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The Mountain Escape Theater

5K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  anjunadeep 
#1 · (Edited)
Greetings

After several years of wanting to have a dedicated home theater, I have elected to begin the planning and construction of one in my basement now that one is available. I have had multiple living room setups with different equipment brands, but never a dedicated setup. I’ve been reading the forums for several years and find people’s DIY setups interesting to follow.

Despite the knowledge I’ve gained, I still decided to defer to the expertise of a professional designer. I plan on doing all the construction myself. The decision to go with a professional designer was mostly based on wanting to speed up the process and begin construction, and to also ensure that the setup (speaker placement, seating position/distance, acoustical treatment design) was done properly. IMO, it’s definitely worth it.


Setup Basics:


Room dimensions: 25’ L x 11’ W x 8.5’ H (Unfortunately the width cannot be changed.)


This will be a relatively small, simple setup with only one row of three seats.
Room is in a basement that is currently sharing a garage. Once finished, it will be separate from garage and will have two doors with a dividing wall (layout posted below).

LCR and subs will be behind AT screen on stage.


7.2.4

Gear:


Projector: JVC NX7
Screen: 120" Seymour Center Stage UF (acoustically transparent)

LCR: Triad InWall Gold/6 LCR

Surrounds/Surround Backs: (4) Triad InWall Bronze/4 LCR

Atmos: (4) Triad Rotating Silver/9 Sat

Subs: 2x GSG Audio BTS, Dayton UM18-22 drivers
Subs will include a 2x4 MiniDSP HD utilizing REW and UMIK-1.

Pre/Pro: Anthem AVM 60

Amps: Parasound Halo A31 for LCR. Parasound Halo A52 for surrounds/backs.
Crown Amps for Subs.

Media: Nvidia shield Pro, Samsung UB820

Seating: TBD.

Sound Treatment: DIY
 

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#2 ·
@Kanob - Welcome to the thread of the forum.
Looks like you've started with a thought out plan. That's a huge win in making a build a success.

Screen - I have the JVC RS-2000 / NX-7 projector. Suggestions to consider the Seymour AV products . They have DIY options as well have very nice material choices. I went with the 'Center Stage XD', on a 2.35 - F120 frame. Very pleased with the quality of the combination of the 2. You can order some sample materials to get and idea.

Amplifier for Subs - If you are building the room, and have access to the service panel to add a 30 amp circuit, I would consider going with a Lab Gruppen clone, FP14000 or something like that for your subs. Otherwise a standard NU/NX series 6000watt amp would suffice on a standard 20amp circuit.

Subs - Go DIY. No doubt on that. Way more bang for the buck. I like my UM-18's . I have 4 of them. 2 in MiniMarty's and 2 in 4cuft sealed. Both output tremendous amount of clean LF and ULF.

AVR - Monolith HTP-1.... I am very interested in this unit as well. If the implementation of quality is better than the Emotiva RMC-1, this could be a real winner. I always have a concern however of the run rate and the quality of these new processors on the market. Hence, when I was building out, and with all the issues Emo was having with theres, I decided not to wait any longer and just went with a tried and true market brand, and have not been disappointed.

Speakers - Triad's are good choices. @flyguy340 used those in his last build, and I had the pleasure of experiencing those. Sound quality is outstanding. I would definitely build backer boxes for those, no matter your sound control strategy.


Again, welcome to the thread, and looking forward to seeing your build come together.
 
#3 ·
I will look into the Seymour AV products. I see several others have those in these forums. The issue is apparently for my seating distance an acoustically transparent screen needs to be woven instead of perforated for audio quality differences, according to the pros. Now what difference would be noticeable is a different question. Thanks.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Seymour has 3 different woven alternatives. Stewart lowered their prices for their woven the end of last year. AV science sales has a frame and woven screen offering. Screen Innovations has woven.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I would get a quote for Stewart Filmscreen Studiotek 130 G4 . It can be perforated. As you probably already know it is considered the reference gain screen used in commercial cinemas throughout the world. The latest generation was introduced in the past year. Stewart also made historic price drops in November of last year that have brought their screens into the budget of many more projector owners. Probably about half of the SI screen. Stewart will also be now significantly less than Seymour believe it or not. REW should be able to account for any changes in frequency deviation caused by the perforated screen.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/stewart-filmscreen-studiotek-130-g4-projection-screen-review

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
#6 · (Edited)
Framing of the room has begun. A new wall will be constructed over the already existing wall that is there that doesn't go all the way to the ceiling. As this is my first time framing walls in a room this is a bit tricky to frame over the existing wall while still maintaining a doorway and framing the new wall to the ceiling while also framing a new wall from that. Included is the side elevation design of this side of the room.





 
#7 ·
Man with a room that size and a screen that size, you should consider pushing far closer to the screen if you actually want to benefit from native 4K.
 
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#9 · (Edited)
Is there any point in trying to provide sound isolation in the ceiling if there will be none in any of the walls?


There are a few items in the ceiling that need consideration before doing the ceiling strapping. I'd like to use this space to provide a bit of sound isolation but unsure how. The cross support bar seen in the middle comes out about an inch below the joist (an older picture made before framing). You can also see three metal support bars that come out perpendicular to the joists in the front right part of the room that are supporting the bottom of a chimney in the upper level above the basement, also about an inch below the bottom of the floor joists.


I'm thinking if these items need clearance anyway then sound resilient channels made 16" OC would work to attach the drywall to.



Thoughts?


