On Saturday I had one of those experiences of a lifetime when Angela and I spent the evening with Rob Hahn and his wife Claudia at their home in Connecticut. I want to start by saying I couldn't have possibly been made to feel more welcome with their warmth when we were there and I want to thank them both for the time and energy they spent with us !
I also want to preface this with a few comments which may seem strange but ones I feel are necessary. First, I had prepared myself mentally for what I was going to see but when I got "the tour" I quickly realized that there wouldn't have been a way for me to have prepared with things simply being so far from my own experiences to date. Secondly, and unfortunately, I personally do not have an adequate vocabulary to describe what I experienced there.
When we arrived we came up onto Rob's drive and were met with a gate which opened for us as we approached a gorgeous site really, with the home built on a grade and in a handsome wooded lot. When we parked we were along the side of his home next to the garage above which were several beautiful shuttered windows. As I told Rob later, I fully expected these to swing open and have him say come on up. Later we were told that these were faux windows and shutters since this was actually where the theater was located. We immediately could see that the front door was ahead as we passed under a long stone area with archways overhead hanging lighting and a conservatory of large glass panels and many plants within just beautiful. Incredible stonework and woodwork within as we went along this hall toward the front door. There the archway closed this area and opened to the stairs up to the front entrance
Rob and Claudia greeted us at the front door and immediately I could see that this was a place where attention to detail was important, this ,in fact ,represents one of if not the biggest understatement of my life !
We were immediately offered a drink as we talked a bit about the first time I met Rob eight years before when he was beginning his research for his home theater design. Then he had gone around the country to visit several theaters to see what he did and did not like. When he was here he met Mark Seaton who recommended Keith Yates for his future design and ultimately was his choice. I can only say that after experiencing the theater itself one could simply say that he unquestionably made the right decision.
We soon began a tour of Rob's home as Claudia prepared dinner. Rob has seen to it that his home has been designed and built as a place to stay, a place to love. The home is beautiful functional ,welcoming, and incredibly interesting. Angela and I commented afterwards that each room wasn't some sort of useless showpiece but instead each had a specific function for and a lot of thought had gone into each. The home is quite large yet each room feels intimate as they intended . I cant overemphasize how interesting his home is.
The tour as I began to realize really was necessary for us to get any kind of grip on what went into the theater itself from the lowest part of the basement and garage to the highest point above theater the various aspects of the theater and their contribution were exposed prior to actually seeing the theater itself.
The theater was many years in both planning and construction and the results speak for themselves! Large balanced power systems , HVAC that makes the room so quiet ones feels as if they are in an almost infinite space when the two 400lb doors close at the entrance. The room itself at first does not appear nearly as large as it actually is. First the architectural features clearly show a desire to make the room interesting (not an audio/video laboratory ) yet perform at an optimal level.
When finally were brought up to the theater we entered an anteroom with fabric panels at chair rail height ,wood raised panels and lighting to accent black and white photos that Rob told us will ultimately adorn the walls around. When we walked into the theater we both just said wow! I didn't feel like this was pearls before swine yet ,as now, I did not have words. One enters from the back and you soon realize that you are standing at a great height, each of the three riser having three steps. As you step down into the room you then begin to see and feel the real size of the space. Most of us have built our rooms within some existing space but this room is a full two story height which really dwarfs you when you walk down to the front of the room and stand next to the 19' screen and then look back up to the seating.
At the front is the very, very large Directors Choice Stewart screen . For those who don't know this is a four way masking system that allows Rob to optimize the projection area for each film. As he said to me this allows Jurassic Park to open up and be as large as a scope film vertically for the dinosaurs as the director intended and Gone with the Wind to be large despite the 4x3 aspect ratio. He said that he believes that this is how it was intended since this was the canvas they had at the time and each was never intended to be larger or smaller than the others.
I walked around felt things sat in various seats to the look at the screen experience the complete silence of this incredible room. At this point things start to get interesting as we checked in on Claudia and talked about dinner and poured a glass of wine. Rob has a large climate controlled wine cellar that is automated as is his entire house with Crestron.
