Surround sound for a small room.

duanebro

My brother asked me to build him a surround sound system for his new video game room. It is about 7x13 and will have a drop ceiling when finished. I was thinking 5.1 at first but, Do to size I am now wondering if a 4.0 system could be better, or as good. Price is a concern as always. Any general suggestions? What would work best in a small room. This will mostly be for HT, no music.

Thanks,
Duane

jr@mac

Speaking as a die-hard diyer, I will nevertheless suggest a commercial solution such as the Pure Acoustics satellites on clearance at PE.

jhollander

That is a tiny room.  I'd be tempted to do a 3.1 with L C R and sub assuming the screen is on the 13 dimension.  For HT I think a sub is mandatory.  I'd really like to hear these sometime 
http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/speaker-projects/reflexions/

D1PP1N

Logitech has a nice multiple input system for pc and console gaming with a sub. The overnight sensation is pretty good bargain for the center, tmm towers and satellites tm's or u can use the surrounds (4ohm). 

isaeagle4031

In a room that small, I'd be tempted to look at a 5 ch soundbar application where the surround drivers are mounted on the back of the enclosure. Wire them out of phase. 

For budget consideration, those pure acoustic buyouts really can't be beat though. Maybe go that route, and a voxel sub or 2....

D1PP1N

Does he have a HTR already? If he wants ultra frugle I had 5 of these little 3" tang bands for a while. They didn't even have a crossover just a 5x5 sealed cube of 1/2 mdf. They were well received at Indiana diy. If you look up minion 3's it's the same driver http://www.parts-express.com/tang-band-w3-1053sc-3-full-range-driver--264-880 you could cut them off at 120-150hz and full them in. They got pretty loud without anything on them xover wise but I assume you can get more if you remove the low stuff. 

You could probably do 5 of those and a decent 8 or 10 inch sub for $70 in tang bands 3" and $40-80 for a sub plus whatever plate amp. Could skate out for under 200-250. Here is the thread http://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum/62975-minion-iii-s-build-thread-pic-heavy

Face

D1PP1N said:

Logitech has a nice multiple input system for pc and console gaming with a sub. The overnight sensation is pretty good bargain for the center, tmm towers and satellites tm's or u can use the surrounds (4ohm). 

I'd recommend something like this over a sound bar.  Add in a small sub or two and the room will rock.

duanebro

Thanks for the advice. He has no avr. He is just using the tv speakers currently. He just wired the room for rear channels, so I do want to do rears. Plus they play COD most of the time so good surround sound should help

For an avr I picked an entry level yamaha. 230ish on amazon. .

I have a set of vifa tc9 drivers laying around so I threw them in a set of boxes today. I have to get measurements again.

Silver1omo

A bit late, when we moved to an apartment and had the coach against a wall I used a pair of tactile transducers in MDF/ply frames.

Not the best sound, but not bad considering the space and cost.

ScottS

Heliums with a little sub (like the Tang Band W6-1139SIF) would work well in a small room.  They could handle an 80Hz crossover to the sub with no trouble.  If you want to go without a sub, it would be better to pick something that can get to 50 Hz or below, like the Overnight Sensation or Lithium.