[heavyflyr]

After months of perseveration about the pros and cons of building a home theater I have begun. I am a total amateur with little or no skills suited to construction. I have gained an enormous amount of insight from this site and I have already stolen many of your great ideas and plan to shamelessly continue. A major source of inspiration is rsprance's "Arthouse", not only because I have similar dimensions but because his application of frugality and style is a major motivator for me. There are many others out there that have given me much in the way of ideas if not just pure jealousy!


I named this the "Craig's List" theater because I am trying to purchase nearly every item through Craig's List or used local. Being impatient, I have purchased or traded into most of the AV equipment already. It is my desire to create a theater that is acoustically treated, reasonably technologically updated, comfortable and stylish...all this while saving money at every opportunity.


My stats thus far are:


-Dimensions: LxWxH= 17'x10.5'x8.8' (these are pre framing)

-Amp/Receiver: Onkyo TXNR1000

-Projector: Mitsubishi HC5500

-Screen: Onyx 92" (this is way too small, plan to trade to 110"ish)...Nevermind, made my own...120"+

-Speakers: Klipsch THX Ultra 2

-Surge: Monster Power

-Cable: Blue Jeans (this was purchased new)

-Lighting: Grafik Eye

-Blu Ray: Pioneer 51...Upgraded Oppo BDP-095




OK so here goes...wait, I already have a question. I am using a Mac and do not yet know how to upload photos in a format that the viewer does not have to open. Anyone familiar? Ok, so until then you will need to open my attached photos.


The photos show the screen wall (wall with window), the back wall, and a look into the ceiling. Should I keep the insulation that the contractor put on the walls? This is a basement and three of the insulated walls are poured concrete. The floor joists run parallel to the length of the room and as such I needed to "block" the joist to the concrete via what you see. This was very confounding to me but my contractor gave me this idea. I live in Colorado so the walls will need to be "floating". The room is small and I am not certain if I should build these in place or build then erect.


OK have at it.

 

[PakZX3]

You found the Klipsch THX Ultra 2 on Craigs List? That's a $13,000 audio system new.

 

[PaulD233]



Quote:
Originally Posted by PakZX3 /forum/post/18101100


You found the Klipsch THX Ultra 2 on Craigs List? That's a $13,000 audio system new.

I was going to ask the same thing! Those are the speakers, as of now, that I am planning for my future system! How'd you find those?

 

[heavyflyr]

I spent a great deal of time searching Craig's List and finally found a guy with a set he had for a short period of time (read: nearly new) he was having a fire sale and wanted $6000.00 originally. I offered $3500.00 and he said no. About three weeks went by and he took me up on the offer. This was the most money I have spent to date but I have been thrilled by the sound. I have them sitting on the floor and cardboard boxes in a makeshift theater adjacent to the build room. One thing I found is that people sometimes just want rid of things and will accept a seemingly low price. I never pressure them (as I would not like anyone doing to me). I simply make an offer. If they choose to accept then great, if not, I keep looking.

 

[PaulD233]



Quote:
Originally Posted by heavyflyr /forum/post/18102490


I spent a great deal of time searching Craig's List and finally found a guy with a set he had for a short period of time (read: nearly new) he was having a fire sale and wanted $6000.00 originally. I offered $3500.00 and he said no. About three weeks went by and he took me up on the offer. This was the most money I have spent to date but I have been thrilled by the sound. I have them sitting on the floor and cardboard boxes in a makeshift theater adjacent to the build room. One thing I found is that people sometimes just want rid of things and will accept a seemingly low price. I never pressure them (as I would not like anyone doing to me). I simply make an offer. If they choose to accept then great, if not, I keep looking.

Congrats then on an absolutely AMAZING deal! I'm jealous now

 

[PakZX3]

^ No kidding! Damn, $3,500 for them. That's insane!

 

[ufokillerz]

insane score on the speakers!

 

[heavyflyr]

Anyone have an answer to my original question about posting a picture with a Mac? I would like to post the pictures so that you need not open them to view. Any ideas?


B.

 

[budk]

Get a photobucket account and put the photo's there... then it's a simple link to get them in your post.


My Theater is named Second Run Cinema (or Second Run Theater - not sure which yet) because it was also built out of mostly Craigslist/ebay, etc second hand items.


Best of luck.

 

[mhdiab]



Quote:
Originally Posted by heavyflyr /forum/post/18102490


I spent a great deal of time searching Craig's List and finally found a guy with a set he had for a short period of time (read: nearly new) he was having a fire sale and wanted $6000.00 originally. I offered $3500.00 and he said no. About three weeks went by and he took me up on the offer. This was the most money I have spent to date but I have been thrilled by the sound. I have them sitting on the floor and cardboard boxes in a makeshift theater adjacent to the build room. One thing I found is that people sometimes just want rid of things and will accept a seemingly low price. I never pressure them (as I would not like anyone doing to me). I simply make an offer. If they choose to accept then great, if not, I keep looking.

If they are that new (did you get his receipt) put them back out here on AVS for say $7K-10K and finance the rest of the home-theater.....


for the photobucket idea -- I agree on that. To elaborate - you setup the account, load the pictures (you can create different folders etc) then in the left hand corner (think that is where it is located) there will be several links to the picture. You copy the full link that includes img in the beginning - something like

 

[heavyflyr]

Anyone have an opinion on the insulation in the photos? Should I take out the bulk insulation and install insulation between the studs? I could then use the insulation that I have taken from the walls and put in between the joists.


B.

 

[heavyflyr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mhdiab /forum/post/18103951


If they are that new (did you get his receipt) put them back out here on AVS for say $7K-10K and finance the rest of the home-theater.....


for the photobucket idea -- I agree on that. To elaborate - you setup the account, load the pictures (you can create different folders etc) then in the left hand corner (think that is where it is located) there will be several links to the picture. You copy the full link that includes img in the beginning - something like - post that whole link in here and the actual picture will show right up
[/QUOTE]


Thank you for the Photo Bucket idea...seems to work.


B.

 

[gryhnd]

Ben, I'm with you on this one. I refer to my HT as the "Craislist-eBay Theater" when telling people how I put it all together. You just need to not be in a rush and the deals can be found. For example I scored 9 folding theater seats from the 50s, that had been reupholstered and repainted, off CL. The seller just "wanted them all gone". I used 7. The other 2 were sold for twice what I paid for the set of 9.


Heavy: If you don't have somewhere else to upload them, just put your pics as an attachment to your message. Then copy the resulting URL for the attachment as the "Please enter the URL of your image:" while composing.


Edit - LOL @ myself. Ben and Heavy are one in the same

 

[heavyflyr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by gryhnd /forum/post/18107673


Ben, I'm with you on this one. I refer to my HT as the "Craislist-eBay Theater" when telling people how I put it all together. You just need to not be in a rush and the deals can be found. For example I scored 9 folding theater seats from the 50s, that had been reupholstered and repainted, off CL. The seller just "wanted them all gone". I used 7. The other 2 were sold for twice what I paid for the set of 9.


Heavy: If you don't have somewhere else to upload them, just put your pics as an attachment to your message. Then copy the resulting URL for the attachment as the "Please enter the URL of your image:" while composing.


Edit - LOL @ myself. Ben and Heavy are one in the same

That sounds like a smokin deal! Thank you for the URL idea.


B.

 

[heavyflyr]

OK so a fair amount of progress today. I decided to remove the contractor installed insulation on the concrete walls. I will use the recommended R13 on the walls and R19 in between the joists. I also managed to frame the room today (with the help of my buddy Sean G). Not bad for a days work. The floating walls that I was dreading were not terribly difficult.


So I have a few questions for anyone that wants to answer:


Currently I have 16'8" from the rear wall to the front this is not accounting for the whisper clips on one wall and the drywall that will be 2 sheets of rock mated with Green Glue...so the room will actually be 16'5" or so. I would like to hide my boxy speakers (see photo) behind a acoustically transparent screen. I presume I would need to build a false wall? The depth of the speakers is 12". Any suggestions on this. If I were to have a false wall I could acoustically treat the actual wall entirely. Do I have this correct? I also have those two subs that are considerably lager to contend with.


B.

 

[Big Worms]

Nice another Colorado build!


Insane deal on the Klipsch like others have said!


Why did you decide to remove the insulation by the way?

 

[heavyflyr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Worms /forum/post/18111608


Why did you decide to remove the insulation by the way?

Why did I remove the insulation?...hmmm I guess it is simply because I am OCD. There were a few factors that went into the decision but primarily I did not like the idea of sandwiching it in between the concrete and the studs as this would still leave convex cavities in the bays between studs.

 

[BIGmouthinDC]

Ben sent me a PM so I would notice his build thread and asked some questions. I'll post the answers here so that others can pile on their suggestions:


"I would like two rows of seating, with a riser in the back and a proscenium (sp?) with a false wall hiding my speakers and allowing for acoustic treatment of the entire wall behind the screen. This is a tall order for this size room and I am fighting for every inch........Do I have enough room for all of this? Three of the walls are poured concrete and of course I am in a basement. Should I do Whisper type clips and two layers of sheet rock on the ceiling and the one wall that is not against concrete? R13 in the walls with R19 in between the joists? If you look at the photo of the door (incidentally I plan on reversing so that I can build my riser up to the door) there is a vent that allows the free flow of air from room to room...how can I incorporate that vent into a soffit that will ultimately take its place. Also, what can I do to mitigate the sound that will travel through that vent?"


Length of room and seating.


If you take a 16' 8" room and squeeze in two rows of reclining HT seats here is what happens. You could use an undersized riser of 6 ft at the back and live with not reclining the seats ALL the way. So the seat backs of the first row will be at 10'8" and your eyes at 9'10", if you use a false wall that reduces front row viewing further to 8' 10" IMHO too short.


So the answer is to not use reclining seats for the back row. Instead you could get some nice upright theater seats either new or used (see seatsandchairs.com) for the back row and if you really want to match things up a bit in the room use the same for the front row.


Here is just one seat available in the new category.

If you go this route I would give them a call for recommended row to row spacing.


Couple of other space saver ideas. Recess your front speakers into the wall, So if they are 12 inches deep stick the butt end in the wall and they will only protrude 8 inches into the room. You won't even need stands the wall becomes the stand.


You can bump the false wall forward under the screen and hide the subs. See BritinVA build thread for an example of how to do this.

Whisper clipping the one wall? you can obviously do that for the added STC to the adjacent room. Since you have Colorado Expansive soil floating walls you really need to pay attention the very bottom area where you need to leave a gap between the drywall and concrete. Someone posted some diagrams of how you use Mass Loaded Vinyl to bridge the gap and achieve some sound containment.


Also my understanding of the floating walls is that they preclude the use of RSIC clips for attaching the top plate so Whisper clips are one solution for keeping wall vibration from getting into the house framing. So now you need to think about the other 3 walls, they won't have the same vibration isolation design. You really need to assess how critical sound containment is to you and how rigorous of an approach you need to take. If it is extremely critical you may want to put the whisper clips and channel on all the walls. Now the room just got smaller.

Vent You need to obviously plan for HVAC supplies and returns. A sealed room full of people and equipment gets warm and stuffy really quick. On connecting the room to the adjacent space, you can do that for the return if there is a return in the adjacent spaces, You can build a dead vent (ask Ted White for the drawing). If you need to boost the air flow you can add a nearly silent in-line or bathroom exhaust fan to move more air out of the space. You can also use True acoustical ductwork to reduce the sound that will travel down the length of a duct.

http://www.flexmasterusa.com/LinkCli...C4%3d&tabid=67


You should have dedicated HVAC supplies for the room and you should use dead vents and acoustical ducts to keep them from being a source of sound traveling to the rest of the house.

 

[heavyflyr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGmouthinDC /forum/post/18114056


Couple of other space saver ideas. Recess your front speakers into the wall, So if they are 12 inches deep stick the butt end in the wall and they will only protrude 8 inches into the room. You won't even need stands the wall becomes the stand.


You can bump the false wall forward under the screen and hide the subs. See BritinVA build thread for an example of how to do this.

This is great. I did not even consider utilizing the space between the studs for speaker placement. Do the left and right front speakers need to be a particular distance from the side walls? The Klipsch website suggests a equilateral triangle position with the L & R toed in slightly toward the listening area, is this what you would recommend? I will give BrintinVA's thread a look.


Thank you Big! I am glad I asked.

 

[In2Photos]



Quote:
Originally Posted by heavyflyr /forum/post/18115315


This is great. I did not even consider utilizing the space between the studs for speaker placement. Do the left and right front speakers need to be a particular distance from the side walls? The Klipsch website suggests a equilateral triangle position with the L & R toed in slightly toward the listening area, is this what you would recommend? I will give BrintinVA's thread a look.


Thank you Big! I am glad I asked.

Check out Moggie's build thread ("Old Vic"). He has similar speakers and while he built a false wall he still set them into the wall.