What size speakers would be needed for theater room?

[JeffKnob]

I am currently in the planning stages to build a theater room in my basement. The room is completely unfinished. As of now I have planned for the room to be 15x30x7.5. I am under the thought that in order to fill this room with full dynamic sound I would need to some decent sized speakers. I know I want to do 7.1 just because I can. Would I need to get some larger towers for the front with maybe multiple woofers, a mid, and of course tweeter? An example would be the B&W 683. I was thinking also that I might need to either do a large center channel or more than one center.

Do I need to go this large or would I be just fine to get bookshelf speakers with say a 6.5 woofer? I guess what I want to know is am I going for overkill? The room I currently have my system setup in (listed in my signature) is about half the size of my theater room but it does have a vaulted ceiling. I am pleased with what my current speakers can do in that room.

Thanks.

[Hyfi]

I am currently in the planning stages to build a theater room in my basement. The room is completely unfinished. As of now I have planned for the room to be 15x30x7.5. I am under the thought that in order to fill this room with full dynamic sound I would need to some decent sized speakers. I know I want to do 7.1 just because I can. Would I need to get some larger towers for the front with maybe multiple woofers, a mid, and of course tweeter? An example would be the B&W 683. I was thinking also that I might need to either do a large center channel or more than one center.

Do I need to go this large or would I be just fine to get bookshelf speakers with say a 6.5 woofer? I guess what I want to know is am I going for overkill? The room I currently have my system setup in (listed in my signature) is about half the size of my theater room but it does have a vaulted ceiling. I am pleased with what my current speakers can do in that room.

Thanks.

Hello,

If this is to be an HT room only you don't need floorstanders if you have the right speakers and amps. You could easily fill that room with sound using 4 Dynaudio 42s, center and sub if you use a high quality amp with enough power. Even if you listend to audio only, the two fronts and sub would do. I use the 82s for fronts and 42s for rears in a room close to your size but hooking the 42s directly to my Stratos amp without a sub put out plenty of clear quality sound.

It's all preference and budget.

[blackraven]

I'd go for a Floor stander myself. I've heard the B&W 683's myself and compared them the 684's and 685's. They have a much bigger and better sound. And if your going to listen to any music, you will appreciate the bigger sound stage. Plus, with bookshelfs, you'll need to spend $100-250 for good speaker stands.

I would also go for one of the larger B&W center channels.

[02audionoob]

I have found with my own HT system...a Denon receiver, five JBL S-Series speakers and a sub...I don't care for the music with all five speakers. I think it sounds better from the two mains, only. For that reason, my vote would be two good-sized floorstanding speakers for music and compatible speakers for the remainder of the 7.1 system.

[emesbee]

I have found with my own HT system...a Denon receiver, five JBL S-Series speakers and a sub...I don't care for the music with all five speakers. I think it sounds better from the two mains, only. For that reason, my vote would be two good-sized floorstanding speakers for music and compatible speakers for the remainder of the 7.1 system.

I'm with you on that. For me, music is the most important thing, which means stereo, so a good pair of floorstanding speakers is a must. The other speakers just need to be sonically compatible.

[kexodusc]

Given a certain budget for a pair of speakers, say $1000 for example, I almost always prefer the bookshelf model of the higher speaker line than the floorstanding model of the lower speaker line. You get better construction, better drivers, components, and far better sound in the ever important midrange which yes, may come at the expense of bass, but those higher quality bookshelfs don't exactly struggle there either. Not to mention the proven imaging and soundstage benefits smaller speakers deliver. With companies like Paradigm, B&W etc, the tower speakers are generally just taller versions of the bookshelf with additional drivers. What's worse, the added cost of material might is minimal but the pricing is often 50-100% more. Not as good a value as the smaller models, though sometimes they're a necessary evil.

Now, having said that, if price was no object, I'd spend $2000 and get the tower version anyway because the bass can be a bit better, and at very loud levels those extra drivers start to carry their weight in the midrange too.

Throw in a third scenario - towers with sub, or bookshelfs + stands with sub, and in my experience, if the sub is worth its weight, the bookshelf/sub combo will outperform a lot of the time...I can give a long post with all the reasons why but a quick search here will show several threads that have done that already. It's more work to set up your system, get the sub integrated right, but the benefits are worth it and you get the best of both worlds IMO.

