Ed's Build Thread

I've been working on my HT for a few years now. Not sure why I never started an official thread. No particular reason it has taken this long I guess. But recently I have been motivated to finish it up. Pretty sure it will be done by end of year or very close to it. I have done everything myself. When we bought our house it had 1300sqf completely unfinished. That was of the deciding factors to buy it. The basement now has a large bar area with pool table, full bath, bedroom and storage area. I originally did not plan for an HT room so the room has a few odd areas that had I planned for I could have avoided.

I'll go back and grab some old photos and post my current progress until finished. Right now I am pulling up pillars and finishing stage.

More to come.

This photo is of the stage as originally planned and built.

My screen is just a DIY blackout setup for now. With recent build activity and enough progress to host a night of Rock Band on a temporary projector I realized I wanted a bigger screen size. So I decided to change the stage set up and make it simpler.

Daughter helped me rip out the sides. Two photos show original idea. One photo of the new area to allow for a larger screen. I will go from 92" to 110" screen.

If you are wondering why the stage is sort of resessed into the room it is because of a cross beam. Also room was not originally built with HT in mind.

Here is a shot look back. Picked up the theater seats off bay a couple of years ago. I think I paid $45 for each seat. Hell of a deal! After I mounted them I realized that they were actually really comfortable. I will put either a two or three theater seat setup in front of the rear riser.

You can see the component closet to the left. Only one small window in the room so I have complete con toll over any light coming into the room.

Just last week I decided to go full material on the walls so the blue was a waste of paint. I have flip flopped on full material and only bottom half material a few times now. I have the material already. I'll grab a photo of the material next.

Last weekend I started painting the ceiling. Right now I have 2 coats on and one gray primer coat. I will do one more coat of the black. It was after painting the ceiling that I changed my mind (again) on the blue upper walls and went back to full material.

Here is my material. It is not GOM as you can tell. I ordered it online a few years ago from Dazian. It is fire resistant. I can't remember the name of the fabric now. It has a slight stretch to it so I will work fine to stretch and staple. I changed to the blue upper walls since my wife did not like the maroon color. But after putting on the blue on I was able to pursued her back the the maroon. I will do the gray at the bottom and maroon top.

img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5005/5252538274_228596165c.jpg[/img]

Here is a photo of a test stretch on the stage. Sides will get the same treatment. It is actually speaker cloth.

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Build columns last weekend. Had HD make all the long cuts for me. Saved some time and mess. Just yesterday I bought sconces. Picked these up for under $18 each. Bought 4 and need to get two more.

The screen now is 93" diagonal. Adjusting the stage like i did will let me go up to 110" diagonal with speakers on the sides. The room is about 13 x 19. The stage height is about 73" tall I think. I think I could go 120" if I put the speakers I have now under the screen.

But an AT screen would be great. Just can't afford it. I think last time I looked a 110 AT is about 5k isn't it?

Are there any alternative material for cheap AT screens?

Really? I would build myself for sure. Where can you get AT screen material by the yard? I have only seem fully built screens when I looked I guess. Please share link. This would allow me to go with 120" for sure.

Thanks.

Thanks for the links. I am going to go this rout for sure. Looks like another stage change will be needed!

Tonight's progress consisted of running speaker wire for my rear 4 speakers. I am using 6.5s from Monoprice for my rears. I have a set of their speakers plus a center in the bar area and have been pretty happy with them. Unfortunately 2 of the four had defective crossovers. Sucks since I wanted to mount all 4 this weekend. I submitted a replacement request yesterday and already have a RMA on them. Hoping I get them back before next weekend.

I also ran electrical for the sconces. I have 3 of the 6 lights wired and hooked up. I need to pick up 2 more sconces still. Very happy with the light they are producing with just three of them. 60w bulbs in them now. Pretty sure I'll drop down to 40w. Only other light in the room will be something on the screen for effect.

Still need to mount columns to the wall. Oh, and flood lights can be removed now.

