Home Theatre Installation
This is a DIY Home Theatre Installation wiring guide. You’re a successful man, you’ve worked hard and built a home for yourself, but there’s something missing… something just for you. What you need is a man cave – a space all your own, designed by you, for you to enjoy whenever you feel the need to get away and relax with COD on your 8K 120” Dolby Atmos. Just imagine it, a room decked out with the latest gadgets, the best sound, and lighting where you don’t have to worry about using coasters or wearing pants. We guys know the importance of time out from the women in our lives and the man cave provides the environment we need. Man caves are not a new concept, men have created versions of them for thousands of years, as far back as when we lived in actual caves. Since then there have been many types of male-only spaces, including – bathhouses, smoking rooms, libraries, and male-only clubs. In these spaces, men would retreat together and spend time apart from women, often smoking cigars and drinking brandy. So, the man cave is really just the evolution of thousands of years of tradition with the added benefit of surround sound and razor-sharp HD resolution images. I know what you’re thinking – it sounds expensive. That’s where I come in, I will give you the all the hints and tips and advice you need to create your own man cave without breaking the bank. I’m going to show you how to build everything you’ve ever wanted into your man cave, all the bells and whistles, so you’ll be the envy of all your mates. In this blog I’m going to give you the 5 essentials to home theatre installation, this will get you started on your journey towards building your own Ultimate Man Cave.
The planning process of installing a Home Theatre
Picture this, you are about to embark on building your first home, you have worked so hard throughout your adult life to get to this point where you are successful enough to be a part of the dream, the dream of owning your own home, and you’re going to do it with style! I bet in many cases you (the man) may not have much say in the styling of the home, the kitchen, the paint color, all the pretty trimmings, and decor – that has now been taken over by your overly optimistic wife or partner. Which means your budget has also been taken over. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have your very own exclamation of manhood, the pinnacle of your hard work, your sanctuary when all you want to do is play COD on your 8K 120” Dolby Atmos Dude Dungeon! What I am giving you here is all the hints, tips and advice you need to execute this perfectly yourself without breaking the bank (or if you’re not handy, you could always call up one of your tradie mates and use this guide and get them to help you on the weekend). Perhaps this is not your first home, but this is the first time you are going all out and building the space you have always desired so you’ll want all the bells and whistles that go along with building the ultimate man cave. The experience should start as you walk into your soundproofed, expertly lit, man cave – while you make yourself comfortable on your vibrating La-Z-Boy Cinema couch, a motorized drop-down screen is activated at the touch of a button on your smartphone and the magic begins! If you like the sound of this, keep reading, I’m going to tell you how to do it. Building a man cave from scratch is easier than you may think, how to retrofit a man cave is a different story, but I will explain that later. First things first, what are the ultimate man cave essentials?
- A Large Screen
- A Good Speaker System
- Fast Internet
- Big Bass
- Comfortable Seating
- Wife-proof Operation (absolutely essential for budget allocation)
- Soundproofing
- Future-proofing
Now, let’s break down the importance of these essentials and look at the various options to consider. A Large Screen: Bigger isn’t always better, I’m afraid to be the one to tell you this, you need to work with the size you have. What I mean by this is that you need to work out the best way to utilize the space you have for your man cave by choosing a screen size that will give you the maximum viewing pleasure. I want you to cast your mind back to the last time you went to the cinema to see a hot new film and as you walked into the screening room to see that all around you the good seats were taken. How did you feel at this moment, were you thrilled or disappointed that you couldn’t have the best seat in the house and were forced to sit too close to the screen? Sitting too close to the screen means your focus has to be all around the screen at once, and your eyes become tired. This might be fine during the odd few occasions you have to sit at the front at the cinema but next time around you learn your lesson and arrive early. Now, if you go and put a 130” screen inside a small space, with your two seater sofa only two meters away, you will have the same experience as you would in the cinema, and my experience shows that these home theatres rarely get used as a result of this tiresome viewing experience. A general rule of thumb here is to take the distance from your seating position to the screen and divide by 2.5 to arrive at the ideal screen height. For example, let’s say your shopping at your local Hardly Normal and they have a special on a 75” Television the height of the screen should be around 93cm (see Screen Dimensions) now you multiply this by 2.5 (93 x 2.5 = 232.5) and ensure that you have 2.325m between you and the screen. Expert Tip: When choosing a screen work off image height: The closest you want to sit is – SD = 3x but no farther than 4x HD =2x and no farther than 4x and 2.5 being preferred. UHD 0.8x with 1.5x being preferred.
