Well I've done it, Ive finally gone insane!!
February 11, 2009 almost a year ago to the date I set out to build a modest version on an extremely modest budget of what I had seen all over AVS and for the next 8 months I converted an already finished space into an open concept theater/bar area. While it was a success, in the back of my mind I was constantly questioning myself on the way I did some things or didnt do others. The whole time thinking to myself what if? I guess you can say I had one of the earliest cases of upgraditis known to man. This brings me to today. On the other side of our basement was an unfinished space, a blank canvas that we intended on converting into a spare bedroom and an office. Well to me it was a no brainer......THIS would be home theater version 2.0!! Well it took a bit of convincing to get my wife on board but in all she is a very easy going person and it wasnt a hard sell. All I had to do was renovate one of our bathrooms first. Well that is now behind me and it is time to move on to Version 2.0.
In this build thread I will detail (as much as I remember to take pics) the new dedicated theater as well as some upgrades I have planned for my bar. I plan to wrap the front in some sort of faux stone and such. The new theater will be dedicated yes but no plans for sound containment or sound isolation are in the blueprints. I had several conversations with some "experts" in that field around here and came to the conclusion that since one of my theater walls was framed and attached to the main beam in the house that isolating sound from traveling up and through that would be quite difficult. In all honesty sound escaping the theater is not a concern of mine and sound entering the theater from outside the room is a non issue as well since we are usually all in there at the same time. I do plan however on doing several things as far as insulation to bring the temperature up in the room. In northern Indiana it gets quite cold over the winter especially in the basement. The other side is very poorly insulated in the walls, carpet/pad directly on the concrete and a drop ceiling with no insulation. That combo makes for a cold experience this time of year.
The Room and Plans
The room is roughly 13' x 24' with a 91" ceiling height. These measurements are pre-framing. I also will have a small storage closet under the stairs in the back of the room. I will be incorporating a Middle Atlantic rack built into the wall in the front right side of the room with access via another closet up there. This is the only place that I can fit this closet and I really wanted to be able to walk in a closet and behind the rack to access connections and such. I will do two rows of seating with a riser in the rear. Speaker setup will be 7.1 or 7.2 as I have yet to decide. The projector will be built into a soffit roughly 15' back from the screen wall and screen size or format is still undecided. I would love to do 2.35:1 if I can make it work with my narrow room. I cant however do AT. My plans are to do a false screen wall on either side to hide my fronts and columns on the sides and rear to conceal my surrounds.
Current Gear
I have all my gear but do plan some upgrades before its all said and done.
Projector: Panasonic pt-ax200u probably upgrading to the Panny pt-ae400u.
Receiver: Denon AVR-988 possibly upgrading to the AVR-4310.
Bluray: Samsung BDP-1500
Directv h23-600
Xbox Slim S
Subwoofer: SVS-PC12NSD
Speakers: C-300 fronts, C-C100 center and C-100 surrounds. I may upgrade my surrounds to possibly the CR-10's or some other bipole/dipole speaker.
Seating: I do have a set of 3 Berklines that are barely broke in but they are dark brown and I think I want black. I may sell these and purchase a set of 5 to make a row of 3 and a row of 2.
Colors and carpeting to be determined at a later date. I also plan to do some sort of wall treatments but that will also be determined down the road.
As for a room layout diagram or sketch up I really have failed in this category as I cant really get the hang of google sketchup. I went ahead and made a not-so-fancy drawing on a piece of paper for my good buddy RTROSE who said that I "had to have a drawing of some sort". Well that is enough babbling from me, I will now open it up for discussion and please feel free to chime in at anytime, it helps keep me on track and motivated.
See you all at the end of this build lets just hope that comes sooner rather than later.
Here is a top notch sketch of the room with what are to believed to be the finished (framed/drywalled) dimensions to help give you all a visual of the space. Sorry its all I've got
February 11, 2009 almost a year ago to the date I set out to build a modest version on an extremely modest budget of what I had seen all over AVS and for the next 8 months I converted an already finished space into an open concept theater/bar area. While it was a success, in the back of my mind I was constantly questioning myself on the way I did some things or didnt do others. The whole time thinking to myself what if? I guess you can say I had one of the earliest cases of upgraditis known to man. This brings me to today. On the other side of our basement was an unfinished space, a blank canvas that we intended on converting into a spare bedroom and an office. Well to me it was a no brainer......THIS would be home theater version 2.0!! Well it took a bit of convincing to get my wife on board but in all she is a very easy going person and it wasnt a hard sell. All I had to do was renovate one of our bathrooms first. Well that is now behind me and it is time to move on to Version 2.0.
In this build thread I will detail (as much as I remember to take pics) the new dedicated theater as well as some upgrades I have planned for my bar. I plan to wrap the front in some sort of faux stone and such. The new theater will be dedicated yes but no plans for sound containment or sound isolation are in the blueprints. I had several conversations with some "experts" in that field around here and came to the conclusion that since one of my theater walls was framed and attached to the main beam in the house that isolating sound from traveling up and through that would be quite difficult. In all honesty sound escaping the theater is not a concern of mine and sound entering the theater from outside the room is a non issue as well since we are usually all in there at the same time. I do plan however on doing several things as far as insulation to bring the temperature up in the room. In northern Indiana it gets quite cold over the winter especially in the basement. The other side is very poorly insulated in the walls, carpet/pad directly on the concrete and a drop ceiling with no insulation. That combo makes for a cold experience this time of year.
The Room and Plans
The room is roughly 13' x 24' with a 91" ceiling height. These measurements are pre-framing. I also will have a small storage closet under the stairs in the back of the room. I will be incorporating a Middle Atlantic rack built into the wall in the front right side of the room with access via another closet up there. This is the only place that I can fit this closet and I really wanted to be able to walk in a closet and behind the rack to access connections and such. I will do two rows of seating with a riser in the rear. Speaker setup will be 7.1 or 7.2 as I have yet to decide. The projector will be built into a soffit roughly 15' back from the screen wall and screen size or format is still undecided. I would love to do 2.35:1 if I can make it work with my narrow room. I cant however do AT. My plans are to do a false screen wall on either side to hide my fronts and columns on the sides and rear to conceal my surrounds.
Current Gear
I have all my gear but do plan some upgrades before its all said and done.
Projector: Panasonic pt-ax200u probably upgrading to the Panny pt-ae400u.
Receiver: Denon AVR-988 possibly upgrading to the AVR-4310.
Bluray: Samsung BDP-1500
Directv h23-600
Xbox Slim S
Subwoofer: SVS-PC12NSD
Speakers: C-300 fronts, C-C100 center and C-100 surrounds. I may upgrade my surrounds to possibly the CR-10's or some other bipole/dipole speaker.
Seating: I do have a set of 3 Berklines that are barely broke in but they are dark brown and I think I want black. I may sell these and purchase a set of 5 to make a row of 3 and a row of 2.
Colors and carpeting to be determined at a later date. I also plan to do some sort of wall treatments but that will also be determined down the road.
As for a room layout diagram or sketch up I really have failed in this category as I cant really get the hang of google sketchup. I went ahead and made a not-so-fancy drawing on a piece of paper for my good buddy RTROSE who said that I "had to have a drawing of some sort". Well that is enough babbling from me, I will now open it up for discussion and please feel free to chime in at anytime, it helps keep me on track and motivated.
Here is a top notch sketch of the room with what are to believed to be the finished (framed/drywalled) dimensions to help give you all a visual of the space. Sorry its all I've got