Anyone with a Ultra 2 THX System?

[Pexeter]

As you can tell, im new here, and Im having trouble finding information on the Ultra 2 THX system. I hang out over at AVS and there is maybe 2 guys with these speakers, and after searching over here (horrible search engine btw) it seems they are a rarity here also. If there is someone who owns this sytem, can you help me out with some pictures, how you like them, and what you are powering them with? My dedicated theater is all ready to build the stage/risers and install the equipment and Im at a crossroads with the speakers.

My room is 21.7'L x 12.7'W x 9.6'H which cuts down to about 17-18ft once the false wall is built. This is the room rendered except the back left opening is open, no door like the pic.. Also, there is no step down into the room like in the picture, there is a ramp on the other side of the door. (sorry about the big picture):

Right now the room is done and the frame for the stage is built but im waiting on buildling the false wall because it will be built around the speakers. As you can tell from the render, I had planned on going with plain ol' floorstanders behind the false wall (stud skeleton covered in transparent fabric) but after tons of reading, it seems the Klipsch Ultra 2 THX system would be for me as I am building a "custom" theater. My final question is if I place the Ultra 2's in the false wall with the 2-3 foot space behind behind the wall, how will that affect the sound? Will that be ok? How about for the Ultra 2 subs? The entire front wall will be covered with linacoustic and the side and rear wall will have linacoustic up to ear level, all covered in GOM (Transparent fabric) Any advice you can give me would be awesome, Thanks!

[Pexeter]

Also, there is one more thing I noticed. I have already prewired

the room and for the subs I ran two Bettercables Sub cables (RCA) to

the front of the room and I noticed the Klipsch subs use a different

connector. How am I going to overcome that obstacle?

[DrWho]

Also, there is one more thing I noticed. I have already prewired

the room and for the subs I ran two Bettercables Sub cables (RCA) to

the front of the room and I noticed the Klipsch subs use a different

connector. How am I going to overcome that obstacle?

Umm, which klipsch sub are you talking about and what connectors does

it have? I'm pretty sure they all have RCA type connections.

Also, do you already own the SVS subs? If not, I would highly recommend

going with the Ultra2 subwoofer setup as it will blow the SVS out of

the water. (Even if you don't go with the rest of the Ultra system I

would still go with the Ultra subs).

And could you elaborate a bit more on the false wall thing you're

building? Is there going to be any drywall, or will the entire front

wall be a giant "grill cloth"? If a grill cloth then you have much less

to worry about...just make sure you put the speakers as close to the

front as possible and a good distance from any support beams. You might

want to set the subs back a bit so that they don't cause the fabric to

move with loud bass scenes.

And is DIY an option? With all that false wall business you are going

to have a lot of space behind the screen that you could use for

building very large custom built subwoofers - on the order of an IB sub

actually (10 cubic feet per driver). The cool thing about an approach

like this is that it will totally outperform any of the competition and

cost less at the same time.

[Pexeter]

Hey thanks for the response!

Im talking about the KW-120 that goes with the Ultra2 system. In

Home Theater Magazine's review they state: Connection: NL2

SpeakOn. I researched it and I guess there are NL2 cables for

this, idk, but i've never heard of it. I havent bought the subs

yet and although I was set on SVS subs I am definitely going with the 2

KW-120's. The false is going to be identical to this one:

The dimensions might not be the same as mine but I am modeling my wall

after this. After that step, Im just wrapping it with Guilford of Maine

fabric. If I got the Ultra2 system I would mount them in the wall

where they would be flush in front so I can cover them with the

fabric. Do you think all the space behind the LCR channel's will

be troublesome because werent these supposed to be for a small

space? Thanks for the suggestion about the IB subs but I really

am not a DIY guy and I really wouldnt have time to do that.

Thanks again for your help and I still would like to see any pictures

of these speakers installed and any other feedback you want to give on

them.

[DrWho]

Here's my favorite pic of the system:

http://www.wickedhometheater.com/ultra2.php?PHPSESSID=056c1bc6269c0f13c164d2e635f006f7

As far as the space behind the cabinets - you will have no problems. In fact, you will need to take less measures with your approach because you won't have any resonating air spaces to worry about. One thing you might consider doing though is to create a hard baffle that surrounds the mains (as you can see in the picture) as you will benefit from the extra baffle gain (which I think Klipsch purposely engineered the ultras for). It would be as simple as fill the space between studs with plywood painted black (leaving small openings for the speakers to sit inbetween). Just make sure the speakers aren't mechanically connected in any way to the baffle. And then to finish it off put some absorbtive material on the rear face of the baffle so as to minimize standing waves generated by cabinet vibration.

