OldSeaworthiness3354
New member
A 7.7.4 build in a basement nook, three and a half years of work, mostly used and new gear bought piecemeal. The nook is 10 by 14 opening into a bigger basement, the back wall sits 22 feet from the screen wall, and the seat is 12 feet from a 145 inch screen at a 45 to 50 degree viewing angle. Ceiling and walls in triple black velvet.
Seven subwoofers is the number that stopped me. That is not excess for the sake of it in a room shaped like that one. A nook that opens into a larger space does not behave like a sealed rectangle, so the modal problems do not sit where a calculator says they will, and spreading many smaller subs around the space is a legitimate way to flatten seat-to-seat variation rather than just adding output. It is also the one upgrade path where used gear costs almost nothing and the measured improvement is obvious.
The bit I would push back on is the screen. If the ceiling and walls are already wrapped in triple black velvet, an ambient light rejecting or ceiling light rejecting surface is solving a problem you have already spent money solving. Those screens buy contrast in a room with light bouncing around and charge for it in gain uniformity, viewing angle and sometimes a visible structure. In a properly blacked out room a plain matte white gives you more light on screen, better off-axis behaviour and cleaner colour.
So the question for the builder, and for anyone else who went black velvet: did you compare against a white surface in the finished room, or was the screen bought before the walls went dark?
Seven subwoofers is the number that stopped me. That is not excess for the sake of it in a room shaped like that one. A nook that opens into a larger space does not behave like a sealed rectangle, so the modal problems do not sit where a calculator says they will, and spreading many smaller subs around the space is a legitimate way to flatten seat-to-seat variation rather than just adding output. It is also the one upgrade path where used gear costs almost nothing and the measured improvement is obvious.
The bit I would push back on is the screen. If the ceiling and walls are already wrapped in triple black velvet, an ambient light rejecting or ceiling light rejecting surface is solving a problem you have already spent money solving. Those screens buy contrast in a room with light bouncing around and charge for it in gain uniformity, viewing angle and sometimes a visible structure. In a properly blacked out room a plain matte white gives you more light on screen, better off-axis behaviour and cleaner colour.
So the question for the builder, and for anyone else who went black velvet: did you compare against a white surface in the finished room, or was the screen bought before the walls went dark?
