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Small Budget Home Theater Build- Start to Finish

4K views 47 replies 12 participants last post by  Reefdvr27 
#1 · (Edited)
I have really enjoyed seeing other people post their home theater builds and watching their progress, so I thought I would share mine.

Unlike some of the people on here, I do not have lots of money to throw at a home theater. So I would consider mine a "Budget build". To save money, I did 95% of the work myself. Also during the last few months purchased most of the audio/video equipment off either ebay or Craigslist. My home theater is small, the room size is 12' Wide x 14' Deep. Here is my current equipment list:

Optoma HD25E projector
Pioneer Elite VSX92-THX
Samsung BD-F5900 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player
Monster Power Reference Power Center HTS 1600
Martin Logan Montage - Front Mains
Martin Logan Fresco I - Center channel
Martin Logan Vignette - Surrounds
Martin Logan Depth I subwoofer
Sony PS3
Screen - DIY using Carl's Blackout Cloth
HDMI & RCA Cables- Mediabridge Ultra Series

Now, before you point out that for a budget home theater I am using $6000 in speakers, I found all of them on Craigslist and got them for an incredible deal. This also goes for the Pioneer Elite Receiver, which may not stay due to the fact it only has 3 HDMI connections and they cannot pass a 3D signal.

The attached images are my attempt to layout the theater in Sketchup to help give an idea of what I am attempting to accomplish.

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b516/Eric-Lisa/Theater%20Reduced%20Size/RoomLayoutv20NoCouch-NoColor_zps8ac4d112.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo RoomLayoutv20NoCouch-NoColor_zps8ac4d112.jpg"/>[/IMG]
 

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#2 ·
Wood Delivered!

Wood has been delivered and a pic of the basement before construction. The home theater is going in the corner where the ping pong table is.

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b516/Eric-Lisa/Theater%20Reduced%20Size/IMG_3089_zpsd6336051.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_3089_zpsd6336051.jpghttp://[/IMG]
 

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#3 ·
Wall Construction

The first walls are going up. My new favorite tool is a pneumatic framing nailer! Love that tool. The last couple pictures are of the equipment closet being framed.

I tried posting the pictures in the body of the message without much luck. So for now they will be added as attachments.
 

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#4 ·
Tray Ceiling

Construction of the tray ceiling has begun. I plan on running rope light around the inside perimeter and plugging them into a switched outlet. Since the room is small its hard to get a large overall image so this is the best I can do. These pictures were taken on 4/11/14.
 

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#6 ·
Speaker wiring has begun...

The room will be wired for 7.1, a total of 10 speaker jacks. I only plan on running 5.1 since the room is so small, but I figured while I am doing all of this I might as well run wiring for 7.1. The room is also wired for (3) subwoofers. Not that I will be using (3) but it gives me some flexibility on the location of the subwoofer. It is wired for two subwoofers below the screen and wiring for another one is in the back left corner of the room (next to the couch). These pictures were taken on 5/15/14.
 

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#7 ·
The attached picture is of the screen wall. I am planning for a 105" diagonal screen size. The outlet and speaker wiring for the left and right mains, left and right subwoofers, and center channel. The electrical tape shown in the picture is the outline of the screen. I will be building the screen later using Blackout Cloth purchased on Amazon. I am also wiring an outlet and HDMI connection behind the screen in case someday someone would want to use an LCD screen instead of a projector.
 

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#9 ·
Electrical Wiring...

Electrical wiring is now completed. I have wired 4 dedicated circuits. The three switches control the recessed lights around the tray ceiling (remote control dimmer switch), Rope lighting (dimmer switch), and (4) recessed lights in the ceiling, for a total of (12) 3" recessed lights. These were taken around 5/17/14.
 

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#10 ·
Drywall time...

Let me first say... I... Hate.... Drywall. OK, had to get that out of my system. A Dremel tool does wonders for cutting out outlet boxes etc. I don't know how I would have done this without this wonderful tool! I have done all of the drywall by myself. I have never hung drywall before. Gotta love YouTube videos!
 

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#11 ·
We have power and lights!

Finally we got power to the room so I don't have to run extension cords across the basement. Drywall is moving along... slowly... but getting done. Did I say I Hate Drywall? The things I do to save money.
 

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#15 ·
Equipment Area

The equipment closet is shown in the pictures. In case you are wondering what the square hole is that's located below the equipment shelf. I have purchased a 20" x 20" return air grate to cover this hole. The grate door is hinged, so I plan on locating my Media PC inside this cubby hole to get it out of the way. A plug has also been wired down there to power the PC. Since I'm not sure how solid a wireless signal I will get in the basement, I have also wired CAT6 Ethernet cable from the router located upstairs to the equipment closet. These pictures were taken on 6/9/14.
 

