My completed Theater with PICS!

I wanted to post my finished pictures as many here have helped me in the process building this room. The advice and countless rooms to draw inspiration from have been key. Must say, I have had more fun planning, and building this room, than I ever could have imagined.

This is a single 13'x23'x9' room in the basement. It is hooked up to the central air but temperature stays between 66 and 70 degrees year round in this room without any help so I have the vents double closed all the time. There is an additional vent in the ductwork that can be opened or closed to help with sound proofing.

Equipment
LCR - 4pi with JBL woofer and B@C DE250 CD
Side Surrounds - Athena WS100 x 4
Backs - Athena WS60 x2
IB 4 18" Fi in 780 Cubic Feet
Behringer EP4000
Denon 2809ci AVR
PS3
Harmony 890 RF
JVC RS10 Projector
133" Electric HighPower 2.8 gain screen

2" OC703 on the sidewalls covered with black AT Acoustimac fabric
Guilford of Maine Clarent accent covering the walls above the OC703
OC703 super chunk and tube, sand, bass traps in the front corners
Riser framing left "open" on two sides for additional bass trapping

Posters on the side walls are fabric and dark in color. No reflection and disappear during movie.
The poster frames are covered in black velvet - ZERO reflections in the room.

Facing the screen wall


Rear of the room


NEW updated pics























Facing the "screen wall" directly as you enter the room


Looking right over the top of the projector




Facing the seating







The rear of the room has a bar, with seating for three, the media niche, equipment rack and treadmill closet. The room was originally used as a grunge workout room and we still use the treadmill regularly. The TV on the wall makes an easy way to get the news in the morning while using the treadmill.


To the left of the treadmill is a lighted area where the AVR, Shaker amp, PS3 and HD Fios box interface with the wall jacks for the speaker wire and HDMI. Real easy to get back there and mess with the cables.



116" wide high power screen that is masked to a 2.4 aspect at 50" high 126" diag
or I can have a 57"x 101 116" diag 1.78 image if I lower the screen to the max.
This gives the same viewing area for scope AND 16x9 content


16x9 image











Here are some additional construction photos

The rack area primed


Screen wall framed




Panels off, showing the 4 18's drivers for the IB





Fabric posters for the side wall - no reflections






Beginning stages of 4pi LCR project - 15" woofers, horn loaded and high sensitivity




Enjoy!

Not at all. 4 months of initial planning, including two months of cleanup. The room had been a junk catch all for years. I also had to tear some osb sheeting off the wall as the contracor used some warped studs and the wall really bowed. Actual framing, electrical, soundproofing, drywall and basic finish took about 7 months.

Good to hear! Seems like I know many folks that are into fitness and they are expecting me to become a big blob now that the room is done. You know, watching movie after movie pounding down the candy, popcorn and beer - err I mean soft drinks. The treadmill gets lots of action. More than the theater...

Thanks! I am toying with the idea of a star ceiling as next winters project and will be sure to check your thread closer on that as well. The wife is a little leary as the ceiling really did come out nice. She gets nervous when I start to tinker...

Thanks for the comments. I will dig some pics up and post later as I cannot access photobucket at work...

The soffits are drywall except for the face of the light tray which is a row of
2x6's. I did not texture the soffits or ceiling and worked like a dog to get the drywall seams as smooth as possible.
Original room dimensions were 13.5' x 26.5'. Finished is 13'2" x 23' as the end of the room I framed to hold the treadmill closet and rack and framed out the niche side as it was a bare concrete wall.

Why do you want to add more work for me?

The screen is on a manual wall switch and, down the road, I thought it would be cool to turn that into a switch a Harmony could control. Could then open the drapes via remote, then drop the screen. Or something like that...

Thanks Sam. I remember first speaking with you when the room was just a twinkle in my eye. I wish I had a little more room width like you have. I had to compromise to get the 4 seats and the pj pedestal in the room. The room really called for just 3 seats wide but I really wanted the two love seats in the back row and had to butt the 2nd row right up to the wall. I am glad I did it as the two love seats have proved invaluable for couples nights and seating 4 girls each for big parties.

Pretty much. The fronts, center and rear are 41" long speaker bar style speakers. 9 drivers or passive resisters each. The fronts and center are housed below the screen. Two sets of side surrounds using similar style speakers (one set for each reclining row) just a little shorter with less passive resisters so they do not put out "as much" bass. Funny thing is, as much money as I put into the screen and projector and I get more comments from guests on the audio.

Thanks!

That is the infamous Costco Berkline seating. Costco sold them in 3 packs and I had a buddy that needed 5 chairs and I needed 7 so when costco threw on the $300 rebate per 3 pack we bit and purchased together. The seats really were not what I had been targeting, but the price was insanely low...

I will throw what I have on the screenwall later. it is not a false wall though. The center and fronts are housed in the black area right below the screen and sit on a tray so they sit as high as possible. The way the room was origianlly framed the lower part of the screenwall is recessed a bit from the upper. I thought about framing it out before I did drywall but decided I could use the space so the speakers would not stick out so much. The side area houses sand filled tube bass traps. There is sound board right on the screen wall to deaden the wall.

Oh, heck yeah. Ceiling mount would have helped me in numerous places. Buuut, after testing many different screens/materials I really preferred the high power screen. Unfortunately this is a retro reflective screen so to get the gain benefits the PJ has to be as close to eye level as possible as the gain is shot directly back to the level of the pj. Guests seem to enjoy having to duck when they cross in front if they have side wall seating and need to leave. And, the maturity level of my audience is painfully apparent when the movie ends and everyone rushes to do their hand puppets...

The biggest issue was just giving up the floor space for the pj pedestal as that 12" I could have turned into 18" and given me a side aisle on the right side of the room. I was concerned about the lack of side aisle initially, but after 3 months plus it really has turned into a non issue. It is funny the things we stress over and obsess on during the build process and they turn out to be not a factor at all. This was one of those.

No it's fun. This kind of discussion helped me see avenues to take with my room when I was in the design stage. The speakers really are, like many things in this room, a compromise. The speakers were purchased for my then, kick a$$, family room home theater complete with 70" rear projection tv. Circa 2005. Since I got the big bulky TV (even though it was in a tv niche so it did not stick out in the room) the wife really wanted a small lifestyle speaker. Like a B O S E. After much looking these bar style speakers passed the WAF and put out the best sound at the modest budget I had. Actually, it was when I realised I could repurpose these in the dedicated basement HT it freed up alot of budget to apply to the room and make the project much more cost effective. I had assumed I would upgrade the speakers in the room down the road but honestly I am really happy with them. I may just upgrade the sub and call it good.

The theme of the theater may change when the kids get older. Although some nights it feels like cabo Wabo already in there.