Hello all,

This will be my first dedicater home theater build. So........I have decided to make a home theater design thread to get my design out and get some feedback from the wealth of knowledge from members on this site.

The theater will be going in the basement of a house I am having built. It is currently under construction and I am supposed to be getting possession in December some time. I plan on developing the basement myself but probably wont start it until this time next year. So....... that gives me about a year to design the theater. I hope that is enough time. Below is a picture of my plans for the whole basement.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1131/762236205_3e4961d752_o.jpg

The theater will be 16' wide, 26' long and 8' high with the possibility of 8'9" in some areas. It has 3 concrete walls and the fourth butts up to the stairs. Above it is the kitchen. The biggest challenge is a beam supported by a column that is about 16'6" from the front wall. Height from the bottom of the beam to the concrete floor is 8'. I don't really want to remove the column so I am just going to have to design around it. The column isn't centered width ways so I should be able to mount the projector beside it. Below is a picture of my preliminary design for the theater

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1102/762236495_d58c18126c_o.jpg

Here are some things I am going to incorporate in the design:
- False front wall that will hide the speakers behind an AT screen that is wide enough to do 2.35.
- Columns at the side and rear to house the surround speakers.
- 2 rows of seats with the back ones on a riser about 12 inches high.
- Wetbar along the back wall
- Star ceiling

I'm sure this list will get longer as the design gets more complete.

Equipment:
At the moment I don't have anything. The only thing I have decided on is the speakers. I will be building the same ones that SWithey (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8175115&&#post8175115) built and have already been in touch with Rick from Selah Audio (http://www.selahaudio.com/) about getting the cross overs done. For the sub(s) I need some help. I think I have 3 options:
1. a couple of standard cubes that I can put behind the screen and in the wall
2. I can try to use the spare space behind the rear wall, beside the equipment room to do some sort of IB set up.
3. I can close in beside the screen and do an IB/sealed sub enclosure similar to what SoapySmith (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10975397&&#post10975397) has done.

Any comments and advise will be appreciated. I have a long way to go but am looking forward to it.

James

My first thought when looking at the plan is to put a doorway at the bottom of the stairs into the spare room. That way people will not need to walk through the theater to get to the exercise room or spare room. Just a thought...

Another thing to think about in the planning phase is whether you are going to use an anamorphic lens for 2.35 aspect material. Projector location (throw distance) is pretty important when using this type of set up. I considered it too late in the game and it really isn't an option for me at this point.

Good luck. It looks like a nice size room for a theater. Any support posts in the theater room?

Thank you for the quick reply,

I should have labled which way the stairs go down. The landing for the stairs in the basement will be infront onf the Equipment room. Then the door to the right will be into the theater and turning left will lead to the other rooms. The door at the back (right side) of the theater will lead into the mechanical room(storage area).

There is a support post in the room. I measured it the other day at 16'5" from the front concrete wall and 8'3" from the side concrete wall. This is something I am going to have to design around. I't isnt centered in the room and I should be able to mount a projector beside it and have about a 14' throw distance.

James,

Room looks great!

Let's talk BASS :D

1) Tell me more about the space behind the rear wall. How large is the area?

2) Tell me about the space behind the L front speaker? How large is the area?

Steve,

Thanks for the comments,

1)The distance from the finished back wall to the face of the false wall where the screen will mount is 30". This should give me a clear space of 26"with a length of 199" (16'7".... huh... apparently my theater is wider than I thought) with a height of 8'9" that gives me an area of 35.9 sq ft and a volume of 314.4 ft^3

2)that space is 3 feet deep, the triangle bit is 3 feet and the rectangle bit is 3'8" which gives me an area of 13.38 sq ft and a volume of 117.075 ft^3

So........ since I have been itching to get going on something Home Theater related but the house isn't built yet I decided to start building my speakers. I am building the same speakers that SWithey built. The thread detailing the design of the speakers and publicly available plans is located HERE (http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=15323). The plans I am specifically using are located on Swithey's page HERE (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8955637&&#post8955637)
The only difference with my set is that I will be using different drivers. However the cabinet size will stay the same.

So Thursday I cut the wood roughly in to the sizes I would need
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1365/802983501_5d9e98e13f.jpg
Don't mind the mess under my table saw stand.

