Relocating to a Loft, need advice on layout.

[BleedingStar]

So, I am relocating to a loft condo that I am purchasing. I am very happy with my theater in my current residence where the theater is in a 15' x 15' room with 10' ceilings. The new place is VERY open. The main great room is 34' x 25' and has 20' high ceilings. This opens up a lot of options, but I am a little curious as to how sound will act in such a large room, and how exactly is the best to lay this out.

My current setup is viewable in the gallery section here: http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...r-theater.html

The new place looks like this:





Here is the layout I am looking at:

The screen will be against the large wall... with the mains, center, etc... with the front sub both in corners (yay!). The real questionable issue is where to place surround sound. Should I stay in closer to the "living room/theater" area, or should I pull it back farther into the room?

[BleedingStar]

No advice at all?

[Prof.]

I think this setup will be a compromise at best...

A large open-plan area..
No wall near the left hand side of the seating..
20' ceilings!!
Difficult to treat acoustically..

Firstly, I would move the single row a bit closer to the screen..unless you're having a very big screen.
.
The surrounds are going to be your biggest problem..
If you're looking at using a 7.1 system, then the back speakers are too far apart..
The side surrounds will be a bit out of balance because you have the left speaker free-standing and the right speaker against the wall..
I take it that you'll be using surrounds on stands or floorstanders?

EDIT: I've just had another look at your previous set up and I see you do have floorstanders for surrounds..
I don't see that you can do very much more than what you've shown..
Perhaps someone else might see a better way of doing it..

[BleedingStar]

I do have a 120 in" screen, which i currently watch from about around the same distance that I have it laid out for the new floor plan.

The surround sound is definitely the biggest point of interest that I am curious about.... I could take me rear surrounds all the way to the back of the room and give them a bit of volume, and then the could actually be facing the center of the room a bit closer together, but they would be fairly far back. I also do have an extra set of speakers that I could add to my surround sound amp and give a wide sound stage for the rear surrounds... not sure exactly how that would work out.

I understand that having one wall along one side, and no wall along another can cause a bit of of unbalance. however in my current setup the left side only has a half wall bar, and I can really sense any difference. How much of a difference does it really make to have a back wall or higher ceilings? Will the main problem be echoing and sound direction confusion?

[Prof.]

BleedingStar wrote:

The surround sound is definitely the biggest point of interest that I am curious about.... I could take me rear surrounds all the way to the back of the room and give them a bit of volume, and then the could actually be facing the center of the room a bit closer together, but they would be fairly far back.

That would probably be a better arrangement, providing you can balance the levels between sides and backs..And considering that there isn't a lot of back surround effects anyway..

I understand that having one wall along one side, and no wall along another can cause a bit of of unbalance. however in my current setup the left side only has a half wall bar, and I can really sense any difference.

I noticed in your present set up that both surrounds are getting some re-enforcement from the walls..and this where you may have a problem in the new set up..only one surround will have wall re-enforcement..
It may not be too bad, but you won't know until you try it..
If it does turn out that there is a noticeable inbalance between the surrounds, try laying them down on the floor, with the speakers facing up wards and moving them closer to the sides of the seating and see if that improves the balance..
I'm not suggesting that you leave them like that, just as tryout..

How much of a difference does it really make to have a back wall or higher ceilings? Will the main problem be echoing and sound direction confusion?

Most probably..

[BleedingStar]

Thanks for the advice... i'm really excited to get in there and start experimenting with a few things to see how it all works out, the most daunting task will be wiring and projector setup... gonna take some serious wiring to work it all out and not have visible cables everywhere.

[Prof.]

Good luck with it all...It will be quite a challenge to get it all set up neatly..
Keep us up to date with your progress..

[John Simpson]

Bleeding, Prof is right that you're going to have a lot of fun trying to set that place up to perform well acoustically. So many hard surfaces! Keep us up to date on your progress.

Re: the surround speakers, I find the further they are away from you the better (within reason). There's no need to place them exactly symmetrical, as your receiver will adjust for differing positions -- just have them in roughly the same plane as you work from front to back of the room.

As this setup is going to be so unpredictable, you might want to experiment with speaker placements once you get all your furniture in. Don't start installing wallplates until you're sure you know the best place for them!

[gullfo]

you might find you need to put some treatments on stands or fly from the ceiling in order to shape your space without losing the nice openness of the loft. i'd first try to marry up my surrounds with absorbers on stands to keep things together and it may also alleviate some of the potential imbalance from having one wall and one open side. you might even find that putting some absorbers on the ceiling through out the rest of the space it may help overall intelligibility within your loft.

[BleedingStar]

Here are a few photos of the setup in the new place:






I've found the electrostats sound absolutely fantastic in the large space. Since electrostats are quite directional it helps eliminate the reverb of the room and keeps the sound very defined. The surround being faced in the smaller section of the room also have limited reverb. The only noticeably echo is with the center channel. I can hear it bouncing off of the high back wall a bit. I am hoping to play with a couple of acoustic panels and see if I can tune in on this issue a bit. Overall, i am extremely happy with the turnout giving the size of the room.

[Prof.]

The layout looks good Bleeding Star...and the overhead gantry for your projector keeps the wiring to a minimum..

I would definitely put some acoustic treatment on the back wall and staircase panel, and I would also seriously consider some bass traps..

[BleedingStar]

I might also put all the components in the adjacent closet at on point and completely hide them all. We will see.

Where would you recommend the bass traps... in the front area? The bass seems fairly tight and accurate to me, however, I'm sure I would notice a difference with a bit of treatment.

[Prof.]

Yes, I would start there..You may also need to have one in the back corner as well..