EndersShadows New Digs

This upcoming weekend my fiancée and I are moving from a 1 bedroom 1 bath 730 sq. ft. apartment (old layout pic here) into a 2 bedroom 1 ½ bath townhome apartment (new layout pic here. The layout is much friendlier for my Home Theater aspirations, both for the Living/Family Room as well as the Master and Guest Bedroom. While not nearly as awe inspiring as many of your dedicated theater rooms, its not to shabby for what I can do. Below are the beginnings of what will be my awesome new setups. I figured I would chronicle the journey both for myself and also anyone else interested.

Living/Family Room:

As of right now I am going to stick with 5.1 downstairs as I do not have the necessary space to do 7.1 properly and honestly don’t care at this point . We are going to paint the wall the TV is on a dark brown color and all the other walls in that room a light blue. I will be mounting the Monitor 40’s about 24-32” above ear height when sitting down using AM40 wall brackets. The Center speaker will be mounted above the TV using a speaker shelf I purchased off Amazon.

Equipment List:

TV: Panasonic 59” DLP (PT-56LCZ70)

The search has begun for its replacement, probably a Plasma of some sorts. Feel free to comment in

this thread Receiver/Pre-amp: Integra DTR 5.9
Amplifier: Carver AV-705x
Fronts: Polk Audio LSi 15's (with a db840 sub to replace the stock 8" one)
Center: Polk Audio LSiC
Surrounds: Infinity Primus 162's (wall mounted)
Sub: Polk PSW125 (being replaced in the next year by dual SVS PC-12NSD’s and moved to Master Bedroom)
Misc Gear: Limited Edition Halo 3 Xbox 360, Wii, Samsung BP-1600 blu ray player, Limited Edition Halo 2 Xbox, Uverse DVR Master Bedroom:

Equipment List:

TV: 32” Samsung LCD
Misc Gear: Sony 5 disc DVD player, Uverse receiver
Guest Bedroom/Office:

The Master Bedroom is going to be just a small 2.0 setup that will eventually become a 2.1 setup. This will be used mainly to listen to music while I work on the computer, and occasionally as a secondary Home Theater if my brother comes over with his Xbox and we want to connect them both up. As such I am not planning on spending too much more on this setup than I need.

Equipment List:
[indent]TV: 25” HP 2509 LCD Monitor
Receiver: Harman Kardon 3490
Center: N/A and none planned
Surrounds: Polk T90e's
Sub: N/A (PSW125 will move from Main Home Theater upon purchase of SVS PC-12NSD)
Misc Gear:

Main Rig Computer:

Motherboard: ASUS P5E
Processor: Q9650 @ 3.7
Memory: 8 Gig Dominator 1066
Graphics Card: ATI 5450
Storage: 2 Western Digital Caviar Black 640 gig & Samsung Spinpoint 1 Terabyte
TV Tuner: Hauppauge 2250
Powersupply: Corsair 450VX
Case: Antec P182

Living/Family Room Pictures:

This is the proposed layout. The location of the PSW125 has not been decided yet, but it will be either Option 1 or 2. My Unit does not have the fireplace shown in this picture.




New layout of 5/28/2011




**edited 6/7/10**

Have some pics, but not finished yet. Have been running into trouble finding the studs in the wall with the half bathroom attached. The damn things are definitely not 16 or 24 center from what I can see. I got my parents stud finder late tonight and am hoping it will help me in my search. So far in the mechanical room I have 32 inches worth of test holes with no studs. I am not sure where the speaker is going to be able to be mounted just yet. I also have to take my 56" DLP up to Anderson to get repaired as the lamp has been acting up the past few weeks... . Going to have to use the bedroom's 32 downstairs in place of my 56. That is going to be quite an adjustment......



**edited 7/7/10**

Finally got my lazy butt up and uploaded some pictures of the transformation. I still do not have any finished pics yet... The Big TV is done and ready to be picked up so hopefully I can go back to enjoying my 56" sometime this upcoming week

Sorry some of the pics are blurry, they were taken with a crappy camera. Once again all these were during the move weekend I am not normally this messy lol

**Updated 10/10/2010**
Here are pictures of the place picked up....lol...took long enough (especially considering these pictures are like 3 months old )


**edited 1/21/11**
Finally uploaded pics of the 59" lol


**edited 3/12/11**

Did some additional cable management and it looks much better to me...It doesnt look like I did much, but man on man did I ever....



