My New Theater - Version 2.0! - Page 3

Funston,

I'm going to check out some on-walls today or tomorrow to see how obtrusive they are. If they're small, I may go that route, as I'm just racking my head against the wall worrying about these in-wall enclosures.

If anyone else out there has any recommendations, I'd love to hear as well.

Funston, thanks again for the reply and for helping to keep this thread alive.

Well, I had a few conversations with tech support at Klipsch today regarding back boxes for in-walls. They recommend 1-1.5 cubit feet for the back back, which basically results in an enclosure that's 4-5 feet tall betwee the studs.

I had a look at a retailer tonight and decided to go with in-walls for the rears and bi-poles for the side surrounds. I picked up one of these tonight so that I could build my enclosures:



I'll be getting the other as I get closer to equipment time.

For the side surrounds, I decided on the RS42's. They had great sound, and were just the right size to not be standing out too much to listeners.



For mains, I'm currently thinking about Klipsch bookshelf speakers and two subs. I'm not convinced on towers yet. I used to own the RB35's and was blown away with how good they sounded.

Getting ready to build some MDF enclosures for my in-walls. Question - What's the best way to get the speaker wire in the box? I mean, I could drill a small hole in the back and run it through, but doesn't that kind of defeat the whole purpose of blocking the sound escape with the box?

I'm guessing with the hole so small, it's not really an issue for sound?

After talking to Klipsch, I decided to build my enclosures to roughly 1 cubic foot. Here is what I ended up with for back boxes on the rear surrounds. I'll post another pic once they're installed.

Thanks for the inputs on the columns. My columns are actually only 3" deep, so not much room to house anything in there. I decided to drywall down about halfway and then install an access panel below that. It will be covered in fabric and should blend into the rest of the wall. I'll cover the front column in fabric as well, so that it's not obvious.

My riser will be 66 inches deep and 12 inches tall. I'm currently leaning towards the Showtime seats from Coaster, but will consider Berklines if i can find a good deal. 2 rows of 3 seats each.

Well, staying up until 1am this morning and then back at it at 6:30 really paid off. Drywall is being hung as we speak, but here are a few shots of the room as of this morning.

First, a shot of the rear enclosures mounted in the wall.



I ended up using R-13 insulation around the perimeter, and R-30 in the ceiling and soffits.

Below is a shot of the rear wall, showing both enclosures and the cabling for the projector run:



The front wall. Front wire pull throughs are all at 24" above the floor. You can also see half of the 64 sheets of drywall that were delivered.



Finally, a picture of the cabling coming back to the equipment rack. I ended up going with 3 boxes so that things wouldn't be too crowded. AV cables are on the left, and all of the speaker and sub cabling is on the right. There is also a 100 foot CAT5 run going from the rack to the office, which is above the crawl space at the opposite end of the theater. This will give me a hard connection from the router there to the theater.



I'll post some additional pictures once the crew leaves today.

I had heard good things about the coasters. Are you saying that they're not the same quality of Berklines? To me, Berklines have always been a little overpriced.

I ended up drilling a hole and pulling the cable through. The cable barely fits through the hole so it's super tight around the opening.

Drywall was hung today. Here are a few shots of the progress:

First, a shot going down the stairwell.


From inside of the equipment closet:


Facing the front of the room. This shot gives you a good idea of how the soffits will look. I'm going with a yellow rope light in the cove.


Cabinet wall and front of equipment rack. I'll be insulating the back wall around the cabinets.



Left wall showing the columns. The left column is where the water meter is. I'll be installing a fabric access panel there.



Taping will be done tomorrow, so I'll post some updated pics at that point.

No furniture yet, but it's not as bad as it appears in the picture. I guess it's just the angle.

The wall in front of the steps is actually 5 feet from the bottom riser. That opening is 6 1/2 feet wide from wall to wall, and a little over 3 feet on the landing that you can see. I actually taped the wall off several times before framing and walked down the stairs until I didn't feel like was going to slam into it. 5 feet seemed to be a good compromise.

Moving right along.. Today was taping and mudding.



I think this shot gives a good idea of the reveal around the soffit. We went with 2-45 degree bends to create the area for the rope lighting. It will look much better after being sanded, but I'm very pleased with the outcome so far.



Equipment closet and cabinet area for DVDs.



Here's more of a close-up shot of how we framed out the water meter and main shutoff. I'm planning on creating a fabric access panel and using some of the grille guide magnets from Parts Express that ChinDog used in his theater.



Here's a link to the magnets:

I'll see what I can find for samples. We're curently leaning towards brown on the bottom half and burgundy on the upper half of the walls. The front wall will be all black, and I'm thinking of going with a brown on the ceiling to accent the brown highlights in the black carpet.

HAHAHH. I keep forget that you are lurking around the corner Want to come help build a stage and riser next week?

Thanks. I'd love to see the colors of the room. If you can post some pics, that would be great.

Not much to report today in terms of pictures, but someone on the drywall crew spent an entire day in the basement sanding and mudding a 2nd coat. Someone else is coming back tomorrow to do a final sanding, so I'm thinking we'll be good to go after that. I'll take some updated pics at that time.

I'll be heading out to the west coast over the weekend, as they are forcasting snow AGAIN here (yuk!), so I won't be able to get back to work on the basement until Tuesday. Once the drywall is done, I plan to get working on the riser and stage, as well as finalizing what I'm going to do about cabinets.

It looks like there was a communication issue between the mud and tape guy and the sander, so no one is here today. After I phone call, we decided that the sanding will be done next Tuesday after I get back from wine country.

mmmmm....wine.

Colors are slightly off, but this should give a rough idea of the scheme I'm planning on doing. The black columns will be covered in fabric, with the leftmost one housing the water meter.



There will be a maple chair rail seperating the two colors, as well as maple baseboard (not shown). The burgundy will be a little deeper, and the brown more of a chocolate brown with a suede finish.