# Home theatre planning 5.1 or 7.1



## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Hey guys, I am currently building a new house in which I have factored in a theatre room (forgive me, I am Australian so we measure in meters) 6m long x 4.5m wide. I would like to run two rows of seating if possible, just not sure if the room would be sizeable for that. I have just purchased a Yamaha aventage rxa2020 receiver, and a 5.1 paradigm reference speaker pack, studio 60 mains, cc590 centre, adp590 rears and seismic 110 subwoofer. I was told by the store that this is pretty good stuff and was made in Canada, I'm not sure as I just take the shops advise. Getting back to my question, I read a lot in this app of people running 7.1/7.2, is this something I should be doing or is that just overkill for the size room I have. Thanks guys your opinions would be extremely helpful.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

6m would be OK. It's a bit tight but doable. 

No reason you can't do 7.1 or 7.2 in that room at all.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

bpape said:


> 6m would be OK. It's a bit tight but doable. No reason you can't do 7.1 or 7.2 in that room at all.


thanks mate, I'm thinking I'm going to invest in two more rears, seems to be the way to go


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## cowboyofclubs (Apr 2, 2014)

Heath Cunningham said:


> Hey guys, I am currently building a new house in which I have factored in a theatre room (forgive me, I am Australian so we measure in meters) 6m long x 4.5m wide. I would like to run two rows of seating if possible, just not sure if the room would be sizeable for that. I have just purchased a Yamaha aventage rxa2020 receiver, and a 5.1 paradigm reference speaker pack, studio 60 mains, cc590 centre, adp590 rears and seismic 110 subwoofer. I was told by the store that this is pretty good stuff and was made in Canada, I'm not sure as I just take the shops advise. Getting back to my question, I read a lot in this app of people running 7.1/7.2, is this something I should be doing or is that just overkill for the size room I have. Thanks guys your opinions would be extremely helpful.


G'day. Aussie here too. I think setting up for 7.1 would be a good idea. I did and my room is only 2.7 wide and 5.0 long. Running 5.1 but prewired. 
As for seating. If I can fit 2 rows I am sure u can too. Have placed back row 500mm off back wall and the back of front row is 2.9m from screen. I am using a 110" screen and the front row is great to watch from. Sing out if u need any local advice. I am in Victoria. Cheers


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

cowboyofclubs said:


> G'day. Aussie here too. I think setting up for 7.1 would be a good idea. I did and my room is only 2.7 wide and 5.0 long. Running 5.1 but prewired. As for seating. If I can fit 2 rows I am sure u can too. Have placed back row 500mm off back wall and the back of front row is 2.9m from screen. I am using a 110" screen and the front row is great to watch from. Sing out if u need any local advice. I am in Victoria. Cheers


thanks chief, yeah I'm a Vic boy too hahaha pakenham


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## cowboyofclubs (Apr 2, 2014)

Heath Cunningham said:


> thanks chief, yeah I'm a Vic boy too hahaha pakenham


Ballarat for me. Got both sides of the city covered.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

cowboyofclubs said:


> Ballarat for me. Got both sides of the city covered.


hahaha


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Heath, at least run the wires for 7.2 (or more) so you can always add the speakers later if you want. If you're in the construction phase now, its still relatively cheap and easy to add some wire and a couple of wall jacks.


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## Lulimet (Apr 4, 2014)

6m is roughly 20ft. Perfect candidate for a 7.1 system. Go for it.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Hey guys, plans and permits have been accepted start the build in two weeks, getting excited, thought I would start the thread and get you guys involved as I build my dream room


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

I get the feeling Dolby Atmos will be with us for a while. You might consider wiring for the ceiling speakers while you at it. Would be cheap during construction. Then add speakers later if you want. I'm really liking the 7.1.4 set up personally.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Tonto said:


> I get the feeling Dolby Atmos will be with us for a while. You might consider wiring for the ceiling speakers while you at it. Would be cheap during construction. Then add speakers later if you want. I'm really liking the 7.1.4 set up personally.


yeah, I get the feeling it's going to take off hey, I haven't had the chance to hear it yet though, but from what I have seen on youtube, it's going to be good.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Hey guys, just finished the design of the room, what do you think,
The colours are just to help pic out the details, and not what it will be painted in hahaha

