Setting Up Home Theater / Listening Room

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Also grounding all your outlets will further enhance the power going to all your components. My system is DEAD quiet.......no outside interference. Should be done by a licensed electrician.

All duplex outlets are required to be grounded per code. It's all done inside the panel. Or are you suggesting something else?
 
I had an experience yesterday that I thought I would share. You know I have been studying room correction, panels, bass traps that kind of stuff and I went to a site where I do believe the guy really knows his stuff, no names need to be mentioned, for a free 1/2 hour consultation.
Within 5 minutes he was telling me that I am going to hate my new 12' X 14' room, it's going to sound horrible compared to the living room I am in now and no way should I put Atmos speakers in. If I wanted to spend about 100K I probably would be OK and he showed me a client of his that did just that.
Anyway, I was so bummed out for this guy to tell me I am doing a horrible thing after all this work and effort I am doing, I could only last about 10 mins of the free 30 min conversation. I said, thanks anyway, I appreciate your time and hung up. It put so much doubt in my head and I felt like, he's right it's going to be horrible what a fool I am.
Later on, I sort of rebounded and said to myself it's not going to be horrible, it will be what it will be and that is my groovy little space that I will try to do the best I can.
But, man, that is not the approach I take with my roofing customers. Really temporarily deflated me.
 
What a load of crap that is.

There's a stupid train of thought amongst some sections of the "audiophile" (or whatever you want to call it) world that spending infintely more money will yield infinitely better results.

Unless your room has solid concrete or solid granite walls, floor and ceiling, it'll sound just fine, and you can easily add carpeting and/or a few wall treatments to deal with anything particularly nasty.

My last setup in London, with full size KEF Q series speakers, was in a room that was little over 9 feet square, and all my friends who had occasion to hear music or watch a film in there raved about how amazing it sounded.

I'd also never buy anything from anyone who low-key insults my taste out of one side of their mouth and then tries to get me to spend money out of the other side - you did the right thing in giving this ding-dong his walking papers.
 
I had an experience yesterday that I thought I would share. You know I have been studying room correction, panels, bass traps that kind of stuff and I went to a site where I do believe the guy really knows his stuff, no names need to be mentioned, for a free 1/2 hour consultation.
Within 5 minutes he was telling me that I am going to hate my new 12' X 14' room, it's going to sound horrible compared to the living room I am in now and no way should I put Atmos speakers in. If I wanted to spend about 100K I probably would be OK and he showed me a client of his that did just that.
Anyway, I was so bummed out for this guy to tell me I am doing a horrible thing after all this work and effort I am doing, I could only last about 10 mins of the free 30 min conversation. I said, thanks anyway, I appreciate your time and hung up. It put so much doubt in my head and I felt like, he's right it's going to be horrible what a fool I am.
Later on, I sort of rebounded and said to myself it's not going to be horrible, it will be what it will be and that is my groovy little space that I will try to do the best I can.
But, man, that is not the approach I take with my roofing customers. Really temporarily deflated me.
Fuq him. He must be an ass-bag. No worries, you will be super happy with your new setup. I have no doubt. Not to mention, you are designing it from the floor up. How cool is that! March on bro...it'll be great.
 
I had an experience yesterday that I thought I would share. You know I have been studying room correction, panels, bass traps that kind of stuff and I went to a site where I do believe the guy really knows his stuff, no names need to be mentioned, for a free 1/2 hour consultation.
Within 5 minutes he was telling me that I am going to hate my new 12' X 14' room, it's going to sound horrible compared to the living room I am in now and no way should I put Atmos speakers in. If I wanted to spend about 100K I probably would be OK and he showed me a client of his that did just that.
Anyway, I was so bummed out for this guy to tell me I am doing a horrible thing after all this work and effort I am doing, I could only last about 10 mins of the free 30 min conversation. I said, thanks anyway, I appreciate your time and hung up. It put so much doubt in my head and I felt like, he's right it's going to be horrible what a fool I am.
Later on, I sort of rebounded and said to myself it's not going to be horrible, it will be what it will be and that is my groovy little space that I will try to do the best I can.
But, man, that is not the approach I take with my roofing customers. Really temporarily deflated me.
+2+ What they said!!! Mark, this low life stinker just wanted to sell you $100k worth of shit, You know it's True!
We all know here, you'll do great - Power forward with confidence my man. 🤠
 
OK, thanks everybody but as J-Pup say's Power Forward. Finally 4 speakers and speaker wire arrived, they are very cool. I really like the Rocket 22 wire, braided copper and the sheath is nice and supple. Here is some pictures with some explanations. Tomorrow roof off, install speakers and wire ceiling and below floor, Thursday insulation, Friday roof back.
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4 speakers, Rocket 22 wire and custom boxes, (cabinet maker owed me a favor, no charge) the boxes are just elaborate dust covers, once the speakers are mounted in ceiling the boxes just go over top of speaker to prevent dust, insulation, etc from getting in, plus improves a degree of down firing.
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B&W speaker with angled driver and tweeter, each speaker has a little red arrow so you can place them angled toward the listener.
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Speaker frame and box with cutout for speaker wire.
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It fits perfect, just doesn't look like it in this picture.
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Nice wire. I messed up and put red to red and black to black, but should be red/back twisted for red terminal and red/black twisted for black terminal. The cable has a blue line on one side so there is no confusion. They will also need the white sheath stripped much longer to go in terminals. I'll send a proper picture after tomorrow's install.
 
