Small DIY dedicated theatre

Good day everyone,

Long time reader, first time thread starter. I'm in the planning stages of our new dedicated . I think I'm on the right track and I'm pretty sure I know what I want. My budget is limited... (isn't everyone's?), but I'm still going to try and do it as well as I can with the resources I have. I'm pretty handy with tools and have a few good subject matter experts in my family. My dad's a cabinet maker, carpenter, gun smith, etc... my uncle's a pretty good electrician and I'm really good with Google! My wife is on board and excited about the project. She is, however, wary of the costs and will be monitoring them CLOSELY!

My current equipment list is:
Pioneer VSX-1025 AVR
Kliptsch SW-112 Subwoofer

My wish list is:

speakers 7.1
Kliptsch RF62 towers
Kliptsch RC62 center
Kliptsch RB61 suround sides
Kliptsch RS42 surround rears

projector
Not sure yet, looking for suggestions. Budget is around 1500... will look at up to 2000. Not interested in 3D.

I'll buy whatever half decent Bluray player is on sale when I'm ready to buy!

The following are my hand scribbles. I hope they are clear enough to understand. They make sense in my head!

top view
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side view
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screen wall
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Just to clarify a few things. The projector will be mounted into the sofit and will actually stick out into the adjoining room. I intend to box it up and add some ventilation to the rear. The equipment rack will be in a closet in the same adjoining room.

I plan on using hard foam insulation cut into triangles, stacked from floor to ceiling and covered in black fabric for my base traps to stuff in my back corners.

I will be building large frames out of wood with hard insulation in the middle covered with black fabric butted up on either side of stained wood columns that will have my sconce on them. The wood columns will only stick out about 1 inch of the wall and will be stained. I am trying to match the gold/orange for the wood. The only stained wood will be the verticle part of my sofits (the bottom and molding will be covered in black fabric and will be concealing rope lights). I am trying to limit any exposed drywall. The screen wall will be covered in fabric.

I know that I am probably pushing the limit for my screen size, but I'm the type of guy who likes to sit towards the front at the movies and I want as big as I can pull off. My first theater in my old house was 84 diag. It was nice at the time, but I want bigger! I plan on DIY'ing the screen. I had some pretty good results in my last theater.

Please make any comments, critiques and suggestions you can think of. I'm starting demo tomorrow and I'm anxious to start the build. I want to make sure I'm on the right track!

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! I've taken your advise and sketched up some new drawings.

- I reduced the screen size to 106 and mocked it up with a acoustically transparent screen (AccuScreen 106 AT).

- I was then able to back up the false wall by 12 inches.

- I then used the extra foot to pull the back row off the back wall by about a foot so my rears have a little more space to breath. It's not ideal, but I think it's better right?

- The viewing distances are the same but the screen is smaller so I think I'm heading in the right direction.

- Placing the center speaker behind the screen also allowed me to raise the screen a bit. I think this will help with the rear seats viewing angle.

- I placed an alternative location for my fronts... not sure about that though...I'm kinda liking the idea of having everything behind the screen. cleaner look. Can anyone comment on the separation of my fronts? They seem close together to me... but that's as far apart as they can go.

- Finaly, comments on my side surround placement? Given my limited space, I know that they will be in the way for people walking by to the back row... but this is really not avoidable given my small room. What do you guys think of where they should go in relation to the front/back rows? Taking into consideration that I will be adjusting my fabric/OC703 panels to cover most exposed drywall.

New sketches!
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Ok... enough arts and crafts!! It's demo time!! I'll have some pics up when I'm done!

@secondhander

Thanks for the reply!! You're really forcing me to think and re-think this through! This is such a great place to learn!

I checked SeymourAV dot com ... Nice stuff... That's what I am going to do! Thanks for that!

I haven't bought the Berklines yet. And as far as the couch is concerned, it was just me trying to recycle it... But I checked out mct123's theatre... Impressive!! I want those now!! Ha!! They are priced reasonably.. 319 apiece if you order 4 or more... I'm getting 6!

Now I have to make another sketch!!!

... back to demo...
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@aaustin

Hey thanks! I had a peak at your build thread! Looks great!!! I'm going to keep an eye on it... your a few months ahead of me!

Some demo pics
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Well a few more things to report. I'm pretty much done with demo. A few drywall screws here and there to remove but that's it.

Just got back from Home Depot... Bought an auxiliary light as I have shut all power to that room. Getting ready to re-wire and add 5 more zones.

pic of my new light, and you can see the sofit lights in the background.
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I also ran a 2" PVC pipe from the HT room to my future equipment closet.
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ceilling access from the closet.
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other end of the pipe inside the closet ceiling
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Of course I still need to trim the pipe and secure it to the joists.

