Home Theater almost complete!

[boomac]

Yesterday John Malotky and Damon Payne came over to help install our home theater. Even with two guys that know what theyre doing, (and me) it took over 5 hours.

We first mounted the Panasonic PT-AE900U Projector (recommended by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />

Rich Place

) with the Chief RPA Series Inverted Ceiling Mount he also suggested. My carpenter had previously installed the 106 high contrast matte white Da-Lite Cosmopolitan Electro Screen. I selected the HDTV aspect ration because the kids will watch a fair amount of TV in the room.

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Damon and John went to town and hooked up the new Yamaha RX-V2600 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver and the Denon DVD-5910: Reference A/V Universal DVD Player to the speakers. Were using two Cornwalls and a Vertical Corwall up front with Heresy surrounds and rears. The Cornwalls will all have the K-77-M Tweeter, K-55-V Mid Range, K-33 Woofer and up-dated Crossovers by Dean. Thanks to Tom (piranha) for recommending the Denon and to an old friend who suggested the new Yamaha. Hes been the head tech at a first class Hi Fi Shop for over 30 years and has never steered me wrong.

Before John and Damon got here I ran off to the local Hi Fi Shop to pick up a component video cable that they had made up for me. While there, I checked out the used/demo room and Lordy; there sat a big, bad and beautiful Cherry RSW-15. The price was right and I snapped it up on the spot. I figured that if my RSW-10 was enough, I could always pass the big boy off to the G-man or another interested Forum Member. I'll probably keep it![]

Anyway, there are some things to fine tune but John and Damon have offered to come back, (once we get the seating and room decorations in place) and thankfully, lend their expertise again.

Once we get things tuned Ill post my impressions but if what we previewed last night, (scenes form OpenRange, Pirates of the Caribbean and a Boz Skaggs DVD) is any indication, Ill be very pleased indeed.

All the speakers were purchased used, (one is on loan) but everything else was purchased new. To this point, Ive not gone over 7K. My neighbor spent 5K for his projector alone and all I have to say is thank you Rich! The new Denon 5910 and the slightly used RSW 15 were great deals that just happened to pop up at the right time.

Many thanks to all the Forum Members that gave advice and offered recommendations. Having guys like John and Damon in close proximity is one heck of a benefit and I am truly appreciative of their efforts. Ill post some pictures once we get the seating and decorations in place.

[Shade]

Congratulations. Sounds like you've got a nice system going. Dedicated room I'm guessing? Wish I had room for that.

If you get a chance, post up some pics.

[damonrpayne]

Scott's room is (I'm guessing) around 16ft wide and 17 feet deep. The RSW-15 is "a little overkill" to put it nicely.

Scott you need a universal remote, to turn all that stuff on at once. The yamaha sounds nice but the setup menu gave me a headache. Things like turning speakers to small/large/none or playing test tones should be easy to find. That receiver is definately geared towards the "auto setup" with parametric EQ and auto channel balance but I don't trust that stuff myself.

I am now sore as hell from framing my room on Saturday and setup of this room on Sunday. Once we were watching the Eagles though it lit a fire under me to try and finish mine faster.

[colterphoto1]

Sounds like a nicely balanced system Scott. Cornies and Heresies are

matches made in heaven. I have one of the big Yamaha's and like it's

sound, features, and programming options.

Little hint, depending on your speaker placement (my rears are CW's),

you might want to tilt your recliners before triggering the YPAO, I

found it made a bit of difference in my case.

are your LR mains those beautiful Maple CW's you had reveneered

recently? I'd hate to think of those beauties living in the dark!

And yes, it's very good to have Klipsch friends nearby. I know when the

time comes for me to put a proper theatre into this home, Trey, Stephen

P. Roger and Doc will be ready to roll!

Michael

[damonrpayne]

The maple ones are on proud display in the billiards room. I think Scott has Klipsch in 3-4 rooms of the house.

[Me Loves Khorns]

It's nice that you have a dedicated room. My surround sound and 2 channel are all in one space. Works ok I guess.

Would like to go the projector route, but the room would be next to impossible to get dark enough to use one...

Paul

[j-malotky]

Scott is going to have one Nice HT when it is done.

His projector throws a really nice picture.

The CW's in the HT are not the best looking speakers. The front 3 cornwalls are behind the front wall hidden behind built in grill cloth. His carpeter did a A1 job. A good looking room with high WAF.

We ran the system flat w/o any adjustments or tuning just to see if all the speakers were on. It sounded very very nice. Once we get it dialed in it will be a jaw dropping system. We will do that once the room is done and the seating is in.

When you figure it costs 7K, it will outperform most of the so called "high end" showrooms at the so called "high end" stores in the city that sport a much higher price tag.

Damon and I work cheap.... give us some beer and were there[]

JM

[SCOOTERDOG]

Looks like its gonna be another Heriatge HT party happening soon! Your dead on when you talk about an all heritage HT compared to the high end showrooms around town not to mention most theaters.

Congrats on the new theater![<)]

scooter

[damonrpayne]

The CW's in the HT are not the best looking speakers. The front 3 cornwalls are behind the front wall hidden behind built in grill cloth. His carpeter did a A1 job. A good looking room with high WAF.

The finished carpentry is top notch no question, but Scott did communicate the explicit plans for the room as far as I know, yet there we were running a 25 foot extension cord for the projector and using a drill and jigsaw to cut access routes for hooking up the reciever & DVD player.

The $7k figure MUST not include the room construction. There's no way.

[SCOOTERDOG]

Yeah I can vouch for that. I told my wife I'd only spend about 5k on room construction and I think I spent at least 2k ion all of the wiring alone. It turned out to be more like 8k just for the room and I'm still working on it

scooter

[boomac]

As Damon hinted; room construction was not in the equation.

