# Building a bigger H.T room,any advice



## Fortin's H.T room (Nov 11, 2009)

Going to build a second movie room in the basement,room size is going to be 11'x20' my wife keeps complaining about my movie room upstairs,thinking of putting 5/8 drywall for all 4 walls and double 5/8 drywall for ceiling,i will be running my panny 2000 with my Yamaha 3800 receiver and 7.1 surround,and my 106" screen.

(1 ) i want to build another stage and have my speakers hidden can i put the center near the top,i know its supposed to be ear level.

( 2 ) do i lay the carpet on concrete or build a small sub floor.

Any advices would be great,i'm slowly buying my material over the winter then start building in the spring.
Drywall
inwall speaker wire
insulation
cables
electrical wires + boxes

I have an idea on what i want to do,so please any advice to help make my movie room great.
Thanks


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Ted White would be your go to guy for soundproofing, which sounds like it would keep the wife happy, he's a Mod here on the forum. Monoprice.com is an exellent place for wire, cable, ends, etc. at a reasonable price.:T


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

I have a 10' wide room with a 92" screen and there is only 16" on either side of the screen. With yours you'll have about 2 feet to either side. That makes speaker placement pretty much in the corners if you don't mind that. You'll also want to sit back about 12 feet to have the optimal THX seating position for viewing.

You can lay carpet on concrete so long as you have a vapor barrier under it and a thick under pad. You'll still not want to sit on it for too long as it will be uncomfortably hard. Putting down a subfloor is pretty cheap unless you go with dricore panels. Not going with a subfloor will gain you about 2" in ceiling height if it's at a premium.

Definitly plan out your seating (multi-row?) and then map out your speaker locations (5.1, 7.1, multi-subs). Then map out your wire runs and run conduit (go with bigger conduit to make fishing easier). Run conduit through the ceiling for your projector and place an electrical outlet in the ceiling beside the projector.

Plan your HVAC and lower the vents and returns to the floor level. Perhaps build in some vibration/sound control in to your design.

Plan your lighting and wiring. If you want a multi-zone light control then now is the time to set up where the zones will be. If you go with pot lights be sure to build boxes around them so that sound does not flank through them.

I would fill the ceiling and walls with rockwool and go double drywall on all surfaces with green glue in between. Seal the room up with some solid doors with weather stripping or sound proofing gaskets.

When you're done you'll have a haven that will allow you to listen at reference levels and not keep your wife up a night. You also won't hear her watching her shows upstairs when you want silence.

Most of all, follow your local building codes and get all of the required permits before you start.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

Are you a DIY speaker builder?

If so, then I highly recommend looking at all of the potentially wasted space as home for your subwoofers. Subwoofers like to be large, and under stage, under seating, behind screen and behind seating are just some of the areas that can have space that can be used to house LLT or TH subwoofers.

A thought on acoustic isolation. As much as possible keep the interior walls and ceiling completely detached from the exterior walls & ceiling, and put acoustic insulation between them. 

What I mean is if you have the space build the room like a box not attached to the floor above, and any other interior walls. I assume the exterior walls of your basement are CBS block, with earth abutting them, so it wouldn't matter if the walls are attached there. This is of course just a half baked idea, hopefully others will comment on it.

Paul


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Agreed on the double drywall. Either do all the surfaces or don't bother. Sound will find the weakest point to escape.

Bryan


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Since your room is long and narrow, my suggestion would be to build your stage first (which would be wall to wall) and then build a screen wall on top of that which would also extend from wall to wall..
Also a wall to wall screenwall is a good way to hide any bass traps..

The screenwall would be positioned about 3' out from the front wall, and to keep the front L&R speakers away from the side walls I would suggest using an AT screen and mount your speakers behind it..This would also allow you to have your centre speaker in a more balanced position..

The added bonus to doing your set up this way is that you would be able to use a bigger screen if needed..particularly if you decide to go with a scope screen..


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## Fortin's H.T room (Nov 11, 2009)

Sorry stupid questions
1) what is rockwool
2) what is green glue and what does it do.
3) i was told to put peg board or 1x4 strips before the drywall to help with the sound.True or Faults.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

There is some useful information over here;

http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...tion/34100-media-room-wall-soundproofing.html

They discuss isolation with greater precision than my feeble attempt.

Paul


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

1) Rockwool is insulation. Not fiberglass but mineral wool. You should be able to find it at your local building store. 

2) Green glue is an elastomeric compound that greatly enhances the sound deadening properties of a wall or ceiling. More info from the manufacturer here: http://www.greengluecompany.com/

3) That would be better than nothing but there are better options. Using Green Glue's noiseproofing tape or Integrity Gasket tape would be better.


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## Fortin's H.T room (Nov 11, 2009)

Wow thanks for that info,great info in there.Thanks


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Not sure what pegboard would help with but you can do firring strips perpendicular to the studs prior to applying drywall to help with sound isolation. You'll still need to make sure you insulate the walls.

Bryan


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## Fortin's H.T room (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks people i got a better under standing on sound profing.


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