Home cinema room

[Ream]

Just converting my garage into a living room and we have decided to make it a cinema/console/computer/music room, I would like to go down the in wall speaker route 5-1 with a subwoofer parked up in one corner.

I'm not cash rich so please do not recommend 50 k speakers with cables made out of something made from mars. To give you an example I was going for a Onkyo Amplifier £3-500.

So guys I'm all ears what speakers what amps What screen/projector/tv cables and how would you position.

Thanks in advance

 

[jonnyMercUK]

I don't know much about amplifiers, but I have an optical cable coming from my ps3 into my Samsung surround sound system and it sounds amazing!

 

[redbaron]

Onkyo 609 is circa 350 @ richer sounds... and is very very good.

bear in mind this is upto 7.2 so wire the room for the max it can do rather than just 5.1 - lets face it speaker cable is the cheapest bit of this equation.


Currently I have:-

Samsung PS64D8000 screen

Onkyo 606 Amp

Tannoy floorstanders front
Mission Centre
Gale Bipolar Surround for 5.1 + Rear Centre (if running 6.1
Pioneer Rear's ( if running 7.1)
Yamaha active sub

 

[davethemus]

i watched a clip on youtube about setting up cinema rooms and the guy that does this for a living stated that the most important thing is the accoustics not the equipment, apparently, you could have the best equipment, but if it's in a bad room it won't sound right. I'd say you should get the room sound proofed and go from there, you can buy the stuff online and do it yourself.

 

[Doodle]

The irony is that 7.x is all well and good, but it requires a room big enough to make it work. Most average UK living rooms simply aren't big enough to get decent speaker separation for the rears.

Like dave mentions above, acoustics and setup are far more important than what the actual gear is.

My current setup is based on opportunism on cheap prices and what works best for a less than perfect living room (10' wide, 22' long)

Panasonic TX50G20 plasma
Pioneer VSX919 amp
KEF T205 pack
Chord Supershield HDMI & Carnival Silverscreen speaker cables.

 

[redbaron]

The irony is that 7.x is all well and good, but it requires a room big enough to make it work. Most average UK living rooms simply aren't big enough to get decent speaker separation for the rears.

Like dave mentions above, acoustics and setup are far more important than what the actual gear is.

My current setup is based on opportunism on cheap prices and what works best for a less than perfect living room (10' wide, 22' long)

Panasonic TX50G20 plasma
Pioneer VSX919 amp
KEF T205 pack
Chord Supershield HDMI & Carnival Silverscreen speaker cables.

Agree completely... but a garage setup length ways would work for that.....

 

[Doodle]

Possibly. It would need to be a wide garage though - your average single garage isn't even as wide as my living room.

 

[removed]

My cousin does this home cinema thingy ... bit on a costly side though - about $6m Kipnis - Ultimate Home Theaters

I'm sure I can get Jeremy to drop a few quid off for a fellow member













OK, the price drop thing was a joke ... the rest is not

 

[Ream]

Thanks for the info so far, the garage is part of a 4 room two storey extension so not normal size, width 12 length 20.

Will read up on the insulation/accoustic bit but would ave thought brick breeze stud wall insulation plaster paint carpet would have been fine.

 

[developer]

For a dedicated space a projector is the way to go if movies are your bag.

Mine projects at 84" and that's quite small by comparison. TV's in that area will cost you a fortune.

However, if you want to watch TV then you need to ensure there's a feed from the TV input to the projector.

Also you may wish to be 3D capable which will affect what you buy.

Seek out nurple on here - he fits them for a living (I think).

My system is:

InFocus 1080p projector
Denon Amp
Panasonic Bluray
Monitor Audio Speakers 5.1 (though I cabled for 6.1)
QED interconnects and cables
Mains conditioners

 

[A-AvantGarde]

For a dedicated space a projector is the way to go if movies are your bag.

+1

A projector setup would be ideal for a garage / dedicated cinema room. I fitted a projector and electric screen in my parents old house with all the cabling back to a wall plate to allow us to feed DVD & SKY though to the projector.

It was a massive room and was fantastic for Football and movies. Since they've moved we've not setup a new system in the new house (we left the screen & speakers etc in the old house). They do really miss it though.

