AVS Forum banner

(Catchy Theater Name Here) New Build

7K views 122 replies 21 participants last post by  jessewendt 
#1 · (Edited)
Glen Lake Cinema - New Build

After two and a half years in our house I finally have enough items checked off the to-do list to start on the basement finishing. I have almost finished framing and am getting all my rough in parts ordered. Our plan is to have a large entertainment space in the basement with a semi-dedicated theater. The back of the theater will have barn doors on an eight foot wide opening. I know a lot of you cringe when I say that, however I am no audiophile and my wife is more concerned about entertaining. This will open the theater to the bar area and during get togethers will be fun. I will just need to build the barn door extra heavy duty. I still need to come up with a name. I was thinking Walnut Ridge Theater.(lots of Black Walnut trees in our yard and on the hill/ridge we live on)

The theater will be 14'w x 23' deep. It is completely room within a room construction and is only in contact with the basement floor and a couple home made, sound isolating anchors to the concrete. There will be a bar in the back and 2 rows of 3 in front of that. I am planning to do 7.2.4 with the following equipment:

Projector:
Sony VPL-HW45ES

Receiver/Amps:
Denon AVR-X6300H
iNuke 3000DSP

Speakers:
LCR - Polk Audio Monitor60 Series I
Side/Rear - Klipsch PRO 6800 80W 2-Way In-Wall Home Audio Speaker
Height - Klipsch PRO 6800 80W 2-Way In-Ceiling Home Audio Speaker
2 - DIY 15" Dayton Ultimax in 10 ft^3 ported box

I am planning to do 2 layers of rock all around, Is that a waste since there will be a 8'x7' opening in the back of the room that won't seal air tight? I plan to do blow in insulation above the room, as I have about 28" of space above. I am going to do full backer boxes on all in wall speakers with 3/4 mdf and another layer of sheetrock and potentially dynamat, or something like it. I want to isolate the room from upstairs as much as possible without throwing away money because of the opening. We don't have any bedrooms on the main level, so I am not overly concerned.
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
#2 ·
I would do the best job possible on the room.

Yes, I'm cringing-- but your theater, your rules. At least if you did the entire room, you could always change the doors later if you find them to be a problem.

How are you going to get onto the riser? I assume the barn doors are the rear of the theater. I would consider bringing the floor level across from the landing and into the theater. That way you enter the theater at the riser height.

Tim
 
#3 ·
The barn door will be 26 inches off the ground, or at the height of the landing you can see in the pictures. It will have a railing across it. The doors are literally just to open up the space for entertaining. The entrance to the theater is at the height of the landing and that height will go across the back of the theater for the bar. The second row of seats will be 2 steps down and the front row will be 2 more down at ground level. Does that make sense? I have drawings, but not handy.

Also, your point of filling in the space later if we decide it doesn't work is exactly what I was thinking.
 
#7 ·
I worked on a project that had tall walls like it appears you will have, the builder didn't put in any horizontal blocking and the wall had way too much flex. I could set up a standing wave on the double drywall wall by pushing on it.
 
#18 ·
Is there a thread that shows ideal viewing distances for certain size screens? I have been searching and have only found a couple opinions that seem to contradict each other. There has to be some kind of ratio that is commonly used like screen width × .9 = minimum viewing distace.
 
#19 ·
My home theater is about 22 1/2' long, and I have squeezed in two rows & a bar.

A things about my room
1) My front sound stage uses 'in wall' speakers mounted on the front of the wall (for sound proofing) purposes... so, my AT screen wall is less than 1' in front of the front wall... so, call it 21 1/2' screen wall to rear wall. I used the Klisch KL-7800-THX & KS-7800-THX speakers (I got mine through Direct Buy for a great price, but the AV Science folks, like Mike Garrett, had very competitive pricing)

2) my front row is about 9' away from the screen... I have a 132" wide 2.35:1 screen (I think that is right about 143-144" diag.), and I have come to prefer the front row vs my second row

3) my second row is about 15 1/2' back... I started watching from this row, but have since moved to the front row

4) when the door is closed, I feel like I have plenty of room in my bar row... but my door is in the rear of the theater, and one of the two swings into the theater and is 36" wide... so, my bar stools have to be pushed all the way up to open my door... your side entry should work much better for that

5) my bar row is actually on a lower riser than the 2nd row of chairs, given the elevation of the bar stools... and how close to the back row they are, they really don't need to be any higher. I might be slightly concerned if you are thinking ATMOS, that the rear speaker sound will be blocked if your Bar row is too high. I don't have Atmos, but have seen others reference this as a concern.

Looks like you'll have a great space.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Almost finished framing today. I am working on my electrical plan. What did others with theaters similar to my plan do for electrical? My plans for circuits are:

1. Dedicated 15a for Projector
2. 2 - 20a for Rack area
- AVR
- Sub amps
- Blu Ray
- Xbox
- etc
3. 20a circuit - outlets for theater space
4. 15a lighting/deadvent circuit for theater - Insteon Controlled Lights:
- Bar counter lights
- 4" cans in soffit over stairs
- Screen Wash lights
- LED light in soffit
- LED stair lights
- Panasonic FV-20NLF1 WhisperLine 240 CFM In-Line Fan - room and equipment exhaust to lobby area.


