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An Evening With Rob Hahn

31K views 117 replies 27 participants last post by  Daniel Chaves 
#1 · (Edited)
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
 
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#2 ·
Wow! That is a bucket list adventure... I can only imagine the excellence..

Nice write up!
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thank you Art! That's so nice of you. I was anxious to show you what we had come up with after being so gracious in letting me spend an afternoon with you 8 years ago, pumping you full of questions. Needless to say, when I entered your theater, I also said "Wow!" I am planning on uploading some pictures of the theater very soon. The lighting is a little tricky to capture, as you can imagine.

Thanks again for steering me in Keith Yates' direction. As you experienced, he _really_ knows what he's doing. I'm extremely picky, and I couldn't be happier with the way it came out! Keith is the real deal... I should also give props to Geoff Franklin who designed the video portion of the theater and did all the incredible wiring. He & Keith are a great team!

Pictures to come...

-Rob
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thank you Art! That's so nice of you. I was anxious to show you what we had come up with after being so gracious in letting me spend an afternoon with you 8 years ago, pumping you full of questions. Needless to say, when I entered your theater, I also said "Wow!" I am planning on uploading some pictures of the theater very soon. The lighting is a little tricky to capture, as you can imagine.

Thanks again for steering me in Keith Yates' direction. As you experienced, he _really_ knows what he's doing. I'm extremely picky, and I couldn't be happier with the way it came out! Keith is the real deal... I should also give props to Geoff Franklin who designed the video portion of the theater and did all the incredible wiring. He & Keith are a great team!

Pictures to come...

-Rob

Yes, please post some pictures,you could easily replace my thousand words with one.:eek:


Thanks again Rob !


Art
 
#7 ·
Sounds like an awesome adventure. I hope Rob posts some pics of his theatre (and house!) but I completely understand if he doesn't.

I have seen a picture somewhere that shows the backlit room treatments in a Keith Yates room, I wonder if this is Rob's room?

I don't know if the pictures of Rob's theater but trust me this puts the domed IMAX to shame in impact. I hate to say it but even pictures probably won't cut it but at least could give a general idea. I did something similar in front but the amount ,the sides and ceiling and the implementation are just top notch.


Art
 
#9 ·
Wow! Having seen the evolution of your theater upgrades over the years and the wonderful demos that you've put on, it must of been a treat for you to get to experience your own "wow" moment. I can only imagine the detail that Rob has put into his theater. I'm absolutely intrigued by the idea of preset settings per film as seen through the eyes of a cinematographer. The theater sounds like a wonderful space to get lost in film. Thanks for sharing your evening.
 
#16 ·
Here's a list of some of the equipment in another thread I posted (sorry for the repeat here):

Subwoofers:

JBL Pro M2s (3 of them) behind the screen.
Also behind the screen - 12 24" UberSubs (custom designed). There is also a 24" UberSub below each center seat in row 2 & 3 (there are 3 rows of 5 seats each). More subs - 8 JL SHOC-24 subs behind the side & rear walls. So 22 Subwoofers total...

It is an Atmos system.

Speakers:

10 JBL Pro SCS 8 speakers in the ceiling
JBL Pro AC28/26 (4 of these, 2 front left, 2 front right)
JBL Pro 8340A (6 of these, 2 side left, 2 side right, 2 rear)

I never thought I'd _ever_ use JBLs in any capacity, but I flew to Milwaukee with Keith Yates to hear an installation of these (behind a 19' Stewart) and was duly impressed. So here we are! JBLs? Who woulda thunk?

Room size:

31' long
28' wide
13' high (but it's really 16' high - see below)

It's a floating room so there's room outside the theater proper. Above the ceiling height there's another 3' (for speakers acoustic treatment). So above the 16' height, there's a full attic above for all the HVAC stuff, sound dampening, duct silencers, etc. We have huge supplies & returns in the theater to move a lot of air slowly.

There's also another 2 1/2' on either side of the theater for speakers, acoustic materials and sound deadening.