We went into the theater to look again I think it gets confusing since I experienced so much that day we sat down and Rob turned the lights down. This I will say was one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced, it took a few seconds to grasp what I was seeing and when I did all I could say was an emphatic awesome ! All of the surrounds fronts and ceiling speakers and acoustic treatment were lighted. All had been totally invisible prior to this. The room was now even much larger as the true size behind the acoustic treatments was now exposed. I thought that the ceiling was flat black drywall or something but instead was black fabric with the speakers and elaborate acoustic treatments behind. This was still just stunning. The true now even larger size of the room in every direction became apparent. This simply is one of those things that can't be described . As you sit there looking around ,now knowing all of this was completely hidden to produce the beautiful architectural features when the lights are up ,the unobtrusive room around when the movie plays, but yet, is there and performing.
The first thing was War of the Worlds. Here as in the rest of the evening Rob did something different than I'm used to. He has presets for each film that correspond to his own tastes including many video settings such as gamma ,noise reduction contrast and many others. This particular clip started with the storm and lightening strikes. Nothing like I've ever experienced. It went on to the machine coming out of the ground glass breaking crushing metal and the vaporization beam all without harshness of the high frequency even at this level. Bass coming from everywhere. At one point I had to consciously open my mouth more since my back teeth started to chatter ! The bass is so tight and clean yet beyond any power I personally have experienced, despite having been in some rooms, including my own ,which previously set the bar quite high indeed.
Next we watched Gravity in it's entirety. This film looked absolutely spectacular on the 1.0 gain 19' wide directors choice and the Sony 5000es. More than enough light ,depth and blacks very very nice. This film has dialog coming from everywhere , as many of you know, simultaneous to all of the effects and bass that almost never stops for an hour and a half. Always easy to distinguish each and, at the same time, as the film takes you on a ride. Just great, great performance from the Trinnov, custom uber subs and all of the entire Atmos set up.
I firmly believe that I just experienced the greatest home theater in the world !
I want to thank Rob and Claudia for letting us into their home and making us feel so incredibly welcome. This was truly an experience of a lifetime for me. I told Rob that it would be very very easy to hate him but yet, instead, because of the kind of guy he is, I felt incredibly happy for him and proud of the effort he has invested to achieve this.
Best of luck Rob and thanks again for such a great day.
Art
I also want to preface this with a few comments which may seem strange but ones I feel are necessary. First, I had prepared myself mentally for what I was going to see but when I got "the tour" I quickly realized that there wouldn't have been a way for me to have prepared with things simply being so far from my own experiences to date. Secondly, and unfortunately, I personally do not have an adequate vocabulary to describe what I experienced there.
When we arrived we came up onto Rob's drive and were met with a gate which opened for us as we approached a gorgeous site really, with the home built on a grade and in a handsome wooded lot. When we parked we were along the side of his home next to the garage above which were several beautiful shuttered windows. As I told Rob later, I fully expected these to swing open and have him say come on up. Later we were told that these were faux windows and shutters since this was actually where the theater was located. We immediately could see that the front door was ahead as we passed under a long stone area with archways overhead hanging lighting and a conservatory of large glass panels and many plants within just beautiful. Incredible stonework and woodwork within as we went along this hall toward the front door. There the archway closed this area and opened to the stairs up to the front entrance
Rob and Claudia greeted us at the front door and immediately I could see that this was a place where attention to detail was important, this ,in fact ,represents one of if not the biggest understatement of my life !
We were immediately offered a drink as we talked a bit about the first time I met Rob eight years before when he was beginning his research for his home theater design. Then he had gone around the country to visit several theaters to see what he did and did not like. When he was here he met Mark Seaton who recommended Keith Yates for his future design and ultimately was his choice. I can only say that after experiencing the theater itself one could simply say that he unquestionably made the right decision.
We soon began a tour of Rob's home as Claudia prepared dinner. Rob has seen to it that his home has been designed and built as a place to stay, a place to love. The home is beautiful functional ,welcoming, and incredibly interesting. Angela and I commented afterwards that each room wasn't some sort of useless showpiece but instead each had a specific function for and a lot of thought had gone into each. The home is quite large yet each room feels intimate as they intended . I cant overemphasize how interesting his home is.
