New HT in progress

[leerocker]

We just bought a house last week and i already have begun working on my
HT. Definitely a work in progress, so please let me know if you
have any suggestions (besides repainting the white ceiling to get rid of all the hand prints, that is next weeks project) One concern is that the klfs i am using for surrounds are too tall for the ceiling and as a result stick out too far into the middle of the room, where the seating is going to go. I was thinking Heresy's might be my best bet, but is there anything that's a close enough match to the Chorus in the KG line? Looking to spend as little as possible at this point

Current set up is...

LCR: Chorus I

Surrounds: KLF-10

Sub: Definitive tech prosub-80

Infocus 4805

Marantz SR6200

Samsung HD tuner

xbox360

[Buckeye_Nut]

Aaaaaaaah yes... nothing beats having your own theater room!!

Very nice!!

How far back is the seating? Is it all the way back against the partition? The simple solution would be to move the seating forward a bit, but the back of the chairs may slightly obscure the sound. Ideally, you want to sit roughly 2 screen widths back from the screen while avoiding at all costs.......sitting in the middle of the room. (for acoustic reasons). If you can drill into the slope without causing a leak, you can buy something wall mountable for placement on the sloping walls at the perfect height.

If you're going to paint the ceiling, paint it anything but white!! Once those ceiling light reflections are tamed, you'll enjoy the movie experience even more. Since you have a dedicated room, you'll also want to install acoustic room treatments.

Enjoy!

[marksdad]

i did not eve have to look at the setup, i just read the speaker selection. if you want your ht to sound like a therter, than you have to get rid of the klf's, your sound stage will suffer from different voice from front to back, the deftec sub is a fair starting point, but after a while, if not placed right, it wont blend well with your klipsch, def tec does make fair subs, but after reviewing and auditioning, ????well???? in any event, voice! soundstage! that is what ht/2 channel is all about

[leerocker]

Thanks for the advice. Anything that would match though that is shorter than the Chorus? Seems like the Forte and Quartet are only a tad shorter. Will the sound from a heresy blend in well in an open room?

[marksdad]

heresies would be a great side channel. front channel. heresies can do it all. plus you would have a seamless sounstage, same voice

[MatrixDweller]

That's quite the unique sloped ceiling. I take it that it is in the attic or over top the garage.

A dark ceiling is a must for a HT but the awkward ceiling height is going to be a challenge. You could make that room real nice and cozy when you're done with it. Please repost pics when done.

Are you planning on adding and treatments?

[leerocker]

It is the attic, yes. Hard to gauge the size from the picture, but it's actually a pretty big room. The non-symmetrical ceiling drives me crazy though.

I wasn't planning on adding any treatments, but some folks have mentioned that rooms with sloped ceilings are generally better for sound (something due to fewer # of 90 degree angles in the room. Does that make any sense?

Will definitely re-post when complete.

[MatrixDweller]

Non parallel walls are a definite plus. Most professional recording studios do not have square or rectangular rooms.

The work is half the fun. I'm still in the construction phase of mine. I'll be posting pics in a month hopefully.

[Tom Adams]

I'd like to answer your questions in a rather general way and I will apologize up front if this comes off as too critical - that's not my intention.

I, more than just about most, understand how it feels to want a project to be done so I can get on with enjoying the fruits of my labor. However, my Dad often said to me, "Son, any job worth doing is worth doing right." And as I've gotten older, I realize what he meant. In essence, anybody can throw something together in order to "git 'er done". And what you end up with is just that - something thrown together and something that in one's quiet moments, you know is NOT your best effort. I realize you want to spend as little as possible, but it's pay me now or pay me later. Don't do your homework up front and create a plan and you'll be constantly spending money in a hap-hazard way trying to fix this and fix that and in the end you'll have paid more than had you taken a more methodical approach. I spent almost 3 years getting my HT room operable - more if one counts the 2 or 3 years that I was collecting speakers that I knew one day would be part of a HT room. Hell, there were times I thought the room would neever come about. But once done, it was exactly as I wanted it and how I saw it in my minds eye. Ok - enough of the philosophical crap. []

One thing I'd do is nix that means of running your cables to the projector. Again - do it right. Get a snake and feed those cables to the projector above the ceiling. No it won't be easy. But in the end, you'll be more proud of your work.

