The Esquire Theater!! Construction Begins... - Page 52

Thanks TMcG - I really appreciate those links. I am a total novice when it comes to crown/trim in general and I was just flipping through the interwebs looking for what I could find. You're very much correct that I'm going for a more contemporary/modern look and I like what you suggested at overstock.com. I will flip through there and see what else looks good.

With some quick measurements last night, I can see that the 2-tiered approach is not an option. So I'll be going with a single molding dropped 2-3" from the ceiling with rope light/LED lighting.

Thanks again - if anyone has more suggestions or places to look I really appreciate them!


In other news, I have made a little progress on the HT. Here are the door seals installed (except the door bottom - waiting for the carpet guys). They made a huge difference. (And yes, sorry - the area around the door is a mess!)





I also have this annoying support column on the right side of the theater. Dennis came up with some cool "wings" around the screen to hide it. You can see the column on the right in this pic:




So the first order of business was to build a support for the acoustic treatment. I painted with the cheapest flat black paint I could find. $8/per gallon for Glidden somethingorother It does the trick for behind black panels - Although I recently saw a suggestion from BIG that I agree with...get an eggshell finish or something like that - flat black on lumber has a tendency to rub off on your hands etc. Anyway, support:




Then add the acoustic treatment:




And then cover with a FR701 black panel. They're angled slightly inward - I really like the look Dennis came up with. I still have to make the little connector panel between the screen and this panel and then this panel and the side wall. But you get the idea:



That's all for now - hopefully more progress tonight...but I'm watching a movie tonight too...progress definitely slows when the space is functional...but it's 1) a ton of fun and 2) a real sense of accomplishment when watching a movie in there!

Thanks TMcG - I think the Avondale is my favorite but it probably won't work in my room. My aisles are not very wide and my ceiling height when standing on the riser is only about 6'4" so I'm afraid that might cause some head bumps. I think I'm searching for something that will protrude into the room 4" or less.

I really like the Memphis that you suggested. Might be cool to do a contrasting color in the middle section (maybe black on the top and bottom and the gray wall color in the center...or maybe the panel color...when i decide on that. ) I'm going to call around to some local places to see what profiles are available locally. Thanks again for getting me started!

Hi jcorbin - ask all the questions you want- many of the guys here know a ton more than me about this stuff so I like to be able to help when I can!

Here are answers to your questions:

Do you completely replace the existing doorstop with the door seals?
- Yes, I pulled off the door stops and replaced them with the seals.

Do you know if they can be painted?
- Yes, I haven't done it yet, but they can be painted.

How thick was your granite threshold?
- Mine is 5/8" thick. Mine is el cheapo from Lowes. I talked to some granite shops but didn't feel it was necessary to get into the added expense when I just wanted black and they had it at Lowes. $15 for this guy: http://www.lowes.com/pd_197792-74035-G40343658DHSX1L_4294934373__?productId=3556446&Ntt=threshold

Does the threshold butt up right to the sides of the jamb? With the door seals sitting right on top?
- Yep, exactly.

How much gap do you have between your threshold and the bottom of the door currently?
- I'm not exactly sure how much of a gap there is...not a ton...maybe another 5/8"?

How much gap did you end up with at the top between your jamb and your framing and how did you end up sealing it up? (you mentioned this a while back but I don't think I ever heard your final solution).
- Ahh yes, I did end up having to deal with a pretty significant gap there...probably 5/8" again. I used some leftover 1/2" USB and cut it to the correct width and essentially used it as one huge shim (in conjunction with other standard door shims).

Hope this helps!

Update!

I have FINISHED the fabric around the screen! I know it doesn't look like much of a change but man that was a lot of work! Trying to mirror this and get the angles exactly the same on each side of the room was a little more difficult than I expected, but after some head scratching, it got done.

First I added the acoustic trimmings to the other side of the room...





Then cover in fabric and voila! (Sorry for the blurry pic...grrrr I hate that!)




For some reason the left side appears bigger in the pic...I think I hadn't tacked the frames together when I took this pic but I assure you they measure exactly the same now.

I intended to add the trim to the bottom of the panels this weekend but I got sidetracked doing some cleanup in the rest of the basement and garage. So that's on my list for this week and then the crown molding...

EDIT:
One more pic...here you can see the slightly different angles of the panels. The first panel is about 4'10" and is slightly angled out as you move from the screen toward the seats. Then close to the screen there is a second panel that's just 8" wide and it is angled in about another 35 degrees. The 8" panels were originally designed to be about 12" wide but I had to adjust because I went with a larger screen than originally planned. I used a jigsaw to work around the lip of the stage and that made finessing the fabric around that panel a little tricky, but I'm very happy with how it turned out!




Oh wait...another EDIT!

I also added the lights behind the screen this weekend. A few things you will notice here: 1) the pic quality is crappy...sorry about that. 2) I need to build some boxes for the L/R speakers to get the tweeters to the midpoint of the screen, and 3) the lights are resting on the floor for now. I can't decide if I prefer it this way or if I will switch and put them above the screen.


Edited by AirBenji - 7/16/12 at 12:34pm

Thanks guys - I am really excited about the way it is turning out.