 
#10 ·
clips and channel create about a 1 1/4 gap. Anything hanging below a joist that is 1 inch or smaller can stay in place. Make sure nothing rattles. Correct spacing of ceiling channels is 24 inches on center. Pic attached from a project. If you need to you could cut some 1/4 to 1/2 spacers to lower the clips even more.


 

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#11 ·
Interesting, the objects I have are within 1 inch then so that should be fine. The question is how much actual difference would there be in sound isolation with only doing the ceiling. I'm not looking to invest much time or money into isolation but I figured some would be better than nothing if I have to clear obstacles in the ceiling anyway and if it's relatively cheap. I can't really use isolation on the walls (for starters it's not included in the professional design that was made) but also because of the limited width (11') and height (8.5') that the room has I can't really sacrifice any more space. I'm thinking that using the clips and channels with maybe using the two layers of drywall with green glue, but I'll make that decision after the framing of the walls and soffits is completed.
 
#12 ·
You will get some benefit by just doing the ceiling, How much nobody can say with any specific data as every room is unique. It could be as little as 10% benefit compared to doing the whole room or maybe 50%. It is one of those things that if you do it you roll the dice on the outcome. It won't be 0%
 
#13 · (Edited)
Progress

Some progress on the framing. Next will be making the soffits and rough-in electrical (already partially done from the previous owner of the house). The joining room with the preexisting door will be where the equipment rack goes, just behind the wall to the left of the door.

One of many lessons learned: If you ever start a project like this and give the design side of it to a professional, make sure your measurements of the room are 100% correct. It will make it much easier when you know exactly what to cut and apply when the numbers are given to you on the design sheet. Some parts were off by a few inches due to my measurement errors and made it a bit frustrating at times. The design is brilliantly done however, has cut out a lot of the guess work and has saved a LOT of time.








I wish I could work faster at a JOLLEY speed, but it is what it is. :)
 
#14 ·
I'm stuck on my progress due to not knowing what to do with the soffits. The design clearly is made to show that the drywall will be installed first, and the soffits afterward. However, as seen in my pictures I have flex duct on one side that will require a soffit be made first, unless I'm missing something.

Also, I have the 8 foot wide wall that's supposed to be behind the seating position that will need to be secured on the top. I don't understand how the top plate of the wall could be fastened properly onto just the 1/2" MDF that the design calls for that's on the bottom of the soffit just above the wall.



 
#16 ·
If putting up the drywall first and then soffits is best for sound isolation purposes then it seems putting holes in the drywall for hvac etc. seems to defeat the purpose. Also having the drywallers come over twice seems counterproductive, unless I do the work myself on the soffits, which is fine as it wouldn't be that much, but I was hoping to avoid that part of the project and save some time.
 
#17 ·
Pretty standard to do it that way really. I have a similar setup in mine. Just leave enough of the duct sticking out so you can connect to it, and seal around the drywall. Then you run the duct in the "false soffit" inside of the DW shell. Here's a post from my thread that shows some of how it looks.

Decided not to make custom boots for returns and supplies. Went with 6"x10" for both. Held vent cover up to the boot when air was on. Very slight air movement noise with my head directly underneath it, but not enough to be a concern to me.




Returns now have their proper spacing.


Had just enough time to get the MDF up on the entry wall soffit.


 
#18 ·
Update 12/17/21

A year a half later since the last post I'm able to update on the progress. I've taken pictures the past few months to show the steps that were made during the build. This has been a very long process for various reasons, but eventually it will be completed :)

The construction has been a one man job through the entire build, but I have had a lot of guidance out there from a few that the build would not have been possible without.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Framing of soffits and completing electrical rough-in.

Wood Beam Wall Window Fixture


Brown Wood Wood stain Hardwood Natural material



The walls are all composed of concrete cinder blocks. I applied two layers of Drylock Extreme paint on the walls, then applied the foam board insulation afterward, prior to framing.


Wood Flooring Floor Font Material property



Testing electrical connections for wall sconces. This stage of the construction felt like I had made some progress with having actual lighting in the room without the need for the work lights.


Wood Interior design Floor Flooring Hardwood


Fixture Wood Interior design Flooring Floor
 
#21 ·
Drywall began on the ceiling. You can see that the ceiling Atmos speakers have already been installed. Biggest problem I made in hindsight was not getting the proper length of boards (10') instead of what was readily available at a big box store.

Wood Floor Line Wall Red




First time doing drywall, which may be obvious. It eventually worked out.


Floor Flooring Wood Hardwood Tints and shades
 
#22 · (Edited)
View of the back wall with the rear Atmos speakers. I wanted to install them before the ceiling was finished to ensure everything would work and was properly secured. These ceiling speakers are a beast at over 15 lbs each.

Fixture Flooring Floor Wood Building




View of the front entrance from the garage. There's a lot of creative ways I can make this nice I think.


Wood Floor Fixture Flooring Gas
 
#26 ·
2/3 of the Triad Gold LCRs just sitting on the floor without a purpose :(

Studio monitor Audio equipment Electronic instrument Wood Camera accessory



Parasound amplification. Found some really good deals of the used market for a lot of the equipment. The A31 will power the LCRs, with the A52 powering the side a rear surrounds. Yes, this is way beyond what is required given my listening distance. There is no kill like overkill, however. :D


Cabinetry Chest of drawers Drawer Wood Rectangle


Bringing in the AV rack. This thing is a beast. I opted to get the 42U size to ensure I have enough space for future equipment. Also, I needed something that could handle the weight of the Parasounds :oops:


Tire Land vehicle Car Vehicle Wheel
 
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