Home Theatre
A home theatre is meant to equal or exceed
the experience of
a conventional theatre. It means watching a movie on a large
screen (ideally 92" and up)
with a good high resolution audio system capable of serious
dynamics in a room with controlled lighting. Just like in the theater but without the long lines, noisy patrons and admission price.
Two reasons
for a dark room, one is the obvious improvement in large
screen picture quality, the other – at least as
important - is to rid us of all visual cues (ideally
all you can see is the picture) allowing us to be totally
taken in by the action on screen. Any visual cues - lights
on, equipment lights, decorations, pictures artifacts
etc. if you can see them they keep you in the room rather
than allowing you to be transported into the on screen
action.
Most people have a surround system and Television
that they watch movies on and although it can be very
gratifying
and enjoyable, they miss the true theatre experience
that comes from a well designed home theatre.
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The Room
One of the most overlooked components of a good
sound system – be it 2 channel or multi-channel
is the room. Most people are required to make use of
an available room after construction and make the best
of it. Those that are able to construct a room, either
as part of a renovation or new construction, should consider
room dimensions and construction materials as part of
the formula for good sound. We even carry room treatments to enhance your audio experience.
There are ideal room measurements
for best acoustics which should be used. Room Dimension
Ratios include:
#1 H=1, W=1.14, D=1.39
#2 H=1, W=1.28, D=1.54
#3 H=1, W=1.60, D=2.33
(ie. for a 10’ ceiling, width
= 16’, depth = 23.3’)
These ratios are guidelines – not absolutes.
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Room
size
Room size is a function of space available, number and
style of seats desired and other potential uses for the
room. A cozy home theatre can be created in a small room (11’ by 14’) with a very good
audio system and 92” picture for approximately $6,000 and up. (Projector, screen, mount
and a good 6.1 audio system) . A larger room, or the desire
for better sound, dictates the use of a more powerful audio
system and you may want a larger screen size – depending on seating distance and picture quality desired. A bigger room requires a bigger sound system to fill it, its just that simple.
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Audio
System
Most surround systems are underpowered. The amount of power required for theater like dynamics depends on room size, speaker efficiency and desired volume levels. If any kind
of acoustic treatment is used the power requirement again goes up since a
lot of reflected sound would be reduced – now to obtain the same perceived
levels we have to drive the speakers harder. Many consumer speakers are not
capable of playing the dynamic levels required of a ‘serious’ home
theatre - that is not to say they cannot be used and be wonderfully enjoyable.
Certainly
in the serious home theatre we recommend products with
a professional heritage like B&W & Rotel.
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5.1, 6.1, 7.1
Most movies are mastered in 5.1 surround – be it Dolby
Digital or DTS – and with the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, more and more will be coming out with discrete
6.1 & 7.1 channels. In a small room with seating at the back wall
a good 5.1 system will give a great experience. If the room
is long, with seating in rows, or is very wide then certainly
6.1 and 7.1 systems will help fill the acoustic space and
provide the 6th and 7th discrete channel when available. Most receivers
or processors will create synthetic 6 or 7 channel sound
from a 5.1 source. Blu-ray & HD-DVD disks have a higher capacity and will take advantage of the new audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. Prepare to be amazed!!
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To hide or not to hide
Equipment can be an eyesore or it can be a source of great pride. The distraction caused by exposed equipment can
seriously degrade the deep involvement possible with a good movie, having said
that one can not completely capture the depth of sound field revered by serious
music listeners when putting speakers into a cabinet or wall. If the room is
to be used for serious 2 channel music listening there are very valid reasons
for using free standing speakers at the front, otherwise one can certainly
create multi channel music and movie sound tracks extremely well with speakers
hidden in a cabinet behind grill cloth or in the wall.
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Subwoofers
One good subwoofer is good, two is better. It is a rare
occasion when the subwoofer ends up in the optimum place.
Generally the position is dictated by aesthetics or space
for equipment. Low frequency is prone to create standing
waves resulting in parts of the room having significantly
greater bass than other parts. The person sitting in a
null is being cheated or if the system has been calibrated
from a null then others are being overcome by bass. Two
subs at different locations can produce a more even bass
response and increases dynamic capability for the whole
room.
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For more information on these issues, or to
discuss your home entertainment needs, please contact us
at (902)
221-2650 or at info@Nxgenhometech.ca.
Niles . Marantz . Crestron . Rotel . Auralex . Draper . Stewart . Furman . Salamander . Runco . Screen Innovations
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