As for surrounds, I've often held that a d*mn good 5.1 system will beat a so-so 6.1 or 7.1 system. So if I were you, I'd place my surrounds in the back if you insist on monopole floor standers. OR....you could go the dipole route and mount something on the vertical (knee) walls. The trouble you really have is that you're trying to make speakers that aren't designed to work together as a system, work together as a system. Personally, I'd take a step back and design the theater as a system. And if that means selling all your equipment and starting from scratch, then DO IT! At a minimum, you should start with matching your center and surrounds to your mains. Considering the extreme slope of the ceiling and the rather low knee walls, something like Klipsch's dipole surface mount surrounds http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/rs-52.aspx or maybe their in-wall dipoles http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/r-5650-s.aspx might be the answer. But using these speakers means having to possibly replace your current mains. Maybe use your current mains in another system and get a matched Reference set or get some more Chorus's. I dunno.

Lastly, this is the perfect time to analyze your room for potential acoustic anomolies and plan/budget for correcting them. Case in point....a fellow forum member is playing hell with trying to obtain correct bass levels at his listening position. I too struggled with this and the harsh reality is that no amount of electronic hocass-pocass or speaker placement will correct the room.

As always YMMV. []

Tom

[IndyKlipschFan]

Tom..

Great pic with the all black up front around the screen. Great choice!

How did the Karaoke aspect of it all work out as well?

I agree with the "make it all work, so think through it" aspect of your project. This means matching speakers with that are the same, or very close, so that the Timbre match in that system will flow better in your system. I can attest to the same speakers left, center, right was the route I took, 100% nirvana, but you can do almost as well with at least in the same family . (e.g. stay Heritage with Heritage, reference with reference too.) Even the "Home Theater for Dummies" book, is wonderful. (So get over the title if this offends you! LOL) Think through things like electrical outlets, extra speaker runs, and room for growth too. Ask questions in here as you go along, we will try and help.

One last note.. Enjoy the process as well. I started in 2005 was not done till 2007. I finally am happy with the side surrounds and Bass issues I had and in June 2007 feel I have it right. I say that, because I am a huge tinkerer and other than a little change from 2 channel to 7.1 on the bass settings... I have not touched anything but the volume knob for months... and STILL am in awe and enjoying it emensley! That should tell you something, when you get to that point and you just are proud of yourself and how the project is done, it is way cool!!!!!

Roger

[leerocker]

Thanks for the suggestions. I definitely want to keep the choruses up front - this IS my only system and i spent a while tracking them down and refinishing them to match. Not to mention, they sound pretty darn good. That being said, I am looking to find best match possible for surround duty. I dont believe my best option is trading out of choruses to the reference line just because they make bipole (or is is dipole?) surrounds that are more placement-friendly. My wallet would probably agree []

the wires hanging from the ceiling drive me crazy. I've been hesitant to feed the wires through the ceiling because i am only running component video and i know that will shortly be outdated for HDMI or whatever's next. Seems like future HD support with component cable is slim. When the HD DVD format war has an end in sight I'll feel more comfortable about tearing up the wall and installing something more permanent. Is a snake basically just flexible conduit tube of sorts that i'd feed through the ceiling to the floor? Once installed could i fairly easily swap out the cables inside of it? If so, maybe i should look into that sooner than later.

For now though it's nice to sit in my camping chair up there with a couple of beers (sounds like the 2nd half of a jeff foxworthy joke) and watch some concerts, or possibly the most startling DVD of all time, War of the Worlds. Not afraid to admit that on DTS and cranked up pretty loud, that opening scene makes me jump every time, even though i know exactly what's going to happen.

[IndyKlipschFan]

("that opening scene makes me jump every time, even though i know exactly what's going to happen.")

The lightning soundsscream and when the street cracks / opens up (low noises) is amazing... Let alone the invadors horn noises that sound like a lower tone cruise ship horn! LOL

My son, who I would not let watch the whole movie, came down during that part....(He heard the rumblings too was curious! hahaha)

Even at 3, he said, "Ah oh daddy.. something bad is going to happen...." he left and ran up to mommy!! hahahahahahaha

[HatTrick66]

You guys keep talking like this and I am going to have to get up and pull down the screen and watch a movie!!

To reply to part of your original question, my kg3's currently pulling surround duty are OK. However, a pair of Heresy's for back there are most likely my next course of treatment for this case of upgradeitus that I just can not seem to shake. I think they would really tie the room together.