I recently finished the basement in my family home and now finally had the space to resurrect my olde school home theatre (with a few 21st century additions naturally). Since 2008 up until this past Christmas (2012) we made due with our main floor 46” XBR LCD, Sony BD player, and the Boxee box. Although I missed watching movies on a big screen with big sound I simply didn’t have the space or time (with 2 small children) to dust off and set up the old gear. My wife and I are not big TV watchers; I don’t even pay for cable or satellite – since we moved into this (our first) house we’ve been living off the OTA waves. Our home is completely Bell and Rogers free and it is such a satisfying feeling (fellow Canucks will know what I’m talking about). Anyways, on to the meat and potatoes of my setup…
DISPLAY SCREEN
• 65” Panasonic GT50 plasma – 3D, THX, Viera Connect (dual-core) web navigator
A/V COMPONENTS
• Panasonic BDT220 3D Blu Ray player
• Pioneer VSX-90TX 5 channel (5 x 100w) THX, Dolby Digital, Pro Logic receiver
• Pioneer DVL-91 Laserdisc/DVD combination player
• JVC S-VHS player (will confirm model # but does it really matter?)
• PS3
SPEAKERS
• FRONT (L/C/R – THX reference): Post Audio DM 16 floor standing 3-way speakers (yes those are dual 12’s)
• REAR (L/R): BIC America 5.25” in ceiling speakers
• SUBWOOFER: PSB Subsonic 3i – 15” driver, 350w RMS BASH amp (700w peak), crossover dial set to 80 Hz (THX reference)
Note: I wired my room for 7.1 surround and have speaker wire buried inside the left and right walls on either side for when I finally upgrade my receiver.
I'm sure you can tell which items were Christmas presents for 2012 and which ones are relics of 20th century HI-FI lol. I realise its nothing special compared to what's available today from even a low-end perspective but for my needs they suffice, and then some.
Wiring all those A/V components together proved to be tricky. My old Pioneer 09TX amp is a great unit (made in Japan) which I was happy to keep for the time being, however being a relic of the late 90's it is absolutely STARVED for inputs. I'll detail how I managed to wire everything up later and include some additional pics of the finished, furnished space.
My unfinished basement was basically an open “L” shape. I think its about 13 feet at its widest points which is great because there were NO vertical support beams anywhere in the middle; we were able to frame and built the walls around all the beams, drain pipes, etc. I chose the end where my theatre went because the walls there (left, right, center as well as the two on 45s) were all concrete foundation walls. I used a suspended ceiling above the equipment location and packed Roxul sound insulation up in the ceiling joists. The electrical and A/V cabling was wired in wall precisely to where I had spec’d out my component locations. I regret not taking a picture of my finished wall now before all the gear went up, but here’s what’s BEHIND those components:
• Each front speaker has a banana plug wall plate – I wired the front L/C/R’s with equal length 12 gauge wire in wall, and they are connected to their wall plates with equal length 12 gauge cable
• The subwoofer has its own RCA audio wall plate (wired with shielded RG6 in wall) and a 20 amp (black) receptacle*
• The TV has its own AC receptacle, a coax wall plate (feeding OTA), and a dual HDMI wall plate (I buried two high speed HDMI + Ethernet cables in wall, and connected two of the same from the TV to the wall plate)
• The component rack location has the other end of that dual HDMI wall plate, a coax wall plate (hooked to the home’s inactive cable TV/internet infrastructure), a 7.1 central speaker wall plate including sub channel, 3 AC receptacles (6 outlets), and a separate 20 amp (black) receptacle* for the receiver
• I also buried a PVC conduit behind the component rack up to the left side of the TV.
* I wired the two 20 amp receptacles (for sub & receiver) with 12/2 electrical cable to a new dedicated 20 amp breaker in the circuit board. There’s more than enough available (and clean) power on tap at these outlets... I'm thinking ahead to that flagship NAD amp I envision down there one day
You can see I’ve left one HDMI input in the wall plate behind the system rack open on purpose – that’s available in case I ever want/need to add an additional HDMI driven device to the TV (either permanently or temporarily).
Edited by stuckin96 - 2/21/13 at 7:56am
DISPLAY SCREEN
• 65” Panasonic GT50 plasma – 3D, THX, Viera Connect (dual-core) web navigator
A/V COMPONENTS
• Panasonic BDT220 3D Blu Ray player
• Pioneer VSX-90TX 5 channel (5 x 100w) THX, Dolby Digital, Pro Logic receiver
• Pioneer DVL-91 Laserdisc/DVD combination player
• JVC S-VHS player (will confirm model # but does it really matter?)
• PS3
SPEAKERS
• FRONT (L/C/R – THX reference): Post Audio DM 16 floor standing 3-way speakers (yes those are dual 12’s)
• REAR (L/R): BIC America 5.25” in ceiling speakers
• SUBWOOFER: PSB Subsonic 3i – 15” driver, 350w RMS BASH amp (700w peak), crossover dial set to 80 Hz (THX reference)
Note: I wired my room for 7.1 surround and have speaker wire buried inside the left and right walls on either side for when I finally upgrade my receiver.
I'm sure you can tell which items were Christmas presents for 2012 and which ones are relics of 20th century HI-FI lol. I realise its nothing special compared to what's available today from even a low-end perspective but for my needs they suffice, and then some.
Wiring all those A/V components together proved to be tricky. My old Pioneer 09TX amp is a great unit (made in Japan) which I was happy to keep for the time being, however being a relic of the late 90's it is absolutely STARVED for inputs. I'll detail how I managed to wire everything up later and include some additional pics of the finished, furnished space.
My unfinished basement was basically an open “L” shape. I think its about 13 feet at its widest points which is great because there were NO vertical support beams anywhere in the middle; we were able to frame and built the walls around all the beams, drain pipes, etc. I chose the end where my theatre went because the walls there (left, right, center as well as the two on 45s) were all concrete foundation walls. I used a suspended ceiling above the equipment location and packed Roxul sound insulation up in the ceiling joists. The electrical and A/V cabling was wired in wall precisely to where I had spec’d out my component locations. I regret not taking a picture of my finished wall now before all the gear went up, but here’s what’s BEHIND those components:
• Each front speaker has a banana plug wall plate – I wired the front L/C/R’s with equal length 12 gauge wire in wall, and they are connected to their wall plates with equal length 12 gauge cable
• The subwoofer has its own RCA audio wall plate (wired with shielded RG6 in wall) and a 20 amp (black) receptacle*
• The TV has its own AC receptacle, a coax wall plate (feeding OTA), and a dual HDMI wall plate (I buried two high speed HDMI + Ethernet cables in wall, and connected two of the same from the TV to the wall plate)
• The component rack location has the other end of that dual HDMI wall plate, a coax wall plate (hooked to the home’s inactive cable TV/internet infrastructure), a 7.1 central speaker wall plate including sub channel, 3 AC receptacles (6 outlets), and a separate 20 amp (black) receptacle* for the receiver
• I also buried a PVC conduit behind the component rack up to the left side of the TV.
* I wired the two 20 amp receptacles (for sub & receiver) with 12/2 electrical cable to a new dedicated 20 amp breaker in the circuit board. There’s more than enough available (and clean) power on tap at these outlets... I'm thinking ahead to that flagship NAD amp I envision down there one day
You can see I’ve left one HDMI input in the wall plate behind the system rack open on purpose – that’s available in case I ever want/need to add an additional HDMI driven device to the TV (either permanently or temporarily).
Edited by stuckin96 - 2/21/13 at 7:56am
