# n00b Diagnosed w/ Audiophilia, Wife Reports Finding Money Pit in Spare Bedroom



## jgauthiersloan (Jan 21, 2012)

Howdy, folks,

I'm planning to build a dedicated listening room in my new house. I'll be building this system from the ground up with a modest budget. I started off aiming to keep it under a grand, which quickly ballooned to $1500, but has since been shaved back a bit thanks to some awesome deals I'm tracking. I've got a LONG list of questions, both dumb and uninformed. Hopefully you fellers can help me make good decisions and I can share the glory of the finished product. Here's where I'm leaning at the moment:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882683030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290209
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290213
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290203
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290035
and finally
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290194

I quickly eliminated the satellite speakers from the design for lack of room. I figured if there wasn't a spot in the room that was devoid of sound (meaning they would effectively be hung above the towers or bookshelves) they would be redundant and possibly even harmful. This means I'm assuming a 5.1 system will perform better than 7.1 in my basically 9'x11'x8' space. 
*-Is this sound logic? 
-See what I did there?* :wink:

My top priority is a receiver that will connect wifi to my laptop out of the box (no adapters) and that I can operate with my iphone. Perhaps my proudest point will be no disc players. I'm not even putting a tv in this room. All of my CD's are ripped, uploaded and archived; and I've finally got everything converted to ALAC, so I no longer need multiple media players for multiple file types. The home network machines all stream from the main itunes on my laptop, with no media files stored on any of the other machines. All of my music is housed on my external hd and backed up at google.music. This is why the wifi receiver is a must. I don't want to plug anything into the receiver if I can help it. I'm thinking a brain box connected to noisemakers and nothing else will be a minimalist beauty :idea:.

I plan to soundproof and treat for acoustics before I bring anything in. The room shares a wall with the bedroom so I need to get this right or I'll be shopping for headphones in no time! I need to do it on the cheap, though. I'm leaning towards a case of 12 heavy moving blankets so I can cover the ceiling as well. 
*-Is this overkill? 
-Is it possible to overdampen a room this small given the distance from ear-to-driver (3' for each)? *
I was thinking I would also put cheap pillows in the tricorners and hope I don't need further bass reducers in the corners. 
*-Would those round pool toy foam noodles work for this?*

Iv'e come up with a design that allows 18" from the side and back wall for each tower with the bookshelves mounted. All four will be toed-in to the center point. 
*-Is this correct? *

The sub will go in a corner, receiver on the middle of a wall with the center channel directly above. The CC would be about chin-high to me standing, over my head sitting. 
*-Is this OK? 
-Is there any need for or way to squeeze another set of speakers in here? *

My design provides an equal 3' to each channel from the listening position. I assumed symmetry was the way to go. 
*-Is this the ideal distance for the speakers I linked? 
-Does the number of drivers in each box affect this at all?

-Is this too much power for a 9x11 room? *
It's more about clarity than volume for me but I'd like a consistent clarity at any volume. I definitely don't want something that's build for high volumes that might underperform when turned really low. I want it to sound perfect when it's barely on. 
*-Is a sub really necessary with these speakers in this size room? 
-Should I be thinking about something smaller for the rears rather than buying bookshelves for this purpose?
-Am I on the right track or totally off my rocker? 
*
If it helps, the room has two windows- one on the wall opposite the receiver/center channel (behind the towers) and one on a side wall. This means the CC is facing a window and the towers are setup like the rears (relative to the CC's location). I don't want to cover the window or put the receiver under it. 
*-How bad a trade-off is it to have the CC pointed right at a window and opposite the towers?* I'm hoping with sound coming in from every direction and none of it reflecting that it won't matter. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I cannot wait to see what turns up here. I drew up my design with pencil and graph paper. I could scan it in if anyone wants to see it (or I could do it in excel but I really don't wanna) but I think I described it pretty well above.


----------



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Hi and welcome to the Home Theater Shack  

Youve done lots of homework and this is a very solid basis for what you want to achieve, nice job as this is way more of a plan than most begin with. I am, however, a little confused why youre looking to build a surround sound speaker system in a room that wont have a tv in it. _Most_ of your music listening will be two channel, correct?


----------



## jgauthiersloan (Jan 21, 2012)

Yeh, I suppose anything more than a pair is overkill. Should I be looking at dedicated digi players then? I guess I'd need an amp then too? I'd really like built in AirPlay but I'd consider a workaround. I dunno. Don't want too many components if I can help it.


----------



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

No, I think youve already built your media server into your laptop, as you said everything is already ripped and archived, I dont see your budget allowing for a digital player at this time. I also dont see you needing an amp unless you want to build a separate system with both a pre-amp and amp and thats going to push you over your existing budget. Looks like you can start with a pair of towers and a receiver that supports wifi and airplay.


----------



## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

Welcome to HTS, jgauthiersloan!

I moved your post to the Home Theater System Recommendations forum. Your questions will get more eyes on them here and could help others in the future. :T


----------



## jgauthiersloan (Jan 21, 2012)

If I get just the towers and a 2.0 amp, is there an AirPlay supported device to receive the signal from iTunes? Coul this be as simple as an Airport Express on powered speakers? I thought AE was out because I want good speakers with clean power.


----------



## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
Welcome to HTS. Tower Speakers and any Surround Sound Receiver with Airplay Capability (Pioneer/Denon) would work nicely. I personally prefer Denon as I am a big fan of Audyssey MultEQ Room Correction.
Cheers,
JJ


----------

