Really good points in this video. We all have regrets in our setups so probably most people in this hobby can relate. I have the opposite problem of rushed purchases, I over analyze the hell out of everything and end up wishing I would’ve just done it sooner.
This is also an issue "analysis paralysis" - but that can have the same effect as a rushed purchase as well. Time/Experience are always the winner here.
I agree with everything you said, especially about rushing into a "good" deal because they usually cost you more in the long run. My advice >>> stick to your "ultimate" plan and take your time and don't cut corners. Great video with great advice !!!
Point 5 is probably the most important one. Pick the system you want and build that slowly. I would also add just run all the wires. You may not need them, but when you do you'll be glad they are there.
Always amazing advises my friend. We all been there with our rooms... but we learn and keep moving and improving. This kind of videos always help everyone starting or even planning a HT. Love it!!! Big hug mate!
It was because of your riser woes that helped me decide on putting in a 30cm high and 1.8m deep rear riser. My builder thought I was mad, but who's laughing now when I have a clear view of the front screen from the back row. I did however stuff up with my entry door which sits only 1m away from the front of the HT. This then forced me to put in a door stopper so the door didn't hit my Klipsch floor standing speakers. I also didn't think too much about the position of my AV equipment but I think that's less of an issue than the entry door.
One point regarding running wires after the fact. If you have skirting boards or crown moulding, you can remove them and router a channel on the backside, run your wires through them, cut a small hole behind the moulding or skirting board and in the wall where the other speaker will go and pull the wire through with a coat hanger or wire pull strap. You might have to do some gyprock repair, but it's not that much work. If there are noggins it's a bit more work, but running the wires behind the skirting or moulding at least gets rid of the unsightly wires running around the floor or ceiling.
Another great video Tony - I've just bought a house with a dedicated "media" room so I will now get to start my journey. I will be limted to 3.5 x 3.9 so will face some similar constraints as yourself. Good tip on the door placement, I was planning to add it in back corner but will now put it back centre.
Back center can work as well because you can place acoustic material on the back of the door - a lot of energy hits the back wall so it's important to absorb/diffuse/treat it.
Good advice, Tony, for anyone who is starting their journey, and you are right about that. I made a few mistakes as well, and unfortunately, it is now too late to rectify them. Always consider future proofing.
Thanks Paul, this is why I made the video - try to show people some of the things that you can't change so make sure you think hard before you start :)
awesome video and thanks for sharing. HT is an awesome hobby and always nice to see what works and what doesn't I wonder what upgrades we will see next...there's gotta be something else :)
I love how you angled the speakers. That's something I have now with speaker stands, but isn't something I've seen from people with dedicated rooms. I really think it's important, but it's cool to actually see it in action! My room is dedicated too, but one side is open to the kitchen, so nothing's mounted to the walls (except the TV).
Thanks! Yes its following the Trinnov guide and these Krix speakers allow the angled brackets to face the MLP... it works out really well for positional sound.
Haha for sure mate, this was a round up since I have now finished the room, ultimately very happy, nothing else to do, but like to show the bad with the good :)
Easily my biggest regret is being overly attached to my tower speakers, which prevented me from going to a bigger screen in 2016 when I bought a new projector, and in 2020 when I was upgrading my entire room. I finally went with in-wall LCR speakers and a 115" acoustically transparent scope screen about a year ago, and it was single-handedly the biggest and best change I've ever experienced in my room! The change was so big, that I truly feel like I was doing Home Cinema wrong my entire life! Movies are so much more immersive now, and I just feel kind of silly for prioritizing speakers over the screen size... You live and learn I guess! Lol
Hi I'm currently doing my HT room up, which is exact same size as your room except my ceiling is 2.6 high. I'm thinking about putting curtains around all walls except screen wall. Do curtains help with room acoustics and what other advantages do they help. Do you have your curtains hanging on a track system, if so do you get any vibrations from the low frequencies of the subs. Is your curtains pinch plete. My biggest mistake was fitting barn doors to my entrance, They leak so much sound and let heaps of light in. that's why I want to put curtains all around. Your room looks awesome.
