Thanks for the response HPD. I haven’t gone as far as determining what vent is used in the room, but all the other areas have been addressed do to literally not having any plumbing running through the ceiling of the AV area. Room is totally sealed to the rest of the house and will have proper treatments after its measured (although the front wall, traps and panels and entire ceiling wil be covered in hytex quiet wall, not because its super sound absorbing but for the look and it is way easier to maintain than paint.
The two A-150s power Atmos channels only and the Parasound is likely plenty for power and it is beautifully built. I just don‘t know incrementally how much I can improve overall sound quality by replacing my processor In addition to the areas you covered.
Trevor
As for the vents, just apply acoustic putty that's hidden from view, nothing special. My experience with Hytex involved a misapplication. Two general descriptions for a room's sound are "Live" and "Dead." This theater room in a well-known high-end audio store had too much sound absorption causing it to sound dead. Every speaker placed in that room had the sound sucked out in such a way as to sound lifeless. It was really an ear-opening and eye-popping experience and taught me a lot. I've heard great speakers go into that room to die. People come out thinking the speaker sucked when they were the exact opposite - dynamic, live-sounding, precise, and slamming. Once people experience that with a speaker, they don't forget it, and word-of-mouth kills sales despite being untrue. That is the effect of poor room acoustics. I love the Tekton Pendragons. Despite not being highly articulate, the dual 10's cut the air and rock with devastating power, particularly in a room that's 15' x 18' x 7.5' and built smartly. Room size and speaker size do matter. I am no fan of little speakers in big rooms unless you're sitting close. While I have Revel F228Be's, I would gladly push them aside to rock with the Pendragons as big Tektons will slam in a way you'll never hear from Focals, Revels, or even Wilsons. When I bought them, along with the seller's entire home theater as a package deal, they sounded terrible. I knew why but I didn't mention it to the seller. The first thing I noticed was his listening room, on the left side, was open 1/3 of the way off the front wall connecting it to an adjacent room with a pool table. There was a huge reflection gap that kills imaging, timing -- everything. Secondly, he had a drop ceiling. The gap in the drop ceiling changed the room's acoustics significantly. Next were the square air ducts in the ceiling, the room panels, and the wall hangings that rattled, producing noise that the occupants probably tuned out, but a visitor would notice immediately. It was ever so noticeable but would set a perfectionist's hair on fire, especially on heavy bass notes and loud volumes. The speakers sounded washed out. I knew this room had severe acoustic shortcomings. Once I brought them home and put them in the home theater, KA-BLAM! Badass sound! Another concept from recording studios is to have the front of the room live and the back of the room dead. This is what you want. Most everyone here probably has the book, "Sound Reproduction," by Dr. Floyd Toole. Mine has yellow stickers galore.
In a well-designed room, you want a balance of absorption, reflection, and diffusion. And, if you change speakers often like I used to do, you want things you can remove if speakers change, or add if needed. In essence, some non-permanent acoustic devices. I spent 3 months researching room acoustics and what's needed. I used software to design the room and taught the builders about putty, hat channels, concepts of STC (sound transmission class) products, first reflection points, etc. They, in turn, taught me how best to use these things smartly. Some things you don't want to do literally, but modify. For example, a double-walled ceiling. Don't skimp on screws. There's a backstory to that involving lawsuits. Here are a few "Golden Tips" for going all-in on a home theater build outside of the primary acoustic challenges:
1. Cable distances. Use the appropriate gauge or higher for the distance and always use conduits if you can afford them. Also, seriously consider XLR cables for long runs to subs. Use XLR to RCA if needed the rest of the way. High-quality active HDMI cables and, if needed, a repeater/amplifier if projecting, particularly for 4K. My little room has over 3 football fields of speaker cable alone. Tip: after many years of use, check copper speaker cables for oxidation/corrosion - a reddish-brown color or simply discoloration (cable interaction) can mean oxidation or corrosion. Replacing corroded speaker wire can audibly improve the sound.
2. Wall connections. Get banana plug speaker connectors for 2 speakers per connector. This is just one of the plethora of things my buddy Paul did for optimal future-proofing. The point is, install for the future if financially feasible. At the least, double your connections and ground them properly -- particularly the ones that also connect your subs or potential subs. You want ample connections to accommodate surround sound formats such as Atmos and for redundancy. Also, 4 of the plates have subwoofer connections. One connector, on my left, closest to the audio equipment cubby outside the room (no vibrations!) can accommodate a PC, HDMI for Xbox, and HDMI for direct projector use. Although my main speakers are permanent fixtures, I often move them aside to audition speakers that friends or I plop down for fun. Therefore, I have 6 electrical outlets in the room.
3. Electrical. My home theater required another full circuit board installed to provide sufficient amperage, particularly for the heavy hitters -- amps and subs. I keep my equipment inside an illuminated cubby outside my home theater door. Inside the cubby, 2 blu-ray players and 6 other gear sit on a 42U server rack by Royal Racks that rides on casters. The cable harness from the wall to my gear is almost 10 inches thick, extends up to 6' in length, and is supported and suspended by inexpensive bungee cords. I have wood flooring I place down to roll the rack out over the carpet whenever I need to work on or switch out gear. I have done this hundreds of times over the past couple of years so it is critical my cable harness and suspension set-up maintains and doesn't pull on my connections when I need to pull the rack out. Active cooling? Not necessary in mine but can be a serious consideration. For me, wearing my propeller cap, pocket protector and white tape securing the center of my glasses, I use a few laptop coolers with USB extension cables and one on/off switch for cooling. One of these days I'll have my one tooth looked at by the dentist but right now I need to find better speakers ... or amps or anything audio that rocks. Good luck in your pursuit of music and movie joy.
Cheers.