Desert Sunset Theater Build - Page 13

I was about to buy one the other day and saw that it required 5 CFM. My compressor is definitely not up to that task. My philosophy is usually that If I use something enough to wear it out, then I replace it with something better. In this case I may just buy the $30 black and decker model and treat it as disposable.

I'm going to be using the PBN audio EPS with a custom EPS center channel. Rear speakers will be the PBN monitor. Side surrounds will also be custom from PBN.

PBN EPS -



PBN Center



PBN Monitor

The current plan is to use the PBN's but I was also thinking of building some 3pi speakers with the AE TD series woofer and B&C compression driver. I wanted to try a high output design in the theater. That being said, I'm not planning on doing that anytime soon as I'd like to delay any additional projects until the theater is done. The PBN's though are still pretty high output and should give me reference levels or at least as close as I can stand in the room. They performed incredibly in a bigger room in my last theater. They are rated at 92db but Stereophile measured them a bit higher than that. They are also very dynamic and handle lots of power and seem to just keep going and going without any strain. Purely from a sound quality perspective they are hard to beat in my opinion. I've listened to many high end speakers and there are not many I have heard at any price that I would rather have than the PBN's.

I really question whether something like the 3 Pi's or some of the other pro style designs can beat the PBN's from a sound quality perspective but I'm interested to hear the dynamics of a speaker like that in the home.

Even though I will likely use the theater more for movies than music, the music performance is still a higher priority for me. I listen to music a lot more critically than I do movies.

Well its been a couple of very frustrating days on the theater build. I had a few issues with the star ceiling. I did not paint the panels prior to putting them up. I got the first 2 panels up and noticed that there is a few spaces where the fabric is sagging a bit. Not a lot of sag but enough to bother me. I figure that it is because the glue was getting soaked up into the wood. I used nearly an entire can of 3m spray adhesive per panel. I primed the other 3 panels and it did not take nearly as much glue and held much better. I stayed up late last night running all the fibers and getting the 3rd panel ready to put up. It takes me about 5 hours to put up the fabric and run all the stars for each panel.

This morning I lifted the panel up and put it in place at about 10 AM. When I got it up, to my dismay the fabric did not match. It was not the direction the fabric was installed, it was simply different. The pile on the velvet was not as thick and had more sheen to it. I held the remnants from that piece of fabric up to the rest and no matter which way you turn it, it is clearly different. Not dramatically so, but enough. I noticed a similar thing when looking at the fabric store, some bolts had more sheen than others even though it was the same sku. I ordered 20 yards online so it would all come from the same batch but I received 2 8 yard bolts and a 4 yard piece. The different piece is the 4 yard section. Anyway the panel had to come down, have the stars removed, the fabric ripped off and I had to start all over. At 8:00 PM, I had the new fabric on the panel and had it ready to lift up to the ceiling. In other words, 10 hours of work to get to where I started the day.

Here is a photo of what the 3rd panel looked like. You can see how much darker the first two panels are. Its harder to see the difference in the photo than in person.

This star ceiling installation has been quite the test of my patience. With the re-done 3rd panel up, there is even some variation in color in that panel also. Its nowhere near as bad as the first time I put it up, but it will definitely bother me. In addition, I have some fabric sagging in that panel also, despite priming the panel and using lots of glue.

After much deliberation, I decided that the stretch velvet fabric is not the right material for the job. I thought the velvet would look and perform nice and the stretch velvet is fairly acoustically transparent. In addition the stretch velvet seems to be the only velvet fabric wide enough to cover a 4 foot wide panel. The big problem is that the glue does not adhere to the back of the fabric very well because it has a very smooth shiny back. I think the stretch also makes it difficult to glue and you have to avoid stretching too much or it makes the fabric look different.

While it really hurts to go back and re-do 25 hours + of work, I think that is what I will have to do to make it look right. I did some experiments with some GOM FR701 fabric and it is surprising how much better it sticks to the panels and how much easier it is to work with. So I placed an order with Fabricmate today for GOM Fabric. All I can say is I hope this is all worth it when all is said and done.

if you have a large surface like the ceiling that absorbs only the high frequencies, you run the risk of making the room sound too dead especially when used in combination with broadband absorbers around the room. Some of the thick velvet I have seen would attenuate the high frequencies too much. Its best to have broadband absorption but even that can be used too much.

Not sure how much stretch velvet you ordered but just watch for the inconsistency between bolts of fabric if you ordered more than 8 yards. I went in to a Joann's store to check out the velvet and noticed the variation in sheen between the different bolts there also. Some were very black and some had an almost blue sheen to them, yet they all had the same SKU number. You also need to be careful about how much you actually stretch the fabric when applying it, If you have too much stretch it will look lighter. It really is a pain to work with and appears to be a crap shoot whether the fabric looks the same.

Yes that was a Christmas tree - Those speaker pics are not current (with the exception of the center channel), I just put up what I could find. They've all been boxed in their crates now for over a year.

Last week I ripped down the old ceiling and removed all the fibers and fabric. I primed the first two panels. I found that I had to re-drill all the holes after the primer went on because it was too hard to get the fibers through. My fabric arrived late last week so I started putting up the new panels. The Guilford of Maine FR701 was much easier to work with than the velvet. It was easier to apply, easier to get the fibers through, and most importantly, the glue actually sticks to it.

I managed to get 3 panels put up, so I am officially back to where I left off on Friday of last week. I'm very happy with the way it looks with the GOM fabric.

Here's a shot of where it currently stands.

The velvet would be fine for a small area like that. I plan on doing velvet around the screen area. The last few panels have gone up without a hitch, I am getting much faster at it now I've spent so much time doing it. Those huge MDF panels do not seem so heavy anymore.

Getting ready to apply fabric to the last panel.

All the fibers run for last panel.

Ceiling panels all installed.

Running all the fibers into the illuminator was literally a big pain in the neck (and back). Standing on a ladder for hours with your hands above your head was quite exhausting.

Star ceiling is completed. This project was a huge pain but now that it is up it has all been worth it. I figure that with the issues I had with the first fabric and having to re-do quite a bit of work, this project took me close to 100 hours. I hope to never have to do another one of these again, but If I did I could probably cut that down to 40-50 hours or so.

Here are some shots of the stars taken with my little point and shoot. The photos do not really do it justice.