Yes the curtains help a lot with absorbing excess sound, however its more the higher frequencies. I still have mid-freq absorbers behind the curtains at the reflection points, but my room is pretty dead which is how I like it. I don't get any vibrations thankfully in my room so I got lucky I guess.
@BuildMontage I'm very impressed with your efforts in building your HT. What I am more impressed by is how you have increased your income to be able to afford all of the high end gear that is in your HT/home. Income is the obvious key to success in almost anything. The jump from even the top Denon to a Trinnov is a huge number. Good for you, but how? Money doesn't grow on trees. Maybe a bit of advice in the income realm would help some folks get in a better place in life. I'm so very lucky to have been able to piece together my home and AV gear from hand-me-downs, recycle bins and scratch & dent sales. Thanks for showing us your HT journey and giving us something to work towards. I'd also like to thank all of the people who work (in often very poor conditions) manufacturing the goods and gear that we buy to make our lives supposedly better. All the very best to you and yours, Kevin
Appreciate the comment. It's not that my income changed at all, it was more my allocation to the home theater changed as I grew my UA-cam channel and audience, I turned my channel into an actual business, which meant that I could invest, with the support of my wife, into more of an end game system. I agree, the jump has been big and the investment of a Trinnov and separate amplifiers was a big investment, but to me it was worth it as it allowed me to make more content for the channel. I'm yet to get into sponsorships, but when I get to 50K subs I will start looking at monetizing a little more. Your advice on buying used is 100% valid, I agree, buy what you can afford. I work 2-3 extra jobs on the side of my day job in IT, so I used that to nickle and dime my way to better gear. I certainly hope I don't come across as a "richy rich" as I'm truly a modest average guy, drive a 12 year old car but had aspirations of owning end game hardware for my theater room. So in answer to your question, I think having a goal eg "I want to own a Trinnov" and then working out how you can do that, have a slush fund bank account and keep at it - I was talking about Trinnov for 3 years before I got one. All the best Kevin :)
@@BuildMontage Thanks Tony! I do admire all that you do, your HT and the film set you have built for recording your videos. It's easy to tell that you are a super nice guy and surely you work your rear end off. Back when I was an early teen an old man that I did lawn work and handyman tasks for always told me "If you want anything - you gotta hustle for it". Just too bad that going the extra mile often only gets you an extra foot or two. For many reasons, I'm applying for another full time job this morning. Keep goin' sir and I hope you get to enjoy yourself for a very long time.
Thanks for the entertaining and informative video! Also, thanks for translating meters to feet (for us Americans). Hey, have you considered a low back couch for the front row instead of the two seats? A couch would be advantageous since it doesn't have a high seat back like home theater seats. I know my wife would have liked a couch instead of seats (I have 2 rows, three seats per row). My wife would prefer to lie down than sit on a HT seat, so a couch would've worked well for her in the front row. But it's not for me. I like a couch in the family room, but not in the HT.
I have some regrets for my home theater too. Mainly, the room size, I wanted a bigger screen but could only fit a 130inch since the room isn't wide enough. Also, the ceilings aren't as high, so I couldn't install height channel speakers in the ceilings. So, I had to go with front and back heights for Atmos and DTS: X sound.
I tried to make my video about these points - things that can't just be changed later...Doesn't mean we can't enjoy what we have, we have to compromise a little.
Could you please do a video about ‘how to plan for pre wiring’? I have a room to create, to soundproof with cladding etc and dont really know how to start or what wiring i will need where… it would be a great help to know how to start. Thanks 🤝
Thanks Tony! I just spent all day doing a modification to my home theater and it didn’t improve anything. I have a 11’ wide room with a big 8’ long wooden avr tv stand. My front subs are corner loaded and the whole wall was filled. I saw a bunch of infor on using the 1/4 in points on the wall so after months of wondering I spent today chopping the tv stand in half down to 4’ and moved the subs in. Didn’t make any improvements at all. Total bummer.
