[clearwaterms]

My wife and I are in the process of redoing our basement to turn it into a media room / central entertainment area in our home. The space (when it is completed) will have a wet bar and small game area (table to play poker / board games) and a home theater area that surrounds a wall mounted TV and 5.1 surround sound.


We are currently in construction, and hope to be painting the space this weekend, and are really hoping to have the space finished in time for Christmas.


I have been slowly accumulating the equipment that I will use for the theater area.


I have the subwoofer solution, and all of hte parts for that. I also have the 5 channels for the surround sound.


The subwoofer is going to be dual 18" 2 ohm drivers in an infinite baffle that is powered by a QSC RMX1450 Pro audio AMP and EQ'd by a Behringer DSP1124P.


The 5 channels that I have decided on, and purchased are Ascend Acoustics 170's and a 340 center.


My sources will be a cable box (Comcast) Xbox Elite and a blu ray player.


So here are my initial questions.


I would like to get a 58~60" TV for the space, that is about as large as I can go and still fit the speakers in the space.


I will need a reciever and a blu ray player as well.


My wife has imposed a $2000 budget for everything.


My initial thinking was this


Panasonic TC-P58S2

Pioneer VSX-1120-K

Sony BSD-570 blu ray player


However when I called my preferred vendor (Abt electronics) they were not willing to match the prices I found online and as a result not able to get me everything I needed for $2000.


I currently have a Onkyo TX-Sr606 and Samsung BD-2500 blu ray player in my living room. I could relocate the blu ray player and place a DVD player in the living room if need be and then purchase a suitable replacement device later when funds allowed.


Please advise, on my parts decisions and make any comments, suggestions, etc to get this done.

 

[Vcook]

I'll be watching this thread!

I like the pio 1120 choice, and the panny 58" choice but good luck finding a low enough price on one to fit the budget. Any chance of going with one of the early black sunday deals and getting a sub $700 50" panasonic plasma that could later be moved to the living room for a nice 65" when the price is right?

 

[clearwaterms]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Vcook /forum/post/19503650


I'll be watching this thread!

I like the pio 1120 choice, and the panny 58" choice but good luck finding a low enough price on one to fit the budget. Any chance of going with one of the early black sunday deals and getting a sub $700 50" panasonic plasma that could later be moved to the living room for a nice 65" when the price is right?

haha, fancy seeing you here.


I already have a 50" Samsung Plasma in the living room.


As for the budget, here is the numbers that I come up with


Pioneer 1120 - Amazon - $494

Panasonic TC-58S2 - under $1300 (various sellers online have it for $1250 ish)


Total that comes to $1800. I could use my samsung blu ray player for a while and in a year pick up a new one


hhgregg has that TV on a black friday deal for $1099, but alas I don't have any of those stores in my area and I can not confirm if it will be an in store only deal or not.



Also, vcook - please do watch this thread as I am hoping you, Lonely and Troy will stop by when everything is finished to check it all out.

 

[Vcook]

the 58" panasonic can be found for under $1300?! Wow, that seems like a no brainer man, get that thing. Just move the BD player from the living room for now and stick a $20 dvd player in it's place. I don't even use the BD player in my media room, well almost never.


This thread is suffering from a severe lack of photos. Where are you at in the construction phase, can we still make suggestions? There are some things I wish I had done but didn't.

 

[clearwaterms]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Vcook /forum/post/19503757


the 58" panasonic can be found for under $1300?! Wow, that seems like a no brainer man, get that thing. Just move the BD player from the living room for now and stick a $20 dvd player in it's place. I don't even use the BD player in my media room, well almost never.


This thread is suffering from a severe lack of photos. Where are you at in the construction phase, can we still make suggestions? There are some things I wish I had done but didn't.

We are finishing the drywall over the next few days - and will be priming and painting the walls this weekend. I am starting to prime some of the space now, and will post updated pictures tonight.

 

[clearwaterms]



This is the front wall that you see when you enter the basement. The

This is the wall the TV will be going on

I added a fireplace into the corner of the room. It is a Napoleon direct vent remote controlled fireplace.

The IB will be in the cavity under the stairwell directly behind the couch. It isn't an ideal spot for an Infinite baffle, but it was the best solution that I could find.

Here is a picture of one of the sub woofers, Two of them will be driven by the QSC RMX1450 1400 watt pro audio AMP.

Here are the pictures with the drywall up and the first coat of primer applied (a second coat has to be applied and we found a few areas that we wanted to add more mudd to ensure it was perfect)


TV wall

The wires hanging from the wall are the speaker wires. The speakers I choose are book shelf speakers. Their will be a mantle shelf over the top of the TV that extends the width of the TV for the center channel and the left and right will have matching mantle shelves. A mantle shelf of the same style will be installed over the fireplace


Here is the fireplace

The fireplace wall will be covered in a slate colored rock pattern similar to this.

The hearth will be covered in 2" by 4" glass tile.

The back splash behind the bar is the same tile except smaller.


