There's probably lots of places like - http://www.atsacoustics.com/item--Ow...ces--1016.html

Thanks highendwire, that was the ticket.

That link is the bomb. Has anyone actually used their in house/generic version of 703?

If that's what their selling, I'm scheduled for Friday delivery.
Also getting a few color swatches.

I've not uses any of their stuff. I have some homemade round bass traps (in addition to ASCs) made from very big pipe insulation I picked up at a distributor in Alexandria. I've also made midrange treatments from materials ordered at www.readyacoustics.com

Hi...im emmy... from upper marlboro, md. new to the whole ht thing. still in the basic design stage of it...

When's your official meet???

...we never had one at your house.

I was going through all the mail that came in the past three weeks while I was traveling on business and read a letter from Myer Emco informing me that after 55 years in the Washington DC area, they were going to be closing all of their stores. I've bought a few small things from them over the years, so their decision does not affect me directly. But I was still sorry to see another local retailer bite the dust. The CEDIA recommended company that installed a home theater in my basement has also gone out of business. So I am definitely looking for any recommendations for local companies that I can use. I want to put in some surround speakers in my bedroom, and so I am looking for an experienced outfit that can run wires through the walls and hook up A/V equipment. I'm not handy at all when it comes to home improvement type work!

Cal 68

I'll send you a PM with a name

oldschool, you certainly did. I had the first HT meet you probably brought your big round
behind to back in 05. Things have changed since then. But honestly, I'm still paying off
the food tab your rung up . I say it's time for you to get up to the plate you big lug.

Is there anyone in the metro area that has a Blu-Ray demo disc I can borrow for Sunday afternoon?

Thanks in advance

I just noticed the new thread. I'm over in Crownsville (a few miles outside Annapolis).


BTW I have one bat of UltraTouch and maybe half a roll of Integrity Gasket left over from some recent work, if anyone's looking for a really small quantity.

Is that like Linacoustic?

No, UltraTouch is just like fluffy in-wall insulation except made from recycled cotton (primarily denim). They claim some sort of improved acoustic properties but I don't have the numbers in front of me; in any case I don't think it's a huge difference from regular R-13 fiberglass. The big difference is that it's just treated cotton and you can handle it with your bare hands. It's not 100% dust (or lint) free but it won't make you itch or sneeze much when working with it. My makeshift living room theater shares a wall with the furnace room and I'm using this as filler to try to reduce some of the mechanical noise. I have one full 16"-wide bat left over, another strip about 3" wide, and an odd-sized chunk that was cut out to make space for some wiring and conduit.



The Integrity Gasket is a foam adhesive tape. It goes between the studs and the wallboard and provides some vibration dampening. It supposedly doesn't do a lot, but it's cheap and easy. I estimate the final roll is about half used, so there's maybe 30'-50' left. Bear in mind it increases wall thickness by about 1/8", so for example in my case I had to adjust box depths and several existing trim pieces when putting the wall back together.

Wow! That ultratouch stuff has some impressive numbers!
Did you notice a big difference? Did you use to to treat your walls?

I just did the one wall directly between the chairs and the furnace. I think it helped. The furnace is only about 5 feet from the main seating position and I can certainly still hear it rumbling when it kicks on, but it's perhaps not as loud. The wall is just thin wood paneling on the theater side, so there's only so much I can do without switching to something more serious like double drywall. And that's not really worth it, because the room would still have an open-air path around the corner to the furnace room and for various reasons there's just no practical way to close that off.



With the wall treated and Dynamat all over the main ductwork, the mechanical noise is now at least down to a reasonable level. The remaining and harder problem is the return duct. The air-whoosh noise from that thing is terrible, even with no grille. I can't close it off because it's the primary return. I'll probably try making a baffle of some sort, since I know some other folks on the forum have managed to tame return ducts that way.

Everyone, by the way - for the first time we have an Audio Fest in this area June 11 - June 13 - http://www.capitalaudiofest.com/

I'm a little worried about all the HVAC plumbing in my next build. Why'd you go with Dynamat over some other duct liner?

Does anyone have any experience with Gramophone in Columbia, MD? They seem to one of the few A/V stores still surviving! Thanks.

Cal68

Any cost???

Steve - I don't recall seeing any cost on the website. If there was one, I don't imagine it would be expensive. I also recall seeing there is an audio swap meet one day (I'd assume to buy and sell things). I think I talked a friend who manufactures cables to display. I'll probably touch base with him at some point and he may have more info

Here's a post with some more info from the Club Polk forums:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95110

Aside from polk, who's going to be there?

We should all go as a group; represent AVS.

Ask him if we can get a club discount...

It's right there within the link I provided:
http://www.capitalaudiofest.com/p118.html

They've been around for a long time. The Columbia store used to be at a smaller location in Ellicott City back in the early 90s and I bought plenty of Laserdiscs and such from them back then. All of my speakers (DefTech) were bought there out of convenience. I've always found them easy to deal with, but pricing is usually MSRP.

They mostly deal in higher-end brands and models, so Stewart is their primary (or only) screen brand, Runco is/was their primary projector brand, and so on. I think their specialty is doing full installations but I don't have any first-hand experience with that other than the demo rooms they have in the store. I haven't been in there in a year or two so I don't know what might have changed lately.

The circa-1970s ductwork was already installed and there wasn't good access to all of it. I'd seen Dynamat used elsewhere on the forums and figured it was easy to try. It came as a flat stack of pieces and I just cut them to shape and stuck them on. There was originally a subtle rattling among the various noises coming from the return duct. After listening carefully around the furnace, applying Dynamat, and shimming some of the accessible metal joints in the return path (with some thin metal strips) to tighten them up, the rattling is gone.

Of course Dynamat only works on the outside, and the air whoosh is inside which is where duct liner would go. Most of the return path is accessible via the attic and I could have someone line it or replace it with duct board as a last resort, but I'm hoping a baffle will be enough to avoid that hassle.

I live about 1/2 mile from them and drop in occasionally just to see what they have on the floor. I was interested in buying a PRO-141FD from them plus a BDI cabinet. I asked for a price and the salesman said he would have to check to see if any were available and get back to me (that was in July when plenty were still available). I emailed him twice asking for pricing and never got a response. So, I bought my panel from an AVS sponsor and had it shipped to me from Colorado.

dododge's description of the store is very accurate. I think their main store is in the Towson area, but I have never been in there. B&W is very prominent on their line card, and no Denon.

What is the admission fee?

I did not see anything specifically listed. Generally, admission fees are not much for these type events (probably similar to what the Capital Expo Center in VA has for admissions) as they want to hook you up with exhibitors to sell you things. You can write them with questions - [email protected]