Family Room HT Examples?

[Ayreonaut]

We've all seen hundreds of photos of dedicated HTs. But I think that I would rather build a family room HT. Starting from scratch (building an addition in the future) would allow me to configure this room however I want. But risers and rows of seats are out, and total darkness is out too. And I want a fireplace. I just do.

What examples of brilliant HT family rooms have you seen?

[JCD]

I was hoping someone else would chime in.. but since they haven't so far, I haven't seen anything either.
That being said, maybe if you gave some parameters we could help. Like:

1. How big is the room going to be?
2. What kind of equipment are you thinking about?
3. What's the layout of the room?
4. How much do we need to worry about WAF?

JCD

[adogand6kids]

Naut,

As you can probably tell from my login name, family friendly rooms are a necessity for my family. I currently have a basement HT/Family room, and at the same time am building a new home that will have a basement HT/family room/library. When trying to formulate a plan for such a room, compromises are inevitable. I will try to take some photos of my current basement set up (full of compromises) as well as scan some of the plans I have come up with for the new basement. I can post these to give you some ideas. As a starting point, I would suggest trying to get the physical size of the room as conducive to good audio as possible. This is obviously the hardest thing to change in retrospect.

More later.

Wade

[Sonnie]

You put that one strict qualification in there... "brilliant" ... or otherwise I could probably dig up some pics of my old family/HT room setups.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You put that one strict qualification in there... "brilliant" ... or otherwise I could probably did up some pics of my old family/HT room setups.

Yeah, that kinda scared me off, too! I’m a big fan of family room set-ups myself – easy access to the kitchen!

Not sure how many family room set-ups will qualify as “brilliant," but I’m sure there are some out there. Maybe when I get my wet bar converted to a built-in equipment rack...

Regards,
Wayne

[Ayreonaut]

JCD wrote:

1. How big is the room going to be?
2. What kind of equipment are you thinking about?
3. What's the layout of the room?
4. How much do we need to worry about WAF?

A1. I'm thinking that it will be 8'h*12.8'w*20'l or 10'h*16'w*25'l. We homeschool our kids, and my wife wants to combine a school room with a den/theater. I'm thinking that I'll use that to leverage the larger room (16'x25') but the HT will be limited to part of the room.

A2. I get excited about new equipment all the time, but right now I'm keen on SL Orion mains, Mirage Omnisat surrounds, and either a big plasma or a small projection screen. My desire for a fireplace may exclude the projection screen, huh?

A3. The layout is the big question.

A4. 100% WAF is required, but my wife is very reasonable. Right now in the living room she puts up with floorstanders, wall mounted surrounds and an attic IB sub. She likes it realistically loud too. She's pretty cool. Since my TV is in the living room right now she insists that it be in a cabinet and be hidden from view when not used. In a den/HT is think it will be fine to have it out.

[Darren]

Mine is far from brilliant but it is a family room. The pics are slightly out of date as they are before I had my IB installed, actually they document part of the actual planning and install. The room has been arranged to take better advantage of the setup now though. The furniture and arrangement in the speakers is no longer the same. We bought new furniture and it is all arranged to take advantage of the media experience. I'll have to get more up to date pics.

http://www.garagehobbies.com/ib.aspx?Section=Room

I used to be a hard nosed setup guy. Everything was optimal... All 5 speakers were identical, all tweeters were at ear level etc... Finally I decided convenience had to play a role here somewhere so I made a few compromises and think I ended up with a better system as a result, what I thought would degrade the experience actually improved it.

The center channel integrates flawlessly even though it is several feet above the mains. The surrounds are a spectacular upgrade from direct radiating. Much better ambient effects. The IB integrates perfectly. Awesome stealth theater!

[paulnclark]

I’ve have attempted to marry the HT and family room in my house (maybe there is a new acronym here – HTFR?). Obviously, the goal with the HTFR is to have a multiuse space and my approach was to flank one side of the room with closets for office/study activities. Maximizing useful space + WAF were considerations so I built in all speakers save the subwoofers and they will be soon (see below).

I have some images posted at the following:

http://members.cox.net/paulnclark/

I am still making progress toward completion/satisfaction. I haven’t installed the closet doors yet and their addition will clean up the appearance (i.e., hide the mess) when we have guests over etc. They will also hide the AV rack.

My last undertaking is to build a sub. The plan is to install it (or them) in the ceiling. I am currently running a pair of 12 inch/200 W Atlantic Tech but they will be going away in favor a one (or two) 18 inch units. I will make a posting in the DIY Subwoofer forum to solicit advice.

[Kerbango]

If you can, design the room to minimize Room Modes. The perfect ratio would be 23.3 feet long, 16 feet wide and 10 feet high.

[Ayreonaut]

It depends on who you believe.
B&W quote a few ratios here.

I just plugged some of those into my mode calculator spreadsheet.
The IEC numbers seem to work the best.

10:16:24

[ohhtony]

Mine is completed but I don't know how to upload pictures

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum, Tony!

You can find that info here. It’s telling how to upload an REW graph, but it’s the same process for any jpg.

I think you may have to have a certain number of posts before you can upload a picture. If you find that's the case, an administrator can upgrade your status immediately. brucek can do that for you; Sonnie and I will be out of pocket until Sunday afternoon.

Regards,
Wayne