I've been thinking about my speakers. More specifically my side and rear surrounds. I think I am going to go with these, or something along the lines of this:
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Given the small size of my room, I think this is a good idea.

I had a question about the front "height" speakers. Could someone use in-ceiling speakers for this channel?

I've also pretty much decided to go with these seats as seen in mct123's theatre: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post18071524

Oh and here is a pic of my new sub
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That should be it until next week!

Thanks for reading!
Matt

Just when you think you've got it all figured out! I think your right Fred. Logicaly, if my fronts are that close to the screen they are going to be pushing air and vibrating the screen, causing distortions. If I get the theater seats it should give me a bit more room to work with. I'll have to bring the screen forward six inches or so. Secondhander, you say yours are 6 inches from the screen? any movement at all when your listening at high levels?

Copy that BIG... I find the 500W bulbs that are in there now are just TOO bright... I'm constantly blinding myself!

Received my Monoprice order today!! They are so fast!

500ft of 14AWG in wall speaker wire
25ft silver coated HDMI cable for my projector
50ft sub cable... (...10 bucks!!)
and various short HDMI cables for components and such

Also... I ordered a BenQ W6000 from NCIX... 1499.99

And BIG thanks to secondhander for pointing me towards HTD.

I got a pair of level 2 towers http://www.htd.com/Products/level-tw...Tower-Speakers

a level 3 center http://www.htd.com/Products/center-c...hannel-Speaker

and 2 pairs of W65 in-walls for my surrounds http://www.htd.com/Products/high-def...-wall-speakers

I read every review and post I could find on these speakers and the company, I could not find any negatives... mostly great to awesome reviews! The service I got from the guys at HTD is the best I've ever gotten from any company period. Just need to see what the final products look/sound like! Can't wait to find out what they sound like with my 12" Klipsch sub!

Question... for the wall that is going to be behind my screen wall, and behind my fronts and sub. Am I looking for REFLECTION or ABSORPTION?

Matt

Busy day today!!

Removed the old strapping to get ready for the resilient channels.
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While I was cleaning up the old strapping and removing the flooring (never ending demo!!), who should arrived? Santa!! Driving a big HD truck!
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Roxul Safe N sound. For those who are not familiar with this stuff, its made from ROCK, not fiberglass. It's amazing at sound isolation!! This will be going into my walls and ceiling. The ceiling will be decoupled from the joists and I will be using 5/8 sheetrock. You can also see my stage sand!
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Some more materials!!
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And then as if things couldn't get any better, I hear the doorbell while downstairs. It's the UPS guy! And he brought me a BenQ W6000
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Ok, back to work!! Here is a rough sketch of my wiring plan.
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A couple hours later, here is my 6 gang box set up and ready to be wired up. All my wires are now in place.
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Running speaker wires to the equipment closet.
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All speaker wire measured and run through the pvc pipe. I ran height channels plus the 7 regular channels. HDMI and subwoofer cables run through also. A bit tight with the 2 inch pipe, but I got it through.
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I am exhausted!! Everything is cleaned up and I have another big day tomorrow!

Thanks for looking.

Matt

Room is in the basement, so the floor isn't an issue. I have considered iso clips, green glue, double drywall etc., but I guess I just figured the diminishing return on my investment on sound isolation is such that I think this will be quite adequate for our needs and expectations. Plus, I have other projects coming down the pipe and I need to keep the theater relatively simple. I plan on having this thing DONE in a month or so. Spring time brings landscaping and fence building! This is a new house and I have lots to do!! Plus two kids that play hockey... so my weekends are spent at the rink!

Matt

I ran them for 7.1 + the additional height. Not sure what benefit they give or if any movies even have that additional channel? Anyway, the wires will be there!


Never even occured to me to run them on the outside. I assume you mean tying them to the conduit and pushing them through with the pipe? I think I would have had a heck of a time doing that anyway. It was a b**ch to simply push the pipe through! There are so many wires, pipes and intersecting floor joists that I felt I was threading a needle for 25 feet! Remember my entire basement is finished, so I am running this conduit over top a finished ceiling in an adjoining room. Anyway, today I ran a second conduit next to the original for future runs.


DONE! I ran the cat5 through my second pipe this afternoon.

I tried to get the shortest run of HDMI cable I could comfortably use. 25 ft. It's a bit tight, but I still have lots of room to work with. I tested it and the signal seems to be good.... we shall see!