We have 2 airlocks in the back of the theater, a little under 4' feet deep. Each airlock has 400lb. 3" doors

Projection Room:

15 1/2' long
9 1/2' wide with an extra 3' for the projection stand & port

There's full rack room in the basement that houses all the Kaleidescape servers and vaults and Crestron control. The wiring alone in the house is insane but we were able to do it cause we gutted the entire place.
 
#11 ·
Art said:

"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."

Kudos to Rob, that is the way it should be done.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Actually that's a dodecahedron speaker that generates _enormously_ loud white noise decibels (high frequency). We used it to test the noise level outside the theater (specifically in our bedroom). We also ran all the UberSubs at the same time. In fact it's so loud, no one can be in the room during the test.

I wanted to make sure I could watch "Apocalypse Now" at 2am at reference levels and that doing so would not wake up my wife...

Spoiler Alert: I can, and she doesn't. :)

-Rob
 
#20 ·
what type of frequency curve do you prefer in your theater? and any tips on getting the subs working together in your home? biggest sound challenge?
 
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#24 · (Edited)
I'm extremely sensitive to upper midrange peaks, so when Keith & I started this process, I made sure I impressed upon him that whatever speaker system we chose, it couldn't be bright in this area. I also told him I liked a warm sound, specifically that I was a mid-bass fan. We had lots of discussions about this - his only concern was that in giving me what I wanted, he didn't want to compromise dialog intelligibility.

It was a delicate balancing act, achieved through extensive acoustic treatment in the room. In the 125Hz to 500Hz band, the treatment made this area slightly less reverberant than the 3 octaves above (1-4Hz bands), drier than I would normally like, but the installation of carpet & pad softened the 1kHz room energy a moderate amount, and even more in the 2k and above bands. With carpet, chairs and fabric in place, the room generates a beautifully neutral, enveloping glow - all the warmth I asked for, but not at the expense of lower midrange/upper bass sloshing around the room, obscuring detail. And with the Lakes & Trinnov, we were able to fine tune the system balance a decibel at a time. As Keith said: "All the warmth and glow you dreamed of, without the mud!"

As for the subs, this is Keith's forté. The JBL M2's are quite capable of handling mid-bass & bass to about 60Hz at peak levels. The 14 custom UberSubs do the bass down to 10Hz and 8 custom JLs smooth the transition. In the computer modeling of the room, Keith figured the best placement for all the subs to provide consistent bass levels & quality of bass throughout the room. Low-frequency decay is very well controlled and balanced in relation to the average mid-frequency reverberation time. There really are no bad seats...

The biggest sound challenge was giving me a warm, enveloping sound yet still providing good dialog coverage for every seat. I'd also say that my main directive (referencing my desire to eliminate upper midrange energy) was - NO LISTENER FATIGUE!! I _can't stand_ systems that play so loud your ears bleed. We used the cars smashing and laser attacks in "War of the Worlds" to determine high frequency issues when we chose the speakers and balanced the system. On too many 'state of the art' sound systems, those scenes, when played at high volume, are just painful. We also used "Close Encounters" and "2001" because they aren't fantastically recorded, figuring if we can get those films to sound great, then most everything else should sound pretty good.

I have to say, the results have been spectacular. Like the different video settings I have for each film, I also have different audio presets for different movies (and different presets depending on whether we're watching in Row 2 or Row 3). I have about 8 presets in the Trinnov for each row, which covers most films.

-Rob
 
#28 ·
Rob, Try the movie SHOOT THEM UP, it is a great demo for the rotary fan. There are many others War of the World is in there. Subsonic information is occasionally captured in many movies by omission, most movies are limited you will find. Bruce Thigpen has compiled a list of these movies. Surprisingly you will find that on regular television many times significant low frequencies will pop out of nowhere, it is a totally random thing though. The realism provided by the rotary subs/ubers is something that significantly enhances the movie experience, kudos on that as well.
 
#29 ·
Wow, no wonder Art was impressed!!! That's a lot of subwooferage!!!

10 years ago when I had the "dungeon" built I had considered Keith Yates for the job but I didn't have the kind of space available to make use of his level of expertise. I ended up doing a "level 3" build by Rives. If I ever build a custom home I will definitely consider getting Keith to be part of the project because it sounds like his priorities are in synch with mine. Congrats on being the lucky owner of an amaaazing theatre. I look forward to checking out your build thread.
 