@@BuildMontage yeah I suppose. 10.5 hrs labor, ruined my tv stand and bass response is the worst it’s ever been. Hard lesson learned. Thanks for the reply! Cheers!
So if you want to convert centimeters to inches in your head. Divide centimeters by 5 and multiply that answer by 2 to get roughly inches. So 17/5 is roughly 3 and 2/5ths or 3.4 and then 3.4x2 is 6.8 inches.
I don't really bother - I ask Alexa haha! I only know the metric system so I put the imperial because my US audience will ask me to convert it for them :)
Welcome back I enjoy watching the video clip and yes I agree what you said I made bad mistake when I bought my Krix centre speaker I rush into it .and now I have the right one centre channel Krix Graphix .
Thank You for sharing. You need a castle sir... Barring that, your setup is great. I suppose that 95% of the people with Home Theaters wish that their room was bigger. - For me, I have a 7.1 system... It's great and immersive in my living room. But sometimes I just want some nice background music, or sound from a talk video.. I opted for the monoprice A/B switcher (Douk audio makes one as well), and a cheap Chinese Class D amp- connected to only the two front speakers. That way I have the best of both worlds.
Nothing wrong with the Denon. It was the 8500, so beast of a unit - however, the plans of 9.4.6 couldn't be achieved with it - and once I'd heard a Trinnov two years prior - I knew that was the end game.
Also dont forget about your door being in front right beside the screen, and the speaker wall you have behind it. Ears should probably never be that close to your source
I know what you mean by not rushing into buy something. I watched your video on the vava chroma and I should of waited until it came and seen some real reviews on it.
Mate, sorry you didn't like your VAVA purchase. Insulting me because you didn't like it isn't going to change anything. I review everything honestly, I don't get paid for reviews on my channel. I checked you have commented on my videos previously about the VAVA - if you're unhappy, I'm sorry, but I have lots of people saying how much they love their Chroma - and I also really enjoyed my time with it.
Theirs no way you’re r review could of seen all the problems with misaligned hdmi ports and dead pixels and vava not honoring their warranties. They gave you a better unit then they gave a lot of people.
@@jasonsullivan8001 I can only review what is in front of me. I don’t get paid for these reviews, and I can’t anticipate what the company will do. The screens they make are great though, the ALR Pro is still the best one I’ve tested due to the mounting system - but the one I have now works a little better but is 3 times the price. I can’t know what is going to be better or worse in a future review.
The problem is you don’t know you need more until you buy less. Upgrades are inevitable, I solved it by not totaling all I spent. Best place to save …seating , your ass is easier to please than your eyes and ears.
💬 Join The Discussion on Discord - discord.gg/wvtvkaP
Really good points in this video. We all have regrets in our setups so probably most people in this hobby can relate. I have the opposite problem of rushed purchases, I over analyze the hell out of everything and end up wishing I would’ve just done it sooner.
This is also an issue "analysis paralysis" - but that can have the same effect as a rushed purchase as well. Time/Experience are always the winner here.
I agree with everything you said, especially about rushing into a "good" deal because they usually cost you more in the long run. My advice >>> stick to your "ultimate" plan and take your time and don't cut corners.
Great video with great advice !!!
Great advice there...
Point 5 is probably the most important one. Pick the system you want and build that slowly. I would also add just run all the wires. You may not need them, but when you do you'll be glad they are there.
100% agree
Always amazing advises my friend. We all been there with our rooms... but we learn and keep moving and improving. This kind of videos always help everyone starting or even planning a HT. Love it!!! Big hug mate!
Thanks bro :) back at you!
Great advice, a very important video to share because we do tend to rush our projects for that instant gratification.
Appreciate you watching :)
It was because of your riser woes that helped me decide on putting in a 30cm high and 1.8m deep rear riser. My builder thought I was mad, but who's laughing now when I have a clear view of the front screen from the back row. I did however stuff up with my entry door which sits only 1m away from the front of the HT. This then forced me to put in a door stopper so the door didn't hit my Klipsch floor standing speakers. I also didn't think too much about the position of my AV equipment but I think that's less of an issue than the entry door.
