Question on framing in my "HT Closet"

[Coytee]

Scenario: I'm using the dead space under my stairwell to build a cubbyhole for my two LaScalas. This will be the rear of the room. Above one of the speakers, I'll use the dead space from above the speaker up to a height of ???. This is where I'll plan on putting most of my electronics. None of the studs you see on the far left are load bearing. The only load bearing stud is the one that will be the right side of the speaker hole in the wall (as facing it)

here is a picture showing the right side LaScala so you see what I mean

Hmm... I just deleted the picture I took. oh well, I'll attach an old one. (the floor has been tiled now, including the space under the speaker)

[Coytee]

This is the left side of the wall and you can see the cubbyhole where the left LaScala will go (pardon the wires & mess)

This is something like 34" wide. I've thought about putting my electronics here and have them facing into the room. I'll have to build a back wall for it so I can put all those wires into place. Might add that I'm going to have four 20amp circuits with a mixture of switched and unswitched outlets. I'll probably put 16 or so outlets in there. Top left laying on top of the duct work, you can see my Mogami star quad wire for my XLR's that will be going across the room.

[Coytee]

This is looking at the same space from the left side. I saw the two studs on the right, measured them and realized I COULD put my electronics there and simply cover the front (last picture) with drywall.

This is about 23" wide and would easily accomodate my 19" rack stuff. I could also cut the middle stud (not load bearing) and put a header in it to make my opening in the middle of this section and I could make it as wide as I want/need.

I mentioned this to the wife and she lit up, saying she could put a hinged picture over it so she could hide EVERYTHING. Unseen in any of the pictures are my 4 20amp switches that will control some of the outlets. I will be able to plug anything in this closet into a switched outlet and control it from near the door that you can see on the right.

I do not have a 5.1 HT unit yet. I DO have a 7.1 Yamaha system that I will not use so I'll be starting from scratch on the head unit.

If this was your space, would you put the electronics on this side, where you won't see them while in the room or would you put them on the front side where you would see them?

I personally have never had ANY kind of problem seeing the electronics. Heck, having a 3bx, 5bx, Audio Control C101 and a dbx 14/10 where you have the LED display, I've always enjoyed seeing the system at work. Hiding it behind a picture will be a change for me. (I do plan on putting a duct into my garage so I can have a small fan ducting air in or out of this closet area)

What are your thoughts on how you'd build this and why??

[jamesV]

Richard,

Personally I like the first ideal, because you would be able to get behind the equipment better from the area on the side wall.

Are you planning on closing that side wall off with a door of some sort?

Is the rest of that space under the stairs going to used as storage or just empty?

Cause my thinking is if you decide to put the equipment face the side, the last picture, you would have to walk further into that space to get to any of the wires to change or fix anything.

If your wife wants to cover the equipment she still can, if you want it, and like you said you can control it still using a switch by the door.

Might add that I'm going to have four 20amp circuits with a mixture of switched and unswitched outlets

WOW....... []

I like to see the total room when you get finished and what you end up with in there...

James

[CECAA850]

In the "picture hiding" scenario. Have you thought about a way to exhaust the heat from your rack yet?

[jamesV]

In the "picture hiding" scenario. Have you thought about a way to exhaust the heat from your rack yet?

(I do plan on putting a duct into my garage so I can have a small fan ducting air in or out of this closet area)

He mentioned this in his last message near the end.

James

[CECAA850]

Missed it, thanks.

[Coytee]

(pasting from word since my browser froze on me and I lost everything!!)

Personally I like the first ideal, because you would be able to get behind the equipment better from the area on the side wall.

To give some more clarification. If I keep access from the front, then the side will be covered (drywall) and if I keep access from the side, the front will be covered.

Unseen in the picture, on the far side of this closet, is a small doorway coming from the garage. This will be my main access however, once I frame this closet in and wire it up, I’m currently pretty sure that my only access will be through the front (or side). We’ve discussed some access doors that might be used after coming into closet from the garage. This is evolving every time we discuss it.

Is the rest of that space under the stairs going to used as storage or just empty?

Heh… I’m going to have two LaScalas and (so far) my two Electrovoice Interface D’s in there (think Cornwall). There won’t be a lot of room in there when it’s finished.

you can control it still using a switch by the door

I’m intrigued about the issue of a remote. My Peach doesn’t have a remote but, if I get a 5.1 system, it will. Perfect world would have it be a RF remote but I fear most of them are IR? I know you can get repeaters or something like that. Front access would help with the IR remote. I’m really torn both ways on where to have it.

I like to see the total room when you get finished and what you end up with in there...

At the rate it’s going, you might be in a nursing home!

In the "picture hiding" scenario. Have you thought about a way to exhaust the heat from your rack yet?

Yep, as you’ve now seen. I might put an exhaust into the garage. If I do that I’ll put some feet of duct in and put the fan on the far side of it (out of the closet). With the big openings for the LaScalas I hope/presume to have enough inlet where I could possibly just let it go via convection (maybe put a vent to garage ?)

One thing you can’t see and caused my wife to have almost go apoplectic on me are the bright orange plugs.

