Zax's Home Theater Build - Page 6

Got some time to work on the theater this weekend... no WONDER it takes years to finish these projects!!

So got around to building all the columns this weekend. Made them out of MDF, glued and brad nailed together. They're super solid.

I decided to just screw/glue some 2x3s to the wall as support for the columns. I built a little frame to support the floorboards and installed them first.

I've test-fitted the columns and everything works great. I started wrapping one of them last night with GoM and realized I was too tired and had to go to bed. So next round of pics should have wrapped columns.

In other news, I've ordered my PT-AE4000, and Paradigm Studio 100s and a CC-690. Can't wait to see/hear them!!

Pics:


A stack of columns


The other side of the stack


The 2x3 strips ready to have columns anchored to them on the back wall.


A (dark) shot of the floorboard frame and floorboard. This column has a power outlet in it.


A sidewall prepped with 2x3s. Can see the GoM waiting to be wrapped in this pic.

That's it for now, next pics should be more exciting.

Had time to squeeze in some theater love last night with the wife.

We wrapped and mounted the front two (mostly decorative) columns. The front right column has a power outlet just in case...


The front right column - these pics are terrible



The front left column



The power outlet in the front right column.

The fabric on the right and left of the columns will of course be covered by the fabric panels. It's there just to make sure there's no bright-white wall showing through the cracks.

Tonight I will try to wrap a couple of the columns that actually house the rear and side speakers.

I had time to wrap, pack, wire and mount 3 more two-piece columns last night. Just have one column left, and then I'll finish up the baseboards and get started on the fabric panels.


Three of the rear columns mounted to the wall and wrapped in GoM.


A very rough look at having the Boston VR-MX mounted inside the column. I will eventually be replacing the VR-MXs with either ADP-390s or ADP-590s from Paradigm, but right now that's not in the cards (budget).

These pictures make it more and more obvious that I need a new digicam... oh well.

Hey Adam, yeah, I just sat the speaker on the shelf, I hadn't actually mounted it on the wall yet. It'll definitely be sitting between the two column pieces to give it room to breathe.

Thanks, though!

I've been super lazy (from a posting perspective) lately...

There IS progress on the theater, I just didn't feel it was worthy of pics and posting, but I suppose it is.

I will take some pics tonight... and write up an explanation of the step I'm at. Things are moving along nicely.

OK, so it's been a while since I posted any REAL progress, so here goes a bunch of random stuff.

Since the last update, here's what has happened...

First of all, since the flood, the insurance company's contractor has completely redone the basement (minus the theater) and it's looking really good. The flood was a win-win in the end. It gave me the opportunity to throw the second layer of drywall on the outside wall along with some green glue, and even get it plastered and painted. So the outside of the theater is completely finished.

Secondly, while finishing the outside, I wanted to get all the mouldings done, so I finally installed the door frame. I had to extend the door frame by about 5/8" because of the two layers of drywall on each side. I ripped some MDF to exactly 5/8" and it worked perfectly. With the acoustic door on and closed, all the sounds outside the theater disappear, it's awesome.

Inside the theater, the columns are done, and I've finally started fabric frames. I've made 12 x 1/2" thick frames on the ceiling so far. They look AMAZING. I also painted the lighted fixtures for the 4 accent lights as well as the HVAC vent with Tremclad. Looks great.

Other fun news, I've received my speakers for the LCR and am getting my sub and rears/surrounds tonight! Finally, I got Paradigm Studio 100s for the LR, a Studio CC-690 for the center, and ADP-590s for rear and surround. I'll be using a Velodyne Optimum 10 for the low stuff.

More cool news, I received my 130" 2.35:1 fixed-frame white screen from Monoprice and assembled it last night and hung it. It's really a well-built solid screen and the velvet covered frame is really nice looking. I've very impressed with it.

Finally, I installed the rope light under the lip of the riser and it looks really nice lit up, no pics of being lit up yet because the electrical isn't finalized at the switch yet.

And now time for some pics:


The Monoprice screen packaging. Really solid packaging, HUGE box.