🤜🤛
One point regarding running wires after the fact. If you have skirting boards or crown moulding, you can remove them and router a channel on the backside, run your wires through them, cut a small hole behind the moulding or skirting board and in the wall where the other speaker will go and pull the wire through with a coat hanger or wire pull strap. You might have to do some gyprock repair, but it's not that much work. If there are noggins it's a bit more work, but running the wires behind the skirting or moulding at least gets rid of the unsightly wires running around the floor or ceiling.
Very good advice. This is how I did it - through the bulkhead pulling through and a little pilot hole and pulled them down.
Another great video Tony - I've just bought a house with a dedicated "media" room so I will now get to start my journey. I will be limted to 3.5 x 3.9 so will face some similar constraints as yourself. Good tip on the door placement, I was planning to add it in back corner but will now put it back centre.
Back center can work as well because you can place acoustic material on the back of the door - a lot of energy hits the back wall so it's important to absorb/diffuse/treat it.
Good advice, Tony, for anyone who is starting their journey, and you are right about that. I made a few mistakes as well, and unfortunately, it is now too late to rectify them. Always consider future proofing.
Thanks Paul, this is why I made the video - try to show people some of the things that you can't change so make sure you think hard before you start :)
awesome video and thanks for sharing. HT is an awesome hobby and always nice to see what works and what doesn't
I wonder what upgrades we will see next...there's gotta be something else :)
I love how you angled the speakers. That's something I have now with speaker stands, but isn't something I've seen from people with dedicated rooms. I really think it's important, but it's cool to actually see it in action! My room is dedicated too, but one side is open to the kitchen, so nothing's mounted to the walls (except the TV).
Thanks! Yes its following the Trinnov guide and these Krix speakers allow the angled brackets to face the MLP... it works out really well for positional sound.
Glad to see you are feeling better! I always enjoy and take away good info from your videos!
I appreciate that!
Lots of great advice, thanks for sharing your journey!
Thanks mate :)
Great video Tony. I have a couple of the same regrets. I might have to steal this video in the future. Lol
Haha for sure mate, this was a round up since I have now finished the room, ultimately very happy, nothing else to do, but like to show the bad with the good :)
Great video, liked the change of style for the advice!
Thanks mate … more like this one coming for different topics
Easily my biggest regret is being overly attached to my tower speakers, which prevented me from going to a bigger screen in 2016 when I bought a new projector, and in 2020 when I was upgrading my entire room. I finally went with in-wall LCR speakers and a 115" acoustically transparent scope screen about a year ago, and it was single-handedly the biggest and best change I've ever experienced in my room! The change was so big, that I truly feel like I was doing Home Cinema wrong my entire life! Movies are so much more immersive now, and I just feel kind of silly for prioritizing speakers over the screen size... You live and learn I guess! Lol
You've been an inspiration for so many. Thanks Tony. Great work!
I appreciate that!
Great advice - thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Hi I'm currently doing my HT room up, which is exact same size as your room except my ceiling is 2.6 high. I'm thinking about putting curtains around all walls except screen wall. Do curtains help with room acoustics and what other advantages do they help. Do you have your curtains hanging on a track system, if so do you get any vibrations from the low frequencies of the subs. Is your curtains pinch plete. My biggest mistake was fitting barn doors to my entrance, They leak so much sound and let heaps of light in. that's why I want to put curtains all around. Your room looks awesome.
Yes the curtains help a lot with absorbing excess sound, however its more the higher frequencies. I still have mid-freq absorbers behind the curtains at the reflection points, but my room is pretty dead which is how I like it. I don't get any vibrations thankfully in my room so I got lucky I guess.
@@BuildMontage Thanks for reply.
@BuildMontage I'm very impressed with your efforts in building your HT. What I am more impressed by is how you have increased your income to be able to afford all of the high end gear that is in your HT/home. Income is the obvious key to success in almost anything. The jump from even the top Denon to a Trinnov is a huge number. Good for you, but how? Money doesn't grow on trees. Maybe a bit of advice in the income realm would help some folks get in a better place in life. I'm so very lucky to have been able to piece together my home and AV gear from hand-me-downs, recycle bins and scratch & dent sales.
