Home Theater Space
The most important part of any sound system is the room in which
it is placed. My system lives in a large (26' X 15.1') custom
designed dedicated home theater room with 10' high ceiling, yielding
a large volume for the best placement of equipment and listeners.
A high-performance audio system (or home theater) needs the right
combination of space, treatments and equipment setup to sound the
best.
This current configuration represents 9+ years of research,
measurements and testing resulting in an amazing sound reproduction
experience.
The acoustics of the room are fully treated. With a full complement of
devices from several vendors, the room is a low resonance, ideal
acoustic space for the big dipole ESL speakers and that big
InfiniteBaffle sub.
The primary treatments come from
RealTraps, featuring the
MiniTraps HF behind the front speaker array, multiple large
MondoTraps in corners, as well as MondoTraps along the length of the
room at the ceiling/wall juncture. A total of 25 elements are
installed. A diagram of the treatments positioning is
here.
The
RPG Acoustics elements I
currently use are BassTraps, Skyline diffusers on the rear wall, and
ProFoam absorption on certain sections. Additionally, I use
Auralex diffusers and LENRD
corner bass traps in non-critical areas, even the equipment room has
some treatments to reduce fan noise from the gear.
As noted, the room is a 15.1' X 25.9' X 10', which is calculated to
minimize acoustic problems and sized to fit the Martin Logan speaker
set.
There is a 1' high dais in the middle-back of the room to
accommodate a second row and give those viewers a clean shot at the
screen.
Behind the screen is a wall that separates the main room from an
equipment room. This is accessed by a door on the right hand side.
An equal sized opening on the left, accessed via a bi-fold door,
displays the AV equipment rack by
Salamander Designs.
This is a large 7' x 5' Synergy system (Twin 40's+Twin 30's) that is
large enough to currently hold 23 pieces of
gear. Although most of the time both
access doors are closed and the equipment is driven via automation
control as well as IR sensors and infrared emitters.
This
individually cooled equipment room also houses the
HomeTheater PC, the home's automation controller PC, the
house-wide data server (all CDs are stored on it ), all the network
hubs and data-comm equipment. The house has Gig-Ethernet to every
room (24 port gig-e central switch, several 8 port Gig-e switches in
loft and offices), plus Satellite signal distribution to the rooms that need it.
And last but not least, the homes voice communications system
(sometimes known as telephone) is also housed and distributed from
here.
In addition to the wired Ethernet, this house also has a WiFi
802.11b/g/n wireless Ethernet router located in this room.
The room size, the treatments and careful positioning all combine
to create an ideal environment for providing one of the greatest
listening and viewing experiences available.
Full details on the benefits and results of these treatments,
along with tons of of measurements and additional photos can be
found on this massive
thread I started on the topic of room treatments for MartinLogan
setups.
And in the
Part 2 of Room Treatments, decor is now included.
This is current front view of the room showing the new
custom acoustic treatment with built in light panels based on
old MartinLogan panels repurposed for this.
And here is a rear panoramic view of the room:
