Yeah, ecrabb went with the Wilsonart Designer White and I think it looks great. I don't remember exactly what he spent on the whole thing, but with the laminate, particle board and lumber, I think it couldn't have been more than $200... and we banged it out in a few hours. But carrying it to the basement was a BEAR!

The IMAX is closing? I know that the Science Center was in big trouble and a bunch of local companies helped bail them out last year and now Aegon can get special tickets that included one free ticket for each IMAX show that they do for the next year... That would really suck if after they got all the money they needed donated, that they're closing it down it still.

Glad to hear another opinion about the DW screen... I'm definately going to use it for my first screen and if I need to, upgrade in a few years once I have a bit more money to spend.

One option if people are looking to get a cheap screen and then upgrade later, I made my 92 inch screen for about $100. I bought the screen material on ebay ($50 Buy-It- Now and $25 shipping) and made the frame out of 1x4 wood, baseboard trim, and velvet fabric. I had it built in about 2 hours. When compared to my friend who bought a screen from an online dealer for $600, neither of us can tell a difference.

Have you guys followed this thread? I think it is awesome
SWithey Home Theater Construction

Yeah, I had been following that thread for a while. I also get all my demo disc's from SWithey. If you want copies of any of them, just let me know.

I would to have copies! Do you have all of them?

His room is very similar to my size, so I think it should work out ok. now I just need to get the Bar done so I can start on the HT

Okay, question for those in the CR/IC area... where are stores that actually sell theater chairs and have them in stock so you can sit in them and test them out? I've tried several places and so far the only one is Jeff Jones who it turns out is an authorized Berkline dealer and he recommends the 090's which run $750 a chair... Don't have that kind of budget, so either need to wait, or find another option...

Someone told me that Bills Brothers carries them?

They get them in occasionally but are usually gone pretty quickly... my problem is that I'm looking for a pretty precise configuration and its unlikely that something used will work exactly right... I want a couch (3 reclining seats) in the front and then two loveseats, but only one arm between the two so that its more a single piece of furniture in my second row...

I have the first 10 demo discs, and then 3 more. Some of the discs I felt were not that great or professional looking, so I didn't keep them. Since I know you, you are welcome to have mine on loan and decide which discs you want and then have me burn them for you.


I got my chairs at Bills Brother's. They do sell out quickly. I know a guy that worked there and had him call me when the got some in. He called me on a Saturday saying they had 6 sets in. I went down on Monday and bought mine and when I went down Wednesday to pick mine up, all were gone, except mine since they were already paid for. I was going to buy my seating at America Furniture in DM or Quad Cities. They ahve semi-annual sales where you pay 10% over cost. I'm sure it is just a ploy, but the theater seating they had was very reasonably priced. The entry level 3-seat config was $450, the next step up was about $650.

Oh, Bills Brother's gets A LOT of there furniture from JC Penny's. And JC Penny's actually has theater seating now in their store. But their prices are very high if you ask me. Almost $900 per seat.

Get the uppler lever criterion, it has the beveled edges. I love mine. MY pj installer even loved it so much he now recommends it to his customers. I should get some sort of commision for it as he had never heard of them until I got mine. Rex at Carada is great to deal with. He emailed once a week to make sure everything was okay with the screen and that I was happy.

On the seating make sure you check ot Roman's website. I ordered mine 078's for him and I love them. They are the same dimensions as the 090 just a bigger headrest. Which is nice when you are reclined looking at the screen. If you are ever up north just stop in and you can test drive mine. Just a suggestion.

Just emailed him to see if there are any good deals... I emailed Serge at htauthority since I know he has a good reputation on coaster seats and saw that he also sold Berklines... there is a great sale for black leather 090s right now and if you buy 4+ seats, you get the power recline for free... Hiss bid is something like $580 a seat with all fees and delivery included (along with the free power recline)... Since I was told they would be about $750 locally and they never mentioned the free power recline, it seems like a heck of a deal!

I asked Roman about the 078s, but I want a custom configuration and his website looks more like the sale is for a standard set, so I'll just have to see what he comes back with.

Thanks for the offer of checking out your seats... If I ever get that way, I just might take you up on the offer.

Well, just heard back from Roman....

78's are standard configuration only, so think I'm left with the 090's for seats... Ran the idea past my Dad and think he's giving me and my wife our b-day money early, so looks like I'll probably be getting me some chairs well before I'm ready!

Interestingly enough, different dealers can offer the free promos at different times and Roman has already offered the free power-recline whereas Serge is doing it now...

WTF- You guys have birthdays on the same day?

Nope... different days, but my Dad really likes to know where gift money is going, so for something this major, he's just giving us both our gift money in advance... although, my Mom and Dad do have their birthday's on the same day which made things very tricky growing up after they divorced!

greetings from another iowan!! i live in tama and frequent cr almost weekly. all my fam lives there. my brother lives in bowman woods actually!! small world.
anyway, i have a modest theater in my basement. was an unused bedroom converted. we painted the walls blood red, black behind the screen and working on getting the ceiling painted black--too lazy!!
my equipment is as follows:
sources: DishHD, XA2, PS3
sound: Onkyo 605, Paradigm speakers, hsu sub
video: panasonic ae900u (720p)
screen: Carada BW criterion screen
seating: 3 seater-showtime theater collection from carolinafurnituregroup.com

glad to see there are other iowans active on this board!!

oh yeah, GO CYCLONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

I'd like ot take a vote right now to kick mlkmgr off this thread.

Welcome. Good to see the Iowa group is growing. Now when we decide to have another meet, we will have more places to choose from and more people in attendance.

GO HAWKS!

not sure your dimensions, but i got my 3 seat couch, all recline with one large arm between them from carolina interiors when they had a power buy sale going on here at AVS. i think i paid ~$1k for the couch. that included freight shipping. Not sure if they will have what you are looking for, but they treated me right and i got my seats here pretty quick. good luck with your search...

i went with Carada based on recommendations from some at *************** dot com. i went with the criterion collection. i don't regret my decision, but if i could do it over, i would have went with the "precision" line. while the criterion has the beveled edge and larger frame, i can't notice it once i placed it on my wall. i painted the wall behind my screen flat black and the frame blends directly into the background. so in a sense i paid ~$125 more for something only i am aware of. they both use the same screen material, you simply pay for the frame enhancements. i am not knocking the criterion series, just giving my observation.

have any of you CR/Marion residents visited the new reference av near the kmart across from lindale? i have driven by there a couple of times at night, but it was closed or i didn't have time to stop. just wondering what they have to offer. also, are there any other "home theater" stores in the CR area? i know BB is there, but not sure if there is anything else.

mlkmngr. How bout some pics of your current setup.

On the Carada thing. I went criterion as I did not want the possibility of any shadows caused by the frame. That is the benefit of the beveled edges.

Deewan,
Your vote might not go so well - there are quite a few Clones here... GO STATE!!!!!!!

Wow, very cool - lots of Iowa peeps showing up here! Tumbleweeds were rolling through here 6 months ago, and now this! Get a thread started... keep posting in it... and they will come. (Sorry, I had to.) Anyway, I see the beginnings of a couple of fun Iowa meets. Oh, and nice rooms, everybody! We Iowa folks do good work!

I keep thinking I'll get a few pics taken of my room to post here, but there are so many details left, I don't feel like it's quite 'photo-worthy' yet. I still have to do all the trim, install final lighting... paint/install HVAC supply diffusers and return grille... Build the door for the back of the rack, paint it and install it... Design, build and install projector hushbox and exhaust. And the biggie - design, test and deploy my AMX system control (biggie). Wow, that's a lot of work still to do. The worst part of it is that I'll have to stop using all my free time to watch movies and play Xbox if I ever want to get it all done.

Everybody else did show/tell so I suppose I should, too. My friend Chad (IgnoringMyWife) was instrumental in building my room. There's NO way I could have done it by myself. Sometimes, it was physically impossible (drywall) and sometimes it was just the boost I needed to have him emailing or calling to ask if we were working on the room. Anyway, huge thanks to him - because without him, I would probably still be watching test patterns on a sheet tacked on the studs in the basement.

Anyway, everything was completely DIY. The only two things I hired out were drywall finish and carpet. Chad and I did pretty much everything else. Here's the details:

Room
13'x18'x93"
All double-drywall with Green Glue on Integrity Gasket
Commercial low-pile carpet
Insteon-controlled halogen lighting
ATS Acoustics sound treatments on side walls
Berkline recliners (6 - from ebay)
3 Berks on the floor, 3 on an 8" riser

Sources
Toshiba XA1 (HD-DVD)
Sony PS3 (Blu-ray, media extender)
Xbox 360 (Games, media extender)
Hughes HR10-250 (Hacked DirecTV HD Tivo)
HTPC w/TheaterTek

Audio
Marantz SR7500 AV receiver (running 6.1)
Crown XLS202D 300w x 2 (2) powering LCR
M&K LCR750THX (LCR)
M&K S550THX (SL, SR, SB)
M&K V75 Mk II 12" subs (2)

Display/Switching
Sony VPH-1271q CRT projector (Sony VPH-G70 planned upgrade)
Extron Crosspoint 84HVA 8x4 matrix switcher (RGBHV)
Crescendo Systems RTC2000 Reverse Transcoder (Component to RGBHV)
Monoprice HDMI 4x1 switcher
HD Fury HDMI-to-RGB converter

System Control
AMX Axxcent3 automated control with color LCD touchpanels (operational soon)

SC

CR/Marion doesn't have many great stereo stores. The only shops I know of are Reference Audio/Video (Cedar Rapids) and The Audio Room (Marion). I don't consider the CR BB worth its weight in feathers for Home Theater gear or knowledge. These next comments are only MY thoughts and MY experiences dealing with both the above stores.

Reference A/V has a pretty nice store. They have a great Theater room that was professionally done. Equipment lineup is pretty nice and includes Sony, B&W, Energy, and Runco to name a few. The few times I have been in there, only once have I spoken to a person who knows much about home theater and setups compared to what I think I know. I try to read up a lot on the subject. If the average joe goes in the store, the people working will be able to explain a lot and help. If you already know what you want/need, don't ask, just buy.

