Room Design, Layout, and Acoustics
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to assume that you already have a finished room picked out. Perhaps it’s a bonus room above the garage, a spare bedroom, or a finished basement. If you do not have a finished room, you can probably expect between $50 to $250 per square foot to build out a room from scratch. Of course, this also depends on your location, the level of construction needed, and the quality of materials you choose.
Once you’ve picked the room, you may be excited to jump straight into picking out all of the gear and the popcorn machine -- but you’re forgetting the most important and most often overlooked aspect of any custom home theater project -- the room design.
It never ceases to amaze us when we find a room full of great equipment that was put in the wrong places, or in a room that sounded awful acoustically! Getting this right requires knowledge of how the speakers will react with the room and usually requires taking measurements, doing some tests, and creating some drawings to make sure everything is perfect. Keep in mind that if you want multiple rows of seating, expect riser construction to cost in the $1,800-$3,000 range
This includes determining:
Acoustic Treatments
While it’s nice to have a beautiful picture and loud booming sound effects, when it all comes down to it, the most important part of a movie is the dialogue. If you can not understand the dialogue, you can not follow along with the plot. If you can not only understand it, but hear all the subtle emotions of the characters you will be magically transported to feeling like you are part of the movie.
Acoustic treatments can make average equipment sound great, and great equipment sound amazing! You can spend as little as $500 for some basic panels up to $10,000-$30,000 depending on the size of your room and how far you want to take it. At Audio Advice, we have been designing home theaters for over 25 years. In that time, we have never had a client tell us they could not hear a huge improvement after we installed their acoustic treatments.
Work With a Professional to Design Your Room
Find a local provider who specializes in home theater design. Of course, if you’re near our Raleigh or Charlotte showrooms, Audio Advice is happy to help! Expect to pay somewhere in the $500-$3,000 range for a professional design and for ultra high-end theaters, design can be upwards of $15,000 or more. It’s money well-spent to ensure that you’re getting the right layout and equipment for the room.
Once you have a great design, you can jump back into picking out the equipment, furniture, and decor.