Here is a quick photo of the three lights. The projector is just a temp one to keep the boy happy during the build.

Just making notes of a couple things I would have done different for later reference.

1. Door opening out of room instead of into room.

2. Should have made room a perfect rectangle. Even if this meant smaller room size. My room is current not and it is causing me angst on setting up my columns. My stage is not the same width as the back of my room. This causes my rear speakers to be centered differently than my front. Maybe I am making this a bigger deal than. I should but it is bugging me.

3. Instead of facing towards the area of my room that is smaller due to crossbeam I would have faced the opposite direction. This would require door to be moved from current location.

Mockup better illustrates what I have listed above.

That's about it for now.

Getting ready to put material on my walls this weekend. Maroon top and gray bottom. I am debating if I want to go beveled edges at the middle where the colors meet or flat with trim hiding the stables. I guess I could do straight as well and hide the staples but not sure I have see that done or noticed it that way before.

Looking at the photo gallery now for examples. Looking for what others have done with material top and bottom at the middle. Let me see your links to photos if you got them.

Thanks.

Chris, those are the Monoprice speakers. I have a pair of the 8" in walls in my bar area along with one of their centers. In the bar that setup sounds great. I went with the 6.5 60w/110 max for the rear speakers in the theater room. I have Polks in the front and center that I had for a good number of years.

I don't have all the Monoprice rear speakers up just yet. Unfortunately of the 4 speakers 2 of them had bad crossovers. They had another set out to me in 48 hours. Waiting on them now. As soon as I get them in the columns and can do some listening I'll follow up. For the money they can't really be beat.

More to come.

Just a single photo tonight. Started the projector box. Nothing too special or elaborate is planned. I managed to get the box mounted to the 2x2 in the photo. I will prime and paint flat black. Until I order my new projector I won't do much else to it for now.

Tonight I also bought material to build my component rack. I am going with a shelving system from Lowel's. I will have to cut and paint shelves for it. I am trying to do something similar to another forum member. See the attached photo. That is what am will try to accomplish. More to come on the rack over the weekend.

I'll get a few photos tomorrow night of the box.

I was searching Google today for AT screen DIY builds and came across this fantastic idea. Posting here so I can come back to it when I get ready to build my screen. The screen photos start at post #90. I really like this idea compared to a wood frame!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=730306&page=3

grommets, I like that even better. Cheaper I would think as well. I think those clips in the link I sent were $1 each. Looking at your solution now....

I have kind of a wonky stage area. I want to do 120'' screen. I like the gromet idea. I just need to make sure that I have enough space around an 120'' screen to get the bungy tight enough. I'd want eyehole screws on the outside edge and not wrapped around something behind the screen. I guess I could go down to 110'' if 120'' is too tight.

Thanks!

Here are my construction goals for this weekend.

1. Finish up columns and mount to wall. This includes adding elec. boxes, finalize positions, install all lights. This is everything except final finishing to columns.

2. Secure all possible furring strips to wall to prep for material install.

3. Build component rack and get current equipment in the rack.

4. Take photos and post updates to AVS.

Bonus Goal: Install at least one wall section between columns with material.

A little bit of progress last night on the columns. After work I was able to cut and put in electric boxes for all the columns. I ended up replacing and rerunning some electrical wire to have a little extra length. I also got a care package from Monoprice. HDMI cables, banana clips, regular speaker clips, HDMI wall outlets, optical cables, and speaker outlets.

Tonight I will install last two sconce. Need to snake some electrical wire for one of them. Not going to be very easy. Hoping to get a little of the wall boards up in prep for stretching some fabric and frame my component rack.

Speaking of component rack, I posted a photo a few post back of another members rack. I want to build my rack the same way. I picked up the rails and shelf braces at Lowel's last week. The rack will have open sides and back in to a small closet side space in the back of the room. Then I'll finish off the front so you can't see into the rack at all. I am hoping it turns out pretty clean looking. I'm pretty sure I can start the rack tonight. That's the plan anyway.

But now it is off to Tron.







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