Do smaller rooms sound less "cinematic"?

[Kain]

Say you have two different rooms. One is 12 feet long x 10 feet wide x 9.5 feet high. Other room is 22 feet long x 14.5 feet wide x 9.5 feet high. If I were to setup the best possible setup for a home theater in each room, will the larger room sound more "cinematic" or theater-like simply because of its larger size?

Smaller room has a 9.2.6 setup with Genelec The Ones all around and two large Genelec subwoofers + TV.
Larger room has a 11.4.8 setup with Meyer Sound speakers and subwoofers all around + projector with an acoustically transparent screen.

Will the larger room give a more impactful and theater-like experience? If I were to listen at very loud levels in the smaller room, will it overpower the room making it sound "bad"? Note, there will be appropriate treatments in both rooms.

Edit: Or even consider the same Genelec The Ones in both rooms (8361A for LCR and 8351B for all other locations). Will the larger room sound more cinematic or theater-like?

 

[Oddball]

I had HT in the room that was similar to the larger room you note above. It was back in the day when 5.1 was in vogue and there was 120" screen. It was pretty cinematic and there was sense of large scale for both sound and vision.

Also had HT in a room that was a bit larger than the smaller room you mentioned. It was 7.2.4 setup with TV. The sound pressure (especially slam bass) in that room was beyond I could create in that bigger room before, or in my current room that is even bigger and has 9.4.4 setup. In that respect, the smaller room could have been more immersive for sound as it seemed that you are actually right in the middle of the action. Not that the larger setup is not immersive, but in a different and less intimate way.

This is a question of preference, so there is probably no right or wrong answer. Some might prefer smaller HTs, some bigger.

 

[Madlop26]

I went from a quite small listening room 12x10x8 to medium sized 20x18x8, both had ATMOS set up, similar equipment, (yes my wife thought I went insane when I cramped a 5,2.4 system in such small room) the smaller room was superior regarding spacial localization, which i have not able to equal in the larger room despite being a 7.2.4 system. I am guessing as you approach a near filed listening, room mods diminish.

 

[Jumu]

Say you have two different rooms. One is 12 feet long x 10 feet wide x 9.5 feet high. Other room is 22 feet long x 14.5 feet wide x 9.5 feet high. If I were to setup the best possible setup for a home theater in each room, will the larger room sound more "cinematic" or theater-like simply because of its larger size?

Smaller room has a 9.2.6 setup with Genelec The Ones all around and two large Genelec subwoofers + TV.
Larger room has a 11.4.8 setup with Meyer Sound speakers and subwoofers all around + projector with an acoustically transparent screen.

Will the larger room give a more impactful and theater-like experience? If I were to listen at very loud levels in the smaller room, will it overpower the room making it sound "bad"? Note, there will be appropriate treatments in both rooms.

Edit: Or even consider the same Genelec The Ones in both rooms (8361A for LCR and 8351B for all other locations). Will the larger room sound more cinematic or theater-like?

At first it is all about dimensions, angles and SPL capability. If you cover every angle in the same way and if you can get same SPL levels at the same room. Then if speakers are further, (not too far), then speakers wont get uncessary attention to themselves. And there is min distances which Dolby recommends. So if everything is equal, I prefer big room always. And the more room gets bigger, the less room problems you will have.

Moreover 8 ceiling speakers are far more superior to 6, since fixed audio will be played on just 2 top channels in 6 ceiliing speakes setup and in 8 ceiling setup object placement will be much better.

 

[songOVERsound]

Smaller rooms sound less of everything good more of everything bad, unfortunately

 

[Kain]

Smaller rooms sound less of everything good more of everything bad, unfortunately

Could you explain more? The people earlier in this thread stated that they had better results (in one way or another) when they had smaller rooms vs. larger rooms.

 

[Ciobi69]

Schroeder frequency and bass will always be worst , but treating most of it is easy , the opposite of a big space

 

[NTK]

Here is an interesting exchange between Dr Toole and J J on the subject of small vs large rooms. (Source).

 

[songOVERsound]

Could you explain more? The people earlier in this thread stated that they had better results (in one way or another) when they had smaller rooms vs. larger rooms.

For higher frequencies, Reverb time sounds more natural and not too close to direct sound from the speakers.

Low frequencies, the mathematics involved for room mode ratio’s and dimensions of rooms gives you way more placement options which includes a wider sweet spot for your listening position. Dealing with SBIR will also be easier.

These things will make a big difference. Everything will sound less boxed in. It’s funny because the words I would use to describe the sound usually coincide with describing the physical space of the room.

In my experience, I think the worst thing is having 8 ft. Ceilings because you can always have your subs or low frequency drivers lower to the ground, but your listening position will always be close to the middle of that axial room mode.

 

[Andysu]

JBL professional cinema five screen 4673A , enough JBL 8330 , 8330A , 4645/c subs for a 400 seat auditorium ( and a lot more JBL speakers in the room about around 156 speakers ) all packed into a dinky sized room and it works , laserdisc theatrical mixes give the sound flashback , cinematic