Who Has a Dedicated Home theater?

wingnut4772

How many of you have a separate room just dedicated to home theater? Not in the living room . family room etc. but a dedicated room.

Please share the dimensions and set ups and any tips on design or ideas as I am buying a new house and really want to get one with the perfect room to set up my dream home theater - movie posters, tiered seating, popcorn maker and all.
TIA

jdhdiggs

Originally posted by wingnut4772
Please share the dimensions and set ups and any tips on design or ideas as I am buying a new house and really want to get one with the perfect room to set up my dream home theater - movie posters, tiered seating, popcorn maker and all.
TIA

Good luck with that... Once the contractors get done with the rooms, none will be perfect. My 13' by 17'6" space for my dedicated HT? They put a freakin' sewer main right into the middle of the wall that the screen was going to go to. Bastages...

Unless you get really lucky, you will have to build the room yourself in the basement. All othe rooms seem to have issues with too many openings or too much light.

Airplay355

ron-p has his in the gargage....im sure someone else does too.

most of us need our garages however lol

dorokusai

Take a look in the system showcase.....FrankZ....RonP....Grimster74 and Goingganzo always ring a bell when I think dedicated HT. They all have varying degrees of application and design.

jdhdiggs

I forgot to add, check AVS as they have an entire section of their forum to dedicated HT rooms and how to's etc...

wingnut4772

Basement is not an option since I am in Miami Florida but a couple of houses I have looked at that have had converted garages. I need a garage though and I don't want to hurt my resale value. I have to weigh that out.

What kind of dimensions should I be looking for in the new house for that room? I have a 7.1 set up for now with full range speakers.

PolkThug

Mine is dedicated but far from perfect. About 13'x21'. I would like it to be a couple feet wider, and ideally, I don't want the equipment rack on the same wall as the screen.

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/showcase/view.php?userid=51750

Grimster74

My room is 14' x 24'. Take a look at my showcase and if you have any other questions I will be more than happy to answer any that you have.

okiepolkie

Larry Chanin also has a nice one IMHO. Can you find any houses that have a nice sized bonus room above the garage?

The house that we are building will have an unfinished 24x24 space upstairs for a dedicated HT and possibly a bathroom and bedroom.

I'm hoping to use at least a 13x24 space for the HT.

Ron-P

Like some have said, I have a dedicated theater that I built in my 2 car garage. It is small, 16'x9' with an average 7' ceiling. It has 2 rows of seating with an 85" screen and all Polks inside.

The room itself is all 2x4 construction less the ceiling joists that are 2x6s. The interior has a layer of 1/2" drywall overlaid with a layer of 5/8". The exterior has a layer of 1/2" drywall overlaid with 5/8" OSB. The walls / ceiling are all packed with R-13 insulation. I ran 2 dedicated 20amp lines from the main breaker panel of the house to feed the room.

I don't have any recent picks on my website up but you can take a look anyhow, just click the link below. I'm in the final stages of finishing up my screen wall construction. Once done, I'll update my site.

TrappedUnder Ice

In the process of building a dedicated HT right now. Demensions will be 17'x14'....No windows...only a 2ft door (min for code) and a double insulated wall between me and the new master bedroom were also adding. Were in process of framing right now- lots going on.
system will be:

Yamaha LPX-500 projector/DYI screen for now

Yamaha RX-V2400
Polk RT2000i fronts
Polk CS400i center
Polk RT55i rear
If I go 7.1- I have RT25i's too add
DVD-unknown (need to get a new one)

In-wall wire by Cobalt

I'll get some pics up shortly...nothing exciting too see at the moment ...peace

Sami

I built one into a 13x11' bedroom. It would be nice if it was bigger and quite a few houses had 12x16' second bedrooms but none that I liked enough to buy. I wasn't going to buy a house so I could put a HT in it although it did play a big role in my decision to scratch many, many houses.

That room is still good for 100+ inch picture and 5.1 surround. Seats 3 in theater seating but over that and you're sitting on the floor in a bean bag chair (that I have in my storage for this purpose). It's mostly just 1 or 2 persons watching so it works perfectly for me.

wingnut4772

Thank you for all your responses. I think I may be leaning towards getting a home with a two car garage and using half for the HT. I am not sure if that will be large enough though. I have seen some listings with two master bedrooms also so we will see.

Wiill I have to add dedicated 20 amp lines to a pre-existing room? (I do not have them now). If so how much will that run more or less?

Also, any idea of the budget for building out the garage?
Thanks again.

jeremie

i built a dedicated theater room, the room is 14x27 and has three tiers to it. Check out my photos in system showcase. the only thing difference is that i have a 96" 16:9 widescreen now vs the 84" 4:3.

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/showcase/view.php?userid=10508

wallstreet

I happen to have one too. It's 15x25. I think 17x25 would be ideal. Gives you a little more room to get by the side of the couch without clanging your head on the fx1000. You will definitely want to consider two levels of floor. A neighbor hardwired some component video and audio connections right into the step. Way cool.

TrappedUnder Ice

The local shop here in town...has about 8 different theater setups... one...just happens to be a half garage. It is supposed to be exactly 1/2 of a 2 car garage. Funny thing is... there is no standard on a 2 car garage...I know my folks 2-car garage is way bigger then mine... but...to the point. It made for a nice theater!.

warren

I have 14x 24 covered(smoked plixi-glass) lani, no reverb. sorrounding the lani on two sides are gardens the back is jungle, you living Miami could do it too, I think. Ivirtually live out there when I'm not at Pearl, or sailing. Aloha, Warren

gmorris

My dedicated room is 11' by ~21', but the real stinker in my room is the 6'7" ceiling.

