Dedicated Home Theater/Listening Room Suggestions


Just curious to know if anyone would like to share their experiences with wiring and designing a dedicated listing room for 2 channel as well as home theater. I will soon be moving into a new home where I currently have a dedicated listening room roughing out in the basement.

A few questions that come to mind are; Is it worth running separate power circuits for power amps and digital sources from the panel? Anyone know of any info online that maybe of value to this project? What should I use on the ceiling?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
bunner100
Ask around in virtual systems, write the owners of rooms you like and ask who did what you may find insight by DIY guys and cautions, I think having a room built for you by a pro can be a con if you are not careful. The Home Theater market has created huge profits for less then honest installers, some wont even sell gear UNLESS they do the build.
I had great results with separate circuits for digital, analog as well as for amps and powered subwoofers. I wired the entire room with JPS Labs in-wall wire and Wattgate duplex outlets. The power and silence our outstanding. Well worth the effort and cost.
Use a drop ceiling - you never know what might come up in the future, and a drop ceiling will be invaluable. Damping of it is also important.

One of the best resources I've found is http://www.acoustics101.com/

Good luck.
If you are going to the trouble of running dedicated circuits , make sure that you additionally connect them to
what is called an isolated ground . This will segregate the power from the rest of your house and eliminate any noise from other items in your home .

Try to familiarize yourself enough about isolated grounds to be able to hire a professional that actually knows how to do it ! This might seem like a no brainer but few residential electricians have any experience with this circuit . Isolated grounds are usually used in commercial applications , generally computer rooms and hospitals . I went through 3 electricians before finding one that actually knew how to install this type of circuit correctly !
Google is your friend !

You can save yourself some money by running the wire yourself and paying the professional to just make the connections . And unless you live in a sandy area , they usually don't like pounding in the ground rod either !

Good luck .