Long story short - the answer is "it depends" on what your budget is, what speakers you're comparing, whether you're using a subwoofer, how good that subwoofer is, etc, etc.

Your room is rather big and if you want to really crank the volume, in the absence of a subwoofer those larger floorstanders will likely be more efficient, that is, play louder per watt of power - which becomes more important the louder you play. With a subwoofer things change, but...

Have we confused you yet? :P

[Rich-n-Texas]

When I see *basement*, I think cold, hard cinderblock walls. How do you plan on finishing it? Will there be acoustic treatments in the room? Carpeting? Sound absorbing ceilings? IMO you can do a lot with room treatments which can greatly affect the room's characteristics. After that, I'd try to in-home audition small and large speaker systems to see which one's best suit your room's needs.

[JeffKnob]

I do have two very capable 15" subwoofers for the room. The room will be finished with carpet. All sides will have finished walls so there won't be any exposed concrete. These walls will also have insulation inside all of them to cut down on the sound coming in or out. I am interested in some acoustic treatments but I would have to do a lot more research on that to figure out how much and where to place them. The ceiling will be a drop ceiling with tiles. I haven't checked on using regular tiles versus sound absorbing models.

This room will be 95% home theater and 5% music. The subs will easily take care of the low end and will always be used. I need something for the midbass and up that can fill this room. From what I read here I stand a good chance that a good bookshelf would work all around since I am doing 7.1 anyway. Just as an example, I was looking at a paradigm monitor 9 or 11 but maybe a Studio 40 would be better sounding as long as it could fill the room. I also looked at the B&W 683 but maybe a smaller bookshelf of one of the higher lines would work better.

I have done some research on whether to do dipole, bipole, or direct radiating. There seems to be mixed opinions. I heard the first two give more of a diffused surround but the direct radiating is better for the new sound formats as to give better localization.

[kexodusc]

This room will be 95% home theater and 5% music. The subs will easily take care of the low end and will always be used. I need something for the midbass and up that can fill this room. From what I read here I stand a good chance that a good bookshelf would work all around since I am doing 7.1 anyway.

I have done some research on whether to do dipole, bipole, or direct radiating. There seems to be mixed opinions. I heard the first two give more of a diffused surround but the direct radiating is better for the new sound formats as to give better localization.

My last room was 20 X 24, I used 7 bookshelf speakers (well one was a typical center channel, so a big bookshelf). I had no problems achieving loud, dynamic sound. Easily topped 100 dB at my listening position, which is way louder than any theater would play.

I hate recommending speakers based on specs, but as someone who has experience with large rooms, there's one I want you to consider..You want to be sure that the speakers you buy have a decent sensitivity rating and that you have adequate power. Or make sure you have a capable amplifier or very beefy receiver to compensate. Don't worry too much about the spec number as most speakers today fall between 88 and 93 dB, respectable numbers, but if you see 86 dB or lower, you might expect some issues at louder volumes. Some companies list "in room" and anechoic sensitivity figures - if you don't see "anechoic", reduce the number you see by about 3 dB because they're counting room gain in there. I'm guessing for the most part, any speaker you find will be around 88 dB or better these days, but check to make sure.

In a large room, lower sensitivity speakes will gobble up the power you feed them and you'll run out of headroom to drive them accurately. That's where sound quality will diminish.

As for dipole/bipole vs direct radiating - again, from experience, especially for 7.1, I really feel that direct radiating speakers are the way to go - a lot of soundtracks use pin point imaging across the surround channels and dipoles/bipoles don't deliver. That's a personal preference thing, I'm sure a lot of people like the diffuse sound, but you're going to get that with 4 surrounds speakers anyway.

[Rich-n-Texas]

In case you want a head start on acoustic treatments, www.atsacoustics.com has a good FAQ section as well as resonable pricing and an owner who's very helpful.

[johnny p]

I'd use insulation SPECIFICALLY designed to block/absorb sound..... normal insulation/drywall will help, but the right matterials make all the difference

Do it right the first time, and you won't regret it later....