Speaker/Subwoofer Advice For Basement Theater/Arcade

[rajcic]

I am currently refinishing my basement. It is 21'x26' with 10' ceilings. It has a concrete floor and ceiling with cinder block walls. Along the walls I will have arcade games, and I have a 135" projection screen with a couch. I need to be able to wall or ceiling mount the fronts, center, and surrounds so I was going to get 4x CBM-170SEs, a CBM-170 SE C, and then a sub. I am debating between the L22 and the LVX12. It's a large room with very hard surfaces. It echos like crazy right now but there is nothing in it yet. I am still finishing the flooring, painting, and electrical. I will be adding a few large rugs to help.

Any advice on the LVX12 vs L22? I'd like to go with the larger CMT-340s but I need to wall mount them. Will the CBM-170SE be adequate?

Thanks

[Bruce Watson]

Any advice on the LVX12 vs L22?

21x26x10 = 5460 cuft. I'm running a pair of LVX12s in a 21x13.5x8 = 2268 cuft room. Your room is 2.4 times the volume of mine. That is, it's way bigger.

The LVX12s work just fine for me. But I'm not trying to play at reference volume (main volume knob at 0 dB). I typically play movies with main volume around -20 dB from reference, but with my subs 4 dB hot. On occasion I've listened at -10 dB (while wife is out). The LVX12s do excellent work for me in my room. And they integrate with my Sierra 2s and Sierra 1s in my 5.2 system just about perfectly. It's a pretty amazing sound; better than I can get from any of the local movie theaters. Really good, this is.

Based on my experience in my room, I'm thinking a single LVX12 isn't likely going to do it for you. I suggest a pair of bigger subs, LVX15s at minimum, but probably FV15HPs. If you can't afford two, buy one now and get another when you can. This may seem completely wrong headed from a budget standpoint, but it's not. Those bottom few octaves are important, and they take exponentially more power to produce; the subs have to move some serious air. It takes big drivers, which take big cabinets, which drives the cost up. It's not surprising that subs take up a large percentage of the sound system budget.

Why two? Room modes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_modes). A PITA in small rooms, and one of the best ways to combat the problem is with two (or more) subs. One fills in the other's nulls. That, and plenty of bass traps. :rolleyes:

[rajcic]

Interesting. Thank you for your input. Am I making a mistake then with the CBM-170SEs? Sounds like my room is on the very large size and I might need the CMT-340s. I would need to find a way to wall mount these though.

[Bruce Watson]

Interesting. Thank you for your input. Am I making a mistake then with the CBM-170SEs? Sounds like my room is on the very large size and I might need the CMT-340s. I would need to find a way to wall mount these though.

Easiest way to figure these things out is to call Ascent Acoustics and talk to them. Tell them what you need to do, how loud you need to go, where you'll be sitting, etc. They make really quite good recommendations from what I can tell. I've found them to be really easy to work with.

[N Boros]

I second what Bruce is saying about probably needing at least a ported 15" sub in that room size. I think that some Rythmik subs are on sale right now too. You might be able to save some money if you were looking to purchase subs soon.