Need speaker recommendations for a large room....

[blake_mooney]

Hey guys, gonna be building my home theater in my basement. Just wondering what kinda speakers would fill a room that's roughly 30' x 30' in size? Need recommendations for surrounds, center speaker, floor standings, and a sub. Thanks in advance.

Also, what kinda floor standing and center speakers would work well for a behind the screen set-up? I'll be using a projector btw.

Thanks again.

[blake_mooney]

Anyone?

[Scottmoose]

Give us chance!

Large speakers is the quick answer. We are talking DIY types here I assume? What sort of budget? What sort of sound do you like? How large are you willing to go? If you're not fussed about how big your front floor-standers are you see, a sub will be surplus to requirements.

[Cal Weldon]

Hi Blake,

As Scott says, we need a lot more info to help you.

Do you have the amps yets? Do you know the difference between hifi drivers and PA? Do you have a preference? Do you listen to movies at earthshaking volumes? How high do you want the floor standers? Can the center channel be placed upright or does it have to lay on it's side. Do you have a spot for the woofer if you use one? If you are hiding the L & R channels behind the screen do you need a center channel? Would you like to build some or all of this into the walls? And the most important question - What is your budget?

Sorry to bombard you but we really need as much info as you can offer lest we steer you wrong.

Cheers.

[blake_mooney]

Too many questions! :P Anyways, I've always prefered a more "warm" sound to my speakers. For example; Klipsch speakers have a very "bright" sound to them and they are honestly just too harsh on my ears (not saying they're bad speakers). I don't listen at earth shaking volumes but I would like the ability to in case I ever wanna just crank em for the hell of it. My budget is around $3500-$4000. I would like to go with a 7.2 set-up with a nice Onkyo THX Selet2 receiver. I was thinking of going with this config....

For the surrounds I'd use two 4" midrange Dayton drivers, and one 1" Dayton dome tweeter.

For the center I'd use four 4" midrange drivers and two 1" dome tweeters.

With the subs I'd go with two 15" MTX THUNDER5500 subs with a 15" passive radiator on the back of both. Freq. range on them is 19-150hz.

With the two front floorstandings I was thinking of using three 8" bass drivers, one 4" midrange driver, and one 1" dome tweeter in each.

What do you guys think?

P.S. I was totally wrong about the size of the room guys! I was simply estimating (which I'm apparently terrible at :P). I just measured it and It's actually 22 x 23 feet long exactly. Sorry for the confusion.

(and thanks again guys )

[Scottmoose]

I'll let the other gentlemen make suggestions regarding the centre / sub/ surround stuff as I specialise in main enclosures (my only surround vice is quadraphonic, which needs 4 'proper' speakers), rather than movie stuff.

So, a warm sound. Good plan -easier to listen to over extended periods. The room is still pretty substantial. I wonder why you'd bother with that profusion of 8in drivers in the main speakers though when you could just use a couple of decent large drivers and have done with it. A good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un. We might have different ideas about what is 'large' though! Think on this: a typical 10in driver has the same cone area as 1 3/4, 8in units. A 12in unit has approximately the same cone area as 3, 8in units. And it's cone area and the ability to shift air that gives that physical belt in the stomach. You need good drivers, but that's not difficult. Seas make some lovely 10in paper drivers begging to be used in this way. Even one of them with a tweeter will do very well -not many Tannoy Kensington customers complain that the bass is lacking, for example... ;-)

I'd do it like this: either a large 2 way with 2 10in bass drivers + tweeter per side, or a 3 way with a 12in bass driver, a 5in mid + tweeter. In a big enclosure. 150litres - 200litres or so. That goes right back to the goold old days, and modern Tannoys too. You'll be flat in-room to at least 22Hz, and be in the teens, no problem in ultimate extension. It'll sound big, physically, and can actually save on floor-space as they go against rear walls better than most smaller designs oddly enough. Just a thought. You might even find you won't need the subs...

Regards
Scott

[lovechild]

Hi

Nice one Scott!

FYI, here is a link to THE reference in the german DIY scene - The Duetta

best,
LC

[Scottmoose]

Cheers for that -great link!

[blake_mooney]

Well the reason I am going with the three 8" subs in the two fronts is because I will have enough bass with the dual 15" subs I'm gonna be using. They will provide a TON of bass. And do you think that dome or cone tweeters are easier on the ears for long listening periods over horn tweeters? And I always wondered why most horn loaded floorstandings (Klipsch) don't have midrange drivers in them? Does the horn tweeter handle the highs and mids?

I also decided to go with a that quadrophonic surround speaker design, I really like that idea. Seen the ones Klipsch makes with their THX home theater systems, pretty nice.

I appreciate all the suggestions btw guys.

[Scottmoose]

You're welcome.

Subs? Who needs subs?

Below is a frequency response plot for a big hybrid bass reflex / MLTL enclosure (it's in the grey area really as to which it is) using the Seas 10in A26RE4. That driver works quite nicely as a midrange, crossed over to a good tweeter at 1.5Khz (which is exactly what World Designs do with their aperiodic kit using this driver -their crossover would be fine. Peter Comeau, ex design head of Mission came up with it, so it's pretty good). I've rolled it off to keep in step with room gain. Reduce the port to 3.5in long for max flat anechoic to ~20Hz

Internal dimensions.
42in tall.
14in wide.
15in deep.
Driver centre 10in down from internal top.
Port 3in diameter, 5in long.
Port centre 28in down from internal top
0.25lbs ft^3 stuffing

This is similar to a couple of enclosures I've come up with recently, first for a friend with 10in Coral Flat 10s full-range drivers, the other for a Supravox 8in wide-band unit. Ye olde approach still works: displacement has merit.

OK, so that's not what you want as you want to use subs. OK, I'd suggest 2 8in units rather than 3 (no need for the extra driver) in a sealed or aperiodic box, MTM layout, crossed over to the subs at around 70Hz. That should give you the performance you want.