My brother in law (electrician) gave me a dozen or so bright orange hospital grade isolated plugs. I have them on the main wall so I can put one or two amps near the Jubilees. Each section (left center and right) will be on its own 20 amp circuit with switched and unswitched outlets so I won’t have to worry about the possibility of putting some tube amps there and blowing a breaker when she turns on the Hoover!

Left and right sides have three outlets total (6 plugs). Two of them are side/side about 44 inches high. Just enough to clear the Jubilee bass bin. The other one is something like 60” high (forget) so that if I build a shelf above the K402, I can set my amp above the speaker and not have cords draped to the floor or worse, draped to floor via extension cords!!

Right now, you of course, can easily see the bright orange outlets. They will be covered by the Jubilees when they are in their corners. The wife forgot that part and simply thought I was running bright orange outlets up her wall.

Yeah, I got a very interesting reaction out of that one.

Note to others: Do not put bright orange outlets up the wall at home without your wife signing off her knowledge and having said signature notarized!!

[jamesV]

Since that is that case, closing off the other side that the equipment is on, then I would go with facing the equipment into the room. It would be a lot easier to walk into the room and turn everything on then walk around the corner to do the same thing.

Now with the talk about making an access door, I would defiantly do it. Even if the shelves are on pull out tracks I would still like to be able to get back there to check wires and change things around. My current setup is in an audio rack and I love how I can sit next to it and have access to all the inputs at once.

James

[Coytee]

Since that is that case, closing off the other side that the equipment is on, then I would go with facing the equipment into the room. It would be a lot easier to walk into the room and turn everything on then walk around the corner to do the same thing.

Keep in mind... when you first walk into the room, I'm going to have a bank of four switches. These switches are going to control the four dedicated lines. Today, virtually every piece of electronics I own have a switch that toggles from off to on. If I used the gear I have today and nothing else, then I could easily LEAVE them turned on and control the power from the switches at this doorway and sit down and enjoy. The only issue there would be, I'd be relgated to listening to what I was listening to when I last quit.

If I get a HT unit that has a little "click" on/off switch (not a rocker/toggle/push type) then you're dead on right and I'd have to open that doorway every time to turn that piece of equipment on and that would be a pain. I refer to the type of switch that is on my PC. If I lose power, my PC defaults to off even if it was on prior.

My goal with electricity is to have my left corner, center and right corner all be on individual circuits. Additionally, each outlet will be split into a switched/unswitched so that the bottom outlet will be powered and the top half (of all of them) will be switched. Note that this is only three circuits. In the electronics closet I'm planning on having four groups of dual gang outlets (8 outlets/16 plugs) or possibly more. I certainly won't need that many but I'd rather have too many and not use them verses my current situation.

Each of these dual gangs of outlets will be wired into the same circuits as the right/left/center circuits so they will be controlled by three of the four switches. My fourth switch will control a fourth group of outlets in this same closet.

I don't yet really know how this will all pan out and I know it's a lot of excess. I've always wanted a socket for each plug unlike my current situation. I currently have tv, sat.box, Crown, Crown, Peach, dbx, dbx, Dx38, cd, dvd plugged into a single outlet. That is ten items daisychained into 2 plugs and I detest that situation. With the system on (when I had my tube amps) and the wife turns on the Hoover, the breaker trips. It's not happened since I got rid of the tube amps but it suggested to me I was putting more load on that circuit than I had thought.

I want to look into sliding shelves but right now, might make do with building something more simple

[NOZ]

Hi,

Just quickly read through the thread and just thought I'd show you how I did mine. I find it works great. I left the back open to the inside of the closet so I can add or change out any equipment as necessary. Also do wiring changes etc. I also added a 2" pvc tube from the closet to behind the TV where I can fish cables through if needed in the future.

Also just like yours my stairs are above the closet at the right.

Cheers

Sean

[jamesV]

Sounds like a lot of outlets but like you said, better to have too many then not enough.

I know what you mean about too much into one outlet. I had all my equipment one a light switch outlet that was also wired to other outlets in the room and an adjacent room. Last year I ran romex for a new outlet, I flush mounted the outlet with the floor behind the tv. This outlet is the only thing on a 20 amp circuit, so now I don't have any issues. I also ran romex for another room that has a window air conditioner, in the warmer months, and my computer to another 20 amp circuit. This second one was needed as the only outlet nearby was also on the same circuit with two other rooms, in the warmer months with the air conditioner it would trip the circuit. So in all this past summer was great with just adding those two lines.

I want to look into sliding shelves but right now, might make do with building something more simple

You still can build it yourself, take a look at Home Depot or like stores, they have those diy kits that come with just the pieces you need to make the shelves slide. You can use whatever wood that you were thinking of and get those kits to add the track and wheels to make the shelves slide out. Just make sure of the proper weight for the equipment and the wood being supported by that track system.

James

[jamesV]

So any more work done? Which direction did you go?