Not a whole lot of progress to report today. I finished running all the speaker cables to their rough locations in the room. I wired the plug for the PJ (on a separate circuit). The room lights, the equipment closet and the PJ will all be on 3 different circuits.

That will be all for the next week or so I think. Working the next 7 days in a row... uhg...

Matt

Oh joy Oh joy!!! The fed ex guy dropped off my speakers!

As posted previously, I chose to go with HTD after a suggestion from secondhander. I don't regret my decision. My first impression is that the quality of these speakers is equal if not superior to speakers costing twice as much.

I went with the Level 3 center channel, there top of the line center speaker. I was always told to start at the center and get the best, then build around that.

The speaker is huge, and appears to be well built! Time will tell if they sound as good as they look!
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Whithout the grill.
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All the speakers were very well packaged. They were in cloth bags.
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My level 2 towers. Still in the boxes.
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These are my in wall HD-W65s... two pairs.
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I also bought my IR kit from HTD.
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I have a bit of progress to report. I have installed all my risiliant channels, Built the door frame and started putting up some Roxul in my walls.

Pic of the risiliant channels. The pink chip clip is attached to the only "live" wire in the room. It's for the PJ. You can see where I've cut the studs to make room for the box that will contain the PJ. It will protrude through to the other side.
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Newly framed door frame. The door is not hung, I just placed it there for the photo. The door is an acoustic, solide core door. It says it's designed specificaly for acoustic isolation. We'll see! I plan on adding some mass to it by attaching an acoustic pannel to the inside.
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This is the Roxul safe n' sound insulation. It's really nice stuff! It's actually rock. You can feel the mass when you pick it up. It's twice the price of any pink stuff! Hopefully it will be worth it!
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That's going to be it for today. Tomorow I am going to run the IR cable from the equipment closet and finalise all the wire placements so that I can finish up the insulation.

Then I will start working on my Dead Vents! I contacted Ted White of the Soundproofing Company and he hooked me up with some excellent articles concerning dead vents and soffit construction. I will be using a lot of his ideas!!

Thanks for reading!
Matt

long time since I updated. Doesn't mean I haven't been busy! I feel like I have a second full time job working on this room!!

I will let my pics do the talking.

Here is a pic of my tap into the air return vent into the room. Because this room was not originaly closed off from the rest of the basement it had no dedicated air return. I had to make one!
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Here is the new air return with an attachment.
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This is the AC/Heat outlet into the room. I am reducing it from 6 to 4 inches.
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Here is the outlet with a 25 foot metal flex pipe attached.
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And finaly, a 25 foot 6" insulated flex pipe slid over top of the metal flex pipe. I will be running the lenght of the 25 feet around the room inside my soffit in order to deaden any sound that may travel inside.
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All the Roxul is pretty much all in place in the walls and ceiling at this point. I had to run the flex pipe into the ceiling at the back of the room to allow space for the projector.
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Drywall time. Uhg... Here is my lift, rented from HD. Notice the window has been covered up and insulated.
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Rough drywall is done. Notice my Avatar cup in the back ground on the stairs. I only drink out of movie cups and listen to movie soundtracks (Gladiator and Lord of the Rings are my favorites!) during construction. It keeps me motivated and inspired!!
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Here is the sand I lugged down from the garage. My stage construction has begun at this point.
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Staged is filled with sand. Center area is completely filled. This is where my sub will sit. The sides are half filled and toped up with Roxul.
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Riser construction.
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Riser filled with combo of pink and Roxul. Basically using up what I have left.
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Plug for rope light wired into the riser.
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First layer of 5/8 plywood attached. I don't have a pic but I installed two layers on my riser.
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Continuing construction of the stage.
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Another stage pic.
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Stage done. Double layed. Round part in the front is filled with sand. You can see the beginning of my screen wall.
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This is what I need to consume at my real job so I don't randomly fall asleep!!! I'm going non-stop on this room. We are flying to San Francisco on March 12th and I'd like to be pretty much done by then! So it's go go go!
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Screen wall assembled on the floor.
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Screen wall in place!
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Soffit construction begins. My air return flex pipe laid out on the bottom part of the soffit. At 25 feet, it circles 1 third of the room. I will be filling the soffit with Roxul and adding as many "S" curves into the pipe to avoid sound transmission.
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Plug wired into the soffit for the rope light.
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HDMI cable coming out of the soffit. You can also see Cat5 cable tucked in there for future use. A second Cat5 cable is running in the soffit to the front of the room for my IR controler.
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Soffit done!
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