Media room design is a crucial aspect of any home, offering a space for entertainment and relaxation. To create the perfect media room, consider the following tips:
- Design with dimension to immerse yourself in the action.
- Orchestrate comfort and style with plush recliners and tiered theater seating.
- Embrace the cutting edge by incorporating tech terrain and personalizing your playground with comfortable seating.
- Personalize your playground by letting your inner film buff shine through comfortable seating.
- Forget cliche home theaters and decide on your rec room needs.
- Get the right furniture and create a multi-purpose space.
- Swath in mud colors, add a sweeping sectional, give walls texture, opt for earth tones, and make it multi-purpose.
- Provide ample seating on the throws, use a frame, prioritize comfort, break things up, install art as a facade, and be resourceful.
- Explore the possibilities of interior design ideas to create an elegant, inviting space for entertainment and relaxation.
- Consider incorporating TVs and projection screens into the decor and create a multi-purpose space.
In summary, creating the perfect media room requires a combination of dimensions, seating, technology, and personalization. By following these tips, you can create a cozy and inviting space that provides hours of entertainment for family members and guests.
📹 The 7 Most Common Home Theater Mistakes
This video discusses the top 7 most common home theater mistakes we see and how to go about fixing or avoiding them when …
📹 Media Room Ideas 2023
Media Room Ideas 2023 Create a dedicated space in your home where you can be totally entertained in comfort and style to start …
Another mistake is decorating the room with movie posters etc.. People don’t realize that things like posters and popcorn machines in commercial cinemas are in the lobby or hallways not the screening room. I want to to watch the movie on my screen not reflected on a movie poster. I remember seeing one home theater that had a popcorn machine to the side of the projection screen.
Another mistake is having your room designed by the wrong people. One of the worst I ever encountered is a friend who built a new house and had the builder design the home theatre. All speakers were in the ceiling, with the left, center, and right speakers all next to each other, just inches apart, directly above the screen, and rear speakers only about a foot in front of them.
Good advice! I definitely made the color mistake on my old theater, the red and blue I picked just didn’t look the way I expected, it looked pretty nasty so I repainted in grey and dark blue. I won’t make that mistake on the one I’m building now! As for power, all amplifier stacks get their own dedicated 20 amp circuit and the front end gets its own. That’s L/R subs, L/R mains, center and surround so five dedicated 20 amp circuits from a dedicated breaker box… plus the one for the front end. I figure that should do it! I’ll have to learn about article calibration but audio will be handled with multiple miniDSP modules. For my 2-ch system I use the nanoDigi with external DACs but for the theater I’ll probably go with the 2×4 HD just because there’s going to be a lot of them. It would require a lot of external DAC’s to handle it.
#1. Screen width x 1.2 = minimum viewing distance. Screen width x 1.6 = optimal viewing distance. #2. Use flat or eggshell sheen with dark colors. TIP: Eggshell is best overall, because flat shows fingerprints. #3. Minimum riser height for multi-row seating = 12″ #4. Audio/Video performance. This is mostly subjective and is why you should have a pro help design the system. #5. You should have dedicated circuit(s) for theater equipment. #6. DO NOT use the auto calibration with cheap receivers like Sony, Onkyo/Integra, Denon, etc. Most use Audyssey which sucks and will often make the system sound worse. Unless you have a higher end product like Anthem which has it’s own room correction software, learn how to manually setup the receiver. It’s really not hard. #7. Plan for acoustic treatments. You can put a world class audio system in an untreated room and it will sound like garbage. This is probably the single biggest mistake I see with entry-level theaters. This also directly impacts how well a room correction software will work. Software cannot turn a terrible room into a good room. Get the room at least 80% of the way there by treating first reflections and let the software do the rest.
Just pulled the trigger on building a home today. What would you recommend for the dimensions of the room for the interior? Double drywall for sound dampening, plus sound dampening insulation? I’m good on speaker placement, screen size, audio placement, just want to make sure I frame the room correctly. I’m going to start with a 65″ that I have, to save cost, but plan to later add a projector, maybe laser or something.
you had me until you said the cables are not good enough if you buy the right gauge copper cable it doesnt matter what they cost might as well be cheap you save some money and invest in something more important than fancy looking expensive cables that do jack for your audio and just make the people selling them rich
on number 5 “may need a dedicated circuit” umm no how about absolutely need multiple dedidicated circuits. 1 circuit for subs. 1 circuits for lights. 1 circuit for remaining outlets. 1 circuit and if you are really cool a 240V circuit to really keep your amplifiers drawing low current from a 240v outlet
Step 1 still Wrong cos the screen size doesn’t go wall to wall like you’d see in typical multiplex. Step 2 still Wrong the walls should be absorbed not painted I can’t think of any cinema that painted the walls cos mostly it was treatment on the walls so you don’t hear echo if there is any echo it would be placed on the mix for effect use. Step 3 questionable Step 4 is presentation that died out cinema years ago. Step 5 questionable Step 6 Wrong throw autoEQ out its for lazy calibrators that can’t spend time doing it manually Step 7 I’m gonna put on a decent film mix in DOLBY STEREO® – but Step 8 thinks it’s matrix Step 9 wrong it’s six-track DOLBY STEREO® something non of your clients have not even pro cinema Lucasfilm Ltd THX Sound System.
