Any Home Theater experts out there?

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#1
Hey all - I am planning a home theater room in my basement. When looking at receivers and speakers I quickly become overwhelmed. 5.1.....7.1......Atmos.....2 Subs......etc......etc. I am really at a loss, is any of this stuff worth it? The space is going to be a nearly perfect rectangle, roughly 25x12 with 8ft. ceilings. Since this will be new construction I'd like to run all the wires while the room is in studs, and I'd like to do in-wall speakers. I guess I was thinking 2 fronts, 2 rears, 1 center, 1 sub, and then maybe 1 speaker on each side if necessary. Then I started reading about in ceiling speakers and all of this Atmos stuff. And now I'm really confused.

Any suggestions? I'm also very budget conscious, I'm not going to spend $6500 on a receiver and some speakers.
 

Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
If you go with atmos install speaker in the ceiling you are welcome to come and listen to what mine sounds like.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
 

Spieg

Copepod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
Not an expert by any means... Hardware and sound standards are a matter of budget and personal preference, so I won't make any statements there except to continue your research. As far as wiring, I'd recommend you use conduit in the walls/ceiling so it will be easier to pull new/additional wires in the future should you decide to update at some point.
 

sadams

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
Just to share, I have a 7.1 system in our theatre room (basement) with 2 front, 2 rear, center, Sub, and 2 ceiling speakers above listening position. Atmos it pretty cool for a lack of better way to put it. I have a Plex server and play a Atmos pre-movie trailer which really shows off Atmos. If I had to do it over, I'd do it the same way. We finished our basement ourselves as well and its gets alot of use. If your in the area and want to check it out, let me know!
 
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TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#10
Just to share, I have a 7.1 system in our theatre room (basement) with 2 front, 2 rear, center, Sub, and 2 ceiling speakers above listening position. Atmos it pretty cool for a lack of better way to put it. I have a Plex server and play a Atmos pre-movie trailer which really shows off Atmos. If I had to do it over, I'd do it the same way. We finished our basement ourselves as well and its gets alot of use. If your in the area and want to check it out, let me know!
Where are you located? Thanks for helping! What receiver did you buy?
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
Run the wires and you can swap out components later if you want. You can go wireless, but sound quality can suffer a bit if you are REALLY sensitive. Other than the center, maybe the fronts (maybe) and the receiver, rest don't do much. The people who had our house before us installed like 15k in DynAudio speakers which is a joke since while the quality is great, it is unnecessary for a home theatre system - 3k for a 3-way rear speaker pair that does almost nothing? I installed a 18" FI Infinite Baffle Sub (worth considering since they don't need a box and you can hide them in the wall, but they need supported and this one can shake my house). That sub and the amp that it has will hit like sub 20hz and really shake things up for ultimate effect. The receiver will likely matter more than the speakers, other than the center, so don't go too crazy or worry about this too much.

For example, the AFC Championship was on 7.1 and the side and rear speakers just played crowd noise (annoying) and the center had Jim and Tony and I did not hear anything from the R and L front. The sub would shake the room when a flag was thrown or in a commercial. You can literally find an infinite number of speakers and receivers to do this... so just pick a budget and don't worry about it too much. A fun use of the thing is watching golf of the masters where you can hear birds chirping or water running on the rears and sides. Movies sound great, but the kids can wear themselves out by turning it up too high... literally.

All of this is from a real Audio dork/aficionado who has Focal Utopias, McIntosh tube gear and plays vinyl records on a system where you can tell a difference in lossless digital vs. vinyl that makes Bose or Sonos cry for being bad quality. Where quality matters in the audio arena and you can tell a difference with higher priced stuff, it just does not much for a theatre room outside of the center, some ambient noices from the sides or rear every once in a while and having some bass when stuff blows up.

Don't sleep on the video part of your receiver... some can really mess up a 4k signal (or even 8k) and some are better than others. Do your homework.

I also agree with conduit, especially for the video cables - one day coax is fine, next day HDMI and who knows what is coming later... probably fiber for everybody.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
Also, if you are not a super serious audio guy, check out some of the sound bars with rear speakers and a sub... few hundred dollar and wireless and make most people plenty happy. They are easy to let go in a handful of years when new stuff comes out.
 

Terry Fox

Cleaner Shrimp
#16
I have an Atmos system 13.2
It's overkill unless you have a big room to put it in. I like mine but most movies just don't do this system justice.

I say get a 7.1 and invest in quality components.

Don't have a lot of cash? Buy used and save half. Do your research.

I have a Denon X8500H and klipsch speakers. I like the speakers alot.

Lastly, if your gonna run conduit think about what is gonna go through it. An hdmi plug is 1 inch wide so you need to run something larger than that. Plus junction points or access boxes for the turns. Also longer runs might need shielded cables.
 

goslugsgo

Blenny
M.A.S.C Club Member
#17
When running conduit I’d recommend radiused corners if you’ve got a turn that will be inaccessible, as the cables can easily slide through as long as the seam is in the direction of travel. Look for the grey pipe in the electrical department.

Use a larger diameter than you think you need.

Run a robust cord through before you finish the walls. That way you can just tie/tape/attach it to the cable and pull it out the other end. TIE ANOTHER CORD TO THE FRONT OF THE CABLE FIRST or that will likely be the last cable you thread through, irrespective of the diameter of the pipe.

Label each with high-quality tape (it will degrade over time) as they’re pulled through for easy identification. Sure you can go through the channels to find out which speaker is on what cable, but after the third friggin time of disconnecting all other friggin cables to find the right friggin cable you’ll do it anyway, so do it first. And avoid membership in my cable PTSD support group.

Good luck.
 
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