The tour as I began to realize really was necessary for us to get any kind of grip on what went into the theater itself from the lowest part of the basement and garage to the highest point above theater the various aspects of the theater and their contribution were exposed prior to actually seeing the theater itself.
The theater was many years in both planning and construction and the results speak for themselves! Large balanced power systems , HVAC that makes the room so quiet ones feels as if they are in an almost infinite space when the two 400lb doors close at the entrance. The room itself at first does not appear nearly as large as it actually is. First the architectural features clearly show a desire to make the room interesting (not an audio/video laboratory ) yet perform at an optimal level.
When finally were brought up to the theater we entered an anteroom with fabric panels at chair rail height ,wood raised panels and lighting to accent black and white photos that Rob told us will ultimately adorn the walls around. When we walked into the theater we both just said wow! I didn't feel like this was pearls before swine yet ,as now, I did not have words. One enters from the back and you soon realize that you are standing at a great height, each of the three riser having three steps. As you step down into the room you then begin to see and feel the real size of the space. Most of us have built our rooms within some existing space but this room is a full two story height which really dwarfs you when you walk down to the front of the room and stand next to the 19' screen and then look back up to the seating.
At the front is the very, very large Directors Choice Stewart screen . For those who don't know this is a four way masking system that allows Rob to optimize the projection area for each film. As he said to me this allows Jurassic Park to open up and be as large as a scope film vertically for the dinosaurs as the director intended and Gone with the Wind to be large despite the 4x3 aspect ratio. He said that he believes that this is how it was intended since this was the canvas they had at the time and each was never intended to be larger or smaller than the others.
I walked around felt things sat in various seats to the look at the screen experience the complete silence of this incredible room. At this point things start to get interesting as we checked in on Claudia and talked about dinner and poured a glass of wine. Rob has a large climate controlled wine cellar that is automated as is his entire house with Crestron.
We went into the theater to look again I think it gets confusing since I experienced so much that day we sat down and Rob turned the lights down. This I will say was one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced, it took a few seconds to grasp what I was seeing and when I did all I could say was an emphatic awesome ! All of the surrounds fronts and ceiling speakers and acoustic treatment were lighted. All had been totally invisible prior to this. The room was now even much larger as the true size behind the acoustic treatments was now exposed. I thought that the ceiling was flat black drywall or something but instead was black fabric with the speakers and elaborate acoustic treatments behind. This was still just stunning. The true now even larger size of the room in every direction became apparent. This simply is one of those things that can't be described . As you sit there looking around ,now knowing all of this was completely hidden to produce the beautiful architectural features when the lights are up ,the unobtrusive room around when the movie plays, but yet, is there and performing.
The first thing was War of the Worlds. Here as in the rest of the evening Rob did something different than I'm used to. He has presets for each film that correspond to his own tastes including many video settings such as gamma ,noise reduction contrast and many others. This particular clip started with the storm and lightening strikes. Nothing like I've ever experienced. It went on to the machine coming out of the ground glass breaking crushing metal and the vaporization beam all without harshness of the high frequency even at this level. Bass coming from everywhere. At one point I had to consciously open my mouth more since my back teeth started to chatter ! The bass is so tight and clean yet beyond any power I personally have experienced, despite having been in some rooms, including my own ,which previously set the bar quite high indeed.
Next we watched Gravity in it's entirety. This film looked absolutely spectacular on the 1.0 gain 19' wide directors choice and the Sony 5000es. More than enough light ,depth and blacks very very nice. This film has dialog coming from everywhere , as many of you know, simultaneous to all of the effects and bass that almost never stops for an hour and a half. Always easy to distinguish each and, at the same time, as the film takes you on a ride. Just great, great performance from the Trinnov, custom uber subs and all of the entire Atmos set up.
I firmly believe that I just experienced the greatest home theater in the world !
I want to thank Rob and Claudia for letting us into their home and making us feel so incredibly welcome. This was truly an experience of a lifetime for me. I told Rob that it would be very very easy to hate him but yet, instead, because of the kind of guy he is, I felt incredibly happy for him and proud of the effort he has invested to achieve this.
Best of luck Rob and thanks again for such a great day.
Art