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In round numbers:

$1000 Receiver (new local)

$1500 DVD (new local - reg $3500)

$ 750 Screen (new ProjectorPeople.com)

$1350 Projector (new and after rebate ProjectorPeople.com)

$ 700 Cornwalls (3 used)

$ 400 Heresys (4 used)

$ 700 RSW15 (used local)

$ 600 Accessories

$7000 Total

A proper outlet will be installed this week and the boss lady and I will be out looking at seating ASAP. The Boz Skaggs DVD hooked her and for the first time in many years she has started a Christmas List. I think the picture and sound amazed her.

Yeah Michael Id never cover up the curly maple Cornwalls but I do have a two channel set-up in the HT room. Thats why I went with an electric screen. When its just music the screen is up exposing a two channel amp, pre amp, CD player and turntable. The two main Cornwalls do double duty.

Why am I up so early? Daughter is off to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Alaska to see a friend at Elmendorf AFB and do some fly fishing & site seeing before school starts next week.

[DrWho]

I forget, how were the heresies going to be mounted? Back when you

demo'd at the cheesefest I really liked how you had the front 3

speakers being tucked into that false wall with rear access to the gear

and all that. [Y][Y]

I'm up early cuz I've got early classes...4AM is more like bed time [][]

[rplace]

Scott, glad to hear it is all coming together for you. Also happy to hear you like the projector. I knew you would.

Good luck with the seats...I found that one of the most frustrating parts.

Let's see some pix!

[colterphoto1]

Scott, how do you integrate the two systems with respect to the CW's?

And are your mains of Horizontal type with a vertical center or???

And where on earth did you find H's for $100 each? quite the deal!

Photos or layout diagrams would be appreciated. My system might be

pretty similar to yours when all is said and done, but I have a total

of 7 CW's and 4 H's at my disposal for placement options.

M

[colterphoto1]

Reread some of the posts, so it's 3 CW's for the HT PLUS the two pretty ones for the 2 ch system? So are the two systems integrated in any way?

I think I'd miss ability to listen to CD's with the 2 ch +sub or in occasional 5.1 or 7.1.

M

[damonrpayne]

The maples are in another room. We have yet to figure out the means by which the tucked-away front speakers are switched from HT mode to BAT tube prepro/amp mode.

[DrWho]

The maples are in another room. We have yet to figure out the means by which the tucked-away front speakers are switched from HT mode to BAT tube prepro/amp mode.

Best way to do that would be a speaker-level switcher. It'll pick which amps are connected to the speaker.

The only device I know of on the market is the Niles box for $100.

And then I've actually designed a relay based amp selecter with optional load protection for tube amps (it keeps the amp from running into oscillation and blowing up if you accidentally throw the switch with the amp still on). The nice bit about relays is it's a pure signal path - no crazy resistors or anything else in the way. I tried to hit the $100 mark, but it'll end up being a bit more expensive - I really wanted it to have binding posts instead of the cheesy spring terminals. And then once I figure out how to build a remote system for cheap it'd be a drop-in modification (since it's already relay based). Oh, did I mention it's all housed in a brushed aluminum enclosure? []

I was just thinking...it would be fairly trivial to design it to work off a 12V trigger if the reciever has one. The switcher could automatically select the reciever when the reciever turns on and then snap back to the BAT when the reciever turns off...now that would be mega cool and cheaper than using a remote...

But ya, if there's any interest just let me know and I'll go put something together - I have a half built one sitting in the closet. First time for a project is always "at cost" too []

[boomac]

The Niles Box is what the G-Man uses in his upstairs system. Thats what he recommended to me and Ill probably order one. Im also interested in your gadget Doc. I sure as heck dont want to be blowing things up!

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Michael the maple Cornwalls are in another room.

In the area, over the past two years, I have come across 4 pair of Heresy speakers. One pair of trade ins at the local dealership. (the cones were bad I bought them for $75 and spent an additional $120 for two new cones.) At a rummage sale I bought a Nice NAD Receiver, Sony CD Player, a cassette deck and very nice Heresys for $125.00. At another rummage I bought a pair of Heresys for $200 and at a flee market I bought a fourth pair for you dont want to know! Again the cones were dented and torn but $120 was all it took to get them lookin and soundin good again.

In the HT, the Yamaha and Denon represent a big chunk of the overall system cost. For less than half of their total, one could buy a darn good receiver and DVD player and get the total under 5K. I think the Klipsch Speakers are the real deal here with the Panasonic Projector second - followed by the Denon and the RSW-15.

[Audible Nectar]

Congratulations on your new HT install....particularly on your choice of three Cornwalls across the front soundstage!! That will do wonders for your HT performance by keeping things seamless sounding. The Heresys should complement this setup nicely.

As for "too much sub" - don't worry about that. Too much/extra subwoofer capability with big Heritage is "just right". You can always turn it down if need be, and that larger sub will work less and sound more effortless at any given volume level.

Don't forget also to purchase fresh packages (for the males and females) of underwear for your unsuspecting guests[]

[colterphoto1]

'The two main Cornwalls do double duty'

ah I see, I didin't read this post good enough.

Do you run your 'audio-only' sources direct through the 2ch setup pre/amp then? That still does not allow you the ability to do 7 ch stereo etc, or use the sub with stereo mix, right?

What I'm wondering is could you hook up ALL sources to the Yamaha, then if you wanted 'pure direct' sound, trigger the Yamaha DIRECT mode (bypassing the A/D converters) and then use an aux out to your other setup? Or ar you trying to keep the level of signal purity higher and that's why the connection of audio sources directly to the other setup?

What percentage of DVD movie/ DVD concert/ CD / Vinyl do you use?

Michael