainly HT system, I would go with the bang for the buck RTi A line.

You will find that most folks here would recommend separate amplification for the mains (and center). I can't speak much to difference in the Pioneer AVR's as I'm running an Onkyo AVR as a Pre/Pro. There are decent bargains to be had in used amplification for your needs, but since it looks like this system isn't going to be used much for music and will have most of it's duty for HT, you might take a look at Emotiva.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend emotiva for music (I prefer the tonal qualities from other brands), but for HT they would be fine and offer some pretty decent deals. The extra amplification will make the speakers sing. You might even find, like I did, that you prefer all your speakers running from amplifiers.

I can't be much help on projectors. I'm not running one. You might create a separate thread in the Electronics Forum and see what folks are doing. The Cat5 reference I made was from Jaritta's thread in the electronics area.

As far as drop ceiling, I don't see what it would hurt. I suppose you don't even need a ceiling. You could even paint the rafters black as they do in a lot of strip mall restaurants.

Good luck with your build.

Scott

nhhiep

wow. A9s for 500? good deal.
by the way, a few months ago I scored 12s for $300 on CL. this thing sounds much better(less bright, better for music) than my previous Rti8s and still kick **** for HT.

dpowell

Mitsubishi also makes a highly rated HD projector at a great price. On the HDMI recommendation above, I would run 3 x Cat 6, not Cat 5 since some HDMI over twisted pair only supports Cat 6. The reason for the third cable is to use a USB over Cat 5/6 extender so that you can mount a wireless receiver for a USB keyboard/mouse closer to your seating location in the event you decide to include a HTPC in your setup. Always run a spare Cat 6 to have just in case. Once you decide on a projector, check the recommendations for mounting in terms of distance from the screen so you can plan properly for cable length etc.

One thing that I did and am so glad I did was build a 16 ft long 3 ft wide hallway behind the screen with access to the back panels of all my equipment. I placed a rack in the hallway and mounted all of the power amps there to get them out of the way.

Good luck with the project!

dpowell

Here's a link to a thread I started when I built my HT system. Scroll through and take a look at the pics. Hopefully they'll give you some ideas as to how you'd like to customize yours to fit your requirements.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?106603-Pics-of-My-New-Home-Theater-Install

Sherardp

You have a modest budget to work with. I would highly recommend the Belden Cables from Bluejeans.com over anything else. Monoprice has nice cables, but I've seen too many reports of them not working over longer runs. As for the projector at that budget I would step up to the JVC /Sony models. You could save coin by going with the 7.2 (dual subs). I don't see much use in the 9.1 setup. As for screen, I would suggest Carada screens since they are in your budget as well. Lutron should be considered for your lighting solutions as they work well with Universal remotes. Keep the Pioneer SC37 you have, you'll be fine there.

As others have mentioned, look for the good deals out there. A9's are an excellent speaker to have in a dedicated room. I have a dedicated room also, so feel free to ask questions. Some pics are in the showcase in my sig line.

RxPolksterRx

When looking at the rti A9s vs the Rti 12s- any major differences or thoughts one what would be better? Also anyone know of any deals that will be going on or where a good place to look at for prices? And for the amp?

I plan on buying new and plan on buying a new avr since I use the one I have now powers my main watching area. How much on top of the speakers, screen, projector, etc should I be looking at spending? Like for the lighting and what not that others have mentioned above? I will be doing much of the instillation and wiring myself so that should help save on some of the $$ .

Thanks again!

Sherardp

Here are some links that will help give you an idea on price. You can purchase everything right from the Polk Ebay store. You will have tons of coin left to do whatever else you wish as well.
Fronts = 799.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-RTi12-CHRRY-Floorstanding-Loudspeaker-Polk-Audio-/360375500353?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item53e80dbe41

Center 225.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CSi5-CHERRY-Center-Channel-Polk-Audio-20-OFF-/360362383190?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item53e7459756

Rears = 149.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-RTi4-CHRRY-Bookshelf-Surround-Speaker-Polk-Audio-/360408054407?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item53e9fe7a87

Surrounds = 279.00 (find these in black)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-FXi-A4-FXiA4-WHITE-Surround-Speakers-Polk-Audio-/390315390053?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item5ae09c3465

Subs = 1499 (dual Epik Empires)
http://epiksubwoofers.com/dualempire.html

Epson 3010 3D projector = 1599.00
http://www.projectorpeople.com/projectors/projdtls.asp?itemid=26819&itmname=Epson+Home+Cinema+3010

Epson 5010 3D projector 2599.00 ( better black level, deep colors)
http://www.projectorpeople.com/projectors/projdtls.asp?itemid=26821&itmname=Epson+Home+Cinema+5010

Universal projector mount 149.00 ( works with any projector should you upgrade in the future)
http://www.projectorpeople.com/accessories/proddtls.asp?itemid=19908

Carada 1.4 gain screen in 110" = 809.88 (one of betters screens on market for excellent price)
http://www.carada.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=PROJECTION-SCREEN-H110C

Receiver Pioneer SC 57 1389.99
http://unitedonlineshopping.com/pisc9elavre.html

Blu Ray Player Oppo 93 = 499.00
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-93/

Lighting can be done easily, Spacer system from Lutron. Add 150.00

http://www.beverlyhillselectric.com/spsincand.html

Universal Remote to control it all.Harmony One goes for 150 or so, and your set.