The sub woofer wall is now finished.

The entire wall has been glued / screwed and added blocks of wood between the studs to ensure it doesn't rattle.


Between the two closet doors is a built in book shelf. It will have case molding surrounding it and painted to match the wood work. The purpose of the bookshelf is to give me a place to put the right rear channel. However, according to my wife its purpose is to hold books.

 

[mayhem13]

Found your TV from an authorized seller for $1249 shipped anywhere in the U.S. PM me if interested. Combine with Denon 1911 AVR and Sony 770 all from same authorized dealer, $1900 shipped.

 

[clearwaterms]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayhem13 Found your TV from an authorized seller for $1249 shipped anywhere in the U.S. PM me if interested. Combine with Denon 1911 AVR and Sony 770 all from same authorized dealer, $1900 shipped.

it appears that place has lowered the price on my TV even further.

 

[clearwaterms]

This weekend we got the room painted. At this point I have 3 Major projects left for the basement and then after that it becomes a bucket list of little things.


The three major projects are

#1 - install the 4 mantle shelves

#2 - install the tile on the floor, fireplace and hearth

#3 - install the bar / trim and bar top


We are hoping to have the space ready for Christmas, and I will lose a week while my wife and I head on vacation on December 10th.


My family member that is helping with the project is coming in tomorrow or Tuesday to install the mantle shelf over the fireplace and hopefully tile the fireplace and hearth.


Without further ado here are the pictures from this weekends work. We went ahead and installed the lighting as well.


Here is the door into the closet that you see immediately at the bottom of the stairs The doors are painted, the case molding needs one more coat of paint

This is the outside wall. Including a built in book case, another closet door and the edge of our fireplace

This is the wall the TV mount will be mounted on. 3 mantle shelves will be installed, one above the TV and one to the left and right, they will be painted black and will hold the speakers.

Here is the back wall, with the opening for the sub woofers, The book lights are on swing out arms so if people want to read a book, they can have some additional lighting

 

[clearwaterms]

*Update*


I just got the TV, Receiver and Blu Ray player ordered.


I went with the Panasonic TC-P58s2 as described earlier in the thread. Panasonic has the TV on sale for $1099 at most retailers as an early black Friday so I picked it up then.


The receiver is the Pioneer VSX-1120-K


and the blu ray is the Sony S370, since I don't have a 3d setup and don't need wifi in the area (will have cat 5 e) I figured no reason to get the more expensive model.


I purchased everything through Abt electronics and the best part was because I am local, I could dictate the delivery day to a day closer to when the space will be finished.

 

[cuzed2]

This is turning into a very nice space - subscribed!


I will also be looking forward to how well the IB subs in the stair cavity work out. I am considering this option as well (however; concerned about the cu' volume limitation and the rear location)?

 

[moneypit]

Looks great! A lot of progress. The subwoofer installation came out very nice, I like it. Did you leave any way to access under the stairs if needed? I like the slate colored rock. We are considering something similar to cover the back wall leading upstairs.


I'm looking forward to updates.

 

[clearwaterms]

This weekend, I spent the last two days laying tile. My uncle and I worked until 11:30 PM to get as much done as we could last night. Yesterday we laid full tiles only and got approx. 65~70% of the floor laid out. We will need approx. 1/2 day to lay the remainder of the full tiles. We had to stop where we did, because we needed to move all of the stuff that was in the room (tools, etc) into the other space. We are taking today off and will start working on it Monday evening to finish laying the full tiles and install the cut pieces on tuesday / wednesday.


Here is a picture of the floor

Here is a close up of the tile. The tile is 13x13 glazed porcelain tile that has a custom border of 1x1" slate tile. This took a lot of work to install. The slate is sold in sheets 12x12, requiring each sheet to be cut into strips that are 12x12, then you have to cut several sheets into individual pieces so you can fill in the gaps. My uncle and I agreed that had we not had to do this we would have gotten all of the full tiles installed. However, we both also agreed that it looks really good.

Here is the fireplace

The fireplace is covered in slate rock tile that is mitered at a 45 deg to fit tight against the other wall. Also, we installed a custom mantle shelf. The shelf needs to be repainted because it got nicked up as we were installing it.


The hearth is covered in a dark green glass tile. The front edge of the hearth is glass tile with the edges done in a granite dark gray pencil tile.


Here is the larger picture with the tile, a little of the wall and fireplace

 

[jeffm13]

Wow. Everything is looking fantastic. The floor looks great--and it will look even better after you grout it. I love the stone on the fireplace too. You did all of this yourself? Great job!


Jeff

 

[moneypit]

It is really coming together nice with the colors and materials you selected. Adding the smaller tiles at the grout lines of the larger ones gives it such a detailed look. The color of the tiles compliment the fireplace. I love the look.


Was it difficult adding the slate to the fireplace (I've never tiled before)?

 

[clearwaterms]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffm13 /forum/post/19557123


Wow. Everything is looking fantastic. The floor looks great--and it will look even better after you grout it. I love the stone on the fireplace too. You did all of this yourself? Great job!


