Setting Up New Room. Need Advice and Answers!

[JLasher22443]

Hello All,

I've been gone for awhile now but I'm back and ready to build a New Room. The reason for my absence has been because I've been temporarily living in a 2 bedroom Apartment in the City and My Home Theater at My House was dismantled. But now I plan to move back home and build again.

Current Setup for Apartment. Purchased a Focal Electra CC 1008 with a McIntosh MC301 to push it. See current setup below.

Now that we are moving back to our house I plan to setup a 9.2 Setup and need some advice.

First thing the Old Room I have been using, which some of you may have seen, will be used as a temporary bedroom. So the New Temp Room will be a 9.2 setup that I later will relocate back into the Old Room. The new Temp Room is a lot larger and has a very open space. The room has a lot of windows so that may cause some issues. But the system may only be in this room for a year or two before I move it all back into the Theater Space.

Here is a Basic layout of the New Room.




So here is a legend to explain which Speaker is planned for each location.

Black Squares: Montis
Purple Squares: Dynamo 1500X
Blue Squares and Triangles: ElectroMotion FX2's (Mounted at 8 to 10 Feet off of floor.
Green Squares: Thinking of Motion 4's on a Stand.
Orange Square: Focus ESL C18


Questions:

#1. Has anyone setup a THX 9.2 setup here with Martin Logans? Recommendations?
#2. I've sold my Depth i and need 2 new Subs. Was looking into two of the Dynamo 1500X. Thoughts?
#3. Have Center Channel speakers but was thinking of adding the new Focus ESL C18. Anyone have this?
#4. Is mounting the Surrounds at 8 to 10 feet going to be an issue? Aiming them down at the listening area going to be an issue?
#5. Need an Amp to Push the 6 Other Surrounds; Have a Rotel RMB-1095 already will it be enough?
#6. Has anyone used the THX App for setup?

Thanks in advance for any info or comments. Can't wait to start building the first week in April.

 

[JLasher22443]

So I'm all settled back into the house and I'm beginning to setup the New Temp Viewing Room. The Room is 28' long, 15' Wide with 10' Ceilings above Speakers and 20' above seating area.





You can see in the top left and right corners of each photo that I already have wires installed for speakers. This was initially set up to accommodate speakers for the room to be setup for my pool table but will work perfectly for FHL and FHR in Dolby Pro Logic 2 Setup.

So this brings up my first question; will the height of the SBL and SBR being above instead of behind be an issue? Will this setup work for SBL and SBR? Has anyone else done something like this? I'm still going to put the 2 Motion 4's on 3' Stands on each side of the seating area for Surround Left and Right.

Next can I put the Subs in each front corner behind the Montis or should they be placed more in the front like most of the floor layouts showing them next to the TV? And has anyone used Klipsch subs with ML's? Was looking at the R-115SW or the R-12SW.

Should I try a single BalancedForce 212 or 210 instead of 2 Dynamo 1500X's?

One thing I want to note; I tried my Old Cinema i out on the New MC301 and WOW! Never heard it sound so crisp and clear before. Guess I was never giving it the real power it deserved.

 

[timm]

My opinion. So take it as that. I think the viewing distance is a bit far off the issue becomes trying to draw in the fireplace AND the home theater. Getting the surrounds behind you with space is awesome in my experience as it creates volume. Forgetting the fireplace for a sec- I think bringing the couch into the room past the fireplace would be great for tv - and the space that would create for your rears would be enormous. Another option might be to flip the room. Put tv and logans on what is currently the back wall and again have the couch somewhere past the midpoint of the room. This way you bring both the fireplace, tv and sound into the same space. But you might need some form of diffusion - possibly fake ficus trees or something to deal with the half wall and the Logan rear wave.

One more thought. Create two seating areas one fire fireplace and one for surround. Just some thoughts

 

[JLasher22443]

Thanks Timm for the suggestions.

Yes I agree the room is horribly wrong for Home Theater setup but for now its all I have. The room was setup to house my pool table and a seating area exactly where it is now. But as a Temporary Setup for say the next year or two I'm going to have to try and make it work.

So I'm thinking if I were to bring the system off the wall a little more and say add an 75" or Larger Screen I think it could work as a temp solution until I get back into my Old Room. Trying to view the 60" TV from the couch is hilarious.

However if it doesn't work I'll take some of your considerations and see if I can pass them by the wife. LOL

 

[timm]

Do you guys actively use the double doors ? Bringing everything up in front of the door might be good as well. At that point it just becomes figuring the cord go your power. The space behind the logans would add more depth.

 

[JLasher22443]

Yah we do actually. I added a door stop so it won't open but at a 90 degree angle so it gives me about another 2 feet I can move everything forward. Might try that this week.

Added a Sub and have been messing with it thus far. Added the new SVS SB16-Ultra. Did a Demo at IQ Home Entertainment and was so impressed I pulled the trigger.

So do you think another 2 feet off the back wall will help tremendously?

 

[JLasher22443]

So I've moved the Montis out from the wall and the Panels are 5' from the back wall. Not sure I can tell a huge difference in them but they are staying there. LOL

 

[timm]

Well. According to another sight Magnepan suggests 5' as it delays the reflection of the rear wave back to the listener. So that is what they recommend. I am sure logans should get pretty much the same treatment since the speed of sound doesn't change.

