My Ridiculously Inexpensive Dedicated KICK *** Home Theater! <<The Sequel>> - Page 4

My view on acoustical treatments is certainly not the correct one, but it is mine none the less. I completely ignore them in every HT I ever set up. I know it's wrong but i have to tell you it has not made me enjoy the HT one iota less at any time. Perhaps its a case of "you don't know what you're missing", OK I can accept that. But it is one thing I have no desire to mess with at all.

And I can appreciate that but for me it is nothing to use any time pursuing.

Shelves are installed and I very much like how it came out. I decided that I would stagger two 24" bracketless shelves and that the upper shelf would contain my rear center speakers for my 7.1 setup. It turns out that the speakers are exactly centered at the rear of the room when placed on this shelf.

Here is a photo of the shelves installed, iMac in place, and rear center speakers in position: (please excuse the red level, I forgot to remove it before I took the pic)

Sorry I am killing you, that screen project is intimidating to say the least. Wires will drop down in the walls to directly behind the speakers, none will be visible at all.

On the contrary my friend, I rather enjoy the little nudge that you provide. I don't consider myself particaularly handy so each accomplishment is major for me. I spend 90% of my time planning each move and the rest actually doing it. Usually my results are fairly good, maybe I am more handy than I give myself credit for.

I have been focusing entirely on finishing the computer area, which I am thrilled to say is now done.

Now with all of that stuff out of the way (it's literally off the floor) I can focus on other projects. Next will be the screen, for real this time!

Notice in the pic below that the audio rack is niw centered in the room. This allows me to place my projector on top of it as I had originally planned.

Pic of completed computer area:

I think I am being a bit loose with my description of things being centered. The rack and speakers are both towards the center, neither being perfectly centered. I would say in the pic you are looking at the white border on the edge of the computer area opening between the rack and speakers is just about perfectly centered in the room.

As a side note, the chair you see in the photos was in my garage ready to go on Craigslist until 2 days ago. I bought a leather chair to match the Berklines and it was a beauty but it turned out to be too tall for my keyboard drawer, even at the lowest height setting. I was going to sell the chair in the pic due to the color, thinking it would not go with the color scheme in the room. Well when the other chair ended up being too tall, I realized this one has adjustable arms and it ended up being a perfect fit. Once it was rolled in the room and put into place I really liked how it looked with everything. It sort of matches the Apple aluminum and my speakers, and it is SO confortable, so in the end it is a keeper.

You are correct, SA-XR55S to be precise. I LOVE that receiver, it has incredible amounts of distortion free power.

I am running 7.1 with the rear center speakers close together.

I finished wiring everything tonight, what a pain!

So I had put my sub in its position before putting the computer desk in its position. Wouldn't you know it, I fired it up tonight and it's making an awful buzzing sound, time for a new sub. The problem is it was lodged in the corner and there was no way to get it out without dismantling the entire computer setup and moving the desk out of position. Somehow I gathered superhuman strength and lifted it up and out of the computer nook over the desk and computers. Of course not before a wire I had running behind it got snagged on the sub's power cord trying to pull it back down towards the floor. it was a ridiculous struggle but it is removed and a new sub will take its place tomorrow.

Wow I finished hooking up everything last night at 5am!!! Fired up the projector (couldn't resist) and was thrilled! Even though I was projecting on a green wall with a brown blind in the middle of it the picture was still super sharp and bright. I can only imagine what my Elite screen is going to look like once I get it assembled and hung (RTROSE-I know, I know....)

Well it turns out the sub dilemma was partially due to the sub but mostly due to my receiver. I got a new sub today, hooked it up and nothing! Not a single bass note coming from it. Surely I couldn't have replaced my defective sub with another defective sub? I started to realize my sub wasn't to blame. It must be the subwoofer output jack on my receiver. To test this I hooked up my old sub using speaker level connections, sure enough it worked like a charm. I was thinking I would keep my original sub and bring the new one back. But then I heard a buzzing, it seems my sub is buzzing non stop when there are no bass notes coming out of it which is highly annoying. So I hooked up the new sub, also using speaker level connections and it too now worked like a champ without buzzing.

So in the end I got a new sub, figured out that a jack on my receiver croaked, and found a workaround by hooking the sub up using speaker level connections. All in all a successful fix to the sub situation.

BTW the sub I got is the Velodyne VX-10C, paid $129 on sale at Fry's today. This sub rocks and for that price it is a no brainer. The sub it replaced was the Infinity PS-12 and I think the Velodyne has more authority and much cleaner bass notes.

So I started prepping for the screen install (attention RTROSE). I got the blackout cloth installed over the blind and stretched across the window frame. The window and blind are both now totally concealed behind the blackout cloth.

Realizing that the wall was now about 60% covered in material that some people use as their screen surface (and I did too in my previous HT) I fired up the projector to see what the AX200U could really do. I thought it looked awesome last night on the green wall and brown blind, on the blackout material it looks exquisite! I am 10000 percent satisfied with this projector.

The wall with the blackout cloth installed over the blind, lights on and projector off:



The wall with the blackout cloth installed over the blind, lights on and projector on:



Screenshots with the lights off, note the center area with the blackout cloth compared to the left and right sides which are the painted green wall. If blackout cloth looks this good I can only imagine how amazing the Elite screen will look once mounted:





















I picked up my special order ceiling fan from Lowes today:





Finally here is a pic of the rear of the room showing all the speakers installed, the equipment rack with all components including the projector installed, and the completed computer area:

Thanks, I always knew BOC was a good screen material but seeing it ater watching the same content on a brown blind was quite startling.

I walked into the Ht today for the first time in daylight after having put up the BOC over the blind and window. I was shocked at how dark it was in the room. I literally could not see 2 inches in front of me once I walked in and shut the door. Very pleased with that situation.

I'm off to install the fan......

Well instead of the fan I actually decided to assemble the screen. I got the frame together and things were going smoothly. Then I unrolled the screen material and immediately found a very noticeable slit in it, very disappointed. Now I have to wait for the seller to respond with a solution. In the end I am confident that my seller or Elite screens will remedy the situation but it is an annoying setback.

Doesn't anyone check these things at the factory before they ship? The screen material comes rolled up in a super hard tube, it would be literally impossible for this damage to have occurred in shipping, it is a factory defect.

Yeah it's a shame but this is one of those times where we can see what a company is made of. I am looking forward to hearing what the resolution will be. The most obvious solution is for them to ship me a new piece of screen material, I have already assembled the frame. I'll post as things develop.

No worries. It's been a bit of a rocky road; first the seats, then the subwoofer, and now this. I'm off to call Elite right now, will keep you posted.

Just got off the phone with Elite, of course they are closed until Monday for the holiday.

Thanks for the advice but I have abandoned the cabinet idea completely. Instead I am going to do one of two possible things:

1-Place a popper on a cart in that corner space next to the rack such as this:



http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...=1&topnav=&s=1

2-Get a piece of furniture to match my desk and rack and place a small tabletop popper on top of it. I like this option because the piece of furniture will have drawers or shelves which I desperately need for remote storage and other odds and ends. I was thinking of a piece like this:



http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...orage-Cabinet/

Or possibly this:



http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...orage-Cabinet/

With this popper on top of either one:



http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...=1&topnav=&s=1

Update on the screen. My eBay seller contacted me and said that it had been forwarded to their service rep and that she would be contacting me regarding this. I am hoping for a speedy resolution, this is really slowing my project down to a standstill.