Comes to a grand total of 8396 + shipping if you go with the higher end projector. I can cut some corners in that setup if you want, last yrs projector if you don't care for 3D, last yrs Pioneer model, cheaper blu ray player, cheaper screen. I could get it down to 5 or 6 if you wanted to go used. But that gives you an idea, and that setup would be kick a$$ and the audio would slam that room easily.

RxPolksterRx

Wow! Got on this morning heading to work and was shocked to see the detailed response! Thanks a ton sheradp! I'm going to probably go ahead and order most of the speakers , especially since free shipping is going on right now. I am having a couple HT consults Wednesday and then heading to lowes to buy the rest of the framework/insulation/drywall to try and get the basement all framed at once.

I am planning on stadium type seating and will be building a platform type setup...hopefully at least:).. I'm going to take the reccomendatioms of holing off on the 9.1 right now but do think I will go ahead and run all the speaker wires and mount the face place for the future for the front height and ones for front wide.

With the epik setup, would you reccomend to stack them or to put one on one side and then one on the other? And what what would be a good 3 channel amp for the front 3? know im probably jumping the gun on buying things but have a hard time not going ahead and buying when I have my mind set. Haha.

chumlie

What up rx. Did you make any decisions yet.

Grimster74

Have any questions please feel free to PM me. Oh yeah, WELCOME to the forum!

Sherardp

sunfire has a 5 channel amp that can run everything easily, but give that Pio a shot it's no slouch power wise.

Theheadsn

(posted this on the other thread you started as well)

I just recently re-did my garage into a more dedicated HT room.

Rules to remember. If you think your going to spend 5k on contruction, you'll end up spending 7500. Thats just the way it is. So dont cut anything close and leave yourself some wiggle room.

Think about if your going to run wires in the wall, and what future plans you might have. Spend the time and the money, get some graph paper and draw out what you want done. Then you can fine tune it. Theres nothing worse then going full steam just to have to stop or rip something out.

If your doing all the contruction yourself, make sure you have TIME to do it. I was lucky and work was slow. But even then I would wake up and work the whole day on it. Still took me over a week and I do construction for a living. Think about if you want to keep things sound resistant and how much your movie watching will effect everything outside the room; and how outside noises will effect it.

If you want heres a few websites to check out that SHOULD give you a better idea of what you might need to do.

Read this first! Its things people who have built theaters wish they would have done differently
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/204901/things-i-wish-i-would-have-done-differently-in-my-project

Heres a couple of HT's that people have done to give you some ideas. I built my shelf system by hand. Nothing fancy but it did the job. REMEMBER! You have to figure out whats going on there, and potentionally what you want on there. Especially if you plan on running the wires like I did. You can buy a pre built media rack for around a few hundreded dollars if you so inclined. Also remember Power is everything. I have my HT ran off of 2 dedicated circuits on my breaker. When you start running everything it draws a lot of amps. So unless you want poped breakers, check into that.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/204901/things-i-wish-i-would-have-done-differently-in-my-project
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/298893/black-and-tan-theater-construction-thread
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/298677/my-theater-is-finally-coming-together-tell-me-what-you-think
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/292691/the-frey-theater-diy-but-better-every-month
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/310191/the-dobbs-ht-starting-from-scratch

And heres the actually website where I went to and received a lot of advice for buiding a HT. Like the Polk forum, theyre cool people and if you check the posts there are tons of usful info for you to pick up and use.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/f/23/members-theaters-ht-projects-remotes-seating-accessories-lighting

FINALLY, unless your trying to impress your friends with how much money you wasted; go to Monoprice for ANYTHING cable/wire related. Its super cheap and so decent quality. Yes you can find much better Audio cables and wires, but I personally did not build a 20k HT or have a 30k A/V set up. So I weighed the pros and cons (pros completely overran the cons) and it only cost me about 150 for everything I needed for my complete HT set up. Plan out what you need so you dont need to order things more then once. Shipping only costs 6 bucks for overnight if its under 25 pounds.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/f/23/members-theaters-ht-projects-remotes-seating-accessories-lighting

If theres anything else you might think of or have questions with, Im here to answer anything I can I hope it goes well for you. BTW stick with the sc-37, dont waste your money on the 57. You can use that extra money to put towards a great amp. But thats for another topic :cheesygrin:

Sherardp

He's using the SC37 in his living room setup, hence the inquiry regarding the 57. Also I would suggest the HDMI cables from or all cables for that matter from BluejeansCable.com

RxPolksterRx

Going to order the rti12s tonight or tomorrow, pawn off the csi5, surrounds and back as Christmas presents, , and get the sc-57 closer to time when the room will be finished. I actually got my 37 from unitedonlineshopping.com and had great support with them. Still looking at screens and a projector- may see what best buy can quote me one at- I'm a silver member there but they don't always seem to deal a whole lot. May look at the panosonic ae7000u- got good reviews.

