----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Joe,
If you are in the build process the first things you should be considering
is the actual construction. Size of the room make a huge difference in bass
response and where and what frequencies will have standing wave issues.
Based on dimension you can actually maps the nodes and anti node and
harmonics at the 1/2 or 1/4 wavelength of the room. The length x width x
height should not be with in a 5% integer value of each other or a stacking
of standing waves may result. Hard reflective surfaces such as the concrete
slabs should be avoided. Building the wall slightly out of square (around
7%) is also recommended to eliminate true right angle and slap echo effects.
Then there's the consideration of sound isolation techniques which will stop
the transfer of sound wave and vibrations from going through structural
members to other parts of the house, actually in both direction in and out.
Sound dampening material, absorbing material along the 1st third of the side
walls near the front L&R speakers, diffusing material in the rear to keep
the reflection from bouncing back to your ears slightly out of phase and
delayed causing a muddying affect. Where to place the sub woofers and how
many, 1, 2, 4, in corners or centered on each wall? Do you want dipoler or
direct firing surrounds, dual center channels? Air conditioning and
heating, will there be duct work in this space that goes into other spaces.
A hole in the room (duct opening) diminishes bass allowing sound pressure to
escape and allows noise to travel through out the house. Single ductless
heat/cooling pump units are best.
Depending on your budget there is a lot that can be considered and if you
truly want it done right professional help is important. There are certain
things that a poorly designed room will do that can make it almost
impossible to correct electronically making extremely high end equipment a
waste of money. You may actually achieve better sound by taking appropriate
steps in construction and using moderately priced equipment. But if you do
the construction right and use top notch equipment, then you will have an
outstanding system.
------------------------------------
Vining Audio & Video
Daniel R. Vining
LLC Member
[email protected]
30 Spring Street
Danbury, CT 06810
tel: 203 790-8450
fax: 203 790-8450
mobile: 203 470-2667
www.viningaudio.com
------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
Rodolfo La Maestra
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 12:03 AM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Re: Home Theater setup
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Joe,
The electronics part is the easier to estimate and compare against cheaper
prices you could get
around, that was not what I meant on my recommendation.
I can tell you in a few minutes how much the electronic part could cost down
to the last wire if you
tell me what quality of audio and video you want, that is the easy part and
is more effective if
you know ALL the market of audio and video, not just the 10 brands a store
can carry. In fact you
can have a good start up and do it your selection of the video part from the
information on the
reports, pick up your poison get to that section and scroll the pages (and
this year the
multi-channel audio as well).
Any electronic-only proposal should have broken down to the last penny what
is electronics, what is
labor, what is installation materials of the system, if you already have the
room is easy to make
comparisons if the electronics choices of the proposal of $35K to $100K you
had was too much labor
or Theta all over the place.
The problem is more complicated when you are building the room from scratch,
which is why I
recommended a designer FOR JUST THE PLAN for starters. Then a decision is
made about choices,
electronic and otherwise, some places are charging too much per hour but
their knowledge is
difficult to obtain by just reading the internet, many types of simple
mistakes could make a theater
so difficult to enjoy down the line, and many structural mistakes can not be
easily solved as
changing the receiver.
That is where I focused my recommendation, not the electronics, although for
some people is also a
good idea to let the experts handle that part as well.
All I said was spend a few hundred dollars on a review/proposal/list of
components, all the pieces,
electronics and otherwise, including electric rods, curtains, sound proof
material, etc), in some
cases that service is provided for free if they see that you actually have
intentions to get them
involved in some piece if not all.
In some other cases they would not touch the project unless they also take
responsibility of
supplying the electronics from the brands they know well, because they are
sure they will work well
in harmony in the plan, that is why I proposed to be ready to pay max per
hour to been able to have
the right to request max transfer of their knowledge to the plan to increase
the chances of success
when one wants to continue the pieces with a subcontracting approach to save
some money, although
subcontracting has the danger of ending up with every one pointing fingers
and draining the wallet
to fix problems that did not interface well.
Best Regards,
Rodolfo La Maestra
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
Bill Tilghman
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 11:04 PM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Re: Home Theater setup
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
And it wound up costing....(?).....
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
Joe Kusmik
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 10:49 PM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Re: Home Theater setup
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
When I was planning on our "home theater", I employed an interior designer
who told me the electronics would cost me between $35,000 and $100,000.
"Oh, did we say home theater", we responded, "what we really meant was a den
with a big ass tv." Look at home theater mags and chose the features you
think important, e.g., indirect lighting, a place to pack your electronics,
the ratio between screen width and seating distance. You can never plan for
enough plugs and wiring connections associated with such a room. Overall,
my electronic package used a mitz 55", outlaw amplifier, klipsch sound
system, and a variety of Direct TV dvd recorders, cd players, etc.
Good luck
Joe Kusmik
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
Rodolfo La Maestra
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 9:21 PM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Re: Home Theater setup
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
James,
If you are into doing this thing right, my best recommendation to your is to
at least hire a HT
designer to initiate the project with you, from that point on, if you do not
to pay for what they
charge for installation and equipment you might want to become the general
manager of the project
but using the plan of the designer, and perhaps retain him for consultation
as you go along (at the
top hourly rate of course, no discounts on that one).
I know many people that concentrate on putting hardware together and hire a
drywall guy to just
enclose the place, there are many things that could go wrong, from room size
for acoustical
purposes, to insulation, to air circulation, to additional dedicated AC
lines, to sweet spot for
visual and audio combined for your best seat, to seating platforms cut too
high which make the back
row be too high when someone stands up and hit the ceiling or the projector,
etc. etc.
The initial few hundreds you pay for that service would be worth every penny
down the road.
Check around, check CEDIA, look for references.
One source is the
www.hometheaterbuilder.com magazine, they have a variety
of tutorials of how to do
it yourself for the different matters I mentioned above.
Best Regards,
Rodolfo La Maestra
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
James Healy
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 8:45 PM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Re: Home Theater setup
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Perfect, thanks
On 3/8/06 3:43 PM, "Dr Robert A Fowkes" <
[email protected]> wrote:
> ----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
>
> At 08:31 PM 3/8/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>> Since there are so may Home theater enthusiasts on this board I wanted to
>> get some ideas on building my own Home Theater.
>
>
http://www.rfowkes.com/html/ht.html
>
> (It's even "Rodolfo" approved <g>!) Seriously, you might get some
> ideas from the site. My HT is 22' x 15' x 7.5' high although you can
> do as you wish. There are some acoustical considerations but you
> could go to sites like
>
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum ... forumid=28
> and others (like AVS) to get ideas and suggestions.
>
> Good luck.
>
>
> -- RAF
>
>
> To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
>
> To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
> day) send an email to:
>
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
day) send an email to:
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
day) send an email to:
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
day) send an email to:
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
day) send an email to:
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same
day) send an email to:
[email protected]
To unsubscribe please click:
[email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same day) send an email to:
[email protected] 