Negatron II

[NBPK402]

I believe my projector was at 19'.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Makes sense... that's a fairly decent throw.

 

[NBPK402]

It looks like the new room could have a 30' throw...which means I can run the anamorphic lense with no bowing at all, but I will need to at least up the lumens to 4000 I think. If I still have the ae8000 when the house is done I will set it up at around 20' or so until I can get a new projector. I am liking the Epson 4k e-shift projector for $8k, but I would prefer to wait until til I can find one for under $4k.

The advantage of the exposed wood beams ceiling will be that I can easily move the projector to a different throw. I also have a 5' slide rail for either moving the projector or to move the anamorphic lense out of the way.

 

[NBPK402]

Can someone help me get the ratios started so I can start to design the room, please? I am not sure what the ratio of wall width to height shou,do be for starting on the room dimensions. I am thinking of doing the golden tarragon, but I need to have a front wall dimension to start. I am looking at a 20' or wider front wall to start.

 

[Sonnie]

Looks like a 20'wide x 29'deep x 12.5'high would work...

http://www.odometer.org/misc/ht/

 

[NBPK402]

Thanks for the link Sonnie. I put in a little bit bigger for the room to get me a 32' length...14x22.4 for the front wall... now I want to see if I can do the Cardas Golden Trapagon ratio from that to help with the modes. I am hoping that the angled walls will eliminate some of the electronic adjustments in the room making it easier on the processor to tune. Do you think this is a good idea?

 

[Peter Loeser]

Looks like a 20'wide x 29'deep x 12.5'high would work...

http://www.odometer.org/misc/ht/

That ratio will definitely work nicely in your planned space Ron. I'm also very close to Sepmeyer C with my build, which is similar to the Cardas cuboid ratio.

 

[Peter Loeser]

Thanks for the link Sonnie. I put in a little bit bigger for the room to get me a 32' length...14x22.4 for the front wall... now I want to see if I can do the Cardas Golden Trapagon ratio from that to help with the modes. I am hoping that the angled walls will eliminate some of the electronic adjustments in the room making it easier on the processor to tune. Do you think this is a good idea?

Hard to answer until you try it. My gut feeling is if you can get close to a recommended ratio for a cubic room, you won't gain much more by going with a trapagon once you've applied appropriate acoustic treatments (which you'll want regardless of room shape IMO).

 

[NBPK402]

Hard to answer until you try it. My gut feeling is if you can get close to a recommended ratio for a cubic room, you won't gain much more by going with a trapagon once you've applied appropriate acoustic treatments (which you'll want regardless of room shape IMO).

So if you were doing a above ground theater build from scratch...you wouldn't go with the Trapagon ratios?

 

[NBPK402]

I sent a email to Cardas to see what they suggest too... I am thinking I need to be over 30' on the length if I want to have my speakers 3' from the front wall, and be at least 5' from the rear wall diffusers. We will see what they suggest, and then I can weigh the differences to see what is the best for this setup.

 

[NBPK402]

That ratio will definitely work nicely in your planned space Ron. I'm also very close to Sepmeyer C with my build, which is similar to the Cardas cuboid ratio.

I really like the layout you are doing with the angled side panels, and I hope to be able to do something similar, but if I angle the side walls...it might give me the same effect.

 

[Peter Loeser]

So if you were doing a above ground theater build from scratch...you wouldn't go with the Trapagon ratios?

It certainly adds some extra work to the construction, though in your case with the clay/brick structure I'm not sure to what degree. I guess all I'm saying is if you can build a cubic room with optimal ratios the extra benefits of a trapagon may not be worth the additional cost/effort. I've not seen a real world comparison two comparable systems in a cubic and trapagon room. If you have the time/space/funds/patience to do it, I really can't see a reason not to try it. I'd love to see it done, if for no other reason, than a proof of concept. If I had more space and a more relaxed budget I would have given it more consideration.

To expand on my decision, since we'd already have to frame a cubic room I'd be doing double work in some cases. Sort of a room inside a room. Plus, like I mentioned, it wouldn't leave me enough width in the middle of the room where we'd need to walk around seating.

 

[Peter Loeser]

I really like the layout you are doing with the angled side panels, and I hope to be able to do something similar, but if I angle the side walls...it might give me the same effect.

