Theater 3.0 - Rise of The Popcorn Machines! - Page 6

So even though it probably would have been fine, I just kept thinking that I'd have a problem down the road if I buried the subwoofer cables in sand. I made a quick run to Lowe's and picked up some 3/4" conduit, a few elbows, and a new 1" spade bit for the drill.

I cut a couple of pieces of the conduit to about a foot in length.




Added the elbow:




And then bored out the hole in the frame to 1" and inserted the conduit.




One the sand was pushed back into place, I had a conduit to hold the cable.




I duplicated the steps on the other side of the stage and filled the middle sections with batt insulation. Next, I measured for the locations on the subfloor where the cables would pass through, drilled some 1" holes, and then pulled the cables through.





I planned to seal up the stage tonight, but noticed that i have a VERY slight overhang on the plywood. I think this might cause an issue with the veneer and bullnose, so I may shave a little off tomorrow before closing it up. I picked up a few flooring samples while out as well this weekend and I think I've settled on a dark hickory laminate. I'll get a picture of it up this week.

On a side note, I noticed a LOT of echos when standing in the front corners. I had a lot of luck with the Chameleon bass traps in my last theater, so I'll probably add a few to the side walls up front once things are done.

Yea, it will still be a pain to replace any cables since they ultimately go through the ceiling and back to the rack. My main concern was that the sand didn't somehow cause problems with the jacket on the cable over time. For what cost about $2 and added another 30 minutes to the project, I guess it was worth it.

So I had my cabinet guy out Tuesday night to finalize any open issues he saw with the columns. I've looked over the design a hundred times and thought I had everything covered, but discovered right before he got here that he outlet to plug in my subwoofer is on the OTHER side of the left column (I should probably check the right one now too). That being said, we'll either relocate the outlet to the other side or just do some kind of passthrough along the back of the column. One thing I did like was how excited the guy seemed to be to work on the project. He mentioned how he has a surround sound setup in his condo, so I think it's always cool with you get someone with a passion for it. Hopefully that will shine through in the finished product.

Some changes we came up with - The crown will be fairly simple and will be painted to match the columns so that it flows seamlessly. Also, I had initially planned to go with the same brown color that I'll be using on the side walls (front wall will be black). However, he encouraged me to do an enamel finish on the columns to make them pop. I think that's a pretty good suggestion.

Walnut is the wood color of choice for the flooring. It's a very close match to my kitchen cabinets upstairs, as well as what's in the bathroom in the basement. Ultimately, the 2nd row bar and basement bar will have the same color, so it should all flow together. I picked up a sample that I really liked at Lowes called "Curly Walnut". For those of you thinking they stole the name from a 70's porn star, you're probably right. Of course, as it always seems to be, anything I really want is special order. Also, they wanted an arm and a leg for the bullnose edge, not to mention the idiot ringing it up kept trying to sell me bullnose in square feet instead of linear feet. Long story short, it was close to 4 weeks to get it, so I went to Menards. I found a very close sample there from Mohawk called Chesapeake Walnut. They had plenty in stock AND the bullnose was 50-60% cheaper. I bought 4 boxes and some trim, all the time forgetting my wife had the SUV and I had the RX-8. A couple of hundred dollars later and some creativity in the parking lot, and this was what I got:





Since my guy has some spare time between projects, he will most likely get started on it next week. Looks like I have a weekend project. I also went ahead and ordered some cloth from partsexpress for the grilles, as well as called the local lumber yard here to get some more base to match my house. Funny story - It sounds like the baseboard comes out of Chile. The guy at the mill said it has been coming in very slowly lately due to some kind of worker's strike down there, so we'll see. I couldn't help but be reminded of the dice fiasco down in Mexico in the Ocean's 11 films.

More to come....

One other thing I need some input on. My last stage was carpeted, so I used the screw in spikes on my subwoofer feet that came from Elemental Design. Obviously, they'll scratch this wood, so is it safe to just remove them completely or so I need some rubber feet for isolation?

For reference, here's a link to the grill cloth I ordered :

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-332&FTR=260-332

To answer the question about the isolation spikes - I actually found that the ends screw off to remove the point, so that was quick fix for the new stage.

I'm lined up for Wednesday for the column build, so I needed to get the flooring done this weekend. I decided to give it a whirl last night. The hardest part was making the cuts on the first row for all of the cabling passthroughs. The cuts were very minimal and I was actually able to prevent busting into the last box, which will save me about $30 on the total stage build.