I thought I always wanted a home theater room. I watched a article where this guy built a great dedicated room and one of his comments was that he was the only one that used it! Unless your wife really wants it, you will be the only one using it. You are better off having a nice system without all of the speakers that you can share in an environment that others will use on a regular basis.
Another one is trying to even do a home theater room on too small of a budget. If you are going into a $25,000 project with only $2,500 to spend…stop! You are just wasting your time and the time of anyone else that you pull into that project. That is an absolute recipe for disaster and all you are doing is setting yourself up for complete failure. Sure, there are cost effective ways to build out projects like this but being 80% to 90% short on a REALISTIC budget is just guaranteeing failure right from the very start. Wait a few years, save up the money necessary to do it right, THEN build out your project.
So.. This article will do me to put down what I need to say. This was on my mind about 6 months ago and I simply forgot to write it down at the time. Also.. I need a break.. A distraction away from the trial and inbetween editing my articles. I’ve just been sitting here writing most of this in my head. This is going to be a big huge one. I’m listening to Whitesnake.. 1977 album as I write this.. Actually about 3 am this morning.. I decided to listen to this album.. As it was on recommended on Youtube. I had been listening to Dio Master of the moon and Lock up the wolves. Actually.. I am listening to Whitesnake 1977 album now .. 20 minutes ago.. And all of a sudden my thought got triggered.. As I suddenly thought of listening to this album on open speaker in a 70’s lounge room. So.. I have chosen this article to start with. Back in 1997.. When I worked at Sega world Sydney.. Which I have made a article on.. I do visit it on and off to make edits on it.. I Digress. At the time of working for Sega world Sydney back in 1997.. The Good Ol days.. Remember the Good Ol days when the world was a different place.. Ohhhh I do remember. Back then.. Music wise.. Well to play music.. When I was in my old room at my parents place.. I had my ghetto blaster from the 90’s.. I eventually bought.. To go with it a compact disc player.. Which cost me about $70 at the time.. Which I would have thought was expensive. Also.. I remember at one point buying some headphones.. Similar to apple ear buds which weren’t heard of back then.
Wow, great article for someone who is thinking about adding a media room. I do have a question. My media room room will be 16ftx16ft. The TV and seating area will be off-center by one foot. Meaning the center of the TV will be 7ft from one wall and 9ft from the another wall. Will this cause a problem for sound and/or will it look lousy
you all skipped the real #1 – “well, i know the speaker is SUPPOSED” to go here, but i dont like it here because (insert reason having nothing to do with sound) so imma just gonna put it over there instead. if you want a good sound system, throw all other considerations one typically has about the layout of a room out the window. if youre not willing to do this, then just dont bother and save your money.
Good article. If I set MV as per article so for achieving 75 DB I have to move speaker DB level in minus or more than minus 10. But in AVR level can move max up to minus 10 and not beyond minus 10 as there are max level is minus 10. I m using Yamaha HTR 3072 AVR with Yamaha high end Bookshelf speakers with Yamaha SW 300 sub woofer. My Flat area is 130 sq feet so I think in my case I can not set MV 0 so I have to set MV in minus than only I can set 75 DB level for each speakers. It’s a 5.1 system. Thanks for your reply of my previous question. Your article is good. Thanks Bro.
Looking for some help here. I have a steep slope room, and planning to turn it to a home theatre. Dimensions are, 14.5 feet wide, 19.5 feet long, only 8.5 feet of ceiling is 9 feet tall and then slope down to 4 feet tall (about 11 feet long). Will this room treatable for a home theater room? If yes, which side should I use as a front, tall or low side? Thank you in advance!
These days you can buy older model, ex-demo or second hand equipment for a fraction of the cost of the newer model. The difference in quality of sound and/or performance will not be huge. If you aren’t fussed about all the fancy seats, fancy lights and you have an honest sales person, you’ll save a fortune. For example, I tested three of the native Sony 4k Projectors against the Epson EHTW9400 pixel shifter and the Epson was the winner for me in terms of performance. The bottom two Sony models (at over twice the price) were dark and disappointing. Increasing the brightness harshly affected contrast with the only positive being a slightly sharper picture. Dolby Atmos, more than one Sub & rear Centre speakers are unnecessary for most rooms due to the size. Anything bigger than 16ft by 16ft will be fine with a 5.1 set up. With the correct choices, you could install your own Cinema quality experience for around about $7-8K, after which, you’ll never need to go to the Cinema again. IMO, compared to a decent set-up, it’s overrated anyway. The picture is dark, the sound is muddy, the bass is over baring, the prices are a rip off and you mostly have to deal with ‘the usual people’.
I have built several home cinemas for personal use. I have come to conclusion that the sound is almost as important as the picture to get an immersive experience. Atmos is fantastic if implemented properly. However, when prioritizing audio components – spend as much as you can on the front, center and left and subwoofers (at least two subs). You can always upgrade the remaining speakers later on. Also, go for the accoustically transparent (at) screen and place l,c,r behind the screen. Even a 77″ oled is no match for a 10 year old good 1080p projector with a big screen when it comes to cinema experience. Use the oled for gaming etc.
Number 8. Expecting to have a quality sound with false economy cables. It’s not just about quality conductors within a cable, which btw as well as medium to high they will also help the audio to sound better at low volumes too. But it’s actually the quality of the shielding that will help the ROOM to sound better at no volumes (noise floor) The more cables I shield the quieter my room becomes! In fact the last group of cables I shielded just happened to be my HDMI’s and low & behold the room became quieter yet again. 🥳