picky Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 Dave in ABQ: I think you nailed it right on the money: Love of this hobby was certainly prevalent when I threw down my original design for this room. I have been a "sound nut" since I was in my pre-teens. And that fixation grew immensely when I entered my 20s, got married, and got my own place. But, when video joined sound in the early 80's, and I bought my first Super Beta Hi-Fi, that was all it took to push me over the edge and make me long for a proper room in which to enjoy both sight and sound at their best. Since my wife also loves good sound and movies, we decided to pull-out all of the stops and build this room 3 years ago, now that the kids are all grown and moved-out and have their own families. After one full year of research, and getting our financing in order, we embarked on this "journey" two years ago this month (August 2002) when we began by tearing down the existing basement interior walls and ceiling. Now, we are just days away from finishing this project. The thing we find most amazing is that it seems to have turned-out every bit as good as we'd hoped. The room looks just as I had envisioned it. I'm an automotive product designer by trade, so my design skills definitely have come into play in this room. Heart? I couldn't have said it better. Thanks! nicholtl: Ah, my good friend! Thanks so much. I think I get the jist of what you be sayin'. You nailed it, too! Lighting is almost as important to me as good sight and sound. Lighting is what creates the atmosphere in a room like this. It can either make it or break it. I chose to go with recessed line voltage cans in the ceiling for regular, everyday lighting. But, all of the entertainment mode lighting is 12 volt-low voltage halogen. Even the wall sconces are 12-volt, 50 watt. The ceiling track lights is all miniature 12-volt, 20 watt, narrow beam (8 degree and 20 degree) halogen floods. The monorail pendant lamps mainly use 12-volt, 20-watt bi-pin bulbs, rather than reflector floods. I consider those pendants and the sconces to be more like artwork than just lighting fixtures, as each one is unique in its own way. Except for the pendants, each flood in the room is carefully aimed to highlight specific details about the room. Every bit of this lighting is controlled by a Lightolier 4-scene, lighting controller that is built into the wall and controlled remotely by my Phillips Pronto handheld remote control. There are 8 zones and each zone dims at a different speed, with the longest being 35 seconds. The system is capable of doing dimming over a one-hour period, but that would freak people out; "Am I going blind, or what?" The way i have things set up, the lights dim just like they do in a real theater with a touch of the remote. A controlled switch also turns off the slot machine during movies when I hit "Cinema" mode and the turns it back on in the "Entertain" mode. Another scene, "Dance" mode, switches on two commercial grade (DJ-style) stage lights I have hanging on each side of the screen. One is an American DJ, DMX intelligent, programable, beat-activated scanner light with an (X, Y) articulating mirror. It's called a DJ Scan/RG with rotating gobos. The other light is a Chauvet Obsession light that has small, colored Moonflower gobos that spin in different directions to the beat. ...talk about being anal? tunemanjjw: Thanks very much. I am quite flattered by everyone's reaction to the photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jane Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 Hi, Here is some pics from my humble home theatre. Ive got RF-5 plus 2 x RC-35 in front. As surround Ive got RS-35 and one RC-25 to complete my 6.1 set up. In case of SACD I have a pair of RF-35, which together with the 5ers in front make a perfect match for multi channel listening. The room have been under some acoustic treatment with Auralex, and I prefer tubes if you ask me about amps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 jane: You have a very clean-looking, impressive and very serious set-up! It's beautiful and nicely done. I love the picture of your tube amp. Thanks for sharing with us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou8thisSN Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 okay, so we got our sectional was delivered today, and the HT room is about 75% complete. All thats really left is to mount the projector and put up the screen, and get a pair of RS7s or some other surround speakers... anyway, this is back to front view, yes the RC7 is being propped up by a styrofoam block, I cant think of anythign else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou8thisSN Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 front to back. The surrounds are Bose model 141 speakers. The PB2+ is behind the sectional on the right side. There is a HD cable box and dvd player under the coffee table, and the denon 1803 (3803) is behind the left of the couch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 jane: I meant to add that I really like your idea of placing a center channel both above and below the screen. I wish I had the room available to pull that off too. Ou8thisSN: Man that is one, COMFY-LOOKING sectional! May I ask the brand name? You have the makings of an outstanding room. You must be on pins-and-needles to get everything finished. How are the wires run from the units under your coffee table? Nice size room. