Proper screen size for best quality picture

[Gerben Van Duyl]

Originally Posted by wes

Even so I would love to De-Square the room, I have a fire place in the front wall and several built in book cases so unfortunately that is not going to be an option, thank you for the input. I appreciate the time you took to think about this, What can I do if I can't De-Square the room!

Create diffusion! Diffusion breaks up first reflections and therefore standing waves. Furniture, books, sculptures, heavy vases, all diffuse and help improve the audio in the room. Anything and everything helps, as long as its heavy and irregular shaped. As a rule of thumb, you want diffusion behind you and absorption in front of you.
Increase absorption! This is best done with insulation type materials, hidden behind drapes, curtains, textile covered walls. Make sure to put absorption behind the projection screen as well.

Good luck!

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Gerben Van Duyl

If you send me your room lay-out plan, I can do the calculations and drawings for you. It would also calculate the audio sweet-spot for you.

My room size hasn't been finalized yet buy I'm looking at a room 26' long, 18' wide & 10' high at the (120") screen & 17' wide & 8' high in the rear with all corners rounded off.
No windows in the room & 1 wall will be shelving for media storage.

[wes]

Originally Posted by Gerben Van Duyl

Create diffusion! Diffusion breaks up first reflections and therefore standing waves. Furniture, books, sculptures, heavy vases, all diffuse and help improve the audio in the room. Anything and everything helps, as long as its heavy and irregular shaped. As a rule of thumb, you want diffusion behind you and absorption in front of you.
Increase absorption! This is best done with insulation type materials, hidden behind drapes, curtains, textile covered walls. Make sure to put absorption behind the projection screen as well.

Good luck!

Thank you Gerben, that I can do

[i30krab]

Originally Posted by i30krab

Gerben,

Thanks for your input, I understand your reasoning for the 90 degree reorientation and if I'm to proceed I must discuss the changes with my wife. Hmm, I wonder if other married forum members have a similar problem?

Anyway, Thanks I will let you know what she decides.

My wife said she likes the window it looks out to the mountains so I'll have to keep the present layout.

[Gerben Van Duyl]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

My room size hasn't been finalized yet buy I'm looking at a room 26' long, 18' wide & 10' high at the (120") screen & 17' wide & 8' high in the rear with all corners rounded off.
No windows in the room & 1 wall will be shelving for media storage.

Ahhh - non parallel walls, we love those: no standing waves between non parallel walls. Now you know you will get a good result in the audio.

You room is quite long, so then the question becomes, how many people do you want to seat? Based on the ideal sweet spot in the room, the basics would be: Sweet Spot at 16' from front of room (Screen side is always the Front); Screen should be 13.4' feet wide, no matter the image ratio (16:9 or 2.35:1) with L/C/R/Subs all behind the acoustic transparent screen.

Your current screen is a bit to small for the room (what luxury!), so place L/R just outside the screen (but within the 160" screen you will be buying in a few months. May I again recommend acoustic transparent screens from Screen Research? Worth every penny!

Build a baffle wall! Cheap, studs and MDF/plaster board, but worth $1m in improved audio.

What do you mean with rounded off corners? You should try to build bass traps out of those corners, so no hard plaster or anything, but MDF corner traps, lots of 3/4" holes on a 4x4" matrix, back filled with insulation wool. Rounded corners can be dangerous: they reflect a focussed beam of audio back into the room, think satelite receiver dish... The amount of reflection depends on the radius of the rounding.

I would recommend Procella Audio loudspeakers: they will give you THX spec SPL and dynamic range IN SEAT (being 85dB constant with 105+dB peak), whilst being absolutely HiFi. See www.Procella-audio.com. Disclosure of interest: I own the company, together with another ex DTS colleague, Anders Uggelberg. In your size room any regular HiFi speaker (read: dome tweeters, small woofers, bass reflex) would sound feable and weak.

In case you are interested, I do this for a living: www.Mareor.com. Great fun, designing home cinema rooms for people... (No flames! I am not selling, just telling...)

Regards, Gerben Van Duyl

[Gerben Van Duyl]

Originally Posted by i30krab

My wife said she likes the window it looks out to the mountains so I'll have to keep the present layout.

Compromise?: Use dark red velvet drawing curtains to black out the windows (she will love those), drop down screen that sinks just in front of your speakers, mountains by day, movie by night...?

Gerben.