video playback as of now is a 36 in tv, I HOPE to be upgrading to a flat panel wide screen around feb of next year(if all goes well) furniture..well...right now i have two chairs and a matching sofa (neither the wife nor I are totally happy with these, so we havent decided if they are staying or going...) suggestions on furniture as well??
Furniture is a personal thing but if it were me I'd go with what you have and a big ottoman. I would not put a table in the center of the room. Not using a table in the middle gives you plenty of room to move around and you won't get reflections off the table. We use side tables for drinks and leave the center open in our house. A big ottoman can provide additional seating for two and storage inside and you can always put a tray on it if you need a surface. Also if you don't have a fixed piece in the middle of the room, you can move a stuffed chair into the middle/sweet spot for those critical listening sessions.
the fire place is about 4 foot wide...the rock ledge( goes all the way accross...see pic below)
deck seasons??
deck season = do you use the deck all year or just for limited summer mopnths? I don't know where you live. If you live where the deck is not used for some months due to snow and ice, you can position furniture in front of those doors and open up room around the fireplace. In the summer if you don't use the fire place, put the couch in front of it if you want.
as for a drape..she wants real heavy(dark) velvet....will that work?? any other treatments recommended?(daryan suggest bass traps)
as for centering for the lower part of the room...with the two in front..wont that make them sound really weird bouncing off the side wall be the kitchen door? but yes..placing the media etc here sounds great... and the door is already opening that way..im just a moron and drew that in a hurry
Yes, it will make the sound a little wierd. In my house I have a set up like that and it shifted the image. I was getting reflections from the left wall and no reflections from the right side. (Actually, right side reflections were so delayed and attenuated that they didn't have the impact of the first refelction point to the left side). I put free standing accoustic pannels along that left wall, effectively 4'x4', and the image came right back where it should be.
In your case, just get the heavy drapes with an accoustic liner to cover the sliding glass doors and that will take care of it. Close those drapes when you want to kill the refections. It won't be that bad anyway and in the months when you have the glass door open, you'll lose those reflections.
I agree that you could put in bass traps. I would start with tube traps in the rear corners and maybe an accoustic panel on the wall opposite the sliding door to balance the effect of the drapes. I'd also start with a panel in the bumpout on the wall that opposes the right speaker and that will kill a lot of the effect of the echo from in there. With a bunch of overstuffed furniture, you don't want the room to get too dead.
yea...i know this...but i just dont know if she wants to wait a year or whatever...i am REALLY looking at those m22ti's...those are within my budget...not sure about the surround tho...she may HAVE to wait (great way to start off in a new house huh?)
If I were you, I'd make a deal with her to get high end two channel speakers now and then next feb upgrade the mains instead of getting a widescreen panel. Your big tube is plenty good for a room that size. Panels are going to continue to drop in price and the speaker upgrade would get your to a high end multi channel system. Has she ever heard a playback system with good imaging? She might be able to live with that for a year.
If you must have multichannel, another option is to get the good $600 front speakers and get some decent all weather/outdoor deck speakers in the $150 range off ebay and use them as rears initially. Then when you do the upgraded mains, put the deck speakers outside on the deck. Cheap deck speakers in that range will sound as good as the rears you get in a $500 surround system.