JuHorvath Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Since I am now offically house hunting what do people believe the ideal size room for the HT/listening area? How much does vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, carpet, open living room to kitchen areas, dimensions, etc. effect the sound. Funny thing, I don't think they are going to let me bring my set-up over at the end of a build job and say, "If I don't think this sounds good, the deals off." The home is going to be 1680 sq ft. 4 bed 2 bath 2 stories with a family room. No bonus room will be included with this house (the next one that will be a requirement!). If people need more specifics about each room I can call the builder and find out. I think this could be a very interesting thread and would like all of you homeowners out there to put in your two cents worth on your personal experiences. On a side note, is anyone else absolutely amazed at how low mortgage rates are right now? I am looking at about 5.5% on a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage since I don't think I will stay in this house for any longer than 5 years. Sorry about the random tangent....... Juan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fried Elliott Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Hi Juan! I think the most important thing is to first establish the distance between the television/monitor and the perfect seating location. Much like setting up your desk/chair and your computer monitor, there is an optimum distance for you and your television. I would get that nailed down first and design the rest of the environment outward from that. Everyone will have their personal preferences. Personally, my wife and I prefer sitting closer to a higher quality set than sitting farther from a larger set. A screen-to-eyes distance of about 7' for our 32" Sony trinitron is nice and it looks like this will also be good for the 48-53" HDTV sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Robinson Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Juan, I'm including hereunder a clip from some previous posts in the spring ... I can't remember who wrote it, but I carry it around in my Pilot just for future reference! ============================ Klipsch HT Size: There ARE "golden ratios" of L, W and H. However, I would (and did) look at the shapes of famous, good sounding performance halls. They all seem to have a ceiling that's not parallel to the floor and often non-parallel side walls. By all means ensure none of your dimensions are integer multiples of each other, i.e. 8' ceiling and a 16' wall. This will help prevent standing waves (resonance). If I were building a new house, the listening room would have a trapazoidal shape with the TV in the small end and the ceiling would stair-step it's way from ~12 high in the back to about 8' high in the front (TV end). A room like this would have few resonances and the ceiling would act as a diffuser for the reflections it had. The small end would have to be at least 10 feet wide. This ceiling should be fairly easy to build and finish with sheetrock. The triangles left by the angle of the side walls would be for the electronics and storage. ------------------ Klipsch 1968 ALK Cornwall "II"s (LF/RF) ALK Belle Klipsch (Center) Klipsch Heresy (RR/LR) Klipsch KSW-12 sub Sonic Frontiers Anthem AMP1 (driving Cornwalls) Sonic Frontiers Anthem AMP1 (driving Heresy's) McIntosh MC-30 (driving Belle) Denon AVR-4800 Toshiba SD-3109 DVD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fried Elliott Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Check out: http://pix.crutchfield.com/HTIG/150dpi/HTIG_150.pdf for a good review of the basics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Many people do suggest that with new construction, a music/video room should be built using non parallel walls/ceilings, to avoid resonant modes. While I agree in principle with this, the practical fact is this will irritate the heck out of most contractors and will end up costing you big bucks in extra construction time and wasted building materials. And in the end you probably will still have at least one annoying resonance, sticking out like a sore thumb. In my very humble op., it is much better from a practical point of view, to stick with traditional (parallel) room boundaries, being very careful in the selection of the final dimensions in order to evenly distribute room modes and to avoid "pile-ups" of modes, where two or more dimensions produce resonances at the same frequency. You could say "room modes are our friends", but they're just friends you need to understand and keep in their place. ------------------ JDMcCall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomer9911 Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 thanx guys, interesting for me..*cheers* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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