Having someone come give me an estimate for how much framing and drywall I'm gonna need as well as 2 HT consults this week- then hopefully full steam ahead after that!

Sherardp

Check out Stargate Cinema for seating. If you decide to buy from them get with Ken, awesome guy to work with. They often times have closeout deals on seating, which should give you some room to offer a deal. Go for the Contempo Paragon Popcorn maker while your at it. Just suggestions and ideas.

RxPolksterRx

+1 on the popcorn machine. Girlfriend said I can spend as much time and money on the HT as long as I get her a popcorn maker, ("the good kind like at the movies") and she has a prime seat to sit in when it's all finished. I'm thinking she's a keeper! Haha.

I was looking around on that stargate site and noticed bass shakers or seat shakers that run off an LFE line? I also noticed people mention them in the things they wish they had done. Do these just provide bass To the seats? And if I run the rti12s and dual epiks I surely wouldn't need these as well would I? First time I'd really heard of them...

Sherardp

They are basically transducers and come in a kit with an amp to power them. With dual Epiks in that room you won't need unless you want the effect of shaking/vibrations. I don't use them in my room with my dual subs, though I have inquired about them as well. Dual subs will work your room and take your bass to insane levels. You'll be good there unless you want the effect.

RxPolksterRx

As promised here are some pics from the recent project upstairs in the family room off of the kitchen. Ran a 7.1 setup and fished all the lines the the wall down in to the unfinished basement and then back up to the back left cabinet where i place a 7.1 faceplate with a hdmi connector and then into my sc-37. sorry if they are too small to see- having trouble uploading from my phone...

Look when I moved in-

Fronts and tilt mount after -

surround left -

faceplates i used (monoprice) -

before back surrounds added -

picture of back surround after (bad quality- taken early am before work and running late and couldnt take again with lights on)

hopefully my future HT room -

planning on using this as the main entrance -

planning on closing this off with a new wall and then have an access door for my air and hot water tank in the room adjacent to this room -

thinking maybe to use this as the closet to house all my equipment and run lines from here instead of building one behind the screen (good or bad idea? by putting it here i can make the room about 2-3 feet larger)-

picture of what i hope to be, or close to where the screen will be. as you can see there is the air unit which i plan to wall around as well as the hot water tank behind it - will leave enough access to get to it from other room- and possible closet on the right side.

any help or ideas would be great and thanks again for all the feedback thus far!!

-josh

RxPolksterRx

sorry the pics are so small!

RxPolksterRx

Well after the home consult today think I have changed my mind on my room choice...maybe-

The room I had planned on making a workout room (room that backs up to the hvac and where I had planned on putting my equipment) may work better. It is currently 13x11.5-

The room I had planned on using would be 16x10.75 (after the closet wall was added). That being said I talked to a contractor and he said he would check but was pretty sure we would be able to move the back weight barring wal,l of the smaller room, out another 3 ft and still be within code. That being said though it would then move the hvac in the room (~3x3)- next step - well of course have the hvac moved 3 ft out into the new 'storage' room- aka the old HT room. Sounds a bit extreme maybe but think it really is doable since it is perfectly at the end of the return. But I'm gonna leave that to the professionals to say yay or nay.

Next bit of work is going to be moving a couple non weight barring 2x4s and a piece of drywall- right now there is a frame made for a 30" door to enter the room that is on the wall I'd have the screen on. But coming down the steps there is about 2.5 ft of drywall that extends out before you enter the basement. So move that down and butt it up to the screen wall and then put a pocket door in right at the bottom of the steps. This would allow for 100" screen and towers- current door placement would rule towers out.

Hard to follow I'm sure but I will post pics later. Sounds like a ton of work but the contractor said it wouldn't be bad at all. I might add he is a friend who owes me and will work for pizza and beer (pizza while working and beer at the end of the day ).
So the final room would come out to be 16x11.5.

Any thoughts???

RxPolksterRx

Is there any benefit of going with 'soundproof' drywall? Say it reduces noise 5x that of normal, but at about 6x the cost. The room is going to be 16x12 with 2 sides being poured concrete, back wall will be a wall for a storage space, and the other wall will be the wall along the steps that lead upstairs.

Also, planning on a drop ceiling- anything I can put above to help noise traveling up? Insulation, egg crate foam??

Lietuvis91

Do it once, do it right, get the right stuff the first time, so you have no regrets

RxPolksterRx

Suggestions???