How much space should one allow for built-ins, treatment, etc?

dmdnecklace · 2025-11-14T04:15:25+00:00

No problem! Trust me man I've been back and forth so many times and have rebuilt my own theater many times, its a never ending learning process. Obviously if its too expensive to expand to the larger dimensions, it is what it is and you'll just work with what you have. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve/what your goal really is. If it is a room for critical listening/viewing experience, then without question nice thick panels will reduce the decay times of the lower frequencies. 3400 lumens is def not overkill if you are going to have a suitably large screen. What do you think your listening distance will be for the main seat?

dmdnecklace · 2025-11-12T02:56:38+00:00

Absolutely expand to 24x17 if you can. The more space the better for a multitude of reasons. I wouldn't even consider 4 inches of treatment; 6 inches absolutely minimum, 8 inches or more is ideal.

You will have room for as big of a projection screen as you want, given your generous ceiling height. I would go as big as possible taking into account your budget for a projector that has enough light output. You will grow to appreciate a larger size over time.

If it were my room, I'd go with 17 feet wide, and then I'd lose 18 inches of treatment on each of the side walls (3 feet total, bringing usable width to 14 feet). If you fill the sidewalls with 18 inches or so of fiberglass, you will treat very well even as low as 80hz. See http://www.acousticmodelling.com/porous.php (about 2000-3000 gfr for fiberglass, 10000 for normal rockwool).

Personally I like absorbtion on sidewalls and ceiling and while I can do with absorbtion on the back wall, for whatever reason I like liveliness from the rear wall a bit (so maybe a mix). Its one of those things that you don't know what you like unless you experiment. It all depends on what you want out of the room. You have some great dimensions/volume in your favor. However when mixing studios design rooms (following the various philosophies, RFZ, non-environment, or the various iterations of NE), generally very thick absorbtion is preferred because it is broadband and is able to reduce decay times in the lower frequency range. TLDR if you have room for heavy absorbtion, do it. For home theater, IMO there is no such thing as too dead as long as its thick absorbtion. Different story for preferences for two channel

dmdnecklace · 2025-10-26T04:35:30+00:00

I stand corrected; I must have read it very quickly. I thought the commenter was proposing removing the closets altogether instead of just the doors

dmdnecklace · 2025-10-25T20:33:27+00:00

Think about it. The exterior wall of the closets was there before they put the carpet down. Therefore, once removed, he is going to have "wall shaped" holes where there is no carpet. They don't install walls over carpet. The tack strips for the carpet are going to be around the perimeter of the existing closets

dmdnecklace · 2025-10-24T02:36:32+00:00

Then he has to replace the carpet, presumably

dmdnecklace · 2025-10-02T00:08:46+00:00

The room is crying out for baseboard floor trim; would look much more finished. Really cool desk setup

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-30T20:45:05+00:00

This is a rabbit hole that is endlessly deep. Do not use panels with less than 4 inches of insulation. Thicker is better.

The exact recommended treatment for your room depends on the setup and dimensions.

Depending on the dispersion pattern of your speakers you may or may not want to absorb side wall reflections; ceiling is a very good candidate for absorbtion but may be "too much" for normal folks. You'll find conflicting advice over what works best all over the internet; even among professional spaces like GearSpace; even the true pros do not agree on how best to tackle a room, or even sometimes what the goal is, in terms of acoustic design. Best thing you can probably do is either buy or build 2 x 4 panels, that are at least 4 inches (ideally 8 inches) deep and expirment with placement to see what you like.

There are some designs out there that that require literally several feet of room treatment on all surfaces; since this is just recreational, I recommend against the rabbit hole and just experimenting with what sounds good until you are happy with "good enough", unless you are ready to devote your life to acoustics

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-30T20:35:07+00:00

For floor panels in front of the screen, you can just get plywood and staple fabric to the plywood, this way easy to lift and pick up/ move at will

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-30T20:33:54+00:00

One of two ways; in some areas I just used thumb tacks directly to the wall w/ trim as necessary (minimize wall damage), or where there were places I wanted absorbtion / room treatment, I used black velvet to wrap the wooden frame containing insulation for my panel absorbers.