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#17 ·
Nice project you got going there. Yes keeping the Pioneer Elite VSX92-THX AVR and still have 3D video is possible but would be a wiring headache. You could use a dual HDMI out blue-ray player, HDMI switch and make use of the Toslink(optical) connections on the Elite. There will be no sound quality loss versus HDMI, and you would not have the expensive of a new AVR purchase. Toslink will do 7.1 and DTS with no problems. I own a Pioneer Elite VSX92-THX myself and love the flexibility it offers and would not trade it for anything!

Yes Carl has made a believer of me. He has a great selection and quality of screen material for the DIY crowd. I do not know if you plan to hide your front and center speakers behind the screen or not. He sales perforated screen material. My favorite is his SilverScreen material. You will not be disappointed if you go the silver route here it is worth the extra few bucks over the regular blackout material. Send Carl a email, he is very knowledgeable and will answer your questions honestly and quickly.
 
#18 ·
My thought about using the VSX92-THX with 3D was this... The Optoma HD25E projector has two HDMI connections. I was going to use one of those HDMI connections to go directly to the Samsung BD-F5900 Blu Ray player then run an Optical cable from the Blu Ray player to the VSX92-THX. So I'd essentially be running only the audio through the receiver. The other HDMI from the projector would go to the receiver for the Satellite, PC and PS3. That should work right? I already have an Onkyo TX NR515 for our TV in our living room. I thought about switching it around and putting the Pioneer upstairs and the Onkyo in the Home Theater. But if I can get the 3D to work with the Pioneer I'd much rather have that in the Theater. Thoughts?
 
#23 ·
I looked at the Oppos Blu Ray a while back... just to expensive. I might just swap out the Onkyo TX NR515 from my livingroom with the Pioneer Elite receiver. That should solve the 3D and audio issue. Would using the Pioneer in the theater add many benefit's over the Onkyo receiver?
 
#25 ·
Getting Closer!

Painting is about finished, now adding wall plates etc. I painted the equipment area black, I will be adding shelves tomorrow.



I got the tray ceiling lights installed... love the look. We have both red lights and white lights. We decided to go with the red lights... more dramatic.





This was a last minute add before I finished the drywall. I have a Paradigm passive subwoofer that I decided I wanted to also use in theater along with the Martin Logan Depth I. So while I was adding speaker level inputs in the back corner of the room, I figured I might as well run another RCA jack, and an Ethernet jack.



This is the speaker and subwoofer RCA connections for the front left.

 

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#26 ·
Subscribed.

I'm also staring down the barrel of a 12' wide theater and love to see how people are tackling it.

I'm also struggling with the decision to build it myself or farm out the work.

how much previous experience did you have framing walls or doing electric?
 
#27 ·
ckronengold- I am happy with the theater only being 12' wide. Its just perfect for my needs and layout. I would not want to go any narrower than that though. My screen width is 103" which leaves enough room for my ML tower speakers to sit on either side.

I have never built anything like this before. I work in engineering so I am very good with CAD and 3D modeling, so I was able to do all the layout work myself. I watched lots and lots of "how to" videos on YouTube. They were such a great resource. I did 95% of the work by myself so the build went very slow... especially the drywall phase. But I am on the home stretch now, just some trim work, touch ups and then install the electronics and speakers. As far as the electrical, once again more YouTube videos. I also have a friend who is an electrician. So I ran all the wiring for the outlets lights etc. then he came over and showed me how to hook everything up. Its all pretty simple, but I had him wire the 4 circuits up to the fuse box. If you end up framing the walls yourself, you definitely need to purchase a pneumatic framing nailer... its an awesome tool to have! I don't know how much I saved doing all the work myself, but I'm sure its quite a bit. If I had to do it all over again I would only pay someone to mud and sand the drywall.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.
 
#28 ·
Did you have much HVAC to deal with? Thats not something I think I'm prepared to tackle on my own.

Here's what the current basement looks like, and what i was thinking about doing with it.
 

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#33 ·
As for the HVAC, I have one duct to run to the home theater. I have already installed the vent, I just need to tee off the main line and pipe it to the room. Fairly simple.

Your layout looks good, I'm not sure I would change anything. Looks like you are putting the speakers behind the screen. Where do you plan to put all of your electronics?
 
#29 ·
Carpet, Projector, and Screen

Carpet being installed:



Here is a picture of the screen frame being fitted to the wall. I then wrapped the screen in Carl's backout cloth. I am very pleased with the image qaulity it is excellent. Plus I saved a chunk of mony building the screen myself.



I got the projector mounted and tested. I found the Optoma HD25e brand new unopened on ebay for only $600! Super pleased with this purchase.

 

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#30 ·
Room Pictures...

Room almost complete!



My wife and I found this couch at a local furniture store, it was half price since it was a display model. Has dual power recliners too! The center seat back folds down and has two cup holders and a small tray.



 

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#36 ·
Looking great!
 
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#37 ·
Speakers

Got the electronics hooked up and begun testing and setting up the speakers. Very impressed with the sound quality from the Martin Logan speakers. One of my better Craigslist finds!



Even though I really wish the ML tower speakers and the Depth i subwoofer's wood color was the same, once the lights are dimmed and the movie starts... I could care less. :)

 

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