I haven't completely decided yet, but I may make the angled wall sections (or at least portions of them) from AT fabric with speakers and acoustic panels behind them, giving a very clean look to the interior of the room. At the very least it should provide some diffusion of side reflections. I'll still plan to treat what would be the first reflection points, and probably around/behind the surround speakers too. Then go with more diffusion toward the back of the room. Lots to decide still.

 

[NBPK402]

It certainly adds some extra work to the construction, though in your case with the clay/brick structure I'm not sure to what degree. I guess all I'm saying is if you can build a cubic room with optimal ratios the extra benefits of a trapagon may not be worth the additional cost/effort. I've not seen a real world comparison two comparable systems in a cubic and trapagon room. If you have the time/space/funds/patience to do it, I really can't see a reason not to try it. I'd love to see it done, if for no other reason, than a proof of concept. If I had more space and a more relaxed budget I would have given it more consideration.

To expand on my decision, since we'd already have to frame a cubic room I'd be doing double work in some cases. Sort of a room inside a room. Plus, like I mentioned, it wouldn't leave me enough width in the middle of the room where we'd need to walk around seating.

Our current room is a room in a room. What do am curious is how our solid walls, ceiling, and floor us going to sound. I have heard this is the best way to go, and I have also heard you need a room in a room with the solid walls.

 

[NBPK402]

One of the reasons I wanted to extend the length is to allow for me to have the space to move the front channels out about 3' or more from the front to wall, and still have enough room to where I can move the projector back as far as needed to have no bow on the screen.

 

[Peter Loeser]

Makes sense. I'm giving myself about 6 feet behind the front speakers if needed. That's where my throw limitation is coming from at the moment. Unfortunately there's a staircase behind the back wall that limits my overall length. If I don't end up spacing the front speakers and screen that far into the room I'll have some breathing room for projector throw as well.

I'll also be curious to see how your solid walls affect acoustics.

 

[NBPK402]

If I go with 6 feet behind the speakers, I will need almost 9' behind the screen.

You will most likely have your setup up and running before me. We have a friend that is most likely buying our home, and my wife told him August for us to move ( meaning closing date). Then once the sale is completed, we will need to move down to a rental property for maybe 6 months. Hopefully we will find a lot within the first month that so we can have our house completed within the 6 month period.

 

[NBPK402]

How do you seal the conduit off when you run Cables? I am asking this to maintain the room being as soundproof as possible.

 

[NBPK402]

One thing I need to figure out is how to attach the sound panels, and speakers to the walls without knowing exactly where to mount them. I am thinking maybe I could have a track installed flush in the wall. What do you think?

 

[Sonnie]

You need to pretty much have your seating laid out and figure out where your speakers will be, because you will need to run the cables in the walls from all the surrounds. I would use 3/4" plywood as a backing board so you have something solid to mount speaker brackets to. I don't know much about tracks, but it seems it would be difficult to get the speaker wire to follow a track, not sure how that would work. Maybe someone else will have some insight.

 

[Sonnie]

How do you seal the conduit off when you run Cables? I am asking this to maintain the room being as soundproof as possible.

I would not seal the conduit... it should be open from behind your equipment all the way to the speakers so that you can run new wire if never needed. You won't lose any soundproofing via conduit.

 

[NBPK402]

Even if your equipment is in another room ?

 

[Sonnie]

You could stop up one end with a rag if you want to keep air flow down... but you can't seal it permanently in case you ever need to pull new cables.

 

[NBPK402]

You could stop up one end with a rag if you want to keep air flow down... but you can't seal it permanently in case you ever need to pull new cables.

I was thinking of getting clay pads like we used for our electrical outlets on our current build...do you think that would be good?

 

[Sonnie]

I am not familiar with clay pads, but it it does what you want and does not permanently seal the pipes, it should work.

I just have rags stuck in each end of mine, only because they are open in the attic in the middle for making pulling the wire easier for me... don't want anything crawling in from the attic and down into the room, if you know what I mean.

Is the equipment room somewhere that is going to be exposed to a public part of your home that you need to insulate it... or is the equipment going to be in a closet/small room shut up most of the time?