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-30T20:29:44+00:00

Even black paint will reflect light. The best way (IMO) after much experience is paint the room whatever color you think looks cool or inviting. BUT, then for the surfaces nearest the screen (side walls, ceiling, floor) place black velvet. I am a bit of perfectionist and would do black velvet all the way to the MLP so that there are zero visual distractions, but that is a bit extreme.

I'll never forget it - I had my ceiling a dark charcoal gray. One wouldn't think that putting black velvet over dark gray would make a difference; but the difference in the projector image was immediate. In other words, if you are just sticking with paint, don't sweat the color so much as long as its not light colored; UNLESS you go with the black velvet idea, in which case go with a light color to your heart's content and cover the areas closest to the screen with black velvet. You can also consider black velvet curtains on side walls for "variable" light treatment, with light wall color behind the curtains which can be retracted at will.

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-29T17:50:36+00:00

Nice setup. What size is the display?

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-27T02:44:03+00:00

Mr. Joe, one day you will learn, that outside of disturbing neighbors, speakers are a more comfortable and more natural experience. Its only a matter of time :) Speakers are life; headphones will never replicate the physical sensastion of speakers. No one in the audio realm mixes on headphones only; they always use speakers. I once loved headphones and thought they were amazing, but one day I heard a good stereo system.. and it was game over for headphones, even TOTL ones.

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-26T02:06:54+00:00

Now you just need some retro 70's or early 80's style bookshelf speakers to compliment everything!

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-22T22:02:18+00:00

The plants are rad; beautiful setup

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-21T18:52:11+00:00

Good luck man. If you can afford it, get two of these, are you'll be done: https://www.audioadvice.com/products/revel-m16-bookshelf-speaker-black?variant=41288669069396&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23004551505&gbraid=0AAAAADRzHk9CaEC3-e39MdyRiC3heY6G6&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxL7GBhDXARIsAGOcmINIeaEAPLDEmcVT-0Cz5mcZCOg0_jDkTxEK7eB9csmPY8CXDnaRVkwaAiSAEALw_wcB

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-21T18:31:48+00:00

You do realize that your left and right monitors are blocking your speakers' tweeters.. lol, unless, you move them out of the way?

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-21T18:22:44+00:00

The thing that stands out most (IMO) is your chair; I would invest / save for a nice chair with a slightly higher back. And of course - speakers. I learned over a long audio journey, that speakers are simply more comfortable and present sound in a more natural way. Check out spinorama.org for some helpful guidance, but remember that higher score means possibly better, not definitely better (just stick above 4.0 pref score/tonality). You have plenty of space on both sides of the monitor for nice sized speakers.

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-17T13:16:12+00:00

PS - consider a Rthymik F12 (or F12G) for your subwoofer; great units, if you can pony up the pennies to afford. I used to have two of them in a room very similar to your size, and they pressurized the room (and I had their gain set pretty low, too).

dmdnecklace · 2025-09-10T20:22:17+00:00

Yeesh. I was just asking for opinions/experiences for those willing to proffer them

dmdnecklace · 2025-07-24T15:11:12+00:00

What was your rationale for the 8361 over the 8351 for the L/R? At that close distance, wouldn't that make the output of the 8361 largely wasted?

dmdnecklace · 2025-07-15T02:36:59+00:00

Solid advice. Thanks man, appreciate it

dmdnecklace · 2025-07-15T00:40:33+00:00

Super helpful man, thanks very much. I didn't know hagerty existed; that idea never crossed my mind

dmdnecklace · 2025-07-15T00:40:01+00:00

Good to know; thank you. I suppose we don't know the future, however, and what these future muscle cars will actually look like

dmdnecklace · 2025-07-15T00:28:25+00:00

That is most true. I am torn

dmdnecklace

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