Is there a need for anything else? I will pretty much do whatever the best practice is, as I will be doing all of the work.
 
#27 ·
Another electrical question for the the electrically inclined. Has anyone had any issues using 12-3 for 2, 20 amp circuits? My only concern would by some kind of interference/hum caused by sharing a common wire. I have no scientific reason to be concerned. It just seems like something that could be a problem.
 
#30 · (Edited)
I finished up with all of the framing tonight and put in a couple of sheets of rock behind where my risers are going. I will be framing my risers this weekend. I am limited on room, so I am just trying to knock out any of the big items I can and keep large items to a minimum. I honestly don't know how I am going to get all the sheetrock around the house and down the hill if it snows before I am ready for delivery. I am also finishing the rest of the basement, which includes a bar/sitting area and a large bathroom.

I had some help tonight the boy helped insulate and install the sheetrock. Only 12 years old and already understands the importance of decoupling walls, insulation, and green glue.

 

Attachments

#31 ·
Just finished working out the details for our electrical plan for the whole basement. I have now moved on to more fun things. Subwoofers.....

My original plan was 2 - 15" Dayton Ultimax and a iNuke 3000DSP.

I started questioning whether that will be enough, or at least if I will want more. Has anyone compared the 18" Ultimax to the 15" in person? I am thinking regardless of sub choice I should move to a 6000DSP, so I won't have to upgrade anything there.

Does anyone have real world experience/strong opinions on the 15", or 18"? I am going with a large ported box regardless. If I go with the 15" I will tune it to 19hz and the 18" probably around 17hz.

Thoughts? More power? More inches?
 
#33 ·
Another question for everyone. I will be utilizing the Denon X6300H in my theater. Outside the theater is a lounge/bar area with a 55” tv and audio supplied by a Sonos Connect Amp. My goal is to be able to use the 2nd zone output from the Denon to the TV and utilize the Sonos to play the audio. I see a couple options for this.

Option 1:
Denon Zone 2 HDMI > TV
TV Digital toslink out>Analog converter>Sonos amp>Bar speakers
*This should work for everything and provides a path for other things to be watched/listened to in the bar. Ie. Netflix, YouTube, etc.

Option 2:
Denon Zone 2 HDMI > TV
Denon Zone 2 Analog>Sonos amp>speakers
*Can the amp output to HDMI and analog out on zone 2? If I want to listen to any other sources in the bar I would need to run toslink back to the Sonos anyways.

Has anyone done anything like this? Any other suggestions? I will have conduit between the TV and the equipment room, so i should be able to change plans if attempt 1 falls short. :)
 
#34 · (Edited)
Made a bunch of progress this weekend even though visually it doesn't look that way. I was able to get the risers completely covered. We installed a silencer/muffler on a 6" line for make up air under the riser to the outside bar area. Unless we decide to fully enclose the theater at some point this is a complete waste. We will have an exhaust in the ceiling, so better to do this now, rather than have to rip stuff apart down the road. We stuffed the cavities with R30 and got the electrical all run before sheathing. I also spent the majority of today cutting up 3/4" MDF for speaker boxes for the sides, rears, and ceiling along with 4 silencers/mufflers for my hvac. I will have 2 - 6" supplies, 1 - 8" return, and 1 - 6" exhaust in the ceiling.


All necessary pieces for recessed light backer boxes.


Recessed light backer boxes.




Equipment rack on left. I will be welding a custom door with smoked plexi.


View from entrance.


View from bar area.
 

Attachments

#44 ·
Spent the last 2 days working on the final punch list before insulation and just rapped that up. I don't know if excited is the right word, but I am going to get the OSB up tomorrow.


Equipment room - Got to test the exhaust fan today. Shouldn't have any issues with heat in there. I am using a panasonic Whisperline 240 CFM that is split between the equipment room and the theater.


This was a fun project. We had to extend the sprinkler lines down from the floor truss to the new ceiling height.


Atmos speakers. I added a layer of 5/8" drywall with GG to the sides and 2 layers on the top. I also lined the inside with 8 mil sound deadening mat.


View from the back of the theater.


View towards the entrance from the from stage right.


View from stage left.
 

Attachments

#45 ·
Got the ceiling OSB installed today. 7 hours by myself. The biggest pain is that my ceiling is 11' 6" from floor to ceiling. My lift only does 11' 3", so I ended up with 6 sheets of osb below my lift.

We did a super scientific test with my son walking back and forth across the first floor. Even without walls, or any sheetrock we could barely hear any footfall.


 

Attachments

#46 ·
Looking for any suggestions/leads on a projector. My original plan was to use a Sony VPLHW45ES. To be honest I saw the specs/reviews/etc and just decided on this without a ton of research. Is there another projector that has same specs/performance for a substantially lower cost? The others I looked at but passed on were Panasonic PT-AE8000 and the Epson Home Cinema 3700. Any thoughts/suggestions, or should I just pull the trigger on the Sony?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top