[chirpie]

So I was asked to put a proper thread up for my current theater so there'd be a reference point for the KC Theater crawl coming up. (Archaea is such a task master! )

I have a build thread somewhere on this site, but it's now closed and all of the image links are busted. So I'll throw what images I can find. (12 years ago since I first started. Yikes!)


Room Dimensions
(unfinished) 19.75' x 14.75'
(finished) 19.5' x 14.5'
(false screen wall to back) 17.125' x 14.5'


AVR or Pre-Pro - Pioneer Elite SC-63
Speakers - B&W 600 series / Energy
Speaker Amplifiers - AVR powered
Video Source/Screen - Sony VPLHW40ES / 106" SMX Screen
Subwoofers - SVS PB12-Plus
Midbass - x2 Midbass Monitors / JVC AMP / Mini DSP 2x4
Accoustic Treatments - Lower half of room treated / primarily absorption
Lighting and/or Control System - Phillips Hue
HTPC Software - Kodi / Mac Mini x2
Bluray Player - Samsung

I gotta say, there's lots of mistakes in this theater. Some was ignorance, some was budget, some was sort of "of it's time" acceptable. lol Let's break down a few:

• Kids, don't ever build your riser and stage and THEN drywall. Always drywall to the floor first. Much smarter for sound proofing.
  
• Too much broadband absorption. I will say, even knowing that, I'm a sucker for a slightly dead sound, so I'm probably going to wish for a little bit of that characteristic in my next room
  
• Friends don't let friends build speaker columns that are solid on the sides, it makes a more boxy sound with most surround speakers when you set them inside.
  
• I passed on furring channel and clips because the room height was already a bit low. Might change my mind if I rebuilt this room.

 

[chirpie]

Framing, delta fl underlayment, fibrex rigid mineral wool, riser, etc.

 

[chirpie]

Stage, cutting fake registers in riser, installing lighting, priming walls, etc.

 

[chirpie]

Over 600 ft of trim, oak stained panels, carpet goes in.

 

[chirpie]

Sub joins the party.

 

[chirpie]

Chairs arrived, finishing bar.

 

[chirpie]

1.0 Finished

1.0 Finished Summer 2006

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Looks really nice. I like the contrast between the bottom half of the black walls and then wood on the columns.

 

[Nathan Chase]

The bar looks really swanky! Particularly the lighted side niches.

 

[chirpie]

The bar looks really swanky! Particularly the lighted side niches.

Thank you kindly. I updated it all slightly not that long ago. Will be updating thread with pics soon.

 

[chirpie]

1.1

It only took me about 7 years of living with it to finally build a false wall and put the speakers behind the screen.

Also had to tear down the projector box and move it back 5 inches because the projector no longer filled the screen and was now too close.

 

[chirpie]

Swapped out the door and did some acid etching on the glass.

 

[Ladeback]

Ryan,

I just finally looked at you build of your current theater. I like your build and I didn't even notice the window in behind the back row when we were in there for the crawl. So you are getting all that sound out of the small bookshelf speakers and one SVS 12" Sub? WOW! I guess if I was to finish my room it would probably sound better as well.

What was it that you put down on the concrete before putting the plywood floor down? I take it that helped with soundproofing and helped with a moisture barrier as well? Is that stuff reasonably priced and can you get at the big box stores?

What brand are the chairs and where did you get them from? I have been looking at https://4seating.com/. They seem to have some good prices on seats.

I do like you bar and may steal some of your ideas when I build mine in another area.

I wish I could come to a decision on if I want to stay with what I have built so far or increase the size of my room. Going bigger just makes the soundproofing budget go up more.

 

[chirpie]

Ryan,
I just finally looked at you build of your current theater. I like your build and I didn't even notice the window in behind the back row when we were in there for the crawl.

There's normally a giant fabric panel that blocks it out. It's really easy to hear a different signature to the room sound when you take it down and there's a glass window behind you vs when it's set back into place.

So you are getting all that sound out of the small bookshelf speakers and one SVS 12" Sub? WOW! I guess if I was to finish my room it would probably sound better as well.

The bookshelves in the pictures actually went into the surrounds. It's some small towers up front now, but the towers are crossed over at 100hz, so they might as well be bookshelves.

What was it that you put down on the concrete before putting the plywood floor down? I take it that helped with soundproofing and helped with a moisture barrier as well? Is that stuff reasonably priced and can you get at the big box stores?

It's called Delta FL. It doesn't really help with soundproofing, (Well, maybe on a second floor it'd help a tiny bit. Definitely not on a concrete slab.) but it's important to keep weeping moisture off the oriented strand board. (OSB) Has an R rating but I can't recall what it is. You'll find it online for any big box store and a lot carry it locally.

What brand are the chairs and where did you get them from? I have been looking at https://4seating.com/. They seem to have some good prices on seats.

I bought them as part of an AVS group buy. Bought them from http://www.htauthority.com/

The model is still around. It's the Usher. It's a very wide chair, and me being a thinner guy, my butt gets a bit lost in there, but it's held up well for us and the price at the time was great. (Still very reasonable! I think it's just over 2k for 2 rows of 3, six total.)

