Home theater speakers in stereo mode: design perspective

Most owners of surround systems know that they can play music CDs or enjoy great quality from other sources of stereo sound, such as satellite radio or even turn-tables. The surround home theater system can attempt to use all the speakers you have installed, or you can disable the surround mode. The second option probably produces better sound that is more true to the original recording, because the center speaker is disabled. One problem, however, remains. Your home theater system is calibrated and focused with the big screen as its main feature. Now, do you really want to sit in front of a blank screen listening to your favorite music? Probably not. In fact, there is something very unsettling about this. And yet, this is what you would have to do, if you want to hear the music at its best. There is a solution, however. You can set up a mode in which the home theater system will use the rear and the side (left or right speakers), thus focusing the audio on a different corner of the room. Add comfortable seating in that corner and you have a whole new way of enjoying music in your home.

Home media room - how to justify having one in your house

It is quite obvious that anyone who has doubts about their immediate financial situation should stay away from major home improvement projects, whatever they might be. For the rest of us, here are a few ideas that should help justify upgrading to a better movie/sports watching experience at home.

1. A lot of people would like to have a larger TV screen. I believe it is a mistake to get the biggest set you can afford and plop it in the focal center of whatever room you use to watch TV all the time. Here is why. At this point in time we have a great discrepancy in the quality of television signals that we feed into our TVs. There is Blu-ray, HD broadcasts, regular DVDs, SD digital broadcasts, regular cable channels, VCR tapes etc. The problem is that although Blu-ray discs will look good on pretty much any size TV screen you have, blowing up the picture of a regular SD cable broadcast would reveal extremely low quality (compared to Blu-ray). The simplest way to deal with that is to avoid watching such sources of the screen that is too large. This, in my opinion, justifies creating a separate media room where you will only watch high-quality content.

2. Human psychology is such that we get used to everything. It is a very simple fact that once you start watching everything on the biggest TV screen you can get very soon this will not feel special to you at all. Imagine if you spent several hours at the movie theater every night watching everything from movies, to nightly news. This would get old very soon. I believe that home movie experience is something that must be cherished and kept as something special. Using a huge TV or a projection screen for all your viewing needs will quickly cheapen this experience. So, the solution is to have a home media room and (also important!) not to use it too much.

3. This is perhaps a minor point, but things like that do add up on the scale of the entire countly. The bigger the screen, the more energy it consumes. If you are watching a news report about energy crises and global warming on a "65 plasma TV you are not a credit to humanity (unless you are strangely interested in Katy Curic's dental work). Limit the use of a bigger screen for special occasions. You will be happy you did (see above).

Home theater - choosing the best room

Granted, not everybody has the option of choosing between several rooms in order to designate a potential home theater. But even if you have a choice of only two spaces, these tips may be helpful. Also, you may see a great deal of problems with the room you have already set your heart on before even installing all the equipment, saving yourself a monumental audio-visual failure.

1. Do not pick a room that is too big. Generally speaking, the larger a room the more difficult it is to properly fill it with sound. By selecting a large room for the home theater you increase the chances of having to invite a professional or spend a long time figuring out the best placement for the speakers and additional elements that can improve the sound. Also, the size of the room will determine the size of the screen. Not a big problem if you were going with a projection system, but if your plan was to use a plasma TV the price tag may turn out not too accommodating.

2. Avoid perfectly square rooms. They tend to produce some strange sounds. A rectangle would be ideal, especially if you are going to place the screen on the narrow side. The wall behind the screen should not have any windows or doors.

3. It should be relatively easy to keep the room dark. You may have to install curtains on the windows.

4. It is great if the walls are muted. Dark gray or black walls are best. Avoid shiny surfaces, they can create a lot of glare. Be prepared to install drapes throughout the room to absorb ambient light.

5. The ceiling should not be too high. Sound can become trapped in the upper part of the room, it can also resonate and echo. Sometimes hanging drapes or partitions can create a smaller space in a large room.

6. You want to have a good rug in the media room. Hardwood floors, so desirable in the kitchen, would be a glaring nightmare in a home theater. The sound would also bounce from a tile or wood floor.

Media room lighting

1. Avoid natural ambient light in your home theater room. Lighting is very important in any theater, and there is no reason why you should allow something unpredictable and unmanagable as outside light to ever enter the room where you watch movies and sports. The simplest way to address this issue is to have no windows at all. This is a big reason why basements are such a good choice for creating media room. If this option is unavailable, install heavy curtains or blackout shades (they will also cut off the outside noise). Motorized drapes may be useful, because they would make it easier to convert the media room to serve other purposes during the day.
2. If possible, integrate the lighting into the entire home theater system. This means that your media room will benefit from having a designer work on the lighting early on. Ideally, you want to have control over the sources of light in the media room from the same remote that you use to manipulate your electronic equipment.
   
