[hddummy]

I've always wanted a dedicated theater. We just bought a new house and finally have a basement that is suitable. I've been dreaming about it for so long that I hardly know where to begin. My basement is all finished, but I'll be gutting and rebuilding the back corner. I would like to build a room-in-a-room theater that is about ~9H x ~14.5W x ~21L. The dimensions are not set because I'll have to be moving walls and such, so things can be adjusted to suit the final design. I'm going to have a ~130" 2.35 CIH AT screen with masking down to a 90" 16:9 screen. Equipment is still under consideration. I'll do two rows with a raised second row. If room permits, I may do a counter with stools behind the second row. I'm definately going to do a 7.1 and maybe even a full time 9.1 via DDPLIIz. Accoustic treatments will be a must, but not really figured out yet. First reflection absorbers, corner bass traps and a deadened front wall are likely candidates. Here are pictures of the space.

This is a large entertaining room outside of the theater. The theater will be in the room through the door. I will have to rebuild and relocated the wall between these two rooms to add length to the theater.

This is the room where the theater will be. Like I said, this is getting gutted and completely rebuilt.

LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!:devil:

 

[Ted White]

Looks like a good space. Are you taking the room down to bare studs and joists?

 

[spartanstew]

Depending upon your seating distances, I'd consider a bigger screen.

My seating is 13' and 19' and I'm currently using a 126" 16:9 screen. I would not go smaller and when I do finally go scope, it'll be a screen that's roughly 162" (diagonal), which will maintain my 16:9 image size when needed.

 

[bambino]

Awesome! I am envious, i can only dream of having a room that size for a theater. Have fun with the build.:T

 

[fusionrx]

So basically you are gutting a kitchen in the basement.... pulling up the floor and granite countertops? Do you plan on reusing them elsewhere or selling/salvaging them? Neat room for a theatre by the way.

 

[hddummy]

It's actually a "craft" room and yes, I'll be gutting it down to the studs to build my room in a room. The counters are just cheap laminate and I'll reuse all the cabinets in my workshop. I guess I'll have to see what it feels like once i get the the room roughed in. I'll layout the screen size and see how I feel about it.

 

[hddummy]

I've been thinking a lot about equipment. I really love to tinker and DIY, so building my own speakers has been heavy on my mind. I've always been partial to the Zaph designs and now that they sell kits at Madisound, it makes it all that much more appealing. I'm just not sure if I'd be better off buying manufactured speakers or not. At the moment, I'm planning on building a set of sealed ZA5.3 MTMs for the main LCR channels. I'm also going to build a sealed 12" sub for each LCR channel. I had always wondered how to integrate each MTM with the W to result in a complete full range channel. After reading Wayne's whitepaper, my path forward is clear. I'm going to buy a DCX2496 and use it to actively cross each LCR channel into an upper and lower signal to a dedicated set of amps. Amps will probably be three emotiva upa2.

Subs.....still up in the air. Again, I will be building my own and lately I've been eyeing the Rythmik kits. I'm not sold on the servo-sub though, so I'd really like to hear some opinions about that. Either way, I plan on probably four 15" drivers on the front wall, two left and two right of center.

Surrounds will be driven by the AVR and probably will be Dipoles. As I mentioned before, I'm planning on a 9.1 system. Lots of people disparage anything higher than 5.1 because content with more channels is so rare. I say the with that....9.1 is just cool. If I can I will. At the moment, the only AVRs I've seen that do it right are the Onkyo TX-NR1007 and higher receivers. Right now, I'm focusing on the TX-NR3008. These AVRs can drive all Dolby PLIIz channels simultaneously.

That's it for the audio side right now.

 

[bbieger]

If your really into that much bass, look into building a tuba sub. Cheap driver and low wattage amp.. Massive, clean bass. Absolutely blew my SVS sub away.

 

[hddummy]

I did some preliminary demolition the other night. I pulled some drywall off the ceiling to see what I'm dealing with. I was very happy to see...not much. All my joists above are engineered I-beam style which are not cross braced or anything. There are some flex ducts for HVAC which will be easy to reroute. There is no plumbing or major electrical. I'll be able to stagger the new ceiling joists for my room between the floor joists above, so I'll have next to no impact to my overall ceiling height. All I have to do is get my father (who is an architect) over to judge on whether or not I can move one of the walls in that room. If I can, the room will be 14.5 ft wide. If I can't, then it will only be 13ft wide. Not a major issue either way, but I'll take every inch I can get. As for the project begin schedule....I have just a few items left on my Honey-Do list before I can really dig into this. I anticipate major construction to start no later than the beginning of the new year.