Here are all the cable I replaced with shorter ones..




**edited 5/28/11**

Updated pictures to show the new speakers and setup. I am now running Polk LSi 15 fronts modded with a db840 sub, a LSiC center channel and 2 Infinity Primus 162's as surrounds










**edited 10/2/11**

Got a H15 and did a bunch of cable management.

Master Bedroom Pictures:

Reserved for Pictures

Guest Bedroom/Office Pictures:

This is what the layout may eventually look like. As of right now the Futon has not been purchased:



**edited 6/7/10**

My apologies for taking this long to update. I am waiting until I have the office finished, however I thought I would share something funny with everyone. I have a set of Infinity Studio Monitor 185's and a set of Primus 162's. Those of you familiar with those speakers will realize that the Primus 162's have a 6.5 woofer while the 185's have a 8 inch woofer. My fiancee originally told me there way NO WAY the 185's were going on the desk because of their size (18" W x 11-1/4" H x 10-1/2" D) as opposed to the P162's (8-3/16"W x 14-7/8" H x 11-1/16" D). So I hooked up the 162's.

Then when she wasnt around last night I switched them......and she spent over 2 hrs at the computer today and didnt realize that the speakers right in front of her face were like 10 inches bigger than the ones there the night before, and that they had a WAAAAY bigger woofer.

Here is to hoping I can keep it this way for a bit....


**edited 7/7/10**

Here are some of the pics with the P162's hooked up . Need some finished pics but been to busy w/ wedding planning and whatnot...


**edited 1/21/11**

Moved stuff around in the office, got a Harman Kardon 3490 so needed to update pictures


**edited 5/3/11**

Got a new desk and entertainment center for the HK 3490. Moved the Monitor 60's to the office since they were replaced by LSi 15's. The Infinity Primus's from the office are now my surrounds instead of the Monitor 40's.


**edited 6/25/11**

I got the acoustic panels setup. Their final resting place will be in the dedicated HT when we finally get a house. Until then with no storage space, they look quite good in the office..

Before:



After:

Quick Update. Paint made it on the walls Friday (thanks to my fiancee, her best freind and my mom) and we got a lot of stuff moved in (thanks to me and my brother). Had some fun getting the washer dryer up a flight of stairs and hooked up. Who knew how tight you had to make those fittings so they dont leak . Now I sure do! Got in the furniture yesterday and arranged so the Uverse guy could come get it all connected.

Had the Uverse guy come out at 1 and hook all that up. He was particularly awesome in that he ran the cables for upstairs under the carpet, through a closet, up the stairs and hid them very very well. He gave me tons of slack to move things around if I wanted too later. Then on top of that he let me piggyback my speaker wire for my left surround on his lines which saved me about 10000 hours of headaches later on.

Something wierd worth laughing at is how they now setup your signal. Originally their ATT box (they call it a brain box) was all you needed plus your recievers for each room. ATT decided to take the powersupply out of their brain box and make it external (my assumption was too much heat burning out the boxes). The installers are constantly running out of them so they have to use 70+ dollar UPS's instead. Made me laugh.

What is also funny is how you transfer your service. You cant just take your old equipment to a new place (that would make sense). You have to send it back into them via UPS and they give you all new stuff (not that I am complaining cause I like new things). Its due to them registering the software to only work at one physical address to keep someone from stealing the box. I can understand that. But the techs that do the installs were trained on a program to wipe the boxes clean to re-install them. But they wont let them. That doesnt make sense to me but it does to someone up there high on the Corporate ladder.

What was wierd though is that the signal is all run via ethernet to all my stuff. This is very unlike the last apartment where it was all run via coaxial cable. This is the setup Downstairs router - Upstairs office - 8 port splitter - Master bedroom reciever. I got the splitter for free which is yet another awesome deal.

My dad came over and helped me strengthen up my desk so it will work better and I started to get that room together.

We didnt take as many pictures of painting and downstairs coming together as I would have liked but that was due to having too having so much help it went super quick! So I am not going to complain too much.

Today hope to have the computers hooked up and the guest bedroom unpacked. At my parents right now using their computer to type this up.

Writing this from the office . Just have to unpack all the millions of pieces of junk laying around before I consider this done. Have all the equipment hooked up and running (God I missed the Internet ).

Not going to post pictures just yet as I want to have some finished pics of the posters and whatnot, but its getting closer.

