Deadwood Theater Comes Alive - Page 2

Thanks for your generous words. Deadwood was a singularly amazing series. A friend bought the poster for me, but a quick search turned up the exact one at Target, of all places.

There's a great selection of Deadwood posters at MovieGoods.

Enjoy the spirit of Deadwood in your theater.

That's no small compliment considering how tasteful your room is. Luckily, my wife was so happy with it, she actually likes to watch movies in there with her friends.


Can't say I disagree. I do put black tape over the power indicator LEDs to ensure the amps disappear when watching movies. Amazing how even a couple of LEDs can grab your attention when the room goes dark.

Thanks, Mike.

I bought the door from Acoustical Surfaces. It came pre-hung in an oak frame. Weighs 300 pounds, so I hired a couple of burly guys to carry it up to the second floor.

The 4 hinges are all heavy duty ball bearing units from Baldwin, who also made the latchset. The top and side seals are effective, but I supplemented the bottom seal by adding a 3/8" lip in the threshold, edged with a rubber strip. It's all good quality and works as advertised to keep the sound from leaking.

Would I use them again? Probably not. Their shipping arrangements did not prevent creative "repackaging" of the door from its original pallet to a different one somewhere between Minnesota and Oregon, which basically destroyed the jamb. Then the replacement pieces had the hinges mounted in randomly different locations, so they didn't match up with the door. I was able to make it all work, though, with some simple carpentry.

Had the QuietHome Door been available in 36" width at the time, I would have gone for that, as it would have saved quite a bit of money for the door as well as shorter shipping from CA. In ballpark terms, mine was around $3k incl shipping. I wish Amazon sold these doors, then I could have gotten free shipping!

Looking forward to your build thread.

It's hard to quantify, but I do feel it is very effective and worthwhile. I'd use it again. I was not able to do a before/after test, since the Quiet Rock had to be installed before the door installation was completed. I'm not as sure about the effectiveness of the Green Glue, but it's in the sandwich nonetheless.

Good luck with the project. Gotta keep those neighbors happy!

I'm flattered, guys.


I'm glad one of your rare posts came this way. Very kind of you.

I noticed your post at the KEF thread, and would mention I had a previous system where I used three of the KEF IQ6C center channel speakers for L/C/R, so they would all match acoustically, and so the L/Rs would not block the windows. When I bought them, I told the salesman I was using three center speakers for L/C/R and he said: "Can you do that?"

They really sounded wonderful. Luv those Uni-Q drivers.


Sorry, yet also pleased to cause you stress on the aesthetics decision. I have to thank my wife for helping on all that. I subscribed to your thread to watch the progress, as your room is the same size as mine. With such rigid walls, I'm curious to see how the bass performance will come out. We can continue that discussion at your thread if you like.

Good to hear from you. There's not much to show since these pix. Here's what's been going on:

1) Been working with Classe to find and kill the remaining bugs. My list has been exhausted--none left for me! That's 18 bugs gone. Nirvana comes as V2.03.

2) I added a 30 Hz crossover to better define the subwoofer roles. I posted details in another thread.

3) What would I do differently? Put the room on its own HVAC zone from the start. Luckily for me Mr. Slim will allow me to do so after the fact. It will not be the usual on-wall unit, but a ducted unit up in the attic, so no vibration/noise will intrude. I'll reuse the existing ducts in/out so nothing changes aesthetically. Install is in 2 weeks.

Yes, I'm still happy with the rear speaker locations. I did have to pull them off the wall and remount the boxes with some rubber pads between, as they caused a buzz with the drywall with certain bass notes. Solved!

All I can say is have faith--the results will merit all the work/pain/cost.

The Aerial SW12 has been replaced by 4 Hsu ULS-15 subs. Better headroom!

It necessitated some reconfiguration of the BassQ, since it rolls off pretty fast <20 Hz, and I wanted to see what was down there.

Thanks.

I bought all the treatments--mostly from AcousticsFirst, but some others, too. I updated post #3 where all are listed.

The transition for a single sub to "4 subs" happened a year ago when I first got the BassQ installed. But in that case I used the main speakers as ersatz midbass subs and the Aerial SW12 as a "ULF" sub below 30 Hz. The sound was great, the room modes tamed, but there was inadequate headroom for movies. Changing to 4 real subs and retuning got me back to essentially the same sound quality, but lots more headroom.


The "quad drive" is just Hsu-speak for 4 units bought with the group discount.

I really like these subs, not only for how they sound, but for their total absence of unwanted sounds, like rattles, chuffing, buzz, hum, turn-on thumps.

Originally I had them set to auto turn on, but they were not sensitive enough to turn on right away. So I just leave them in the on position all the time. I asked Hsu what is the difference in current draw between standby and On with no signal, and they said zero. It's really on all the time, just muted. The BASH amps draw almost nothing until the cones are moving. The heatsink never even warms up.

I also like that a 15" driver fits into a small-ish box. I only see two of them, and they do not seem imposing at all.

Lastly, I think the magnetic grills are brilliant. Easy on and off, but totally secure, and no plastic pins to break or loosen with vibration.

Hi Leith,

Thanks for the kind comments. Yes, as in your case, the wife has a say in the design, and mine was very happy with the results, even helping with some accessories and the arch timber design.


It was partly due to limited space, and partly due to limited attraction to over-stuffed chairs. I wanted the utility of good theater seats, with reclining backs for each, but the backs had to be shoulder height so as to prevent occluding the surrounds. High back seats do block the surround sound, especially the rears.


No at all. I am indeed flattered.


Nope. Totally trouble free. The only thing I found rattling was the siding on the exterior wall. At first I thought it was a romex cable hitting the wallboard, but luckily it was exterior, so I could glue it down. Who'dda thunk?

Thanks--season's greeting to you, too.

Nope, I'm into the Stressless seating for the long haul.