Dylan - The SmX panels are called ProPanels and while I do plan to get them, I haven't purchased them yet. They're one of those things that I will add down the road. (I have been watching mostly 2.35 content anyway because I love the lens and cinemascope ratio.) And for anyone reading this in the future and doing what I'm doing (add ProPanels a bit down the road), it's important to note that installing the ProPanels requires a modification to the screen, so you need to leave a little extra material to restretch the screen surface after installing the ProPanel support. There's a track that needs to be installed along the bottom of the frame between the screen surface and the face of the frame.

In other news, I am concerned that I have a problem with my center channel tweeter (aka blown). I haven't had much time to enjoy the theater lately, but last night I had a half hour so I watched the end of the first Transformers movie. I was watching at about -10dB (that's about as loud as I ever go) and I could hear a slight crackling sound for a few seconds during the dialogue by Megan Fox and Jon Voight at the very end of the movie. I replayed the scene and the crackling was reproduced at exactly the same point. I didn't have time to investigate any further (and I don't really know how to investigate further, other than to see if there is crackling in movies/music that I know wasn't there previously). I assume that if I re-run Audyssey, the center channel results graph will show some form of compensation for a blown tweeter that I didn't previously see.

I had decided to buy a bike and get into cycling instead of buying new speakers for now, but this may change that. (I know I could just buy a new tweeter if that's the problem, but I'm not sure I want to put any money into these speakers.

Ugh.



EDIT: Very interesting...I just found some posts on the interwebs by people with the same issue at the same point...somewhat encouraging? Maybe?
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/home-cinema/dialogue-distortion-on-blu-ray-transformers
http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum/showthread.php?226-Transformers-HD-DVD-Reviews-incoming!&s=0a43e444d935f3c0f563c1035776d382&p=3239&viewfull=1#post3239

Ok just found this thread...making me feel a bit better here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=105502
Edited by AirBenji - 7/10/12 at 9:43am

^ Touche' sir!

Hahahaha well played BllDo - great post





Dylan - If I get new speakers, they will very likely be Procella. I was absolutely shocked by a friend's system. I am hoping I can get away with just the P6 for now and upgrade to the P610 with outboard EQ and crossover in the future, but I'm concerned with how the P6 alone will mesh with my subwoofer around 70Hz.

They were set up in my family room and not at ear level. And yes, saying they were "that good" is an understatement.

The P6's are 3x the price of my current L/C/R, but they sounded 10x better to my ears. The high frequencies were immaculately reproduced and they gave me ZERO ear fatigue. I sometimes find the PSB speakers a bit harsh.

I am taking a road trip to Canada sometime soon to experience michelmia's recently completed room (Dennis Erskine design and Adam Pelz calibration) and I am really excited. I have a feeling I am in for a real treat.

This is exactly my plan.

I also have a conference in Atlanta in August...maybe I can sneak by Dennis' showroom and check it out. I still haven't purchased the Quest stuff yet...maybe that will convince me.

And thanks for checking in, Gerben.

Ok Dylan - you finally got me. I think I am going to host a movie/get-together one evening next weekend (July 27-29). If anyone is interested - please let me know! I live next to Siena College.


Regarding screen materials, I purchased SmX without comparing to others. I read a lot on the forum and when I combined others' opinions with the sale pricing I received from AVS, I just decided to go for it. In hindsight, I wish I had looked at some of the Stewart materials. I had it in my head that Stewart was way out of my price range, but I think I saw inaccurate street pricing. I should have investigated further.

Having said that, I have no complaints and am happy with the SmX screen. I was nervous at first - I had my vision corrected and it is now very good...and I could clearly see the weave from the first row. (I had the whole 9 yards vision correction: epi-lasik with customvue wavefront and it came out better than I ever thought possible - I definitely recommend it for anyone thinking about it!) But when the lights are down and the projector is on, there is no visible weave and the image looks outstanding to me. (You can judge for yourself next weekend!) I believe the only time I can see the weave is when the screen wash lights are on full blast...it is really lighting the screen up from a sharp angle and that affects the visibility of the weave for me.


TMcG - The whole compliment of speakers and peripherals is certainly a sizeable investment (whether Procella or a different brand). But the Procella price point seems reasonable to me and I think most other speakers offering similar performance are actually more expensive. Yes, you'll need additional amp channels and crossovers to bi-amp the front 3, but the price difference in speakers appears to more-than-make up for the cost of 3 amplifier channels and X-overs. I don't know exactly what a Procella 610 should be compared to, but I have seen comparisons to Genelec and they seem to be $$$$. Also Triad Platinum LCR...MSRP for 3 of those is ~$22.5K. Conservatively, that's $12.5K over the Procella P610 pricing, and it seems that you could purchase a very good quality EQ and 3 channels of solid amplification for less than that gap. Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt because I'm no X-over/EQ/amp/speaker expert...these are just the thoughts in my head at the moment.

Yes sure - I was planning on a full movie, popcorn etc. (I'm turning into a fat kid!)

I haven't thought about a title yet...anyone have thoughts?