#31 ·
I actually also built a Listening Room for 2-channel music (separate room) that Keith designed. I can't tell you how extraordinarily pleased I was working with him. I needed a hands-on collaborator, somebody curious and accessible. Boy, did I ever get that, and more. It doesn't hurt that he knows what he's doing, in spades. I mean I did my due diligence for sure. I traveled around the country, visited various home theaters, saw some of Keith's installations - but in the end, I had to take a leap of faith. There was a lot of advanced work done in my project (even some new things for Keith) and you never really know until you hit play...

Boy, was I happy when we hit play!

-Rob
 
#32 ·
I'm thrilled with the M2s. This was one of the most important decisions, getting the LCRs right. I _never_ thought I'd ever use JBLs in anywhere in my house. I was concerned (to put it lightly) that they were horns. Horns? Really? Before we made a decision, I traveled with Keith (from my home in the east coast) to Skywalker Ranch to hear the Meyers - was not impressed. The M2s were actually hard to find for a demo, but Keith found a store in Minneapolis that had them installed behind a 19' screen using the Sony 1100 (the pj I had been planning on using, until the Sony 5000 became available) - almost too good to be true. My screen size, my projector, the speakers I wanted to audition - all in one place.

We went to Minneapolis needless to say, and that sealed the deal for me. Yes, they weren't perfect but Keith said with all the acoustic treatment in my room, and with the Lakes and Trinnov, we could dial them in nicely. They are very clean speakers, but not analytical & thin. They have fantastic dispersion and they don't get squinched or hard when pushed.

-Rob
 
#36 · (Edited)
I did explore using Keith in skoll in Miami Beach 2011, but his fees were 35% more than i had budget for so ended up with Steve Haas instead.

Even the very best of us are imperfect, :D the only critique that I give Keith, is that he was insisting on using a double pane glass for the projector porthole to hit NC5 :D.
I suggested there was no need for such extreme low noise floor, he then suggested NC15 would be more easy to accomplish, that is the proposal that was 35% over budget. LOL So I can imagine the amount of work that went into yours. Quite frankly 22-26 decibel is my average noise floor in the last 4 moons. And never lost sleep over it but I admire the pursuit of excellence in that regard.

There are excellent porthole glasses made today but every single layer you add in front of the lens robs a little the MTF of the Image, some like our German friends and client with Barcos have gone to extreme measures to use no porthole glass.

So if you do not mind me asking how did you guys approach the porthole design? Is it still double pane?

Inquiring minds to see how his approach evolved since 2010....Thanks!
 
#38 ·
I did explore using Keith in skoll in Miami Beach 2011, but hes fees were 35% more than i had budget for so ended up with Steve Haas instead.

Even the very best of us are imperfect, :D the only critique that I give Keith, is that he was insisting on using a double pane glass for the projector porthole to hit NC-5 :D.
I suggested there was no need for such extreme low noise floor, he then suggested nc-15 would be more easy to accomplish, that is the proposal that was 35% over budget. LOL So I can imagine the amount of work that went into yours. Quite frankly 22-26 decibel is my average noise floor in the last 4 moons. And never lost sleep over it but I admire the pursuit of excellence in that regard.

There are excellent porthole glasses made today but every single layer you add in front of the lens robs a little the MTF of the Image, some like our German friends and client with Barcos have gone to extreme measures to use no porthole glass.

So if you do not mind me asking how did you guys approach the porthole design? Is it still double pane?

Inquiring minds to see how his approach evolved since 2010....Thanks!
It's so interesting you bring this up Peter. In the beginning, Keith had actually spec'd triple glass for the port! I nixed this for the exact reason you stated. I said, "Can't we accomplish this with 2 panes?" I even floated the idea of no glass in front of the lens, building sound attenuation around the lens.