James

[Coytee]

Not much done.... I installed 4 recessed lights, got them wired in. Ran more wire for another pair of lights that as of yet, I have NO idea where they are going to go (wife hasn't decided if she wants them "here" or (moves his pointing finger .038940573947309 millimeters) "here" or (moves his pointing finger another .5609437304578 millimeters) "here". Ran more wire for yet another light, then went went on strike.

I'm about ready to start putting up the ceiling drywall however.... need to get a plumber in to run some black pipe (propane gas fireplace). I've called about eight different plumbers and not ONE of them has returned any of my calls [8o|]. I guess this recession isn't affecting them. I can't get the drywall up until I get the pipe run. I'm not about to run my own gas pipe, just not worth the downside.

Can't make up my mind on front/side on this section so it will probably be one of the last decisions I make.

[Bill H.]

Amazed at the amount of wiring..................Wow. Don't let the Folks at B*** see that Picture...................[:^)]

Good Luck, and yeah I wanna see more Pictures also !

[Coytee]

Don't let the Folks at B***

ya lost me on that one! lol

Regarding wiring... I'll be biamping three speakers in the front. I want the ability to put amps near them BUT, might not... so for each front speaker I have:

2 pair 12-g wires for connecting to the speakers
2 Mogami wires for sending XLR signal to amps and biamping
2 Canara (sp?) wires for sending RCA signals to amps and biamping
2 Cat 6 wires for triggers.... network.... phone use (?).... just in case?

My center location has all of the above PLUS four more Cat-6 wires in the event that I ever need to try to run HDMI across the room over Cat6. I'll also have one, maybe two HDMI's for the center location.

Multiply that by three locations and you get the mess of wires that I have. My wife just shook her head... I told her I'd be more than happy to remove all of them BUT...down the road, if I ever changed a configuration, I'd then have to have some wires draped across the room (exposed) and she suddenly went into shock as she realized I was actually trying to cover for all contingencies so she'd not have any exposed wires later.

Since I don't know exactly where my back wall will be in this closet (yet), I ran 50' lengths of all the above wires. The extra that you see laying around is what I'll use to string it to its final location and then I'll trim it to length.

I have been debating on the merits of hanging my rack amps. Rather than install a rack in this opening as I had thought... I got to thinking... what if I mount some joists in the ceiling of it and from these joists, use some wood, steel... something and bring it down "X" number of inches such that I can connect something like 3 rack amps with a rack space gapped between them. This would allow for good air movement and more importantly, would give some more space in the lower section of the shelves.

My wife isn't liking the idea of having the amps on a shelf over the K402 as I'm really wanting to do. If I ever got another tube amp, there is something about having a lit tube amp sitting over the top of the speaker that I think might simply look nice.

[Bill H.]

B*** does a commercial where they say that there is no need for lots of Wires, ect..............or big bulky speakers...........yada,yaha, yada....................

[Coytee]

Oh, them [:$]

It was actually what I was thinking but, I was thinking along the lines of direct/reflecting, not 'no need for lots of wires...." [:$]

Not working on all cylinders today.

[Coytee]

so for each front speaker I have:

2 pair 12-g wires for connecting to the speakers
2 Mogami wires for sending XLR signal to amps and biamping
2 Canara (sp?) wires for sending RCA signals to amps and biamping
2 Cat 6 wires for triggers.... network.... phone use (?).... just in case?

My center location has all of the above PLUS four more Cat-6 wires in the event that I ever need to try to run HDMI across the room over Cat6. I'll also have one, maybe two HDMI's for the center location.

Not that anyone will care, but I forgot to add...

2 RG6 runs to each location (6 total)
1 Cat 6 wire to each location for use with the RG6 if need be (3 wires)
1 Cat 6 wire to each location specifically for phone jacks (3 wires)

So, add 12 more wires to the mix for an approximate total of 40 existing wires AND...lest I forget... I still need to get one (probably two) HDMI wires to string across but I need to measure for those still. Don't want to pay for an extra 5' if I'm just going to stuff it into the wall cavity as excess length.

[jamesV]

so for each front speaker I have:

2 pair 12-g wires for connecting to the speakers
2 Mogami wires for sending XLR signal to amps and biamping
2 Canara (sp?) wires for sending RCA signals to amps and biamping
2 Cat 6 wires for triggers.... network.... phone use (?).... just in case?

My center location has all of the above PLUS four more Cat-6 wires in the event that I ever need to try to run HDMI across the room over Cat6. I'll also have one, maybe two HDMI's for the center location.

Not that anyone will care, but I forgot to add...

2 RG6 runs to each location (6 total)
1 Cat 6 wire to each location for use with the RG6 if need be (3 wires)
1 Cat 6 wire to each location specifically for phone jacks (3 wires)

So, add 12 more wires to the mix for an approximate total of 40 existing wires AND...lest I forget... I still need to get one (probably two) HDMI wires to string across but I need to measure for those still. Don't want to pay for an extra 5' if I'm just going to stuff it into the wall cavity as excess length.

WOW.....

That"s a lot of wiring but better safe then sorry. I hope that covers all the options that you have currently and for future changes. Are you getting the wiring from MonoPrice?

I just might have to finally take that trip down to see and hear this room after you finish.

James