 

[JLasher22443]

Well I sat down and was messing with the placement and I remembered the flashlight trick I read on here a long time ago. So I tried that again and the Montis were toed in way to much and basically were colliding in a way before even getting to my seating area. So I toed them out and it opened up so much and the sound quality is better.

So I got the 4 x Motion 4's in yesterday for Front Height Speakers and the Left and Right Back Speakers. Went with Motion 4's instead of the FX2's because of placement. These Motion 4's will stay even when I move back into the other space for stereo when the pool Table does in.

The Emotiva A-700 should be in on Wednesday of this week so I am getting closer to 9.1 in this room.

Next purchase is the Left and Right Surrounds. For these I am going to be using a 3' Speaker Stand on both sides of the couch. So I'm looking at Bookshelf Speakers like the Motion 35xt's or the 15's. Leaning more towards the 35XT Model because of the larger cones. But I've also been researching other brands as well. Any suggestions are welcome.


Looking at the following.

Klipsch
Focal
Bowers & Wilkins
Monitor Audio
PSB Image
Pioneer Elite SP-EBS73

 

[amey01]

One more thought. Create two seating areas one fire fireplace and one for surround. Just some thoughts

This ^^^

While no room is perfect (unless you're JonFo ), this will give you more ability and options to tune it in correctly, rather than just working with the dimensions thrown at you.

 

[JLasher22443]

I appreciate the recommendations by both of you; but creating two seating areas is not feasible in this one big room. When I have everything purchased and in place and it still doesn't work out great I'll think of another room on another floor at that time. Till then I'm going to continue to tweet this room.

 

[JonFo]

This ^^^

While no room is perfect (unless you're JonFo ), this will give you more ability and options to tune it in correctly, rather than just working with the dimensions thrown at you.

Heh

Jason, that room is forcing a lot of compromises, but one small thing you can easily correct is the center channel. Go ahead and kill that back wave of the cinema with absorptive materials behind it. Look for something that absorbs in the 400Hz to 5KHz range, which is many materials. Some rolled up towels or a comforter can be used to test.
This will make the dialog a lot cleaner.

 

[JLasher22443]

Heh

Jason, that room is forcing a lot of compromises, but one small thing you can easily correct is the center channel. Go ahead and kill that back wave of the cinema with absorptive materials behind it. Look for something that absorbs in the 400Hz to 5KHz range, which is many materials. Some rolled up towels or a comforter can be used to test.
This will make the dialog a lot cleaner.

Thanks JonFo. Never thought about that. I have all of the panels I made for the other room just sitting upstairs doing nothing so i'll bring one down and set it on the floor behind the Salamander.

I'm still debating whether or not the Old Cinema i can outperform the Newer Focal Electra CC 1008 I have just sitting upstairs. Plan to swap them out this weekend and test both and see which sounds better. Only issue I have is I have to alter the Salamander which is a pain in the arse.

 

[JLasher22443]

Heh

Jason, that room is forcing a lot of compromises, but one small thing you can easily correct is the center channel. Go ahead and kill that back wave of the cinema with absorptive materials behind it. Look for something that absorbs in the 400Hz to 5KHz range, which is many materials. Some rolled up towels or a comforter can be used to test.
This will make the dialog a lot cleaner.

Hey Jonathan I've added the absorption behind the Cinema i and it sounds better but not like Holy $hit better. I've ran the Audessey setup and the setting were set to 40Hz at like +3db. I would have thought at least 80Hz would have been calculated.

What do you recommend for the Center Settings on this Cinema i? I'm also considering dumping it all together here soon and getting one of the Newer Centers.

 

[JLasher22443]

Update: Recieved the Emotiva A-700 and Motion 4's. Mounted and Connected everything and have been tweaking the settings for the past few days. Swapped Centers twice now to see which sounds better.

 

[JLasher22443]

So yesterday I purchased the Marantz AV7703, Motion 35XT's with Sanus NF36B Stands, Bluesound Node 2, and a Larger TV. Went with an entry level 4k Samsung 75" since its going to end up on the wall or something when I move back into the theater space in a year or so. Hope to have everything delivered by Thursday or Friday of this week.

Next step is to run cable to the Left and Right Surround locations. Purchased 100ft of 10 Gauge speaker wire and a ton of Banana Plugs. So I'll be crawling under the house this week; Joy! LOL

 

[JLasher22443]

Everything is finally in and cabled up. Ran the Audyssey Setup but still unsure if I like the settings or not just yet.

Love the image on the Samsung UN75JU7100. Now I can read things on the screen instead of not with the 60" I was using. LOL

So far I'm very impressed with the sound quality from the Marantz and the 35XT's as Surrounds.

The Bluesound Node 2 is Amazing. Currently using Tidal as the Streaming Source; Bluesound App could be better.

Question; Tried using my Xbox One S for 4k Blu-Ray Player; anyone use this for 4k Blu-Ray? Was looking into the Panny DMP-UB900 or the Oppo UDP-203 and 205 as a replacement.


Here are a few pictures.