Only thing left is to prime the walls in the old apartment and then spend some time with my nice camera getting finished pics . Anyone have any suggested settings for a DSLR to get nice bright images? Thinking of going with a ISO of like 400 but not sure what else to do.

Living Room/Family Room update

Found the studs in the half bathroom walls. Unfortunately for me there are only two of them. So much for 16 or 24 center . One is connected to the bathroom doorframe so I cant use it to mount the speaker on. That leaves me with the other corner of the wall which is a less than ideal spot. It also causes issues as I ran the speaker wire under the carpet to the left of the closet doorframe assuming I would mount the speaker in the bathroom corner. I now have to pull it over to the other side of the room which isnt that easy as I dont have anything to do that with other than coathangers. Any suggestions on where to get those spiffy under the carpet tool things would be AWESOME. Have to get the brackets mounted this weekend since my parents need their studfinder back. Should have time tomorrow since my fiancee has a bachelorette party to attend down in Bloomington for the evening.

Bad news on the DLP, the lamp is bad (but under warranty), but the part is on backorder with no ETA on shipment let alone when I will have it back. As a result I have started a search (thread here) for a potential replacement TV (can you say Plasma ) should the DLP be out for a bit. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Living Room/Family Room update

Got the surrounds mounted last night and felt super accomplished. I do need to get some Velcro or putty for the back of the speaker. The Monitor 40’s lifts up slightly off the back of the AM90 mount due to its sheer weight (which I knew they would based on the instructions I found online). I haven’t wired them up yet as I need to purchase some stuff to hide the wires and paint it the same color as the wall (WAF factor ). I did have to make some concessions as well. They are not mounted where I want them vertically as the fiancée wanted them as high as they can go. As a result they are both ~7 ft off the ground. Ideally I would like them to be ~6 but its wasn’t worth fighting over (especially since the outcome would be me losing ).

Master bedroom update

After thinking long and hard on this I decided to just wall mount the TV in the Master bedroom and call it a day. I am going to be taking the CS1 and trying it out as the center in the office and selling off the pair of R50’s for around 100ish on craigslist (too heavy to ship otherwise). We will get a floating shelf for the Uverse box and potentially a dvd player. At a later date we might explore the option of a surround bar since it would work perfect in that space.

Office update

I have been playing around with the office setup and have decided to keep the 185’s as fronts for the time being. I am going to toy with using the Polk CS1 as the center and if the timbre match isn’t right sell that off as well. I have enough room on my desk to put one of them for the rear surround and there is another spot I can put the other. I am might build some speaker mounts for the 162’s if the locations I want to have them sit on don’t look right. They are only like 3 feet from the fronts, but I am not looking for a full room surround sound system so they should work. I am not going to purchase a sub for this setup as when the SVS PC-12NSD comes for downstairs I will shift the PSW125 to the office. At that point I might move the 162's back up to the front's and sell the 185's since I wont have need for a 8" woofer at that point.

In other news I have been debating making a change to my main rig and have jumped on it. I am going to be purchasing a UPS setup for the office (one UPS for each computer) and also potentially the home theater. Looking at my computer spec's I am just not really using the equipment right. Since I dont game the 4870x2 really isnt doing much for me as it wont help much for rendering. As such I decided to go with a low end ATI 5xxx series graphic card for the sole purpose of having a HDMI connection and bitstreamed audio over HDMI. I went passive as this allows for less overall noise and my computer has more than enough cooling to allow for it.

I also decided to get a dedicated workstation graphics card. The ATI FirePro series is very decently priced and will do more for me than the 4870x2 when rendering and requires much less power. Due to that fact I can get a cheaper powersupply so I am going with a Corsair 450 watt one. The next FirePro card up in the series, the V5800 (which is the highest one I would ever buy), only requires a 75 watt connection and the 5450 requires none so the 450 watt PSU will work until I replace the whole computer.

I am going to sell off the 4870x2, 4550, and Kigwin 1000 watt powersupply. All said and done this upgrade costs me 320 so hopefully I can get that much out of my old parts.


Hope to get some pictures (how many times have I said that :P) shortly but my camera is acting up and the fiancée’s is at her parents house.

Office update

New Powersupply and Graphics card came in. Got them installed yesterday. You really dont realize how much extra space you can get with a smaller Powersupply until you install it. I gained about 3 inches at the bottom of the case. Now I can purchase a much cheaper battery backup for the office (one backup for the main rig and one for the server at a later date).

