Our Theater (Third and Final one) - Page 3

I continue to be amazed. I never knew what I was missing with 5.2 when my surrounds were in the rear. Even adjusting rear speaker distance on my Integra , which improves side wall Imaging, pales in comparison to having a 7.2 system in my sized room. And the image from my JVC RS55 is spectacular.

Loving my theater!!!.

I might be doing something wrong but I only have PLIIx in various versions (like THX) but don't have PLIIz (at least it did not show up on my Integra 80.2 when I scrolled through the list). I also have some "neo" options. And PLIIX does not engage the side surrounds for TV?

You, sir, are a very powerful man. After reading your last post, I checked the 80.2 display and all speakers showed, it showed that I was in PLIIx and when I originally ran setup, it detected all of the speakers.

I went back into the theater, listened to the side speakers, and viola, sound!!

Thanks. Your post activated my side speakers

I really do need to get some photos up. I will try tonight with my wife's camera and external flash. Black speakers against a black background are hard to photograph!

Finally took some pictures.

My equipment is in the room adjoining the theater (where the universal exercise equipment is in this photo). There are about ten (10) 20 amp dedicated (not isolated) circuits in the theater and another 5 in the equipment room. Over time I have gone from about 30+ pieces of equipment to run the theater to 6 (excluding the 11 Seaton Speakers in my theater). So I now use ONE of those dedicated circuits in the equipment room to run everything and the only thing plugged into it is an APS 1050 Power Conditioner. Everything else is plugged into the APS including the PJ as what looks like an outlet on the theater ceiling is actually one end of the equivalent of an extension cord.

The first one is of the yet to be built theater. The two windows are on what is now the front wall. Another wall was built in front of that wall to get the room dimensions more in line with what was needed:



Another of the original room. We had a few pipes that we had to relocate



The new front wall in place:



Soffit traps being framed.



This photo shows the diffusion system that was built into the rear ceiling and is covered in fabric. The front of the room was the same but I had a HUGE null that was corrected by dry walling the front ceiling and suspending GIK bass traps --- no more null



My media is in the equipment room. All of my CDs are now on a server and I am in the process of getting rid of my analog stuff so the LP's will eventually go as well.



First completed one is the rear wall. On the right rear surround you can see the power cord hanging down. The Sparks come with about a 450 mile power cord and I need two feet so I am ordering some/ Those are RPG Skylines on the rear wall.



Next up is the front view, with speaker grills off but I don't keep them that way.



Left front wall showing RPG BAD ARC panels. The stands for the mains are built by Seaton and in my case are filled with about 100 pounds of sand. So we have about 260 pounds of dead weight. VERY inert and very heavy.



Side channel Spark



So there it is. When I built the room, I made a conscious decision to go for function over form. The wall color is that of a neutral gray card for any of you who used to do photography a long time ago. I struggled with paint colors but ultimately decided to stick to gray and black. That said, even with no music playing, there is a sense of tranquility when just sitting in the room. My wife loves the "feeling" she gets being in the room.

The room is far from perfect as I have yet to completely eliminate an upper midrange glare that shows up on occasion. But with all of the bass traps (all four corners and wall/ceiling soffits) and Audyssey X32, I have no complaints about the bass.

Edited by audioguy - 1/11/13 at 3:48pm

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your comments. We enjoy it a lot.

I went to a photography store as well and still have the card around here somewhere. I then went immediately and It took the paint store with multiple attempts to match it. Not a perfect match but close enough. Your story is hilarious.

I had used a number of highly thought of power conditioners. I tried the 1050 because, while I have "dedicated" circuits, they are not "isolated". I was having Theater lights burn out way too frequently and assumed I might have bad/unstable/dirty power.

The 1050 and it's relatives are battery backed. In fact, I can unplug the one in the equipment room and everything will keep playing for probably 20 to 30 minutes, including the projector. I have the larger model in the theater and have all 3 Cats plugged into it. I can unplug it and still get music ( but without bass).

With this unit, you can actually exceed the power capacity of the circuit. If you need 130 or140 volts for a bit, the APS device will draw power from the wall and battery at the same time. I know this works because when I had my full range Dunlavys driven by Bryston 7B ST amps, I kept turning up the volume until I exceeded the output by 5 to 10 percent (a display on the front of the unit shows that).

Is it better than others? Who knows but it works for me. Highly recommended!

"Functionally' it is a pillow that blocks the blue light on my power conditioner. In reality, it is a pillow that states the truth!

It says: "King of the Remotes".

My theater had not been straight forward to operate with all of the pieces of equipment involved, masking system, automated-powered anamorphic lens, etc. even though I have a Control4 System. So I was the only one who could operate it - hence the title. Once I have some new programming done, it should be more straight forward for a normal human being to operate!! (but I plan to keep the pillow :-)

Very good, indeed

I noted previously that I had installed a JVC RS55 to replace my perfectly wonderful RS2. The improvements were staggering. Out of the box, using some basic settings, the jump in depth, color, clarity, film-likeness was awesome.

I was planning on having the PJ calibrated near 100 hours, but instead purchased Calman software/hardware (meter) from SpectraCal and a Lumagen Radiance video processor.

The (very patient) folks from SpectraCal walked me through the calibration process (impossible to say "intuitive" and "CalMan" in the same sentence) and I was, quite frankly, blown away by the improvement. I could have lived happily-ever-after with the out-of-the-box picture quality but once I have seen what this PJ can really do, there is no going back.

Consider me a happy camper.

A new audio rack should be arriving today (Salamander --- see below) to replace my 15 year old Michael Green JustaRacks, and then I should be done (or maybe not!!!). The JustaRacks were an incredibly functional product, but just UGLY. I have no need tor exotic racks as my equipment is in another room on concrete. There is ZERO airborne feedback and immeasurable feedback from the concrete floor. Mine will not have either the glass doors or the side panels, but will have lights under each shelf.

Not yet. I will be taking a training class either next Monday or in March and then we shall see!

Ten Years Later:

I found a picture of my audio rack(s) from 10 years ago and also have my most recent rack:.

The old rack contains about 33 pieces of equipment (excludes amps that were in my old theater).

The four piece dCS stack (transport, clock, upsampler, DAC), 4 room correction systems (3 for HT and one for 2 channel); Theta Casablanca which is 3 boxes (had 12 channles of digital outs so I used external DACs); 3 amps (rears, center); and A2D converter with separate power supply to convert my analog equipment to digital so it could be run through the room correction systems; an additional D2A converter with separate power supply; four separate power conditioners; turntable, TT speed controller; phono stage; VCR; TV and another amp to drive the speakers for the TV; DVD player/video processor; satellite receiver.



Below is my new audio rack (sorry for the poor quality -- taken with my iPhone) : It contains: Music Server (top shelf); Bluray player; Control4 Controller; DirecTV receiver; Power Conditioner; Lumagen Radiance Video Processor; TacT room correcton; DAC and Power Supply; Integra SSP (which contains the equivalent of 6 of the room corrections boxes from the first photo. Since all of the 11 speakers in the theater are powered, it is not a perfectly fair comparison but still demonstrates a SERIOUS reduction in black boxes.



There is NO comparison in the audio and video quality of my current home theater. This one KILLS the other one. For audio, it is a bit closer but given the price difference, it is a no brainer.

The MSRP of the equipment on my 4 racks is more than TEN TIMES the MSRP of my current equipment. I'll make that trade all day.

It is amazing what technology, a divorce, a crash in the economy and starting a new business can do to our toys. But I am SOO blessed. I would not trade where I am now versus where I was 10 years ago for anything !!! (And I'm not talking about my audio/video stuff)