Saga of the "Old Vic" - Page 19

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the carpet. I really wasn't sure because if someone had asked me last year what my theater would look like I would have pointed to Jelloslug's excellent design. I'm on a different direction now and very happy with the way the carpet looks.

The carpet is by Kane Carpet: Tivoli: Chocolate Truffle on a 12'10" width. It's not as gold as some of the pictures suggest, the darker pictures taken with a flash are more accurate.

Some of you guys already know this, but boy this theater building business is a big time sink.

Cheers.

Another milestone reached and some updates to share. The good news is that the Old Vic now has chairs, yeah. The bad news is that after pushing hard the past couple of weeks I had a windsurfing accident and tore the meniscus in my knee. I'm now on crutches able to do anything constructive until after surgery. I guess the seats arrived just in time because at least I can now sit and listen to music and perhaps spend time taking measurements and calibrating the room.

I did manage to almost complete the work on the stair well and the pool/games room above. I have to admit that I found trimming the stairs quite challenging, especially building the stair rail which takes a billion measurements and doesn't tolerate mistakes well. Also, the building codes for stair installation are very long and particular. Anyway, I'm really happy with the results -- just some final painting and trim (probably a crown molding as well) to do. Oh, I have to recover my pool table too.



I feel I still need to trim out the entry to the stairs somehow to indicate that it's the entrance to the theater ... perhaps some signage. Any ideas?



A long time ago now someone commented on what that green machine was in my workshop. Well, it's really a metalworking CNC mill/lathe, but it created some wooden parts for my stairs quite well too!



The chairs are Berk 12000 from Roman. They weren't my first choice, but they were about 3 times less expensive and the size worked well. The chairs arrived incredible fast and as others have said, Roman is easy to work with. I almost went with a brown color but my wife talked me into black as a safe option. I think she was right because the wrong shade of brown would have been a mistake. I can tell you they are very comfortable because I've already fallen asleep on them with beer in hand. Now the real story is how these chairs got into the theater given that I cannot lift anything. Well I have my 5' 3 3/4" (she stressed she wanted the 3/4" mentioned) wife to thank for that. Unbelievably she carried all the chairs from the driveway into the theater completely on her own whilst I stood around pointing with my crutches -- I can't imagine what the neighbors thought!!



I've also made a boatload of walnut trim (about half what I will need to finish) which is now sitting ready to be installed. Can anyone who has had a meniscus repaired enlighten me on how long it might take before I'm able to climb a ladder again...?



Cheers.

Too funny. My wife is very fit and very determined when she wants to be, but I think I've used up my favors for the month.

I wasn't really ready for my chairs either but I figured I could easily work around them so I went ahead and ordered. It's actually a big relief that all the planning worked out -- now I know they fit and the second row can see over the heads of the first, etc.

Two years The spin class is a good idea when I get there. I'll know in a couple of days what course of action I'm going to pursue but right now I cannot put *any* pressure on my knee. It's already a real eye opener as to how important your knees are...

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I don't want to do any kind of marque since the actual entrance to the theater will have one. I was thinking something along the lines of a metal sculpture like this or this. I need to find somewhere local where I can touch and feel to check out the quality. It's so hard to judge on the internet.


Thank you very much!

Congrats on your marriage to be! I appreciate the compliment but I think the most important attribute is patience. I've done a fair amount of DIY home remodeling in the past and this theater is an order of magnitude bigger than any other room I've tackled. I think it will end up being a 2 year project.


You have found the right place to learn. I search this forum before I start any part of the build and spent about 2 years learning before I started the build.

Jeff, thanks you just made me feel a lot better! I was getting pretty bummed that it might be a long healing process since nobody else I know who had the surgery was on crutches beforehand. You have given me some hope. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the support (and I thought there were only 6 people and my mum following this build!). I passed through El Cajon in February on my Paramotoring trip..


Hi Brad, the lights are from Home Depot. They are very cheap and decent quality (I needed 20!). Check this link. They are 3" halogens and NOT IC rated but do come with a can with spring clips that lock it into the cutout. I think they are available in white, silver and bronze but I've seen other people take them apart and spray paint them. I mounted mine in the light tray that extends from the "open" soffit. There is no insulation in the tray and I was careful to keep them at least 3/4" from any vertical surfaces. Fitting is simple but requires a precise cutout -- I used a router and template.

Oh, one other thing to note is that if you mount them in a tray you will get some light spill through the holes in the can. I'm making sure the lips on the tray are tall enough to hide them.

Should be fine. Just remember that they are 50w halogens so they do get quite hot.

Thanks Brad, I'm confident I'll be back building shortly else I'll end up deaf -- been drinking beer and listening to lots of loud music. I'm loving the sound in my second row of seats...

Brad,

Yup, it's a fact -- beer makes you go as deaf as a bat

Of the three rows the second row of seats has the best bass equalization. In fact the bar row sounds (and measures) pretty good too. The front row is just too close to the center of the room length so I knew it was going to be problematic. I spent a few hours and did a full equalization run with both the sub equalizer and then Audyssey on the pre/pro. I spoke about the front row problem with bpape some time ago and he said that I would have to move the seats by a minimum of 2' to get to a better spot and my recent measurements confirmed this. I wasn't prepared to compromise my seating plan (and if I had the second row would have been pushed into a unfavorable position or the front row would have been way to close to the screen) so decided I would live with the results. I must say Audyssey sub EQ did a pretty good job and it's not that the sound in the front row is bad -- imaging is great, it's just the bass is slightly boomy compared to the other seats. The main impediments are the axial modes around 21 and 42hz. The funny thing is that a neighbor listened to the sound and thought the front row was best, but they also have a giant boom box sub in their truck too Each to their own..

At some point I'll assemble all the results and post them but I still need to try a few more experiments.

If I recall you changed your plans so you are only installing a single row of seats in your HT? If so you will be able to easily dial the position but not being able to move the IB does have some disadvantages.

Another problem that took hours to hunt down was a ground loop causing a hum in the rear sub. It didn't occur until all the gear was installed into the rack (and some new ground paths were created). It's fixed now but was not intuitive despite my EE background!
Cheers.

Hi Tony,

It would be interesting to find out what compromises the expert professional HT builders make when building a multi-row theater.. Placement will always be an issue in such a room and effective bass trapping is not practical below 40hz in a home sized room.

As far as ground loop elimination I assume you have read this excellent primer by Bill Lummis? There really isn't a set process to follow other than to try to identify the source of the problem through elimination: start unplugging until the problem goes away and try to figure out a solution from there. Remember that not all hum problems are ground loops (running unbalanced signal cables next to power for example). Also some problems may be very tough to fix especially if you are using different power outlets for different components (sub with built in amp is a classic example of that). I've had problems when connecting my cable feed in the past until I fixed the broken grounding where it enters the house. My most recent problem was fixed by creating grounding straps for my two UPS/conditioner supplies and pre/pro and using the straps to ground each unit to the rack (so the massive structure of the rack is the common ground point). Can you describe your problem in a little more detail and where your various components are plugged in?