Carp's basement hide-out - Page 6

In the last of that post I said I hated Heritage, that's a bit strong but I sure don't feel the need to listen to it again. Like you I tried many times to like it but I just don't, I find it very boring.

Oh, yeah, Deliverance is amazing and I agree with your comment about Lopez drumming. The outro to the song Deliverance is like nothing else I've ever heard, it messes with your head. And yes, Masters Apprentices... wow. The whole first section gives me the chills, "there is a death I'm awaiting", love that line. So dark and depressing, a guy living with a terminal illness? I assume that's what it's about.

The guitar solo on A Fair Judgement - all time favorite.

I finally got to seem them live here in KC last fall, but it was terrible timing. They didn't do a single song that had any growling vocals at all. I did get to hear A Fair Judgement, Face of Melinda, Hex Omega etc. which were great but I missed the heavier songs. Mikael is one of those people that has perfect pitch, at least he was that night. I'm telling you, not a single note was the least bit flat he was dead on with everything - at least that night. I'm very sensitive to off key vocals, and he was spot on. Amazing talent, my wife (who I dragged to the show) even agreed.

I actually like the brighter walls. I know it makes the picture quality suffer (still looks great to me though!!), but I use the room for other things other than watching movies in the dark. I almost always have the lights on for watching tv and my wife and I use it as a work out room. For me the trade off is worth it.

Also, I bet if I had all dark side walls and ceiling the black bars would show up more above and below the screen since I am zooming to fit my 2:35:1. With the room being lit up more it probably makes the black bars darker which is why I can only see them in very dark scenes as is.

My original plan was to eventually paint the ceiling and walls dark but once I bought the projector I quickly realized I wouldn't have to do that.

It's great when it's working right but people have had a lot of issues with it. I"m on my 3rd unit since I bought one last November. The first one had auto iris issues and a dust blob, the 2nd developed a dust blob, and my current one has one that is starting but will only get worse.

For now I"m not too upset about it, I just call Epson and they send out another one which means I keep getting a new bulb. I use it a ton, so it's nice to keep getting new bulbs. The party will be over when my 2 year warranty is up (over a year from now) but until then I'll just keep getting new units which means new bulbs. Hopefully by then I can replace it with something more reliable.

Same to you man, I just checked out some of your pics - very nice. Those chairs sure look comfy too.

Your welcome. I would spend a little more and get something more reliable.

I finally got around to raising my projector a little bit so I don't bang my head on it. When I had it installed it wasn't a big deal because I had my couch back further so that I wouldn't hit my head when I got up from sitting, but also wouldn't walk into it since the back of the couch was basically right under it. When I moved my couch forward almost 3 feet suddenly the projector was out in the middle of nowhere and in jeopardy of being run into. I have a ceiling fan in between the projector and the screen which is why I can't have it all the way up to the ceiling.

The person who mounted/installed my projector took some shortcuts, first of all he didn't get the projector centered with the screen. I have lens shift so it's not a huge deal, but I switch back and forth a lot when I zoom for 2:35:1 movies. Also, he didn't check to see exactly how high he could mount the projector. He really wanted me to remove the ceiling fan saying that if I kept it it showed that I "just didn't care", whatever that meant. I tried to explain to him that it was also a workout room and even if it wasn't I like having the fan in there. Finally he agreed but clearly he did not try to mount the projector as high as possible. He cut a piece of PVC pipe (which is fine, I think it looks good painted black) and the end result was that the projector was 5'10" from the floor. This weekend I cut some off the pipe making it 6'3" from the ground but I realized I could go a little higher, so I cut off one more inch and now I'm at 6'4" from the ground. It's so nice not to have to worry about that anymore, unless I get someone taller than that in the room.

The reason I didn't mount the projector myself is because I wanted someone who knew what they were doing to paint my screen for me and he said as part of the job he would make the frame and masking panels for the screen and mount the projector and run all the wires to it. I am very happy with the frame and panels, but I wish I would have done the mounting myself as well as painting the screen (since I had to re-do that myself anyway, I think I've already posted about that in this thread).

Thanks. It's 158 inches and it's a painted wall.

I'm zooming out for 2:35:1 so that the black bars are off of the screen. My projector is almost 17 feet from the wall which is about as close as I can go and still fit the 158" 2:35:1 image on the screen. The black bars are a bit annoying but only on very dark scenes, other than that I don't notice them and there is no way I'm going to spend the money for an anamorphic lense.

Haha, I posted that for a guy wanting to buy it and he couldn't get the pictures I emailed him to open, so I put them here and sent him the link. BTW, just got back from Grant's to give him back the first season of Walking Dead. I know you've seen the pictures, but it's brutal seeing in person what the water did to his basement.

Just picked this up. New addition to the room, pushing it further to the "multi-purpose room" end of the spectrum instead of a pure HT room. Nice and very solid incline/decline leg curl/extensions for 120 bucks on Craigslist. I need to figure out a way to configure everything so that the powerblock dumbbells are next to it but I don't know if that's going to work.

I wanted to try the Submersives stacked in one corner to see how much more headroom I would get thinking I would move it back after the little experiment. Well, what I found was that liked the sound of the bass for music just as much as having them separated, and I indeed did get more headroom for bass intense scenes (which is to be expected). Then I decided just to leave them stacked in the corner since the bass still sounds great in my LP... other seating positions be damned. I've posted before that I would always recommend 2 subs to smooth the frequency response, but hey, I'm allowed to change my mind.

So, my next problem was that I didn't have speaker stands. I tried to find some online but I couldn't find ANYTHING for speakers this size (50 pounds, 14 wide, 13 deep, and 25 tall). So, I decided to make some. Off to Lowes. I suffer from an extreme lack of tools, no table saw, chop saw, jig saw, etc. so I bought some pre-cut circle peices of wood and some 3" pvc. Took me a minute scratching my head at the store to figure out how to attach the pvc to the wood until I finally figured it out.

Here is part way through my project.




Looks like I'm working in the middle of the night with mood lighting on, not sure why the pic came out that way.

Here is the finished products and new placement for the Submersives.










I also pulled up the carpet (AGAIN ) and buried the subwoofer cable and drilled a small hole in the carpet to run the speaker wire to the main speakers.

NO WIRES SHOWING!!

Love it, looks really nice without seeing a single wire anywhere... except for the Submersive power cords on the side wall going into the outlet but they hardly show.

I filled the pvc with sand to make the stands more sturdy. They are functional but I'm not crazy about their looks. They don't look bad at all, but I would prefer square/rectangle bases. Oh well, not bad for me since I have no skills.

I know you know that I've been thinking that! That was part of why I was so interested in the subs that were supposed to be like Terraforms - I wanted the symmetry and not have to spend a ton of money. BTW I talked to Jeff and he says that each sub would be more like the equivalent of half of a Terraform.

Thanks holt, yep I've been thinking about doing that for a long time. I don't really notice them much but it does need to be done.

I have to say. The mains sound better after getting them further out from the corner. I've been listening to a lot of 2 channel the last couple of days and it sounds fantastic. I usually listen in pro logic IIx, but I'm getting addicted to the 2 channel sound right now.

I don't know if it was getting them out of the corner or the fact that the speakers are now lower and the CD is level with my ears. Either way I'm loving it.

Hey, I knew I the shape reminded me of something... I have created sit and spins!!