First, the underlayment went down:



The flooring itself only took about 2 hours. Once it was down, I still had a bout a 1 1/2 inch gap at the front of the stage, which is a little too much for the bullnose to cover. However, the cap gives me about a 1/2" of play, so I'm going to pull the flooring forward a little to reduce the gap. The baseboard will take care of covering the exposed edge in the back, so it should work out nicely.



Here's a closeup of the wood. It comes across a little red in the pictures, but it actually a deep brown walnut.




Finally, I hooked the speakers back up for last night's movie....

More progress.....

First order of business was to finish the riser on the stage and cap it with bullnose.





The baseboard was also trimmed out to follow up and over the stage, with the bullnose butting up to it.



With the prep work done, the frame of the columns could then be built. We went with a 3/4" MDF structure,which basically started as two boxes stacked on top of one another, nailed and glued, and attached to the front wall via a couple of lag screws due to the size.



The front of the columns were covered with some more MDF, cut into two frames. The border of the frames were 1 1/2". The middle was cut out and the speaker fabric was trimmed, stretched, and stapled down. The backside was then another layer of MDF that sandwiched it down and held things in place. I'll try to get some pics of the backside, as well as the hardware used to snap them into place, but here's the bottom frame going in.



Next, the top frame and baseboard were attached...



And finally, some MDF crown to tie the columns into the ceiling...





Here's a shot of the finished product. The next step will be to prime the columns and then paint. I'm going to go with an enameled finish so that they are glossy and really pop against the stage and screen wall.

Thanks!

As far as the rack, that will be the last purchase in the room. Considering the price of the rack alone, plus the installation rails and stand you HAVE to purchase just to install it, we're talking about $1200-$1300. Next up is ordering the ceiling speakers, then paint, then the screen. My seats are on order and hopefully will be coming over the next few weeks. We'll see how things are looking after that.

Thanks. Once the structure was together, we reinforced the two pieces with a 2x4 on each side. That enabled us to cut out the horizontal piece between the top and bottom panels. In theory, I'll not be able to accomodate almost any tower speaker, up to nearly 7 feet tall (all I really need is 3.5 feet though).

I just saw you're in Minneapolis. Whereabouts?

I had some leftover MDF from the column build, so I decided to build some speaker stands today to raise the RB35's up to a normal height for listening. I'll end up getting rid of the stands once I switch to some tower speakers, but this fits the bill for now. Why I decided to do this on a day when it was 94 degrees outside (who knows what it was in the garage) is beyond me.

The stands ended up being 17 inches tall, 13 inches wide, and 13 inches deep. I had some scrap 2x4 lumber that I cut for the bottom supports. Here's the finished product:



From there, it was just a matter of removing the grill covers from the columns and inserting the stands. Here's what they looked like once in place:



I'm not sure when I'll have the painter out, but it looks like the seats could be here in about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. That being said, I think I'm going to at least paint the screen wall black this week so that I can get the screen ordered. More to come soon!!!

LOL! Those are the mains. Tweeters are set at ear height - 32".

Small updates yesterday, but nevertheless, an update!


I wanted to find a simple passthrough plate to cover the holes where the subwoofer cables emerged from the stage flooring. I figured Monoprice was the way to go, but the only thing they sold were the big scoops that were made for in-wall installations. This wouldn't work here, since I only had about 1/2" or so of play behind the plate. I spoke with a CSR there and decided to just go with a standard plate with a keystone cutout. However, they do not carry these plates in black,which was a dealbreaker

After looking through several google images that came up after using a search criteria of "coax passthrough plate" I ran across something from a place called MCM Electronics that looked like it would fit the bill. Here's a link to their website if anyone is interested.

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/

The plates were about $5 a piece, but they got the job done. Here's what was in the packaging:



A couple of pilot holes in the flooring, and then it was as simple as snapping the rubber piece in the middle of the plate, pulling the cable through, an screwing it down. I think it gives a nice finished look to what was otherwise just a hole.

Gotta love those unflattering holes!

For those watching the thread, I have a question.

I'm looking into center channel stands at the moment and trying to find something that will work with the screen. Basically, here's where I'm at:

Height from top of stage to top of ceiling = 89"
Height of screen = 60"
Height of center channel = 8"

From what I've seen, most center channel stands come in 12 or 18" heights. I did find this very cool Lovan one here but it just seems a little too pricey for me.