A shot of what's inside the screen boxes.


A cross-sectional look at the Monoprice frame. Really solid aluminum, very cool.


Close up of the frame rail on the screen (I'm posting a lot of pics for another screen thread...)


A really dark picture of the screen hung. Since I started working on the ceiling, things have gotten a lot darker in there... The screen looks AWESOME.


The first 12 fabric panels installed on the ceiling -- I REALLY need a nice SLR to take final pics once the room is ready, this is awful.


Oh I started doing the baseboards along the bottom of the walls... 1" thick painted/sanded MDF. The wall fabric panels will "sit" on this. They aren't caulked or attached to the wall yet.


Here's a shot of the Studio 100 in the little speaker nooks I have. It's an awesome looking speaker... the CC-690 is MASSIVE. More pics of those badboys later.


Close up of the fabric panel joint and the painted HVAC vent. Both look awesome in my opinion.


The AE-4000 temporarily installed just to get an idea of it's awesomeness. What a beautiful picture!


The door frame looking from the outside of the theater.


The rope light running along the underside of the lip on the riser.

Phew... that was a long one. Things are moving along nicely, and I'm sure I left out some stuff, but I'll try to keep my posts more frequent.

Thanks, Nick.

I took a look through your build and your MFW project. Very impressive! You do nice work. As for the soffits, they definitely add a nice tough. I'm looking forward to covering them and the walls up with fabric panels. It's a long, slow process...

I got some birthday presents last night!

I got 4 x Studio ADP-590 for my sides and rears and 2 x Velodyne Optimum 10 subs, yes 2

So just for the heck of it, my wife and I hooked up some speakers yesterday to get an idea of what all this stuff would sound like.

I hooked up my Pioneer SC-05 to seven Marantz MA-500 monoblocks, and played a few things from the Disney WOW BluRay. I only had the front three speakers hooked up and for about 10 minutes, one sub. So it was really not indicative of anything. But the Studio 100s/CC-690 sound amazing!

Tonight I'll mount/hook up the sides/rears, and the second sub.

Question for anyone: To hook up two subs to a receiver that has only one sub output, the best way is to simply get an RCA Y?

Hey Ben,

Yeah, the fabric panels are a slow process but the finish is awesome! Can't wait to get to the walls. Going to rip some more MDF this weekend and try to finish off the ceiling, and get to work on the light tray for the rope light around the perimeter.

The throw distance is about 16' - 16'6". I haven't measured exactly since I installed the Monoprice screen. The picture with ZERO calibration (and likely bad focus) is still incredible. It feels like I'm watching a TV screen. I'm so impressed with the Panny/Monoprice combo.

Those slotted rims are a classic choice for lighting engineers. I've worked with a couple and they use them all over the place. My plan was to accent the columns, but I'm not sure the light will reach them in the end -- so hard to tell when the room is only in the design stages.

Luckily, before I had closed everything up, I decided to do the wall-wash puck lights so that will definitely add a nice accent to the fabric panels. Once the room "goes dark" with fabric panels, you really need a lot more light if you want it bright in the room -- but who are we kidding? These are theaters, we don't need light!

From what I've heard so far (very little), and the EXTENSIVE amount I've read about the Studio 100s/CC-690, they are incredible speakers. I can't wait to open them up and break them in.

That's an understatement!

Although it looks like nothing's happening, I am working as much as I can on the theater...

We're still finishing off some work that became necessary because of the flood, but I've still had some time to work on various parts of the theater. This weekend was a little bit of a blitz.

I finally got around to building the shelves which will house the equipment. My setup is kinda peculiar. One of the theater walls is adjacent to a storage area under the stairs. I decided the best place to put equipment would be in shelves/racking built between the two "rooms". I'd made the hole a while ago when I first gutted the room, but hadn't done the finishing. So I finally finished putty on the corners, added a last layer of drywall and built the shelves out of 3/4" maple-laminated plywood.