Here is a little outdated but still applicable floor plan.

 

[Ted White]

Floating ceiling joists would be fabulous

 

[fusionrx]

Not sure how you'd float in ceiling joist without a) connecting them to the existing joists or b) keep the ceiling height?

Can you explain what you mean?

 

[hddummy]

the room in a room design has walls that don't reach as high as the floor joists above. THe new ceiling joists rest on the new walls and also do not connect to the floor joists above. Since i can stagger my new ceiling joists between the above floor joists, the ceiling need only be an inch or two below the existing floor joists. This decouples the room and helps contain the sound since it cannot transmit through common structure....and vice versa. Sounds from above are less likely to transmit into the theater room.

 

[4U2NVME]

Hi HDDummy,

Our rooms are fairly similar build, I know I have been struggling with the dimensions, its to short to put a full second row in of HT seats and to keep off the back wall. I figure that most of the time we will use the front row and if needed get a bean bag chair or two or use the bar. I may have found a set of 4 chairs which may work there to.

I'm at the stage right now of ordering my sound proofing for the room, we are getting the house built, its been a slow and drawn out process. 'Communicating' :boxer: with the wife so I can get more build time in the room. She thinks labor is cheap and it can be built out in a day since they are in there already putting up the rest of the house. I did recently take another job that is taking me out of the City for 4 of 7 days.....

As well if you need any help let me know, I have spent a ton of hours looking, researching, dreaming, researching some more. I'll follow your build, it should tell me anytime a post is made here now I think.

For your angles and the such for your speakers etc, what program did you use to draw that out? The 3D model I used sketchup, its a free Goggle 3D software which does OK. Not professional level, but gives you a good idea how things will, fit, look and feel.

-NV

ps. I'm looking for such a cleverly named HT as well. I have no clue what to call it right now... should be some HT generator namer, I bet I can find one somewhere.

 

[hddummy]

I'm really struggling with myself about moving this wall....what would be the right side wall of the theater. It is a structural wall, so we are talking about doubling the floor joist count above to carry the extra span. Also, that puts the new wall right on the edge of the foundation footer.....i'm just not sure it is all worth the effort. I could convert the existing wall over to a post and beam setup instead. In order to hide the posts, my columns on the side of the room would have to extend approximately 18" into the room too be fully encompassed. I suppose the smart thing to do would be happy with the 13.5 feet of width that I have and live with it. I've got to do some more CAD work to plan it out. Any opinions about having the rather large columns on the side of the room?

 

[patchesj]

I highly recommend the isolated wall (room in room) concept if you can fit it. I did a similar design in my basement using 2 layers 5/8 type X drywall + green glue on my inside walls. Worth every penny and drop of sweat. Make sure you do something to isolate your HVAC vents in the room or it will all be for nothing. I also used an "external" fire rated door as the door for the inside wall. Good luck on the build! Plan on at least 2X the time and money, and you'll get it at least half way done...

 

[hddummy]

Well...I'm probably not going to do Green Glue and Room in a room. I would do one or the other. If I am sacrificing room width by not moving this wall, it really makes me lean toward GG.

 

[patchesj]

Well...I'm probably not going to do Green Glue and Room in a room. I would do one or the other. If I am sacrificing room width by not moving this wall, it really makes me lean toward GG.

You can only do it once.... :spend:

What is located above your theater?

 

[hddummy]

A family room.

 

[patchesj]

It's easy to spend other peoples money but I would do iso walls and GG. GG is like magic, and the icing on the cake of an isolated room.

 

[hddummy]

It looks like I would have very little structural changes to do if i built a room that varies in width. The front wall would be about 11' wide but the back wall would be about 15' wide. this way, the load bearing wall i am worried about moving would be minimally impacted. Any thoughts?

This is the new walls on top of the old picture to show how much of the room gets chopped off by the tapered width. I guess I am a little concerned with how narrow it gets near the front. This would basically put the speakers in the corners of the room, which i was trying to avoid.