Sam is a big movie buff, and has always wanted to have a dedicated home cinema to enjoy movies in the comfort of his own home. He recently converted his garage, designing and building this stunning 9.2.6 room to fulfil his dream. Sam’s local and long-term dealer West Coast Hi-Fi Midland assisted with the supply and installation of the equipment.
We recently caught up with Sam and asked him a few questions about his new home cinema.
What are the dimensions of your room?
The room is 4.8 meters long and 4.2 meters wide, not including the baffle wall. The ceiling is sloped, so the height differs from 2.2 – 2.45 meters. The riser is 150mm.
What do you love about the room?
I love the way it looks. I took a bit of a risk on cladding the room with VJ, which was a pain to execute (particularly with the sloping ceiling!), but it looks excellent and, together with the acoustic treatment, is a feature of the room.
The room also sounds incredible. I was worried that I would have problems with bass management in a smaller space but with a great calibration performed by my friend Leo using a MiniDSP and Umik-1, the bass response is fantastic across all three seats.
What movies have you been watching?
The best movie I’ve seen in my home theatre is Dune. The bass and Atmos mix in that movie is incredible.
Maverick is an obvious one that looks and sounds great, but my favourite movie series was The Hobbit. While I prefer the Lord of the Rings movies, I think it just shone brighter in the room for some reason.
What was your biggest challenge?
I designed and built the room myself, so managing that process and the time required to do it well. All while juggling a young family and the all-important wife approval factor.
Would you change anything?
I’d make the room two meters longer to add two rows. There is something about multiple rows that give it that cinema appearance, but I was well advised to do the one row and maximise it, which was the best piece of advice I got.
I plan on a few upgrades at some point – I have my eye on two Krix Cyclonix 15s for the rear of the room, and I’m currently planning a bit of a lobby/entrance room.
Overall thoughts on the performance?
Amazing! I have not had the opportunity to listen to many other rooms, but it’s the best cinematic experience I’ve had anywhere, and I’m so lucky to have it in my house.
The performance increased massively after the audio and video calibrations, and anyone who neglects this is leaving a lot of performance on the table. Easily the best cost-to-performance investment.
Full equipment list:
gallery