Red: curtain pelmet recess around the ceiling perimeter.
Light grey: floating bulkhead with strip lighting.
Purple: flat coffered ceiling with fibre optics in the middle, to give the illusion off looking at the night sky through skylights.
Yellow: feature columns that will be lined in stacked stone.
Dark green: raised seating for back row.
Light green: front sound stage.
Blue: curved step at front of sound stage.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Biggest issue I see is the doors right in the reflection zone (and double doors on top of it which are going to be pretty much impossible to deal with if you want to have isolation. A single door back as far as you can would be preferable.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

bpape said:


> Biggest issue I see is the doors right in the reflection zone (and double doors on top of it which are going to be pretty much impossible to deal with if you want to have isolation. A single door back as far as you can would be preferable.


yeah that is true, but the wife wouldn't let me as it backs onto the main family room, I'm hoping by running curtain around the perimeter it will help as it will run straight across the door once inside the room. I don't know what to do there?


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Please don't. That will suck all the high frequency life out of the space and deal with only a small portion of the reflection zone. See if putting panels on the doors will fly.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

bpape said:


> Please don't. That will suck all the high frequency life out of the space and deal with only a small portion of the reflection zone. See if putting panels on the doors will fly.


so I take it that curtains are no good for theatre rooms then hahaha, back to the drawing board?


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Front wall to cover thicker absorption it would be fine. But to do a big chunk of the walls in that, and without anything behind it on top of it, not really a good idea - sorry.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

bpape said:


> Front wall to cover thicker absorption it would be fine. But to do a big chunk of the walls in that, and without anything behind it on top of it, not really a good idea - sorry.


na that's fine mate, that's why I'm on hear, to get advise from people that know.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Well guys I'm finally getting to plaster stage on my new build, looking forward to starting on the main room (the cinema) I'll post some pics so I grab ideas along the way, all advice is appreciated


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## MetropolisLake (Sep 22, 2014)

No reason to not go 7.1 but you're not going to gain a whole of a lot compared to 5.1.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Well I just came back from (big picture people) a home theatre store here in Melbourne and purchased my cable, I went with a van den hul clear waters cable enough to wire for 7.2. They recommended two subs for that size room due to smothering to do with the way low frequency travels, I don't know but it sounded interesting. We also touched on Dolby atmos, he told me it's not a necessary to pre wire as it pretty easy to wire ceiling speakers.


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Well I've started, I put on all the rubber acoustic clips and installed all the ceiling and wall clips, know I've read a lot about these clips, so hopefully they do the trick!


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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Hey guys
My room has been on hold for some time now due to some building issues but the matter has finally been resolved,
In regards to the theater room, how should I go about the front and rear stage, my room is using isolation clips and top hat batten to assist the noise, should I gyprock (plaster) the room first then build the stages, if so should I keep the stages 10mm (1nch) of the wall or am I right to build them and plaster around them.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Heath Cunningham said:


> I went with a van den hul clear waters cable enough to wire for 7.2.


That sounds like an expensive way to go... do you mean for your in-wall speaker wire? I'm just gonna throw it out there because it might save you a good deal of money. If you bought boutique speaker cable to run in the wall, and don't have a seriously high end system (with the wallet to match), there's a good chance you're overspending. Any half decent speaker cable should do fine, and if in-wall, it should be in-wall rated. You can get MUCH cheaper than that for arguably no loss in performance.



Heath Cunningham said:


> We also touched on Dolby atmos, he told me it's not a necessary to pre wire as it pretty easy to wire ceiling speakers.


This just sounds flat out crazy. If you're building the room now, and you have access behind the walls and ceiling, run wires now. If you think there's a chance you'll possibly be using Atmos in the future just do it now, it will be WAY easier than having to try to snake wires through finished walls and ceiling later.


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## vidiot33 (Dec 12, 2013)

MetropolisLake said:


> No reason to not go 7.1 but you're not going to gain a whole of a lot compared to 5.1.


 I have found this to be true also. The extra 2 rear speakers have added very little to the viewing/listening experience for me. I had higher expectations. I do believe overhead speakers will EVENTUALLY be worth the effort, however.

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## Heath Cunningham (Jun 28, 2014)

Getting there


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