LED TV or Projector? By considering the screen size guidance above you should be able to answer the question ‘should I buy a TV or a projector and screen’. While it feels much more like the ultimate man cave when you have a projector beaming light across the room to a lovely velour framed white screen remember that viewing comfort is key. Expert Tip: Light And Dark If your man cave is likely to be in a bright area subject to daylight a TV has far better benefits than the basic projector (although you can choose to pay more for a high Lumens projector). If the majority of your viewing will be free-to-air programming then fewer components are required, simply switch on and you’re away. The same goes for Smart TV content (or internet based viewing), which is all built into television and not into a projector. Although the sole purpose of most projectors is to display a picture, and not for any of the above-mentioned content (Free-to-air or Internet streaming) when you choose a projector for one of the many benefits you are usually purchasing it bundled together with the necessary peripherals to make all content viewing possible. This usually requires a slightly bigger budget, here’s a quick comparison: 75” Samsung Smart TV = $3999 16:9 110” Fixed Screen = $899 3D HD Projector= $2149 Yamaha 7.2 channel Amplifier= $1049 PANASONIC DMP-UB300GNK 4K ULTRA HD BLURAY PLAYER = $249 Total = $8345 So, in this comparison, I would choose a popular 75” Model TV, which is more expensive than the cheapest model, but you can see here that you can easily spend twice the amount on a TV than on an entry level projection system. To be perfectly honest, you can inverse these figures with higher grade projection systems and a lesser quality TV, but I think you get the picture. (Note: Get in contact if you want to find out how best to use your budget)
A Good Speaker System: The following will probably upset any audiophile enthusiasts out there, mainly because I will not be going into the depth necessary to ensure absolute sound perfection. However, for the purposes of building the ultimate man cave, you should select the best speaker package possible within your budget. When I’m visiting the house of a client and they show me the size of their room, they normally ask me – “How much would speakers cost for this room?” but this is truly a loaded question. In response, I usually ask them how much they want to spend, not because I‘m reaching into their pockets, because it’s possible to spend $1000 or $100,000 on speakers but it depends on what you want to achieve. Therefore setting a budget is the first thing you should do, then you can fill the room as best as possible within that budget. Things to consider within your budget:
Which one of the following can my room size accommodate: 5.1 Surround Sound (2x Fronts, 2x Surrounds, 1x Center, 1x Sub – The Sub is the .1 in 5.1) 6.1 Surround Sound (2x Fronts, 2x Surrounds, 1x Surround Back, 1x Sub) 7.1 Surround Sound (2x Fronts, 2x Surrounds, 2x Surround Back, 1x Sub) 9.1 Surround Sound (2x Fronts, 4x Surrounds, 2x Surround Back, 1x Sub) 11.1 Surround Sound (2x Fronts, 2x Front Presence, 4x Surrounds, 2x Surround Back, 1x Sub) Expert Tip: (Adequate Bass) Bass is about moving air. Loud bass is about moving lots of air, so you need big cone or piston areas or you can use multiple smaller cones that sum to the same area. In the industry today the 10” subwoofer seems to be commonplace. Picture 1.0 An example of Front Presence speakers in a traditional 11.1 System In the everyday living or family room (4mx5m) a simple 5.1 to 7.1 system still produces a very nice home theatre experience, to deliver a fuller sound you should allocate the majority of your budget to a good pair of Floor Standing tower speakers and a bookshelf center. For an affordable system with decent quality expect to pay up to $4k (Yamaha YHT-9940) If you have a larger room, with more of a rectangular layout, you can start to introduce an additional set of surround speakers with a 9.1 System and build up to an 11.1 System providing your AVR has the capability to do so. The addition of overhead speakers to an existing for 5.1 or 7.1 layouts is an expansion of that system creating a 3-dimensional space as opposed to the 2-dimensional space that the standard home theatre represents. The sound will now move up down or around you as opposed to describing back left or right. In this case, you need to decide between a traditional Dolby 11.1 system vs a Dolby Atmos 7.4.1. See picture Expert Tip: Perhaps you are building your man cave over an extended period of time and you choose to add the additional pair of speakers to make a 9.2.1/11.4.2 at a later date. Run 4x pairs of speaker cable to the ceiling near some downlights for future proofing and ease of access to the cable.
Traditional 11.1 Let’s say you have a 7.1 system cranking and you decide to fill the room with some more ‘Front Presence’, you simply add a pair of small satellite speakers or in-wall speakers above your Front Tower/In-Wall speakers (insert picture of Roy’s House) making the system now 9.1, and then adding another pair of surrounds between your existing surrounds and surround backs effectively completing the 11.1 system.
Dolby Atmos 7.4.1 (11.1) One of the most recent developments in Home Theatre is the Dolby Atmos configuration (more on this later) Which is still an 11.1 system despite the labeling of 7.4.1. Essentially the additional 4 speakers are placed in a unique position in the ceiling giving the added ‘Front Presence’ and ‘Rear Presence’, however, this requires a dedicated Dolby Atmos AVR so remember to keep this in mind if you choose this configuration. Hot tip! If you’re sticking to a budget, most basic AVRs are 7.1 as a minimum, you can pre-wire your man cave planning on adding the Atmos speakers over time. This is the perfect segway into discussing the selection of your AVR…