Oh and I finished the inset portion of the ceiling with fabric panels... those panels are going to take a while... wow.

Here are some pics:


The opening with the corners puttied and sanded.


The maple board cut to size and installed/leveled.


The shelving holes drilled using a shelf jig from Rockler.


The finished fabric panels on the inset part of the ceiling.


The shelving frame stained with two coats of black stain/lacquer.

Tonight I'll set up the shelves and put the equipment on them. I still have to come up with an idea for the door and faceplates.

I had a bit of time last night, so I decided to install the equipment on the shelves to see what it would look like (minus faceplates, door, etc). I also wired it up because I missed listening to it and watching it all.


Not much light in here anymore... hard to see.


A closer shot

So, next step is to actually make this look good... make faceplates and figure out how I'm going to finish the front of it and make a door work that will seal well. We'll see how that goes...

Thanks guys,

I'll try to keep things interesting... the next couple months of updates will likely be pics of the fabric frames as they slowly go up all over the room. :P

Hey Ben and all,

So here's the thing, it's summer in Canada, and because we only get 4 months of it, things kinda move to the outdoors, so I've been doing some outside work and enjoying the pool, the sun, and all that...

Not much has happened in the theater except for a bit of movie watching , but this week I'm off from work and I play to at least finish the ceiling with fabric panels and get some more light in the room (rope light and wall wash). We'll see if I can manage it. Have two kids at home full of piss and vinegar. :P

I had some time to work on the theater during the tail end of two weeks of vacation I took.

I was able to work on some more panels (that's pretty much all that's left). First I finished the panels on the vertical portion of the inset ceiling, and then I proceeded to make the panels that house the ropelight.

The effect once the ropelight is on is REALLY cool and I'm very happy with it. I wrapped the light around the room twice.

I also got my Crestron Prodigy system up and running. For now, only the lighting circuits are programmed into it. Eventually the whole room and all the equipment in it will be controllable from the (very nice) Crestron PTX3 remote.

Here are some pics of the progress.


The panels around the room which house the rope light look something like this before they are wrapped


Here's what the soffits look like without the ropelight on


Another shot of the front and right side of the soffits


A dim shot of the ropelight being on -- my camera is terrible I know


Another, brighter, shot of the ropelight effect.

I'm very pleased with how the blue fabric mixes with the black fabric of the ceiling... hopefully I'll get the soffits finished soon so I can hook up the wall wash lights -- that'll add some needed brightness to the room.

vanice,

I'm using three colors of GOM fabric in the theater. For the front, back and side walls I'm using OC703 inside the frames. 2" thick on the front and back and 1" thick on the side walls. For the ceiling, I'm just using 1/2" MDF frames covered in GOM. They are more decorative than anything else.

Hey all,

I've got some more progress to report... things are moving slowly but they are moving... I really had no idea the panels would take so. friggin'. long.

I've estimated that all included, each panel takes me about an hour to an hour and a half to make. That includes:

- ripping the original material (4x8 sheets of MDF and soon to be plywood)
- preparing the area to receive a panel (sometimes there's electrical work to do, HVAC work to do, etc)
- measuring the size of the panel needed
- cutting the ripped material to size
- Kreg-jigging the material
- screwing the material together (sometimes needs glue in special situations)
- measuring, cutting the GoM to size
- stapling the GoM to the frame
- glueing/nailing the frame to where it needs to be

I don't always do this all in a row, but each frame goes through all these steps at one point...

So far, I've almost finished the soffit panels. I should be done by the end of the week. At that point, I can start the walls.

I've lit up two more lighting circuits -- the screen wash and the wall wash. The wall wash makes a HUGE difference to the brightness in the room. I'm loving controlling it all from the Crestron Prodigy system as well.

Here are some (terrible) pics of the progress.


The panels above the screen and the screen wash lights on


A blurry pic of one side of the theater with the wall wash lights on


Another blurry pic -- sorry about this


A view from the front of the theater

The pics don't do this all justice. I hope to get an SLR sometime soon and take some real pics of the room -- any suggestions?