[Beetlejuice]

Welcome to the forum. That render looks awesome. I know of 1 long thread about the Ultra2 system but I can't find it. You are right about the search, it is really bad. You might want to try posting your questions in the Hometheater section. You might get more views there. Or maybe a PM to forum members Soundbroker or Htxpert, they have allot of experience with the Ultra 2 system.

[TheSoundBroker]

I've set up quite a few of them. Dollar for the dollar, probably the best sounding dedicated theater speaker package I've used in the past 26 years doing this crazy job.

As for the connectors, if you ran RCA's up front behind the screen wall, no problem. The Ultra 2 package comes with a separate offboard amp. That amp uses professional Speakon connectors. The easy solution is to simply put the amp up front with the rest of the system. I'm doing EXACTLY the same type of screen wall setup in my new demo theater (35 x 23 x 10) and plan on using the same layout. Only thing I'll do differently is that I've decided to forego the GOM on the front wall and use black speaker grill material with removable panels. The entire area behind the screen wall will be Linacoustic. The Ultra 2's will work great in this type of screen wall setup, I've done several of them this way with excellent results. This simply because I need to be able to access behind the screen wall to swap speakers, cables, etc.

[Pexeter]

I'm planning on either having a grill somewhere on the wall so I can

climb back there to tool around with the setup or I will be going

the same route as you with the grills. I know these

speakers dont need much power, but what is recommended for them?

Would 200/channel be too much for them? Thanks.

[Chris Robinson]

Pexeter, welcome to the forum as well.

Great rendering! What software are you using to do this? I've been looking high and low for something decent and easy to use.

Please let me know!

Thanks,

Chris

[Pexeter]

I actually use Sketchup, which I designed the theater in. After I

designed it, I gave the information to Reaper over at the AVS forums

and he rendered it for me and I believe he used Blender which is free

software. Blender is way complicated, at least to me, but Reaper

does plenty of work over at AVS if you wanted to see more of his work

or maybe even use him. Hope that helps!

[Chris Robinson]

Pexeter, thanks. I'll check them out!

[H1HUMMER]

Hey Pexeter.

Welcome to the forum. We rarely post here. Mainly a lurker. We had the same problem ourselves looking for owners of the KLIPSCH THX Ultra2 system. We bought ours w/o listening to these beauties. Bought on the review from the Robb Report Home Entertainment mag. This is a killer system IMO dedicated to movies and some music! For us we watch 98% movies with 2% music. We have the 7.1 set-up: KL-650 LCR Left Center Right, KL-525 LR rear surrounds, KS-525 LR side rear surrounds, KA-1000 amp with 2 qty KW-120 subwoofers. We are still in the infant stages of setting stuff up. All other speakers will be powered by the INTEGRA DTR-10.5. Pictures and more in-depth detail on our website. Pardon the garden of wires seen. We have a long ways to go in our research. :-) We have a 100" motorized 4:3 projection screen which is set to stop at 16:9 ratio. SANYO PLV-Z4 LCD projector and more doo hickeys. I'm still a newbie learning BUT will help out as best to my knowledge.

http://www.80skid.com/SanctuaryHTFlashIntro.htm

[TheSoundBroker]

I'm planning on either having a grill somewhere on the wall so I can

climb back there to tool around with the setup or I will be going

the same route as you with the grills. I know these

speakers dont need much power, but what is recommended for them?

Would 200/channel be too much for them? Thanks.

200/ch isn't too much for them. I've run them with 300 and 600/ch with no issues at all (both Bryston). That being said, quality is more important than quantity. The better you feed them, the better they sound. I'd try to put at least a good solid 100/ch into them. In my experience setting a number of them up, a good cheap amp that works well is the Sherwood Newcastle. A very surprising beast to say the least. Up the food chain, Bryston (SST) is a magnificent combo, Parasound Halo sounds great (my newest line), and the Flying Mole amps are a killer combo as well and have the added advantage of little heat output and high efficiency in case you do NOT have a 20 amp line (needed for most all bigger 7 channel amps).