Yesterday I prepared the template. I downloaded the template from HERE (http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?p=265338#post265338) and carefully cut it out along the line. Then I used some spray adhesive and attached it to one of my pre-cut pieces of MDF.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1296/802983515_838a712792.jpg
from there I cut close to the line on the outside and as close to the line as I could on the inside with my jigsaw. Just a note...... I' didn't trim the paper out of the inside of the pattern. When I went to use the jigsaw it tore the paper in a little strip the width of the blade. This made it a little more difficult to trim it easily. If I ever did it again I would cut the parer out.
It was recommended to use a disk sander to finish the edge up to the line. I don't have a disk sander...... so I had to improvise.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/802983475_410e79ee6a.jpg
I clamped my belt sander to the table saw stand I have and pushed it so it ran automatically. It worked great. However.... if you do this just make sure you don't sand a groove in the table saw top like I did. :o

Today I spent some time tracing the template on to my wood and cutting away some of the excess material..... but apparently not enough of the excess material. I figured I would cut away some and leave anywhere from 1/2 to a full inch and finish it off with the router. This wasn't such a good idea as it took forever to finish it off. So tomorrow I plan to revisit them with my jigsaw and cut closer to the line. Hopefully this will speed things up a bit. :)

Today I spent some time tracing the template on to my wood and cutting away some of the excess material..... but apparently not enough of the excess material. I figured I would cut away some and leave anywhere from 1/2 to a full inch and finish it off with the router. This wasn't such a good idea as it took forever to finish it off. So tomorrow I plan to revisit them with my jigsaw and cut closer to the line. Hopefully this will speed things up a bit. :)
I cut just on the other side of the pencil line and that made routing very easy (but still had a ton of sawdust). Keep up the great work!

Thanks Steve,

I spent some time finishing the braces and the top and bottom plates today. I also succeeded in making a big pile of saw dust and covering everything around me in it.

BASS:
Does anybody have any ideas on what my best option would be? I would love to do 2 15's or 18's in the space behind "L" but I just don't know if I have enough volume behind there to make it a true IB. I am also not sure what effect only having the subs in that location will have. I suppose I could put another sub somewhere else in the room to balance it out. Any idea anyone can give me would be great.

Thanks in advance.

I always marvel at those brave enough to actually BUILD their own speakers....

Go with the IB

Thanks

I got some more done this weekend. Finished all the braces and top and bottom plates. I have the back plates all cut and the face plates are all makred and ready to go. Now I am just waiting for my Jasper Jig from Parts Express :)

I got a bit more done this weekend. I got my Jasper jig and router out the holes on the first part of the front baffle. I didn't do the front baffle yet because I don't have the drivers and wanted to wait so I could make sure of the size. After that I put them together using glue and 1 1/4" brads
Front
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1439/879790938_8c45a043f4.jpg
Side
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1440/879790974_f503c1802a.jpg

After letting the glue dry on these I set about trying to curve some wood around them. A note on the plywood: I had called a couple of lumber suppliers and asked about bendable plywood. The first place I called didn't seem to know what I was on about. The next place said they had something called rubber backed plywood. Now....... this sounded interesting but nothing at all like what I have been reading about and seeing on the forums so I thanked the guy I was talking to and moved on. On my way home from work I stopped at another lumber place and asked one of the guys at the desk about bendable plywood. I explained what I was using it for and he said that they had something called wiggle board that would defiantly go around that. However, he also said that it was quite low density and not good for building speakers. "So what do you suggest?" I asked him. well... he suggested I use 1/4" baltic birch plywood and thought I would have no problem bending it around that radius...... and if that didn't work then the 1/8" defiantly should. So I picked up some 1/4" and was on my way.

I started by attaching one side to the cabenate with glue and nails. Then I took my straps and started ratcheting the free side down towards its final resting place. The first little bit went ok.... then not so much. I had managed to get it within an inch of the side when the already attached side started lifting. Undaunted I kept going. 3/4"....... almost there.... 1/2 an inch....... just a little bit more...... but thats where it stopped. As much as I tried I just couldn't get it to go any more. Stupid wood. So feeling defeated I took everything off and cleaned up as much as I could.

So what am I going to do for wood for the side? Well...... After calling a couple of more lumber yards and getting nowhere I stumbled upon This place (http://www.vandykes.com/). They have true bendable plywood in 3/8" measuring 2'x4' ..... hooray...... so I ordered 8 sheets. Hopefully this (http://www.vandykes.com/product/02007824/) won't give me any problems.

James

Well...... After calling a couple of more lumber yards and getting nowhere I stumbled upon This place (http://www.vandykes.com/). They have true bendable plywood in 3/8" measuring 2'x4' ..... hooray...... so I ordered 8 sheets. Hopefully this (http://www.vandykes.com/product/02007824/) won't give me any problems.

James
James,

Your speakers are coming along very nicely!!

Fortunately, my wood place stocked 3/8" bendable plywood. Glad you were able to finally find a source. It is very bendable and will easily wrap around that curve. Just be sure to butter the entire surface between layer #1 and #2 to get an "air gap free" bond. You can water down the wood glue a bit to make it easier to spread over the entire surface.

http://swithey.gotdns.org/swithey/ht/avs/LCR-AttachSide2-sm.JPG http://swithey.gotdns.org/swithey/ht/avs/LCR-AttachSide3-sm.JPG http://swithey.gotdns.org/swithey/ht/avs/LCR-AttachSide4-sm.JPG

Thanks for the tip Steve

Trying to bend that 1/4" BB was not easy to put it mildly, I'm glad I found somewhere that would ship it to me.

James