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 ou8 - Yes, a nice size room with a big comfy chair. Now, get some dark paint on those walls, and maybe a dark throw rug to reduce screen light reflection, and you're in for big-time fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 With all the great rooms that were posted, our little ht setup is quite humble but it serves our needs. The Wife, while letting me do just about anything to this room, won't give up the formal living room to a htWhile it is the only room in the house that we can actually have a shot at controlling the light in, (it is on the other side of the wall that the TV is on) it is just too close to our bedroom. She doesn't want a 85 db spl just outside the bedroom door while she is trying to sleep. (she goes to bed early but gets up early also, ever try to go to a party, show, concert with someone that crashes at 9:00pm? but I digress)We (I) have plans to close off this ht space we have with curtans, loose the light on the cealing fan and raise the fan so that a projector can be mounted about where the center of the two rear speakers is. This would give us (me) about a 72" screen at the front wall. Projection is the only way we can go in this room and have a larger screen as the front wall is so oddly shaped, even speaker placement is difficult, not to mention that we have only 2 walls in this space making reflected sound from the one side wall sould different from the left "no wall" sound. The Yamaha auto setup did a great job in setting up the room to sound as close to "normal" as possible. The picture was posted on page 4 of this thread but with all the great rooms that have been posted since, this is just a reminder that those members that can have a special room dedicated to ht are fortunate indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Great looking theaters everyone!!! I love looking at all the setups! ---------------- On 8/10/2004 10:25:12 PM Ou8thisSN wrote: anyway, this is back to front view, yes the RC7 is being propped up by a styrofoam block, I cant think of anythign else. ---------------- As shown here I find that the standard Yellow and White Pages work nicely Laters, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 cablacksmith: Are those ProMedia's I see on the stands in your rear channels? A rather innovative use. Do you like their perfomance in this application? The like the ideas that you have planned for your room. It looks comfortale right now, but can only get better with the changes you wish to make. Be sure to keep us posted on your progress. eq_shadimar: FDLOTF about the phone book remark! Good one! Good ole' "Yankee ingenuity"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou8thisSN Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 ---------------- On 8/11/2004 6:10:58 AM picky wrote: Ou8thisSN: Man that is one, COMFY-LOOKING sectional! May I ask the brand name? You have the makings of an outstanding room. You must be on pins-and-needles to get everything finished. How are the wires run from the units under your coffee table? Nice size room. Thanks for sharing. ---------------- thanks for the kind words folks. The room is an upstairs bonus room/bedroom and is 20 x 20. We got the sectional at Rhodes Furniture (www.rhodesfurniture.com). I dont know what the brand name is on the sectional, and my mom already put up the paperwork that came with it. its not berkline or anything, but i think its fairly plush. The seats on each corner recline and so does the middle seat. I sat in each seat for about 20 minutes yesterday while watching Seabiscuit, and the viewing angles didnt seem to be disturbed much at all. this was really our only solution as the berkline stuff was just too expensive and it probably wouldnt have fitted, 5 across. This sectional is also microfiber and has plenty of storage room betweeen the 4 armrests. Like I said, i dont know the name of the set, and its not on their website. However, this is the only microfiber sectional they carry with three recliners, so just describing it, would get you the information. its regularly $1999, on sale we got it for $1599. it was the best deal in nashville, for quality furniture anyway. About the paint, i'd love to paint it, but i dont know anything about painting, nor do i have the energy to do that, as i am still recovering from my health problems this summer. The first priority right now is to get the screen/projector mounted. the wires are run from the denon and the cable outlets behind the sectional, through the middle piece, there is some room under the middle piece where the left piece meets. I know it looks ghetto, but i dont really have a choice, because the DVI cable is only 3 feet long and it runs from the cable box to the projector. That is the reason the components are under the coffee table. how do you guys keep your doors in your room from vibrating? I used 3/4" thick weatherstripping. It makes the doors hard to close/latch but it works, so far... