Home Theater Design, ground up.

[nixit]

First time poster, long time reader.

Here's my intended design;
The wall is 20 feet (6m) across 15 feet (4.5m) deep (with the back 'wall' being 90% exposed to the kitchen and halls) and 10 feet (3m) high to the ceiling. Listening distance will be on center at about 12' from front wall. The TV is approximately 4 feet 6 inches (1.4m) off the ground. I have mocked everything up in blue painters tape and the TV is just high enough, with out being a neck strain. I smiled greatly, even my bride likes the idea!


I plan to take the existing mantel and lower it to legal code (12" above opening per NFPA211). I plan to incorporate a center channel into the mantel by stealthing the speakers (all of them) behind two layers of thin white acoustic cloth inside a classic cabinetry frame design. The mains (L and R) will be identical speakers however my quantities are a bit off. Wide surround, High surround, and rear surround will be similar or identical in driver quantity to each other. The subs are TBD and will be built later. Probably a Dayton 10" and Dayton 240watt sub... 1 or 2 in the cabinetry under the windows (Not built yet). The HDTV has not been purchased as of yet, but I plan to have it at about 60" as shown.

My Goals are relatively broad sound stage ("full"), flat response, and almost matched. I'm not looking for ridiculous audiophile quality. just "very pleasing".

My speakers of choice (purchased) are as follows:
Dayton DC28f-8 Tweeter (10 on hand, but not all needed)
[/FONT]http://nixit.net/HomeTheater/275-070-dayton-audio-dc28f-8-specifications-46121.pdf
Aurasound NS3-193 - "Fullrange" driver (3") (12 on hand, need TBD).
http://nixit.net/HomeTheater/NS3-193-4A 4-12-11.pdf
Dayton RS150T-8 Truncated Woofer (6") (6 on hand currently, might need more)
http://nixit.net/HomeTheater/295-342-dayton-audio-rs150t-8-specifications-46155.pdf

I am physically limted in my design. So all I could really do is punch in the volumes, decide on ported or sealed, and kick out a crossover + LPAD.

What is completely freaking me out, is that I have to attenuate the Sub and Tweeter in to order of 25-28db.
I'd love any suggestions based on what you see here....

BassBoxPro;

Beer Break.

Ok, now onto Xover Designer...This is the best I could come up with... And it scares me. Are my fears founded? That I wont hear the tweeter or the mini-subs?


I don't have enough knowledge about speaker design... This is my first crack at something so massive... I'm willing to learn more then what I have... pretty much all I know is now on the table. But, I also dont want to make this a science project to such a degree that I see some people going into. Simple ported/sealed enclosures I can handle.

I'd like to match my L and R main speakers to the center speakers in quantity, but have a hard time deciding how to do that. Is it a concern?
I'm also concerned that by having two mini-subs in the box, that I am attenuating even MORE, limiting the acoustical presence..

Questions, comments, hand-grenades, suggestions?

regards.

 

[Pano]

Moderator hand-grenade. Don't post huge images like this. BMP is NOT an appropriate format for the web.
Please read this sticky: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/everything-else/183084-pictures-why-not-attach-them.html

I'll try to clean up the massive files (21megs!) in your post.

 

[sreten]

Hi,

You've made a poor choice of midrange driver due to its low sensitivity.
At 4 ohms two of them in parallel will "kill" most AV amplifier channels,
likely send them into shutdown mode at decent volume levels.

Never start a ground up design by buying stuff .....

rgds, sreten.

undefinition (see if nothing else, the excellent FAQs)
The Speaker Building Bible - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video, and Electronics Customer Discussion Forum From Parts-Express.com
Zaph|Audio
Zaph|Audio - ZA5 Speaker Designs with ZA14W08 woofer and Vifa DQ25SC16-04 tweeter
FRD Consortium tools guide
http://web.archive.org/web/20090902124715/http://geocities.com/woove99/Spkrbldg/DesigningXO.htm
RJB Audio Projects
http://web.archive.org/web/20090902202231/http://geocities.com/woove99/Spkrbldg/
Speaker Design Works
HTGuide Forum - A Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs.
DIY Loudspeaker Projects Troels Gravesen
Humble Homemade Hifi
A Speaker project
Quarter Wavelength Loudspeaker Design
The Frugal-Horns Site -- High Performance, Low Cost DIY Horn Designs
Linkwitz Lab - Loudspeaker Design
Music and Design

Great free SPICE Emulator : SPICE-Based Analog Simulation Program - TINA-TI - TI Tool Folder

 

[nixit]

@Pano, I apologize. I appreciate your efforts too. I thought It'd be helpful to use my own bandwidth. Then again, that's a good point about pics dying after a while.

@sreten. I'm not dead set on the Aurasounds. I just haven't found a midrange 3 or 4" midrange speaker that has amazing sensitivity. Could I not wire two in series? I also realized that there are no specifications for Voice Coil Inductance (LE), so the crossover design does not take into account the box volume. When I went in an faked the LE using similar drivers, It dramatically killed the upper end. Ergo, I'm not dead set on the Aurasounds if I dont have enough data, or the resources to get the data.
I wonder if I should just go for other Midrange drivers versus a full range driver? Hense, I'd love some more input on the mess I've made.

 

[454Casull]

The Scan-Speak 10F/4424G00 is fairly good at 90 dB/2.83V.

You can get more sensitivity but you'll pay for it with a higher c-c. Then again, for a line array it won't matter.

 

[sreten]

Hi,

What drivers have you purchased and what have you not purchased ?

Are you planning essentially in wall speakers, or something else ?

rgds, sreten.

 

[nixit]

454Casull, I'm kind of on a budget. And to stretens point, they are 4ohm (not a deal breaker). But what appealed me to the Aurasounds was the success I had seen that people had had with them over the years (probably in the 8ohm variety) and their buy in cost. streten, as noted originally, I have on hand.... - Dayton DC28f-8 Tweeter (10 on hand) - Aurasound NS3-193 - "Fullrange" driver (12 on hand). - Dayton RS150T-8 Truncated Woofer (6 on hand currently) I'd like to keep the tweeters and the woofers, but again I'm not dead set on the aurasounds, but I do have them on hand. I wish I had the LE specs for them. They are essentially in wall speakers. Kind of. Minus the wall. They are more accurately, "Fire place Mantel speakers". Here's a direct link to the PDF of the drawing and floorplan, it'll be a little more clear (or less, I don't know)... but it still might void moderation's rules. Here's for one more handgrenade...http://nixit.net/HomeTheater/HT-pdf.pdf Thanks for the links, BTW.