3. It is a very good idea to have several lighting presents. This way the lighting in the room can be changed quickly to accommodate the needs of the moment. Otherwise you will be going from switch to switch, changing the levels. Yes, the levels, which brings us to the next point.
4. You should always have a few lights at low levels when you are watching a movie. Just enough to see your snacks and so on. Soft recessed lighting will suffice, and there is no need to worry about any interferance with the TV or projector, because the contrast between the screen and the rest of the room will remain just fine.
5. Consider using floor level track lights, like the ones you see in a movie theater.
   
6. Avoid using shiny fabrics and materials in your home theater furniture. A shiny leather chair will reflect the light and create unwanted glare. Microfiber furniture is probably the best solution.

See also:
Media rooms pictures
Media room furniture

Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons

If the design you chose for your media room is miles away from the ordinary techno look of today's electronic devices, something you might want to do is conceal the speakers. This is achieved by using so called architectural speakers (or inwall speakers, which sounds a lot less sophisticated somehow). These speakers can be easily recessed in the walls and cabinetry. Sometimes they can even be painted, completing the illusion that the sound is coming from the walls. Architectural speakers are manufactured by some of the leading brands, so techically there is no need to skip on the quality of the sound in your home media room (read below, however). Now, add to this the fact that inwall speakers greatly reduce clutter and you pretty much have the pro side of this argument. How about the cons?

• It is not easy to install architectural speakers. Holes must be made and cords have to be laid down. Once the deed is done you cannot move these speakers. You better be sure that they are exactly where you want them to be.
• In a traditional speaker the enclosure ("the box") is carefully designed to resonate just the right way thereby improving the performance of the device. Architectural speakers have to rely upon the surrounding material of the wall, so the sound is not always ideal.
• Loud sound coming from the inwall speakers can resonate through the walls (and the halls!) of your house. This may even end up in some objects hanging on the wall to rattle or shift.

So, while the manufacturers are trying to find workarounds for these issues, why not use a combined approach, and install some speakers in the wall, while leaving a few in their natural state, so to speak?

Home theater decor - a simple and flexible solution

This may not be an idea that would work for everybody, but depending on the general design of your home theater the results may be stunning. Here is a story first.

A few years ago my co-worker stopped by a local video store on the day after Halloween. They were about the get rid of what was the main item in their decorative approach for the spooky season: life-size cutouts of characters from some classic horror movies. There was a Frankenstein, Nosferatu and the green monster holding tight a frightened, though ultimately curious, damsel. Ok, I am not sure if they were really life size :) My friend was able to get all of these cutouts at no charge and they were used to decorate our rather informal office for quite a while.

So, here is the deal. No matter how formal or conceptual your home theater room is you can always quickly add some interest to it by adding an occasional movie star's cutout. Yes, I know, many people like to use posters in some areas of their media rooms (where they are out of sight when you are actually watching a movie). This design move largely follows what you would normally see in a video store or at a movie theater. A life-size cutout, however, does not have a permanent status in any design. It is clearly an ad-hoc item, but the curious thing about cutouts is that, despite being 2d they provide some depth and reality to any space.

Another great thing is that you can have an enture collection of movie-star cutouts. They can be stored very easily and you can mix and match them for whatever party or function you are intending to host in you home theater room. Use them as conversation starters or excellent photo opportunities for your guests. And, of course, when you have parties during sports events, it is possible to get cutouts of popular players!

As an example check out this Elvis Presley Life Size Cutout

See also:


Home media rooom pictures
Media room furniture
Home theater accessories - a master list

ButtKicker home theater subwoofer - audio connection to the action

When a self-respecting (and proud) owner of a home room wants to show off his media room the weapon of choice most usually happens to be in the category of "movies where stuff blows up." Certainly, most modern home theater systems have adequate subwoofers that can shake the floor a bit. But is that going to be enough for you? No buts about it. It won't! You need the very best of what modern ground shaking technology can offer. You need a tremor in the box, an explosion in a can - ButtKicker BKA300 or something comparable. For about $300 this little gadget will reproduce the lowest of the low when it comes to audio frequencies. A wireless design makes it very easy to install in any media room.

See also:
Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons