Joined
·
907 Posts
Bears? Haven't ran into any yet but they are nearby...if I feel the need to get up close and personal with a Grizzly, what the locals affectionately call the The Bear Jail is 8 miles away.
Canyons? Not on site...the lot is pretty flat but I can see a few a couple miles away.
Bunkers? Yes!!! there will be one...this part is true!
Builds? Eventually, but if left to my devices expect glacial pace.
The Bear Canyon Bunker Build gets it's name via geography...we are building this house a few miles away from what is probably one of many Bear Canyons in Montana (Bozeman for this one). The bunker aspect comes from the space being a room below our garage...it is solid concrete for all boundary surfaces. The room size starts out at 33'10" x 20'3" x 13'...finished dimensions will shrink after walls, ceiling, and floor decking are added, but should end up 29'8" x 19'4" x 11'4"-9'10" (back row, front row). Hollowcore plank was the original plan for the garage floor but with no dealers within 400 miles I was convinced to go with a 'locally fabricated composite slab' consisting of concrete poured onto Vulcraft metal decking that is welded to 12" steel I-beams. To end up with 11'8" ceilings the dig needed to be an additional 3' deeper than the house basement, so it was dug with 13' walls. The house basement is a 10' dig and will end up with a 9'10" finished ceiling. The fact that this isn't a walkout made excavation a bit more interesting (and expensive), but the resulting sound isolation and climate control from being so deep in the ground should make for an incredible space to hole up and enjoy movies and music in.
All is not perfect in bunker-land though and there are some challenges. Solid concrete rooms can be a b!tch to tame and generate many more room modes as the bass can't dissipate like it would with typical lossy walls. Nyal Mellor at Acoustic Frontiers is coming up with a sound plan (both literally and figuratively). I've been collecting data on AVS for many years and had been planning to do a good-size theater build of my own design, but I figured Nyal is money well spent. I'm viewing the project as a one-time chance to get it right from the start and not an ongoing science project. He is working behind the scenes scheming and crunching numbers as this is being typed even though I don't anticipate starting construction until sometime next spring...the hole was just dug last week and the foundation will be done sometime next week. We aren't expecting to move in until early spring 2016...(EDIT...HaHaHaHa...spring, LOL...
Ended up being later October of 2016.)
Another downside about the room is the concrete floor...tough to excite the concrete enough to provide the wonderful tactile feel that a wood joist floor provides. Okay, it's basically impossible. If I do experience tactility in the concrete, that's a problem for me (and possibly the rest of the world) as the house is 55 straight-line miles from this thing -- the world's largest active super volcano at 34 x 45 miles in area. If it blows I'll be one of the first to go!
Preliminary speaker choices:
*Three Yorkville U15 Unity for LCR
*Six JBL Control 322C (Pro coax; 12" woofer w/compression driver) for two rows of side surrounds and rear surround
*Eight JBL Control 328C (Pro coax; 8" woofer w/compression driver) for Atmos
The U15's and 322's are cousins perhaps and have sound synergy; the Unities use a BMS 4550 compression driver and the 322C a JBL 2407h; which is a BMS 4540nd.
I also have Tannoy 12" Dual-Concentrics (same drivers used in their Definition DC12i custom install speaker) that are in the running for LCR (perhaps augmented by pairs of JBL 2226J 15" as midbass?...have 6 of these). I have 17 of the Tannoys and could use them for side/rear as well and go with 8" Duals for Atmos.
There will be a stout full-width baffle wall in either scenario!
Bass will be 'ample' at a minimum -- twenty 18" drivers!
*Twelve FI IB318 18's will be installed in the baffle wall Infinite Baffle.
*Eight SI HT18's will be sprinkled around the back half of the room. The SI's will be in sealed enclosures...
Amplifiers and DSP are from QSC:
*Three DCA3022 and two DCA2422 for subwoofers
*Three DCA1622 for LCR and 2 DCA1644 for side/rear surround
*Two CX168 8-channel for Atmos
*Configurations could change as I have 23 DCA amps, lol.
*Three Basis DSP (or more...8 Basis/Rave boxes are available) will handle all DSP needs.
The projector will be a JVC of some variant and the processor probably a Monolith HTP-1...would LOVE a Datasat or Trinnov but we'll see.
With Nyal specifying the acoustic treatments the room should end up sounding pretty damn good.
(Will add more room details and do this better when I know more)
No nifty renders or anything but here are pictures of the Acoustic Frontiers layout concept for a better visual and one of the hole in the ground.

Canyons? Not on site...the lot is pretty flat but I can see a few a couple miles away.
Bunkers? Yes!!! there will be one...this part is true!
Builds? Eventually, but if left to my devices expect glacial pace.
The Bear Canyon Bunker Build gets it's name via geography...we are building this house a few miles away from what is probably one of many Bear Canyons in Montana (Bozeman for this one). The bunker aspect comes from the space being a room below our garage...it is solid concrete for all boundary surfaces. The room size starts out at 33'10" x 20'3" x 13'...finished dimensions will shrink after walls, ceiling, and floor decking are added, but should end up 29'8" x 19'4" x 11'4"-9'10" (back row, front row). Hollowcore plank was the original plan for the garage floor but with no dealers within 400 miles I was convinced to go with a 'locally fabricated composite slab' consisting of concrete poured onto Vulcraft metal decking that is welded to 12" steel I-beams. To end up with 11'8" ceilings the dig needed to be an additional 3' deeper than the house basement, so it was dug with 13' walls. The house basement is a 10' dig and will end up with a 9'10" finished ceiling. The fact that this isn't a walkout made excavation a bit more interesting (and expensive), but the resulting sound isolation and climate control from being so deep in the ground should make for an incredible space to hole up and enjoy movies and music in.

All is not perfect in bunker-land though and there are some challenges. Solid concrete rooms can be a b!tch to tame and generate many more room modes as the bass can't dissipate like it would with typical lossy walls. Nyal Mellor at Acoustic Frontiers is coming up with a sound plan (both literally and figuratively). I've been collecting data on AVS for many years and had been planning to do a good-size theater build of my own design, but I figured Nyal is money well spent. I'm viewing the project as a one-time chance to get it right from the start and not an ongoing science project. He is working behind the scenes scheming and crunching numbers as this is being typed even though I don't anticipate starting construction until sometime next spring...the hole was just dug last week and the foundation will be done sometime next week. We aren't expecting to move in until early spring 2016...(EDIT...HaHaHaHa...spring, LOL...
Another downside about the room is the concrete floor...tough to excite the concrete enough to provide the wonderful tactile feel that a wood joist floor provides. Okay, it's basically impossible. If I do experience tactility in the concrete, that's a problem for me (and possibly the rest of the world) as the house is 55 straight-line miles from this thing -- the world's largest active super volcano at 34 x 45 miles in area. If it blows I'll be one of the first to go!

Preliminary speaker choices:
*Three Yorkville U15 Unity for LCR
*Six JBL Control 322C (Pro coax; 12" woofer w/compression driver) for two rows of side surrounds and rear surround
*Eight JBL Control 328C (Pro coax; 8" woofer w/compression driver) for Atmos
The U15's and 322's are cousins perhaps and have sound synergy; the Unities use a BMS 4550 compression driver and the 322C a JBL 2407h; which is a BMS 4540nd.
I also have Tannoy 12" Dual-Concentrics (same drivers used in their Definition DC12i custom install speaker) that are in the running for LCR (perhaps augmented by pairs of JBL 2226J 15" as midbass?...have 6 of these). I have 17 of the Tannoys and could use them for side/rear as well and go with 8" Duals for Atmos.
There will be a stout full-width baffle wall in either scenario!
Bass will be 'ample' at a minimum -- twenty 18" drivers!
*Twelve FI IB318 18's will be installed in the baffle wall Infinite Baffle.
*Eight SI HT18's will be sprinkled around the back half of the room. The SI's will be in sealed enclosures...
Amplifiers and DSP are from QSC:
*Three DCA3022 and two DCA2422 for subwoofers
*Three DCA1622 for LCR and 2 DCA1644 for side/rear surround
*Two CX168 8-channel for Atmos
*Configurations could change as I have 23 DCA amps, lol.
*Three Basis DSP (or more...8 Basis/Rave boxes are available) will handle all DSP needs.
The projector will be a JVC of some variant and the processor probably a Monolith HTP-1...would LOVE a Datasat or Trinnov but we'll see.
With Nyal specifying the acoustic treatments the room should end up sounding pretty damn good.

(Will add more room details and do this better when I know more)
No nifty renders or anything but here are pictures of the Acoustic Frontiers layout concept for a better visual and one of the hole in the ground.




Attachments
-
207.5 KB Views: 249