I decided against this approach because I wanted the flexibility to upgrade my projector without compromising a future pj's position - meaning I might want a dual projector system, etc. So I decided to keep the port - but only 2 panes! I _hated_ the idea of putting _anything_ in front of the lens (the reason I won't use an Isco). But I acquiesced on the port, figuring if I hated what it did to the image, I could just take it out! I, too, didn't see the need for an extreme low noise floor.

With that said, I wasn't prepared for the absolutely _phenomenal_ improvement in how such a low noise floor affects the movie experience. I can't begin to describe what it feels like to be in an NC -1 room (that's NC _minus_ 1)! Art touched on it a little in his first post. "GRAVITY" SPOILER ALERT - George Clooney 'returns' to visit Sandra Bullock by opening the door to the capsule - the movie goes completely silent after a huge crescendo of sound. We showed it in my theater with all 15 seats occupied and when this happened, when the movie goes silent, you could have heard a pin drop. No one took a breath in that room. It was jaw-dropping. That effect was only possible because of what Keith accomplished in my room.

As I said, I was not prepared for this. Now, I can't imagine not having this level of quiet in my room. And, btw, the picture looks gorgeous. I'm a nit picker of the highest order, and not once have I said to myself "Hmmm, there's something I'm missing in picture quality." That said, I'm pretty sure PQ would probably look better without the port, but I gain so much with it in place, I'm never tempted to get rid of it. And, like I said, the image quality is _not_ lacking.

The inner port is slanted, btw...

-Rob
 
#50 ·
LOL, that sounds like a great idea!:)

I would love to visit the pinnacle of HTs, but I am not sure that is in the cards anytime soon. I am definitely going to Cedia and I have to spend some time in Atlanta. Dr Dog (wkossman) has talked about doing a meet in Oct when he is done with his Nasa projects. It is possible I could swing it then, if Rob is amenable.
 
#54 ·
We just moved into our newly renovated house so I couldn't dream of saddling my wife with a meet - at least not now… A couple people at a time is ok, but more than that, well we need some time to recover from our construction! (We moved _twice_ into two separate rental houses - we're exhausted)!

-Rob!
 
#53 ·
You're welcome to visit any time Ash!

As I’m sure you've been reading, your gorgeous theater was so important to my understanding of what could be possible. I'm glad you're here, so I can thank you 'face to face' for your generosity with all the information you shared and for your hospitality in accepting me into your home.

I'm sure you've seen it, but here's the link to my theater build: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/19-de...struction/2523385-rob-hahn-theater-build.html

-Rob
 
#55 ·
Yes I have seen the thread - in fact I have bookmarked it...

If I remember correctly, amongst other things we chatted about... I remember talking about how 'comfort' in seating is important - as we stick bigger screens into our existing rooms - do we still maintain the sitting position that we don't get a 'crick in our neck'... when watching movies?

You theater seating is to awesome - each seat has a clear view ahead - this takes resources such as height of the room and with that comes volume which means more watts etc - which is your favorite seat, did you find it yet?

Another big priority for me is to have great aesthetics - but that results in compromising how dark the room is etc - I am pretty sure I told you that I chose aesthetics over optimum room for video and I wish I could have best of both world's - you achieved both - Kudos for that.

Will come by for sure - after seeking a time convenient and day convenient to you.
 
#56 ·
Yeah, we did a lot of design work on line-of-sight for all the seats. Not only did I need room height for proper 4-way masking (so I can make 1.33 & 1.85 films larger than they would be in a CIH theater), the height helped to make sure each row had a clear view of the bottom of the screen, even when reclined.

As for my favorite seat, check out post #51 in my theater build (this link goes right to that post): http://www.avsforum.com/forum/19-de...85-rob-hahn-theater-build-2.html#post45567145

You're absolutely right about aesthetics vs. room performance. We worked _really_ hard on this because it's one of hardest balances to achieve….

-Rob
 
#63 · (Edited)
#70 ·
Mr Hahn, this has to be the most fantastic theater I've seen on these forums. There are a lot of great HTs, and this isn't a knock on any of them of course, but there isn't one thing I'd change about that setup of yours. The colors, layout, and man what a huge space! Congratulations on an awesome achievement! HT of the year for sure.
 
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