Now I just need to sell the old parts

Living Room/Family Room update

According to the shop the TV is fixed and ready for pickup. I wont be able to do so however until at least teh 6th of July . I think the plan is to hold onto it for another couple months and then around December sell it for one of the Plasma's found here. Hopefully I can get around 500ish out of the TV and use that toward the purchase price of the Plasma.

On a side note, which do you guys recommend for a room with lots of light, LCD or Plasma? I am hoping Plasma's dont have a bad glare since that is what I would prefer to go with

added pics yesterday, more to come

Master Bedroom update

After having some time to think about things, I decided we really didnt need a really nice bedroom setup. As such I tossed the Polk R50's & CS1 on Craiglist. I already have a buyer for the CS1. Also listed the Sony HTIAB setup from which I was using the reciever. I have a buyer waiting on that as well. Havent heard anything on the R50's but its only been like 13 hours so I can wait .

We decided to get a nice dresser and potentially put the 32" LCD on that. We might also wall mount it and then get two hanging shelves, one for the Uverse box, one for the DVD player. We might at a later date add a soundbar potentially, but I doubt it as we mostly just watch TV at low levels late at night.

I will be using this money as well as some cash from my computer parts sales to purchase a SVS PC-12NSD for downstairs and a ATI Firepro V4800 for my main computer. If all items sells at their listed prices (which they should) I will have paid nothing for either of those items....

I am quickly learning to love craiglist.....

Living Room/Family Room update

We discovered the dogs had flea's last night during dinner with both sets of our parents for the first time. As a result finished pics will be a bit since we had to bug bomb the place plus all kinds of other fun stuff.

On a different note as a result of my soon to be completed list of craigslist transactions I have 450ish saved toward the purchase of the SVS PC-12NSD. If someone would buy my R50's off me this would be a reality.

I am not sure however if I dont want to wait for the upgrade in the amp for that sub or in the PB-12NSD

Lol...add to that they are on backorder right now and I get married in August. I am going to email SVS and find out of they have an idea of when/if the PC & PB lines will get the amp upgrade. I doubt they will share any groundbreaking news with me, but you never know.

I am going to take the cash and put it in a separate account though so I dont blow it on stupid stuff (my addiction is candy and fast food
).

I took some pics this morning of the living room setup (with the 32" still) but hope to post those this week. The Big TV is finished but its a PITA to get up to Anderson, especially when the buisness is only open 9-5 and is about 45min-1 hour away and I normally work 9 -5:30.


Cant wait to get it back though....that will be like getting a new TV again. Then I just need to save up so I can sell it and get the 54" Plasma (or bigger) and sell the other.

Indeed!

Living Room/Family Room update

Was alerted to a Carver AC-705x amplifier on this forum and decided that it was too good to pass up. Have monoprice cables on the way and hopefully will have everything hooked up later this weekend.

Living Room/Family Room update

Carver arrives tomorrow on my lunch...I dont know if I will be able to contain myself till when I am supposed to leave to hook it up....


So big of a smile on my face right now...

Sometimes I think God reads AVSFORUM lol....

I have someone hopfully coming on Saturday to audition and purchase the CS1 and potentially a buyer for the R50's. Then add the pending sale of my computer powersupply on Sunday and possible sale of my router, plus the possible sale (pending shipping costs) of my Infinity Studio Monitor 185's and I will have FINALLY unloaded all my excess gear...for now...

and in the process picked up a Carver 705x amp and maybe a SVS PC-12NSD in the near future....all of which rounds out all the upgrades I have wanted for the last year in one fell swoop.

God if you are following this thread.... THANK YOU!

Monoprice cables just arrived at work....@ 1:30 I am meeting with the Carver amp guy. Only problem is tonight I am heading to my sisters for a cookout and then Saturday morning I will be at the zoo with my family. Saturday afternoon I will be meeting with a guy to sell my Polk CS1 center and busy with some other stuff....

So it looks like I might not get a chance to hook it up until Sunday afternoon...I might just have to kill myself tonight to get it all done after the cookout because I dont know if I can wait till Sunday to play with it....

Yeah, its been a crazy week and its only going to get more stressful. The wedding countdown is at 30ish days (August 21st is the big day). As that gets closer and closer I know the chances of working on stuff like this get smaller and smaller.

After this upgrade the only thing I would like to have this year is upgrade my Polk PSW125 to a SVS PC-12NSD. Then next year add another and possibly purchase a new LCD/Plasma TV if funds provide.