I do like you bar and may steal some of your ideas when I build mine in another area.

Steal away.

I wish I could come to a decision on if I want to stay with what I have built so far or increase the size of my room. Going bigger just makes the soundproofing budget go up more.

Going bigger makes EVERYTHING cost more. More seats, more carpet, larger hvac system. Bleh! ^_^

 

[chinadog]

Swapped out the door and did some acid etching on the glass.

Pretty sweet! Nice job, love that.

Bud

 

[Archaea]

Hey Ryan,

How's the new house coming?
Have you picked out speakers for your new home theater room yet?
If not, I'm going to keep greasing the idea that you use the JBL line arrays like what used to be at the Barry Woods AMC Prime.
You'll have that huge space, and you are savy with fancy lighting. It's a perfect fit!

I just can't stop thinking about this idea. If I was building from scratch in a nice setup like that with a big room -- it's the way I'd go.
http://www.jblpro.com/ProductAttachments/CBT70J-1_022513.pdf

$900ish each from NSL. (definitely not cheap, but in reality not as pricey as some options, and since it's CBT line array design it would have very, very similar FR throughout the room. Look at the polar plots in that JBL pdf. That AMC Prime to this day had my favorite commercial movie theater sound --- by far (and I don't think I'm alone --- everyone in the KC group that I've talked to loved those speakers), and the cool lighting just brought the implementation to a whole different level.

 

[Ladeback]

Hey Ryan,

How's the new house coming?
Have you picked out speakers for your new home theater room yet?
If not, I'm going to keep greasing the idea that you use the JBL line arrays like what used to be at the Barry Woods AMC Prime.
You'll have that huge space, and you are savy with fancy lighting. It's a perfect fit!

I just can't stop thinking about this idea. If I was building from scratch in a nice setup like that with a big room -- it's the way I'd go.
http://www.jblpro.com/ProductAttachments/CBT70J-1_022513.pdf

$900ish each from NSL. (definitely not cheap, but in reality not as pricey as some options, and since it's CBT line array design it would have very, very similar FR throughout the room. Look at the polar plots in that JBL pdf. That AMC Prime to this day had my favorite commercial movie theater sound --- by far (and I don't think I'm alone --- everyone in the KC group that I've talked to loved those speakers), and the cool lighting just brought the implementation to a whole different level.

I thought they still had the same speakers they just changed the processing for Dolby Atmos. We go to the that theater all the time and have ever since it opened. Guardian Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 was great in there and the picture was awesome. We only go to the regular theater for a kids movie. We try and see all the big movies that come to the AMC Berrywoods.

 

[Archaea]

@Ladeback ,


They changed them at the point they converted from AMC Prime to Dolby Digital. @stitch1 provided me these pictures of before and after. They are still line arrays now, but no longer JBL line arrays. I think the JBL variety were significantly better than whatever it is they have now. (subjective opinion though that it is).

 

[stitch1]

The biggest difference I can tell by their design is the old ones had a line array of soft domes vs now they have a wave guide over (I think) ribbon tweeters.

 

[chirpie]

Hey Ryan,

How's the new house coming?
Have you picked out speakers for your new home theater room yet?
If not, I'm going to keep greasing the idea that you use the JBL line arrays like what used to be at the Barry Woods AMC Prime.
You'll have that huge space, and you are savy with fancy lighting. It's a perfect fit!

I just can't stop thinking about this idea. If I was building from scratch in a nice setup like that with a big room -- it's the way I'd go.
http://www.jblpro.com/ProductAttachments/CBT70J-1_022513.pdf

$900ish each from NSL. (definitely not cheap, but in reality not as pricey as some options, and since it's CBT line array design it would have very, very similar FR throughout the room. Look at the polar plots in that JBL pdf. That AMC Prime to this day had my favorite commercial movie theater sound --- by far (and I don't think I'm alone --- everyone in the KC group that I've talked to loved those speakers), and the cool lighting just brought the implementation to a whole different level.

It's going... ok? LOL. We're sitting at $30k in site overage costs at the moment. So that's not so cool. Really hurts the budget to hit the ground running. We'll see how that shakes out as it's ongoing.

But the house IS seeing progress. It's about 90% framed. Since it's.... 1 - A walkout 2 - 3 car vs my current two 3 - Has a two story shed attached to it 4 - This darn theater room ... I have to admit it feels a fair bit bigger than my current dwelling. Now if we can just survive the sticker shock.

As for speakers, I admit I've given it some thought but not a lot. Feels like I won't be pulling the trigger on that for a while just yet. A few ideas here and there. Stuff like:

DIY Sound Group Titans or
DIY Sound Group Intrusive 1899
JBL 5732
JBL 4722N
JTR 210RT

So that's where my head is at at the moment. As for the other surround speakers though... Haven't given it much thought yet. I'm still thinking about things like LVL's instead of iJoists to win back a few inches of ceiling height. Eventually I'll get there though. ^_^

An interesting idea on these speakers though. Can't seem to find them in black! I'll keep it in mind. I'm always up for some ideas to ponder!