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 ---------------- On 8/11/2004 10:02:07 AM Ou8thisSN wrote: how do you guys keep your doors in your room from vibrating? I used 3/4" thick weatherstripping. It makes the doors hard to close/latch but it works, so far... ---------------- First, when I built our room, I started with solid, composite doors, made of particle board inside and covered with oak verneer, which makes them quite dense and heavy. As you may know, many home interior doors are hollow, and some are made of very light materials such as Masonite (tempered, pressed-fiberboard) for example. Such doors are not dense at all and are subject to more vibration and sound bleed-through. Remember, doors that are not dense will be "set off" by higher, more-audible frequencies than doors which are dense. The more-dense the door, to lower the frequncies it reacts to. The trick here (in a perfect world) is to allow the door to react only to frequencies that are too low for the human hearing to detect. This is one reason our car interiors are now more quiet. I would consider changing the old lighter doors out for solid doors, even used ones, if you wish to conserve costs. Old doors can always be filled, sanded and painted and made to look like new. Next, to all of the doorjams within the room (there are 3 doors), I installed a molded rubber, bulb-type exterior weather stripping that is held in place with an extruded aluminum strip (available at Home Depot or Lowe's in gold or silver) which is screwed into the face of the door stop about every 6 inches on 3 sides of the door (right, left and top). This makes the doors close with a solid "Ker-Chunk" sound when properly installed, and because it rests against the door, it tends to damp most vibrations. This also helps block sound bleed-through to or from the next room. Lastly, to maximize the limitation of sound bleed-through, I installed a 1-3/4" tall, sound-proofing brush (about $25) (http://www.pemko.com/) to the lower (bottom) door gap of our utility room door to block the sound of the furnace, washing machine and dryer from coming under the door and bleeding into the theater. It seems to work well, but you probably do not need this item for your particular room. The weather stripping and heavy doors should probably do the trick for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 ---------------- On 8/11/2004 9:34:55 AM picky wrote: cablacksmith: Are those ProMedia's I see on the stands in your rear channels? A rather innovative use. Do you like their perfomance in this application? The like the ideas that you have planned for your room. It looks comfortale right now, but can only get better with the changes you wish to make. Be sure to keep us posted on your progress. ---------------- Actually, they are quintets. I bought them on Ebay from a forum member jephdood on auction # 5701877266 for anyone interested. They work well as a rear channel and add their share to the movie experience. The mains are Heresy 2s and the center is a LaScalla pro top section I bought from Fzninvt. It is supplemented with a ported 3way bookshelf speaker driven by the crossover on the pro section, to add the bottom end that the top section is missing. I bought as a stop gap measure from Rat shack. But it has proven to match quite well and fill out those lower Hz in the center channel. The surrounds, are a custom bookshelf/satellite system I bought many, many years ago that I had to refoam the suspension on the woofer drivers in the passive bass box. I have since added a white Boston Acoustic 300 watt 12 down firing sub that I picked up at the Tweeters clearance table, a $695 sub for less than $300 out the door. I just couldnt walk by it. The timber from the speakers next to the wall is a little different than those in the air but that is to be expected. I think that when the room has curtains on the openings and on the right wall, the sound should be more even. The movie experience is good and I would rather be home than in a theatre, REALLY! We went out a few weeks ago and the crying kids, cell phones and talking more than makes up for the shortcomings in the room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou8thisSN Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 i watched Kill Bill 2 today, at reference levels for the most part, and also Seabiscuit yesterday. I think the 3/4" thick weatherstripping did the trick. thanks for the suggestions, you're probably right about the doors being hollow, etc. But I am not really concerned about sound proofing because noone really hangs out upstairs, when i'm watching a movie, and the bass waves travel regardless. I'm very happy that the vibrating stopped though. Now I have a new dilemma, Do any of you have your component rack next to your subwoofer? I mean right next to it? There are only two places I can place the component rack, one right as you walk in, which I dont really like as its fairly close to the door. The only other option is to put it next to the PB2+, which would be fine, but i dont know how strong I need the stand to be if it were there. Anywhere else would fall into the line of sight to the screen and I dont want to see any LEDs while watching a movie... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pako Posted August 17, 2004 Author Share Posted August 17, 2004 jane, Love the setup! Very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troostj Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 How come we dont make this a permanent thread? I love looking thru peoples THs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjohnsonhp Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 It would be nice to have a gallery where each member posts their pics and equipment list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Well I am no longer a Klipsch owner but I still like Klispch speakers and I do at least own an Aragon Soundstage. https://home.comcast.net/~bentvalve/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sivadselim Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 pistol pete! blue party lights in your IB sub! that roolz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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