# New home cinema design



## nbowles (Sep 26, 2008)

:help:
I have a small project going on to replace our house :hsd: with something more modern and efficient. This gives me a blank sheet of paper to design the home cinema. The room currently doubles as a lounge but does not have to in the new design.

My question is, what instructions should I give the architect?
What size/shape should I make the room to get the best sound from it.
Is there a set of proportions that works better
Flat or sloping ceiling
Door location and window size/location.
Speaker type - freestanding or built into walls/ceiling.
Screen - on wall plasma or projector

I currently have a Celestion C-series setup with C3 large fronts, C4c centre, C1s small rears, and C6s sub and an SVS PC12-plus. I also have from other rooms another pair of C3 fronts, C4c centre, pair of C5r dipole and another C6s sub.

I have an Onkyo TX-NR905 amp thats great but no 3D or 4K so will probably need replacing.

Screen size will be an increase from the current 50" plasma, are projectors good enough for general watching or still just HD/4K films.

There are normally no more than four of us watching.

Thanks in advance.


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## sawyer (Feb 10, 2013)

Hi - I am responding to portion of your post "currently doubles as a lounge but does not have to". We totally love having our 7.4 system cover a living - dining axis of 27' with a 15deep by 18 wide living with and dining deeper still 12 deep by 12 wide - this allows folks to stay together as their activities transition. we switch from stereo surround when back in the dining area and move forward afterwards with surround. Oh and the gear is out of site - except for the game console to provide kids access. Sure it would make the tech in me happier if I had done some up front analysis of room treatments, and better low voltage conduit however until I got clear on my top priority - to actually make it a "lounge" that people love to be in -my technical requirements didn't actually address any needs. Rephrasing this slightly - I would say see anywhere, hear anywhere is something to keep in mind contrasting with that single listening spot.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

nbowles said:


> :help:
> I have a small project going on to replace our house :hsd: with something more modern and efficient. This gives me a blank sheet of paper to design the home cinema. The room currently doubles as a lounge but does not have to in the new design.
> 
> My question is, what instructions should I give the architect?
> ...


If you are desiring to put windows in this space, I would personally lean toward a display as projectors tend to work better when you have the ability to control ambient light. If you can go either way, I would opt for the no window / projector route personally as it gives more of a "movie going" experience in my mind.

The Onkyo should work fine for now - there really is very little 4k content and 3D still needs a bit of tweaking for home use in my opinion.

If you go the dedicated theater route, I would personally opt for free standers. Also, if you truly have a clean slate, I would do an AT screen and hide the front speakers and subs behind the screen as it makes for a clean front wall and allows you to really focus on the visuals.

As fas as size, I seem to recall that "optimal" size is achieved by multiplying the smallest dimension by 1.68 and then the resulting value again by 1.68. However, this is more dependent on how many seats / rows you want to do...


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