Thanks for showing us your HT journey and giving us something to work towards. I'd also like to thank all of the people who work (in often very poor conditions) manufacturing the goods and gear that we buy to make our lives supposedly better.
All the very best to you and yours, Kevin
Appreciate the comment. It's not that my income changed at all, it was more my allocation to the home theater changed as I grew my UA-cam channel and audience, I turned my channel into an actual business, which meant that I could invest, with the support of my wife, into more of an end game system. I agree, the jump has been big and the investment of a Trinnov and separate amplifiers was a big investment, but to me it was worth it as it allowed me to make more content for the channel. I'm yet to get into sponsorships, but when I get to 50K subs I will start looking at monetizing a little more. Your advice on buying used is 100% valid, I agree, buy what you can afford. I work 2-3 extra jobs on the side of my day job in IT, so I used that to nickle and dime my way to better gear. I certainly hope I don't come across as a "richy rich" as I'm truly a modest average guy, drive a 12 year old car but had aspirations of owning end game hardware for my theater room. So in answer to your question, I think having a goal eg "I want to own a Trinnov" and then working out how you can do that, have a slush fund bank account and keep at it - I was talking about Trinnov for 3 years before I got one. All the best Kevin :)
@@BuildMontage Thanks Tony! I do admire all that you do, your HT and the film set you have built for recording your videos. It's easy to tell that you are a super nice guy and surely you work your rear end off. Back when I was an early teen an old man that I did lawn work and handyman tasks for always told me "If you want anything - you gotta hustle for it". Just too bad that going the extra mile often only gets you an extra foot or two. For many reasons, I'm applying for another full time job this morning.
Keep goin' sir and I hope you get to enjoy yourself for a very long time.
Thanks for the entertaining and informative video! Also, thanks for translating meters to feet (for us Americans). Hey, have you considered a low back couch for the front row instead of the two seats? A couch would be advantageous since it doesn't have a high seat back like home theater seats. I know my wife would have liked a couch instead of seats (I have 2 rows, three seats per row). My wife would prefer to lie down than sit on a HT seat, so a couch would've worked well for her in the front row. But it's not for me. I like a couch in the family room, but not in the HT.
That's why I convert - most of my audience is from USA :) On your question, personally I don't like the couch - I need a head rest!
I have some regrets for my home theater too. Mainly, the room size, I wanted a bigger screen but could only fit a 130inch since the room isn't wide enough. Also, the ceilings aren't as high, so I couldn't install height channel speakers in the ceilings. So, I had to go with front and back heights for Atmos and DTS: X sound.
I tried to make my video about these points - things that can't just be changed later...Doesn't mean we can't enjoy what we have, we have to compromise a little.
Buy the theater in pieces is great advice
🙌
Could you please do a video about ‘how to plan for pre wiring’? I have a room to create, to soundproof with cladding etc and dont really know how to start or what wiring i will need where… it would be a great help to know how to start. Thanks 🤝
I have done quite a few videos on this subject in the playlists on my channel. I will be doing a how to build a home theater guide again very soon!
My biggest regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!
This comment wins.
@@BuildMontage So what did I win?
Thanks Tony!
I just spent all day doing a modification to my home theater and it didn’t improve anything. I have a 11’ wide room with a big 8’ long wooden avr tv stand. My front subs are corner loaded and the whole wall was filled. I saw a bunch of infor on using the 1/4 in points on the wall so after months of wondering I spent today chopping the tv stand in half down to 4’ and moved the subs in. Didn’t make any improvements at all. Total bummer.
Sometimes it hhappens that way.
@@BuildMontage yeah I suppose. 10.5 hrs labor, ruined my tv stand and bass response is the worst it’s ever been. Hard lesson learned. Thanks for the reply! Cheers!
Tony is that room length 4.6m long ..screen to back wall? Not including the speakers behind the screen?