I had an experience yesterday that I thought I would share. You know I have been studying room correction, panels, bass traps that kind of stuff and I went to a site where I do believe the guy really knows his stuff, no names need to be mentioned, for a free 1/2 hour consultation.
Within 5 minutes he was telling me that I am going to hate my new 12' X 14' room, it's going to sound horrible compared to the living room I am in now and no way should I put Atmos speakers in.
So, he said that after all this fine work you have done it is going to sound bad and you will hate it. But don't worry - He has some $olution$ that will correct all those problems. BS. That fact that you are doing so much of it yourself gets you half way there already to loving it. Soldier on!
 
Did a test run this morning and this is how it will end up. Speaker wire has two sides, black and red each side, take the two reds and two blacks and twist together. Insert frame in ceiling cut out with wires connected, secure with 4 red compression tabs, push up speaker in frame and lock, put box over top in attic for dust protection.
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OK, thanks everybody but as J-Pup say's Power Forward. Finally 4 speakers and speaker wire arrived, they are very cool. I really like the Rocket 22 wire, braided copper and the sheath is nice and supple. Here is some pictures with some explanations. Tomorrow roof off, install speakers and wire ceiling and below floor, Thursday insulation, Friday roof back.
View attachment 54535
4 speakers, Rocket 22 wire and custom boxes, (cabinet maker owed me a favor, no charge) the boxes are just elaborate dust covers, once the speakers are mounted in ceiling the boxes just go over top of speaker to prevent dust, insulation, etc from getting in, plus improves a degree of down firing.
View attachment 54536
B&W speaker with angled driver and tweeter, each speaker has a little red arrow so you can place them angled toward the listener.
View attachment 54537
View attachment 54539
Speaker frame and box with cutout for speaker wire.
View attachment 54540
It fits perfect, just doesn't look like it in this picture.
View attachment 54541
Nice wire. I messed up and put red to red and black to black, but should be red/back twisted for red terminal and red/black twisted for black terminal. The cable has a blue line on one side so there is no confusion. They will also need the white sheath stripped much longer to go in terminals. I'll send a proper picture after tomorrow's install.
Keep Red to Red etc. then always connect Red to say +Ve on speaker & Amp you then won't accidently add in a phase inversion. The Blue line is to indicate which Red/Black pair it is for bi-amping, so as you're wiring in parallel (as Red-to-Red) it isn't of any use.

And ignore the $100k idiot! But I would use Velcro (or similar) to put up your acoustic treatment panels, you can then move them around to see what works for you i.e. get the sound balance you want. You don't want to make an acoustic anechoic chamber, it is very disturbing, and you may want something slightly more 'lively' than you find in recording studios - which can sound 'strange' to the casual listener who is used to more reverb.
 
Keep Red to Red etc. then always connect Red to say +Ve on speaker & Amp you then won't accidently add in a phase inversion. The Blue line is to indicate which Red/Black pair it is for bi-amping, so as you're wiring in parallel (as Red-to-Red) it isn't of any use.

And ignore the $100k idiot! But I would use Velcro (or similar) to put up your acoustic treatment panels, you can then move them around to see what works for you i.e. get the sound balance you want. You don't want to make an acoustic anechoic chamber, it is very disturbing, and you may want something slightly more 'lively' than you find in recording studios - which can sound 'strange' to the casual listener who is used to more reverb.
Awesome much appreciated.
 
Ideally, it’s best not to make any joins in speaker cable as copper oxidises over time and joints can cause problems, changing impedance.

We visited my wife’s brother at Christmas and I set up a new media player for him. We used his old 5.1 AVR (he’d been using it as a stereo amp only) and ran some old cables he had. All the copper ends where severely oxidised, so we cut back about 2” or so and redid them. The copper was almost black. Mind you these cables were probably 20 years old
 
Got a little further today, no turning back now. I started this process in my brain 5 months ago, have read watched and studied. I think I got the 4 ceiling speakers right today, but whether I did or I didn't it's done. Still a long way to go. I can make adjustments as to the direction of the speakers anytime so that's good to know. I did Duncan's red to red, black to black and finally found a sentence in Audioquest literature that confirmed that. Insulation tomorrow, roof back on Friday and unfortunately seems like a long wait 4 weeks + for the hardwood floor guy.
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Waiting for one speakon cable for high frequency the REL rear right sub other than that this week will be mud and tape, paint and wait for hardwood floor install 2-3 weeks, not really sure he is busy.
View attachment 54761View attachment 54762View attachment 54763View attachment 54764
waiting for one speakon cable here.
I used ready made Speakeron cables & connectors, including cable-to-cable extensions. Good value as they saved me a lot of hassle making them up!
 
I am planning a few things and have a question on two.

Ethernet switch for good audio and 4K?
This TP Link 8 port?

Can I use Cat 7 cables with Cat 6 wire. I like these, there cool looking and inexpensive.
Ethernet Cables Dan Yee
Switch looks OK it will handle 1Gb/s and has special handling for video/audio packets (if they are identified as such), I only stream 5.1 flac files around the house through multiple switches from the NAS Drives upstairs to my Amp downstairs and I have had no issues with just standard gigabit switches (there are 3 effectively in series). Never tried video as I'm not really that interested in it!

The Cat7 cables should be ok as you'll be running at no more than 1Gb/s anyway.
 
Switch looks OK it will handle 1Gb/s and has special handling for video/audio packets (if they are identified as such), I only stream 5.1 flac files around the house through multiple switches from the NAS Drives upstairs to my Amp downstairs and I have had no issues with just standard gigabit switches (there are 3 effectively in series). Never tried video as I'm not really that interested in it!

The Cat7 cables should be ok as you'll be running at no more than 1Gb/s anyway.
Great and thanks I will order them.
 
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