The Audio Room. Pretty basic store. Nothing fancy. They carry Klipsch, Denon, Velodyne... The guy who works there DOES know his stuff and is very well informed. Pretty nice to deal with as well. However, the one thing I do not like is almost nothing carries a price tag. So if you are shopping the market, you have to ask for a price. For example when I was looking to buy my second Velodyne sub, I went there. I asked for a price, he quoted me a list price of $650, but said he could sell it for $550. Trying to imply a good deal. However, every other place I also shopped had a price tag clearly marked between $545 to $575. So, yes, price wasn't bad, but I just hate the "Here's the list price, I'll sell it to you for much less" game.

For those reasons, whenever I buy any gear, I travel north to Hawkeye Audio in Cedar Falls and talk to Kent Farley. I've been dealing with him since high school and he is a straight shooter and has great prices.

Welcome mlkmgr... I just started looking around the Carolina site and the only Showtimes I see are three seperate chairs, (3 seats 4 arms), where I'm wanting 3 seats and only 2 arms... My room is only 11' and I have a walkway on each side to the riser, so the front row needs to be around 7' long to still have a decent walk space... Heading out to Anamosa furniture Mart tomorrow since I noticed their a Berkline dealer and probably have some more options out on display, but otherwise, probably going with the deal I can get from Serge right now for Berklines with free power recline...

Stopped in the Reference store once... talked to the guy behind the counter when I was trying to figure out the best subfloor for my room and he was pretty clueless about the actual building of a room... more discussed equipment and even then, he recommended a Sony LCD projector, and I'm just not a Sony kind of guy and didn't expect that kind of a recommendation from a "high end" HT store...

My place is the Audio Room... been buying my equipment from them since I lived in CR and never been steered wrong as far as my eyes/ears can tell. Though, they have HT experts that aren't ever in the store, so not much help on the actual building of the room, but read enough here that I don't really feel like I need many other sources of info.

thanks for the replies. i purchased my speakers from hawkeye audio in waterloo. kent was a great guy to deal with. i was indecisive about fronts and he actually recommended the lesser costing of the two.

ecrabb,
your room sounds very dynamic and more advanced than mine. all i did was paint some walls and throw some gear into an existing room in my basement. i wish i had the funds to expand, but alas, it is what it is...
as of now my ht room is in disarray. i will reassemble this weekend and try to snap a few shots and post.

I bought my paradigms from Kent as well. Very knowledgable. He sold me the first CC390. The thing weighs like 80lbs and makes my monitor 11's look small. But sounds so F'in sweet.

Welcome mlkmgr!

Wow don't look at the thread for a day and look what happens!

So this is begining to sound like a Paridgm thread I am a B&W owner so I guess we are like cats and dogs...just kidding

But I have bought all of my gear from audio room as well, regardless or where you buy from it is nice to have brick and morter that you can trust.

cheers!

Hey Daren lets meet for a beer and kick around some ideas on my room, thinking I am going to start soon, at least get the wiring and conduits rum then I can get at least one layer of dry wall up.

where the hell have you been?

B&W are great speakers, they were my next choice after Paradigm.

Guys, I don't have B&W's or Paradigm's... Can I still play?


Advanced in some ways, and simple in others. Either way, not finished! I think we all wish we could spend more to go bigger, better, more, etc. It's part of the deal, I think. I'll try to snap some shots of my room this weekend, too for the thread.

I've been dreaming of a dedicated home theater since before it was a 'thing' - back in the early 90's when dedicated home theaters were 'screening rooms' and could only be found in homes belonging to the ultra-wealthy.

I got the bug from my old man. We had an Advent front projection TV with a Pioneer Laserdisc player in our basement living/rec room when I was growing up - way back in the late 70's/early 80's. After watching movies at home that way while I was growing up, my perceptions were utterly ruined; Watching movies any other way completely sucked (besides the 'real' theater, of course).

So, I started collecting equipment, thinking, designing, planning, etc. years ago. Picking up a CRT projector from ISU Surplus really got me going, and moving into a new house made it feasible. Most of my equipment is used or second-hand. Still, in many ways, the room far exceeded my expectations. Bang-for-buck, I think I've achieved something pretty incredible. In other ways, there were major compromises. The biggest thing I wish I could change is the size of the room (house) - and had seating for 8 instead of 6.

Overall, I'm thrilled though. Even with having a new baby this summer, my wife and I have watched more movies in the last six months than I think I did the 3-4 years prior... which is awesome!

SC

Ecrabb-come on man get some pics up. I want to see the big CRT PJ.

BTW, I'm going blu this weekend as we are heading to Des Moines tomorrow to do some shopping and pick up my new glasses. With the format war heating up, my A30 HD DVD player is getting lonely. I already had ordered and installed my Radiiant HDMI selector, so it'll be plug and play for me. Kind of pisses me off I have to have two separate high def players to get the movies I want. But it helps fill up my eq rack!!