Yes its closer to 4.7m length total and 3.65m width, and 3m high
So if you want to convert centimeters to inches in your head. Divide centimeters by 5 and multiply that answer by 2 to get roughly inches. So 17/5 is roughly 3 and 2/5ths or 3.4 and then 3.4x2 is 6.8 inches.
I don't really bother - I ask Alexa haha! I only know the metric system so I put the imperial because my US audience will ask me to convert it for them :)
Great to see you back at it! It's been too long, mate!
Thanks mate - it's great to get back on the horse!
Nice video I have a room with almost same dimentions, just like 2cm more, do you think you can fit a bigger screen? Or 120" is the biggest??
I couldn't squeeze any more due to throw distance limitations more so than it being to large for the viewing distance.
I didn't realise I would miss your face/videos as much as I have these passed few weeks 🤣
Haha you’re far too kind! I’m back on the horse now… lots more videos coming :)
Welcome back I enjoy watching the video clip and yes I agree what you said I made bad mistake when I bought my Krix centre speaker I rush into it .and now I have the right one centre channel Krix Graphix .
Thanks for watching Gary as always.
5th point is the one I absolutely empathize with. I think it’s where we make the most regrettable things hehehehe.
👌
How high are the ceilings mate??? 31c or 34c. What height would you recommend? Thanks!
my ceilings are 3.1m from the lower part and at 170mm for the riser
You do a video dedicated to the NP5 projector
Yes that one is coming :)
Thank You for sharing. You need a castle sir... Barring that, your setup is great. I suppose that 95% of the people with Home Theaters wish that their room was bigger.
- For me, I have a 7.1 system... It's great and immersive in my living room. But sometimes I just want some nice background music, or sound from a talk video.. I opted for the monoprice A/B switcher (Douk audio makes one as well), and a cheap Chinese Class D amp- connected to only the two front speakers. That way I have the best of both worlds.
Sounds like a great system!
@@BuildMontage - Thanks for responding and for your kind thoughts.
So what was wrong with the Denon?
Nothing wrong with the Denon. It was the 8500, so beast of a unit - however, the plans of 9.4.6 couldn't be achieved with it - and once I'd heard a Trinnov two years prior - I knew that was the end game.
great job thanks
Hope you are feeling better mate❤❤
I am thank you!
It never ends lol. Looks fantastic though
Haha yes this is the truth mate :) pair this with my love of cameras…. Oh man!
9.4.6 in a small room is pretty crazy i think
Crazy good!
Also dont forget about your door being in front right beside the screen, and the speaker wall you have behind it. Ears should probably never be that close to your source
That aspect of the door being close hasn't been an issue thus far, and I don't usually listen super loud.
I know what you mean by not rushing into buy something. I watched your video on the vava chroma and I should of waited until it came and seen some real reviews on it.
Mate, sorry you didn't like your VAVA purchase. Insulting me because you didn't like it isn't going to change anything. I review everything honestly, I don't get paid for reviews on my channel. I checked you have commented on my videos previously about the VAVA - if you're unhappy, I'm sorry, but I have lots of people saying how much they love their Chroma - and I also really enjoyed my time with it.
@@BuildMontage sorry you took that the wrong way I wasn’t insulting you I was just being honest.
Theirs no way you’re r review could of seen all the problems with misaligned hdmi ports and dead pixels and vava not honoring their warranties. They gave you a better unit then they gave a lot of people.
@@jasonsullivan8001 I can only review what is in front of me. I don’t get paid for these reviews, and I can’t anticipate what the company will do. The screens they make are great though, the ALR Pro is still the best one I’ve tested due to the mounting system - but the one I have now works a little better but is 3 times the price. I can’t know what is going to be better or worse in a future review.
@@BuildMontage right that’s what I was getting at.
Good video
Thanks
1) Klipsch, Klipsch and more Klipsch.
Klipsch does look pretty cool when you have them all round.
The problem is you don’t know you need more until you buy less. Upgrades are inevitable, I solved it by not totaling all I spent. Best place to save …seating , your ass is easier to please than your eyes and ears.
First
Always first