Jeff

I had the help of my uncle who is a handyman / carpenter.

Quote:
Originally Posted by moneypit /forum/post/19557156


It is really coming together nice with the colors and materials you selected. Adding the smaller tiles at the grout lines of the larger ones gives it such a detailed look. The color of the tiles compliment the fireplace. I love the look.


Was it difficult adding the slate to the fireplace (I've never tiled before)?

The tile on the fireplace is 4x16" pieces that fit tight together. We had to install a new blade in the wet saw, and for the 45 degree miter cuts we had to use a grinder to finish the cuts because the tile saw wouldn't cut all the way through the piece.


Basically we put the mantle shelf up first, and by custom building the shelf we could assure the sides, top & bottom were square making it easy to install the tile. The rest was simply measuring the tile and installing it. The entire process was time consuming, it took 1 afternoon after work to do the top of the hearth and front. A full day to do the wall. The results, however were worth the work.

 

[clearwaterms]

I promised some pictures, so here they are.



Tonight we finished tiling the bar top and backsplash. Originally we were going to go with a white marble tile for the bar along with a green glass tile that matched the hearth, but when we installed it it looked brown and really didn't work for us. We went to home depot and found this tile and liked it, so we went with it.

I also received my TV, Receiver, and blu ray player today. I installed my rack and ran the Ethernet and coax to it yesterday. Today I installed the shelving and placed the equipment. The only device plugged in is the comcast cable box, that is so the shows that are scheduled to record will in fact record, even if we can't watch them for a few days.


I also got my TV, and it took every ounce of self restraint not to hook it up and sit on my floor and watch MNF, but alas, with some painting touchups left on the ceiling, we decided it would promise to stay cleaner in the box. I am hoping to get it on the wall along with all of my stereo gear on Wednesday.


My precious

AV rack

From top to bottom


Furman Power conditioner

Pioneer VSX-1120k

Sony SDP-370 blu ray player

xbox 360 elite

comcast motorola dual DVR HD cable box

Behringer DSP-1124p feedback destroyer (for subwoofer EQ)

Behringer EQ1500 with modified fan for SUB amp.


Attached to the left of the rack is a small piece of plywood

The plywood has a smart power strip (used to turn the EQ and AMP on and off)

a 10base-T 4 port Ethernet hub (it's what I had laying around, it will get upgraded to a 5 port switch next time I am at that store)

the surface mount jack for my cat5E from the modem / Router that is upstairs

and an IR repeater to repeat the signal to all of my sources.


None of the wiring is cleaned up, or even run for that matter. This rack sits behind closed doors in a closet in the space. It is a large closet, so heat shouldn't be an issue, and everything is mounted with tapcons directly to the concrete foundation


The rack is a 2 post networking rack, the AMP is sitting on top of two shelf brackets and is also mounted to the rack. This is because I don't have a four post rack and wanted the extra security.

 

[clearwaterms]

Last night was a big night. I got the receiver hooked up and also got the TV mounted on the wall. We also got the mantle shelves installed and all of the speakers hooked up. I ran a basic MCACC config on the setup, but without any furniture, I am sure it will need to be run again. Anyway, here is the pictures (camera phone)


The TV is a 58" panasonic, the speakers are Ascend acoustics CBM 170's for the left and right, and a CBM 340 for the center. The center is tilted down using some left over tile that I had laying around.

The subwoofer's are dual 18" 2 ohm speakers built into the space under the stair case. I don't own alot of blu ray movies, but I did put on bolt and the scene when he does the super bark and it had me literally giddy. I also don't have the Behringer DSP1124p hooked up yet. My receiver had the subs set at -12Db, I turned them up to -6Db and the improvement was noteworthy.

After I get the furniture installed and have some spare time, I will borrow / purchase a SPL meter and get everything fine tuned, however, in the interim, it sounds and looks amazing. The room gets totally black at night and even during the day is pretty dark with the lights off.

 

[spivonious]

Looks great so far! Awesome work on all of the tile.


Just to comment, if -12dB is as low as the adjustment goes for the subwoofer on your receiver, chances are that your subwoofer amp is too loud and MCACC did it's best to compensate. You'll want to turn it down enough to get the auto adjustment above -12dB after MCACC.

 

[clearwaterms]



Quote:
Originally Posted by spivonious /forum/post/19620100


Looks great so far! Awesome work on all of the tile.


Just to comment, if -12dB is as low as the adjustment goes for the subwoofer on your receiver, chances are that your subwoofer amp is too loud and MCACC did it's best to compensate. You'll want to turn it down enough to get the auto adjustment above -12dB after MCACC.

your right, however I found myself turning up the volume on the sub quite a bit because I wanted to hear / feel it more. It was set at -12, and I turned it to -6, and it was much better. I also set the x-curve to soften the highs because my room is VERY reflective. We are going to put in a large area rug, and a few couches eventually.