Have a look at AVforums.com - warning though it does get addictive (& expensive!). There are some great threads on other peoples garage conversions there. It's also a really good source for reasonable second hand kit too - some of the people on there frequently upgrade their kit!!!

 

[Igurisu]

+1 on the projector also.

Planning the room layout is also key, your projector will be somewhere near the rear of the room. This needs to be considered when thinking about where the TV source, Xbox/PS3/Computer are located. Very long HDMI leads (not sure on the exact ratios) can lead to signal degradation.

 

[developer]

+1 on the projector also.

Planning the room layout is also key, your projector will be somewhere near the rear of the room. This needs to be considered when thinking about where the TV source, Xbox/PS3/Computer are located. Very long HDMI leads (not sure on the exact ratios) can lead to signal degradation.

And check the "throw" to establish it will project at a suitable size from where you want to locate it.

Projectors can be noisy too, with a fan permanently running.

Still brill though .

 

[John]

My cousin does this home cinema thingy ... bit on a costly side though - about $6m Kipnis - Ultimate Home Theaters

Just looked at the gallery on that website.

I've never seen so many valve amps before. That room must not require any central heating at all and must require its own nuclear power station.

I imagine the sound is pretty good in there though!

 

[donubenz]

Hi with regard to distance/width. I was told that the front speaker links the dialogue to the action and that the ideal sound system is for a triangular shape so that the "pinned " front speaker is exactly in the middle of the two R and L speakers. You should be the same distance away from the screen, the point you are sat forming another apex of an equilateral triangle. Surround speakers up high behind you. This is of course in an ideal world with only one viewer and I know that all sort of effects can be achieved by adjusting the amp that can compensate and enhance the experience. This means that the width of the garage will possibly limit the size you can go back in the space. Still you can always put a pop corn machine in!

 

[Ream]

Hi with regard to distance/width. I was told that the front speaker links the dialogue to the action and that the ideal sound system is for a triangular shape so that the "pinned " front speaker is exactly in the middle of the two R and L speakers. You should be the same distance away from the screen, the point you are sat forming another apex of an equilateral triangle. Surround speakers up high behind you. This is of course in an ideal world with only one viewer and I know that all sort of effects can be achieved by adjusting the amp that can compensate and enhance the experience. This means that the width of the garage will possibly limit the size you can go back in the space. Still you can always put a pop corn machine in!

This might sound like a silly question but do the three front speakers around the screen R L and Center can they be the same type or does the centre speaker need to be different to L & R.

 

[davethemus]

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The centre speaker should have 2 speakers i would imagine

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Centre speakers are normally different to the Left & Right. It's also important as it's the one most of the speech will come out of when watching movies or TV.

The front left & right and rear speaker could all be the same type, typically you'll find a 'matched' centre speaker for various ranges of speaker.

 

[donubenz]

Centre speaker is mainly for the voice sounds so usually is smaller and does not need such a wide range eg 100 to 5000Hz typically. Your ear can hear 15 to 18000 Hz, so outside ones have better range performance and are usually bigger. With modern technology this is not always true now as Bose for example have a "wave" system that is supposed to be true to life. Note your hearing deteriorates with age so a pensioner may not benefit much from a high end system.
I was at a demo from Bose and they played a scene from a movie when a train was arriving at a station platform. You heard the approaching Steam train in the right speaker and the characters speaking in the middle then the train roared through and the sound disappeared to the left. The sub woofer 20 -200Hz, that can be placed anywhere in the room, as the bass sound is omnipresent really made your body feel the boom from the train. Twittering bird sounds and other conversations in the station from the rear surround sound speakers. They obviously picked the scene for the acoustics but it really was impressive, shut your eyes and you could have been standing there. A lot depends on the skill of the sound person making the Dolby or whatever in splitting the various sounds and deciding where to send them. This is really quite noticeable when it is done badly.
At the end of the day it is what suits you but lots of money spend does not necessarily give the best system.

 

[John]

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The centre speaker should have 2 speakers i would imagine

My cheaper 5.1 system as a single driver on the centre speaker and worked well.