So, based on the size of the speaker (I'm going with a Klipsch RC62), I think the 12" probably makes the most sense. That gives me 9 extra inches to split between the gap at the top of the ceiling and the gap below the screen. The screen also has a 3 1/2" velvet border around the perimeter as well. In theory, I could almost lower the screen about a foot from the ceiling and have the top of the center speaker be in-line with the velvet around the bottom edge. My concern is how this will look. Otherwise I could mount the screen about 8" from the ceiling, which would leave a 1" gap from the bottom of the screen to the center speaker (assuming I do a 12" stand).

Thoughts???

I like that approach. That lets me bring the screen down a little more too - in this case about 9". I shot the image on the wall earlier and adjusted the lens shift to see what it looked like. Definitely a lot less strain on the neck that way.

On another note, the screen was JUST ordered. I'm going with a 136" 2.35 Carada Criterion. I've had nothing but great luck with Carada in the past, but my previous screens were all from the Precision line. I'm looking forward to the upgrade. And why did I go with 136" ? Because it's bigger than the 128" i had in Theater 2.0. Only seemed fair

The screen has arrived!!! Looks like I'll be painting the wall tonight/ tomorrow with a goal of hanging the screen on Wednesday. I'll take some pictures of the installation process for those interested. The seats SHOULD be here at some point this week. Also, I ordered a new center channel (Klipsch RC62II) and 2 in-ceiling speakers for my surrounds (Klipsch CDT5800CII). Everything should be up and running most likely by the weekend, so then it's just a matter of installing the bass shakers and determining when to paint the rest of the basement / columns.

More progress. First, the screen wall was painted. I'll post the Sherwin Williams color in a bit, but it's basically a dark black with a tint of gray in it. There is still a lot of painting to take place in the room, but I don't have a date on that yet, so I wanted to go ahead and get the front wall done so we could watch some movies on the screen in the meantime.

The screen went up with no issues. This was my 3rd Carada screen, so I'm pretty familiar with the install process. The screen is a Carada 136" 2.35 Criterion with Brilliant White fabric. Installation was as simple as sliding the four frame pieces together, tightening some screws, snapping the screen into place, mounting 3 brackets on the wall, and attaching the screen to the brackets. Here's the finished product:



I really like how the black border of the screen stands out against the gray tint on the front wall.

Next up on the "what arrived on a big truck this week" are my seats - a row of 4 Palliser Peppers in Roma Bistro leather. I decided to add power reclines this time around, and so far I love it. I'll ultimately have to pick up the battery packs for the chairs since i don't have a floor outlet. Right now they're plugged into a power strip that runs to the side wall. It works for now, but I don't like the look.



Blinds are on the list next, as you can see how much light comes in during the day from the basement windows. Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics as well. I plan on taking more with my DSLR once the room gets closer to completion.

One of the main reasons I liked these seats was that they not only had storage in the armrests, but each came with a tray table that can snap into place in front of the cupholders. I also ordered a custom Ipad holder that you can see in place in the 3rd seat. I'll be tying a remote app into this at some point.

Here's a shot of the seats from the front:



The little silver pieces in front of the cupholders is where the tray tables snap into place.


Finally, a shot from behind the front row looking at the screen wall:



There are still quite a few things to complete in the space, but it's fairly functional at the moment. First, my center channel and side surrounds for the ceiling will be here on Monday. Once installed, we'll be back in business with 7.1.

There is also plenty of painting that needs to take place. I'm painting the ceiling from the projector soffit forward a dark brown. Right now I'm leaning towards the same brown I used in the last theater, but I'm not sure yet. From there, every other wall in the basement will get a darker brown treatment in latex, with the columns being done in a glossy enamel finish. There's a slight chance I may do a different color for the columns so that they stand out more, but I need to give this one some more thought before pulling the trigger. I also plan on swapping out the 3 can lights over the stage with some direction eyeballs that will ultimately highlight the screen and columns.

I'll be doing a 2nd row of bar seating too, but wanted to have some time with the seats first to determine exactly what will and will not work. My initial idea is to have an 8 foot bar behind the seats that would support 4 stools with arms. My biggest concern with the bar is how it will encroach on the column in the room, as this will be the main means of traffic flow once the actual full bar is complete in the basement. One idea I had here was to do a crescent shaped bar so that more room was available around the perimeter. I'll sketch up some drawings on this one soon.

Until the rack is ordered, I'm also thinking of just building a cheap 2x4 framed stand to hold some of the equipment in the rack space. This would at least get it out of the floor area.

That's all for now. As always, looking forward to any feedback.

Thanks! Slowly but surely