My "un-theatre" dedicated room build out.

Well after some years being in this house of mine, I finally embarked on the journey to build out a dedicated room after pulling some equity out of the house to do other projects. The actual construction was a year long ordeal involving the use of a GC since I didn't have the time to be the GC and laborer on the project. The scope of the project was to add a 2 level addition to the back of the house and finish part of the basement. Right now I'm finally wrapping the last details of the project. So here's the progress from start to finish which includes some of the other non-theatre/dedicated room pics.

Start of construction:


The after:



The plan for the basement:



Start of basement framing:






Shots of the "un-theatre" area:

Dry wall goes up:




The "un-theatre":





Flooring goes down:



Flooring in the "un-theatre":

Construction near completion:




The "un-theatre":



Electrical:



The office addition:

Construction finished:

Basement rec area:









Completed office:

And now the A/V equipment:

Bryston 6B-ST amp:


Carver TFM-25 amp with Equi=Tech 2Q:


Velodyne HGS15II sub:


B&W Nautilus HTM1 center:


B&W Nautilus 804 with tall Sound Anchor stands (front mains):


B&W Nautilus 804 with standard Sound Anchor stands (rear surrounds):


Pioneer Elite Pro 1010HD 50" plasma:


Meridian 568.2MM surround processor:


Meridian 598DP DVD player w/ SDI mod:


Velodyne DD18:

Velodyne SMS-1 (mated with HGS15II):


All the equipment together in Salamander Synergy Twin 30 rack:


Spacer System lighting control:


Spacer System Master control unit at front of room for as IR repeater:


Maurice Villency Newbury sofa:


Salamander Synergy media cabinet:


Completed 100 A subpanel with Equi=Tech 1.5BQ:

Pics of the room now. I just received the acoustic panels and need to clarify with my supplier on vertical placement. Also, I am missing the bass traps in the shipment and need to check with them on where they are.







Measured bass response in the room pre-room treatments:


So this is my "un-theatre" dedicated room. I wanted a space which was a natural extension of the rest of my house without feeling like a room segregated fully for one purpose. Will post final pics when I get all the room treatments situated.

Thanks for looking.

Thank you. When I saw the microphone in the catalog, I thought it was cool too. Sort of sets part of the theme going into the room from the hallway.

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, it's the extreme makeover edition for renovations. All along, I wanted to make sure this area of the basement (for that matter any part of the basement) didn't feel like....well...a basement. I think I was pretty successful with this as during the daytime the area down there is pretty well lit with natural light.

Again, I wouldn't have been this far without hiring out the work. I know I'm missing the full satisfaction of completing this as a DIY but if I did that I would still be looking at framing and breaking ground....not much spare time. This project began about 3 years ago so you're getting the time warped version. LOL.

Hopefully, this year, I can declare everything done and be able to not think about any additional projects to do.

Thanks, BMDC. It's funny about how this project evolved. I started off in this hobby with an emphasis on audio. So when I decided to get into a dedicated room, I made choices where I wanted to have audio quality to be the primary consideration with video second. Because audio quality was a primary consideration in my planning, I required that the center channel speaker's mid/tweeter had to be at the same height as the left/right mains. With the setup the way it is, the center is indeed at the proper height to match the left/right mains. One of my regrets getting in to the system build was the fact I didn't go with another N804 floor stander to be used as my center.

So with the audio setup the way it is, I had two choices with my video. Either a flat screen or a front projector. I wasn't too keen with having to deal with an acoustically transparent screen which left me with the flat screen option. Because I was already in to this project with some significant cash already spent, I decided to get the best plasma (in my opinion) on the market, the Pioneer.

I don't know if a projector screen would work in the room as this would require me to relocate my listening/viewing position. Moving the sofa back would encrouch too much on the rear speakers.

Thanks again for the compliments as I feel it's high praise indeed from seeing threads about your HT project.

Thanks! Another Jack Vettriano connoisseur. I have another repro of his upstairs in the entry hallway. I'll be ordering some prints from Brent Heighton soon. You should check out some of his work.

Update:

Panels are up. Here are some updated pics:







In room bass response under Trifield:



In room bass response under Dolby ProLogic II Music:



Haven't had much time to see if I can dial in the curve a bit better. I guess I'll get to it as another weekend project.

Here are some pics of the room showing the various lighting zones:






Shot of the ceiling showing some of the recessed lights:



Well, I guess this is about it for the room. I'll be ordering some more acoustic panels to treat the area behind the center channel speaker and the reflection points on the ceiling. But after this, I can probably call the room done.

Thanks John for the compliment. The room is sort of a paradox. In many ways it's really a dedicated room as I doubt much of the stuff I did in there would be useful for any other purposed other than an A/V room. But I strove to make sure it didn't feel like a dedicated room. I feel as though I accomplished this goal. The room doesn't stick out from the rest of the house as an odd ball room and flows well.

The Pio panel does very well in the room. I have the panel on a 5 degree tilt down which isn't too obvious in the pictures. But it's not a Kuro. If I recall correctly it's about 2 generations back. Still a nice panel although I have been tempted to buy into the current Kuros and move the Pro 1010HD up to the family room.

The flooring sub didn't put down any subfloor. The matting is some sort of compressible rubber material with a foil backing. The material works pretty well as it does insulate the cold temperatures from the concrete subfloor during the winter. The other ingredient in getting hardwood down there in my basement is the selection of engineered hardwood.

Some more updates of what I've added recently:

The pic shows the addition of an acoustic panel behind the center speaker and the DirecTV HR22 HD DVR in the rack.



The pic shows the two acoustic panels mounted to the ceiling.



And finally, I added another Equi=Tech balanced power transformer a 2BQ to the setup feeding the dedicated 20A circuit I have feeding the two subs.

Hi SnS,

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, I'm very happy with the results. Especially now that I can pretty much say....I'm done. There are some equipment odds and ends I'll be acquiring in the coming months. One of them is most likely Meridian's new HD621 HDMI box which then would require a purchase of a Blu Ray player.

Cranking the system with some of my favorite music just takes me away to another world. Some of the artists I have music for, I've seen in concert. To say I can feel I'm almost there is a big statement.

Oh and I responded to your post in the Emotiva thread about the Sound Anchor stands before I saw your post here.

Some minor updates to post.

Addition of a Pioneer Elite Pro 141FD 60" plasma which replaced my old Pioneer Elite Pro 1010HD 50" plasma. I also added an Oppo BDP-83 and a second Salamander Synergy media cabinet.




I'd post a pic of the Oppo in the rack but I'm waiting on a new shelf.

sk20,

I didn't know you had posted in my thread. I hadn't had the chance to listen to any of the ML offerings. My local dealer had the Velo units and I liked what I heard.

Thanks guys.

The panels are Alphasorb 4'x4'x2" wrapped in Guilford fabric. The ones on the ceiling are also Alphasorb but are wrapped in a white suede fabric to blend in with the ceiling. I got the panels from Acoustical Solutions ( http://www.acousticalsolutions.com )