Size for Home Theatre room

[slicksilver]

I'm planning to build my house soon and would like to know what is the ideal room dimensions for the home theatre. I'm limited by space for sure but would like a ratio or a thumb rule for the width, length and height.

Thanks in advance

 

[vi edit]

There's golden rules and laws of factors/multiples/ect. But the "ideal" room size is one that gets you the amount of seating you want, proper placement of said seating in relation to speakers and screen, and entry into the room without compromising seating and traffic flow. Then there's other considerations like false walls and equipment rack access.

All the perfect sound ratios and mathmatical laws mean crap when you are cramped in a room, slammed against the walls, and generally don't like how stuffed the place feels.

Figure out how many people you ideally want to seat. Then make sure you've got them pulled away from the walls a good 2'-3' and enough distance from the screen the that front row isn't too close for comfort.

Go hit up AVS and look through the endless of build threads. People there are pretty good about putting room dimensions in their posts and you can get a feel of how you'll want to lay things out in your own room.

 

[BTA]

I agree with vi edit fully.

 

[Tiamat]

While it is difficult to address your question because we don't know your specific needs (seating etc.), here are a few things that people usually wish they had...

1. Higher ceiling. Try to get at least 9' ceilings. This allows you more freedom in planning out quiet HVAC and risers for seating.

2. At least 16'-18' width. This allows for 4 theater seats across with ample aisle space on both sides to keep the side-surround speakers at an appropriate distance as at to not overwhelm specific users.

3. Light controlled. Try to have a room without windows.

4. Away from stairs. Staircases are sources for sound leakage which is very difficult to ameliorate.

Finally, check out AVSforums - the dedicated room construction/theater construction forum. Generally, if you have in mind the type of seating and amount of seating, you will be constrained to minimum room dimensions.

 

[soulcougher73]

I agree with the above posters so far. Since you are doing it from scratch id make an audio closet and also insulate the walls and ceiling with sound deadening material so you can really crank it without affecting the rest of the home. And maybe even some acoustical material inside the room (bass traps, etc).

 

[Fallen Kell]

If you are designing the room size I would HIGHLY suggest going to a place that specializes in this to ask them for a quote on doing room dimensions. There are a few rules that you need to follow if you don't do this.

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT have any of the height, width, length, or diagonals of the room be a multiple of each other. So no 16x24x8 or 14x21x7 or 20x20x8 or 16x20x8.... This will allow for standing waves and room modes which will wreck havoc on the sound.

Avoid having ALL PARALLEL WALLS AND STRAIGHT LINES. These will create standing reflections. You can have the front and rear parallel (with some proper dispersion treatments which are easy to make), but try to have the sides be make a slight trapezoid (curve them if you can, look at all the concert theatres, they do this, heck, the good ones don't even have a straight line in them like the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, PA, they even have a website in which they even point out the same 2 rules I listed http://www.kimmelcenter.org/facilities/acoustics.php ).

 

[BurnItDwn]

As others are saying, your personal taste should dictate what works best for you.
While it's good to "stick with" the general rules for acoustic performance, it all boils down to your personal opinions and desires.

My HT room is 10x27, with the screen 3 feet from the wall, meaning I have 24 feet frem back of room to screen. I think it's the perfect length, I have my 1st row which is dual recliners. I then built a riser box for the back 12 or so feet of the room, and put my sofa on the riser. Behind that, right now I have a couple of chairs and a table, then along the back wall, I have my stereo equipment and some cabinets and countertop space for my popcorn maker.

I would prefer if the room was wider ... perfect for me would be about 28-29 feet by 16-17 feet.

Also, height of ceiling is kinda important.

If you only have a 6 and 1/2 foot ceiling, then no point in going with a super long room since that's a bit low for a riser....

I've got a 7 and 1/2 foot basement, and my 8 inch riser is as big as I was comfortable doing... (I also boosted the couch on a bed raiser, since recliners are tall and couch was not very tall)

 

[richardycc]

yeah 14-16' wide is minimum, 16'+ is even better. my room is 10'x24', and I can't buy any big a$$ speakers because of the small width, my Thiel CS2.4 is really pushing the limit.

 

[sdifox]

One thing to keep in mind is if you are going with basement installation is where your mechanical room is and isolating sound from it to the HT. Also the location of support columns. Placing them properly before hand will save you a lot of headaches.

 

[BurnItDwn]

yeah 14-16' wide is minimum, 16'+ is even better. my room is 10'x24', and I can't buy any big a$$ speakers because of the small width, my Thiel CS2.4 is really pushing the limit.

I have the same problem! I used my old BIC RTR 1530s in the front, and laid them on the side, with the tweeters at the outside, woofers towards the middle, then propped them up on a box I made out of leftover OSB .... essentially ... I have a 10 foot long wall of speakers right below the screen ..... hahaha