Just picked it up and I have to say I think I scored a straight winner! This amp looks to be in almost perfect condition. A couple of the terminal posts are slightly bent (you can see it in the pics), but there is no dust buildup, no scratches of any kind.

Now to get it home and test it...

Pics of the new baby....







Here are the pictures showing the bent terminals:

Will try this weekend. I have been kinda lazy and they are still on my fiancee's camera. I will see about getting them posted late Saturday or Sunday (got a busy weekend)

Ok, so had like 20 minutes to hook it up and test it before I had to head to my sisters tonight. And its late writing this update so hopefully it makes sense. If not I will try to clarify tomorrow morning...

I hooked up all 5 channels but got nothing from my front right speaker, which was on channel 5. I checked the pre-out connection to ensure it was properly seated, check. Check wiring to ensure positives connected to positives, check. Still nothing.

So I switched the right front connection on the carver with the rear right which did work. Nothing from the right front connection, but the right rear (now on channel 5 which didnt work 2 seconds ago) had sound.

So my instant thoughts are the following:

1) The Integra preout for the Front Right is bad (thankfully its still under warranty)
2) The carver has an issue with all channels driven (unlikely IMO)
3) I got a bad RCA cable from Monoprice/its just not seated correctly....

I will have more time tomorrow afternoon/evening to mess with it. My first plan of attack is to use an entirely different RCA cable to see if its just the cable. If its the cable I will just return to Monoprice. If I still get nothing I am going to switch the front speaker to a different connection to see if its the pre-out from the reciever. If this is the case I need to call it in for service. If neither of those work I might try switching the speaker wire with the wire from the left front which is working. If that solves the issue I just need to recut another wire. Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.

So after messing around with the carver for about an hour it looks like the 5th channel is not working. I haven't had time to take the cover off (if that is even advisable) to see if there is something obviously wrong with it.

No matter what pre-out I use with it that channel seems to be out. Anyone have any idea on how expensive it would be to get it worked on? AKA is it not worth the cost?

My hope was that if all 5 channels worked I would bi-amp the fronts two (4 connections used) and then run the center. That would provide me the best possible sound IMO. But w/ only 4 channels working my options are to run the Fronts & Center from the Carver, and the surrounds from the Integra (currently what I am doing), or bi-amp the fronts and leave the center and surrounds on the Integra.

Anyone have any thoughts on if either of those would be better? Anyone local able to look at amps and identify whats wrong with them willing to come take a look maybe...

I might get around to posting some pictures this weekend but I have been fighting a sinus infection (which is kicking my ass) and with my glasses breaking this week had to wear contacts. Thats bad because the sinus pressure + contacts are giving me massive headaches and making me not want to do anything but dope up on drugs and sleep away all my time...

On a side note, finally sold my CS1 to someone, have a buyer coming for the R50's tomorrow. Someone on the forums here is interested in my Infinity fronts (if they dont cost a kidney to ship) so hopefully I can get all my stuff sold before the wedding.

Then all I have left is to either get a 1 channel amp (if I decide to bi-amp my fronts using all 4 channels from the Carver) and a SVS PC-12NSD, or just the sub.....

Still need to re-run Audysee so I can really test out these speakers.....

Started to think and began wondering if the amp's issue isnt a result of being connected through two powercords w/ lots of crap connected to it more than anything. I dont know if its having trouble grabbing enough power.

I have one belkin surge protector which has my DLP, Wii, Xbox360, Blu ray player & Reciever hooked up to it. From that I have another surrge protector running that has the Uverse DVR, Router, Battery backup and the amplifier on it.

I am wondering if I connect the amp direct to a different outlet if that might solve the problem. Since that doesnt require much work I think I am going to give that a shot today. I am going to connect it straight to the wall and then only drive channels 1,2,3,5. If that works it lets me know the problem is with driving all 5 channels (since 4 worked yesterday and isnt connected today). Then I will try powering 4 as well and then if one of the other channels goes out I will have verified its a 5 channels driven issue.

I really really want this think to have all 5 channels because that gives me the most options later on (bi-amped fronts + center, or 5 speakers driven).

Will report on how that goes later tonight. I am going to have a freind come help me since its just a PITA to have to get behind to run the wires and then test, and then go behind again. He can control the level calibration on the reciever to individually test each speaker as I connect it.

Hope all goes well.