There is no such thing as the perfect room. I will echo the advise of others, read as much as you can on the internet, and try out some magazines. After a couple months, you will become a nerd, er, an expert just like all of us here at Club Polk.

wingnut4772

Still shopping.....It is hard to find a decent house here in Miami for under 500K much less be picky about having a room for dedicated HT. ....

Grimster74

Hey Wingnut, I got your PM and I just figured I'd post it here. To answer your question, my dedicated room was built in the basement and not the garage. I have a split-foyer home and when I had it built I made the builder leave the two rooms (which are now one) unfinished so I could do what I wanted with them.

As far as dedicated 20 amp outlets go. If you are planning on having a house built the additional cost for the dedicated outlet would be minimal. The electrician will already have to pull the wire threw the walls so I would think the labor would not be any more. The only thing that you would really have to pay additional for would be the roll of 12/2 wire, the 20 amp receptacles and the 20 amp breakers and the sub panel box. Is the minimal additional cost of the dedicated outlets worth it, in my opinion, you can't go wrong. Think about it, it is a straight shot from the sub panel box to the receptacle, nothing else will be on that run other than your audio equipment.

tryrrthg

Originally posted by gmorris
There is no such thing as the perfect room.

I give you the perfect room:

The perfect room link 1

the perfect room link 2

Sami

Originally posted by tryrrthg
I give you the perfect room:

That's not a HT room. Way too light to be one. Keep looking...

tryrrthg

Originally posted by Sami
That's not a HT room. Way too light to be one. Keep looking...

Ok, these aren't "perfect" but they're DAMN COOL! These are some of the installs from a HI-FI store in Columbus.

Sami

Originally posted by tryrrthg
Ok, these aren't "perfect" but they're DAMN COOL!

I'd love to have one of those rooms but one has to remember something (since we're being realistic here ). The bigger the room gets, the more money you need to invest in audio gear. Lots of air to fill and reference DD levels are LOUD. Would put a lot ot demand on speakers and amplifiers, and especially on subwoofers.

gmorris

Originally posted by tryrrthg
I give you the perfect room:

The perfect room link 1

the perfect room link 2

Quoted directly from the article in Link 2 : "In my case I have about a 5dB to 6dB peak at 134Hz, and a 5dB to 6dB null at 80Hz. Otherwise the room is pretty flat up and down the whole audio range."

This room must sound like ****.;)

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by okiepolkie
Larry Chanin also has a nice one IMHO.

Hi Okie,

Thanks for the kind mention.

Wingnut:

Click on the link in my signature for a description of my theater. It's 26'x15'x10'.

Larry

wingnut4772

Larry, that is a really nice theater. Did you build that or was it an existing space such as a garage or basement?

warren

Larry thats something to be proud of, a lot thought, energy, and $$$. Aloha, Warren

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by wingnut4772
Larry, that is a really nice theater. Did you build that or was it an existing space such as a garage or basement?

Hi Wingnut,

We moved to Florida a little over a year ago, and when we made the change of scenery we looked for a new home with a floor plan that would lend itself to a home theater, and a builder who would make custom changes.

The standard floor plan had a large Study and an average sized Bedroom adjacent to one an other. I had the builder eliminate most of the windows and the wall between the rooms to create the theater space. Solid core double doors with thresholds and weather strippping were added where the Study had a doorless entry. The rear door on the Bedroom side of the room was likewise converted to a solid core door with thresholds and weather striping.

I totally redesigned the standard wall structure of the space to increase sound isolation. The exterior concrete block walls retained the rigid insulation on them, but I added an additional 4" interior wall filled with insulation. The interior walls were redesigned to be 6" thick, staggered-stud walls filled with insulation. Extra insulation was placed in the attic over the room.

I designed a 6-zone lighting system, specified the dedicated electric circuits and the location of the outlets. I also specified the low voltage prewiring for the speakers, the roughed-in plumbing for a small wet bar in the rear of the theater, and two layers of sheetrock. After the builder finished building the shell of the room to my specifications, I did all the remaining interior work except for carpeting the rear seating riser.

The work I did was:

• Build removeable sheetrock partions, filled with insulation, to close off the remaining window in the front of the room
• Install the screen and projector
• Install all the acoustic treatments on the walls and soffits
• Build the stage
• Build the screen shadow box
• Build and wire the seating platform
• Install the equipment racks and equipment
• Install the sconces
• Install the cabinetry, microwave, refrigerator and sink for the wet bar
• Install the speakers (11 of them) and In-wall speaker performance enclosures.

Larry

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by warren
Larry thats something to be proud of, a lot thought, energy, and $$$. Aloha, Warren

Aloha Warren,

Yes, I'm very proud of it because I've never been a "Mr. Fix-It" kind of guy. Prior to the project I never even owned power tools other than a circular saw and a drill.

I spent about two years, on and off, designing it and it took me about 9 months to build. Originally I was planning on getting some professional installation assistance to do a portion of the work. I was prepared to spend about $25,000 for the professional part of the work, but believe it or not that was too low an amount to attract any interest on the part of local high-end installers, so I was forced to do virtually all the work myself. I've never really had the courage to price it all out, but I estimate it cost about $40,000 for everything, including the cost of my vintage Polk speakers.

Larry

goingganzo

where ever you put your theare make sure you have good heating i have my7 theater in the basement and the heating is in the celing. my setup is 16 by 22 by 7.
i have a
adcon 7 channel 125 wat amp and a
sunfire theater grand 3
benq 8700+ projector sane as runco 710
polk audio speakers 800i mains 400i center and 2 sets of 500i
and a 115 in screen
and the ultimate sub 4 18 in avalanch subs


when i buld a house in a year or 2 i will make some changes.

2-4 feet wider. more seating. a consesions area. move the equipment rack out of the theater or at least to the back and a 160 in screen with higher celings.