[ebr]

Okay, I've debated starting this thread now because 1) its still early and my real work on the new room won't start for another month and 2) I cower at the thought of competing with Sandmanx's awesome work

.


But, I've decided to go ahead and get this out here because I've gotten so many great ideas from you guys that someone might point something out I haven't thought of and I can correct/incorporate it all that much sooner.


So, here goes. Third times a charm. The new room will be The Farm House Cinema (our new house is a farm style).


I'm using a photo album to track progress and post pictures but will also post items and thoughts in here. The main album page can be accessed here:

http://ebrcinema.myphotoalbum.com/


I will break up the project into different phases and create albums for each phase. Right now, there is:

Design and Framing


But both of those (and the subsequent phases) are accessible from the main link above and in my signature.


Here's a taste of what the new room will look like (thanks Reaper):

The following post will be my current thoughts on the equipment that will go in the new room.


Thanks for all the help both past and future - here we go again...

 

[ebr]

Okay, so here's the current thinking on what's going in the room:

Amps etc.


Bringing my Lexicon and QSC amps from the last two rooms

Still keeping my Pio Elite 301 disk DVD changer (but will add blu-ray when avail)

Audio Processor will probably be a high end receiver that I use as just a pre-pro

Video processing - I still have my Faroudja but this will probably be supplanted by my new projector

Speakers


Front L/R - Ascend 340SE

Center - Rocket "bigfoot"

Surrounds - Axiom QS8 (4)

Sub - SVS PB12+/2

Projector


Leaning very hard towards a Ruby. Looks to me like just what I've been waiting for to make the leap to digital. It will be a while before I purchase, though so we'll see what else comes out in the meantime.

Screen


My design pretty much needs an acoustically transparent screen this time (due to a notch in the front wall of the room). Planning on making one with Dazian Coated Celtic Cloth.

Lighting

A bunch of the 2" recessed low voltage halogen cans Now have mostly 4" recessed cans and four sconces on the wall, rope light and step lights like before. All controlled with Lutron Grafik Eye 3106.

Seating


Thinking probably Berkline 088s this time. A little smaller than the 090s I had but look pretty comfy. The smaller size will allow seating for 8 instead of 6 and the lower back height should be better for surround.


That's it for now.

 

[SVonhof]

Dude, you are crazy!


You gotta learn to stay put and be happy with what you have! I don't know what the rest of the house has looked like on both of the previous two theaters, but I hope this was a move up instead of lateral, since that would mean just starting over on the theater to get the same kind of house....


Good luck, and I will be following this thread and Sandman's too!

 

[GPowers]

Interesting to see al the framing details of the room with in a room.


Since this is your third theater, what are some of the things you are fixing this time?

 

[chs4]

Nice plan and design once again.

It's kind of funny that when I first stumbled upon AVS your HT was one of the first I saw, and modeled my early designs around your first room. That was nearly four years ago, you're on your third theater and I'm barely finishing up mine!


I've changed my design several times during the process, and now it looks nothing like your original theater. That being said, if the renderings you've posted are reflective of the final design (color, trim, etc.) then we'll end up with very similar rooms after all.


Best of luck and I look forward to following your progress.

 

[ebr]

Thanks for the comments so far.


Greg - Hmmm...what am I fixing....? Well, I dunno that I'm fixing all that much but doing a few things differently. A lot of it is due to the fact this one is in the basement and just changing the look to fit with the house (again).


I didn't have full "room w/in room" before because the room was on the second floor bordering attic space.


I will have a more traditional two color wall this time because the basement area outside the theater will have a wood v-groove wainscot painted green.


I am going to go even farther toward trying to get the acoustics right this time by trying to get the equipment in there before (at least some of) the treatments and take measurments and try things out.


I will be trying out bass trapping this time because I love good clean bottom end (no snide comments from the peanut gallery, please

). I'm going to have what I think will be a Kick A$$ sub this time (ooh, I forgot that up above - gotta add speakers) so want to be sure I have things tamed in the bass region.


I hope to not have a 200lb beast to hoist up on the ceiling.


That's all I can think of at the moment...

 

[CptnRandy]

Oh my god.


You've certainly raised the bar on HT serial construction!


Good luck and I look forward to seeing it take shape.


Randy

 

[ebr]

Very minor progress today. Conduit for projector wiring in place.


Now, if I can just get the HVAC guy and electrician in there I can start pulling all the low-voltage wires...

 

[chinadog]

Looking forward to your progress. Question. What is that framed out area in the back of the room with no door? Looks like a great place for the equipment rack, but I notice its on the side wall. What other room shares the wall with the equipment rack? Curious how you plan to get to the back of it.

http://ebrcinema.myphotoalbum.com/vi...ter_layout_jpg


Bud

 

[ebr]

That layout picture is slightly inaccurate because the program I used to draw it had to have a rectangular box for the outside perimiter of the room. Actually, that area that looks like a room with no door is a notch in the room. On the other side is a wet bar for the basement rec area just outside the theater.


That shared wall is a 2x4 wall inside of a double 2x6 wall. The side wall where the equipment rack and room actually are is only shared with a basement storage area so it is just single wall construction.


There is a door to the equipment room from outside the theater for accessing the back of the equipment. This room will also be where all my wiring for the house comes in.


Make sense?

 

[chinadog]

Yup, got it. Good luck with it. We'll be watching!


Bud

 

[ebr]

I had to change my lighting plan. Turns out the 2" cans I got (and thought I found such a great deal on) have electronic transformers in them. Rats. GE would require an interface for each zone with those lights (would be 3). Even at eBay prices, that's too much more money to throw at these lights so I've switched them out.


Bought Halo air tight 4" cans and will put them in instead of the 2" MR16 versions. Hopefully, with halogen PAR20s they will still give the effect and lighting that I want.

 

[ebr]

Very slow progress on the house construction front. But, I did get my recessed cans in and they finally framed my equipment rack opening properly (why does everything have to be done twice before its done right...?).


Hopefully, the electrician will be done tomorrow and I can start running my wiring.

 

[ebr]

Completed my cabling for the room today. Electrician finally finshed his stuff (well, almost) and I am going on vacation on Tue and they plan to insulate while I'm gone. So had to get it all done today. Manged to get it run and made it home for kickoff.


My current delimma is this return:

Worried, of course, it will completely negate all the isolation I've gone to so much trouble to acheive. I will line it with linacoustic and then I asked a question in the GG thread about maybe putting a sandwich of acoustic tiles and GG on the top of it to make it not be just a thin layer of sheet metal.


Any thoughts from you guys on this are appreciated too.


P.S. This return serves only this room - the ducts don't connect to any other part of the house - I'm just worried about the metal box itself not stopping sound getting up into the ceiling cavity.

 

[ebr]

A couple of minor updates.


I did the Acoustic Tile GG sandwich thing (used 3 tiles with GG between) and stuck it to the top of that return. It made a large difference in the sound when I thump on the return side. It went from "Pingggggg" to "thud". So, I think that's good.


Also, while waiting for them to insulate and then hang drywall, I ordered a yard of a couple of fabric colors I'm considering and then mocked up some frames to put them together in an almost full-sized wall for figuring out which way to go. I still have a couple other fabrics on the way, But I think this is the way I'm going to go:

These are different colors than I had thought I was going to use. This is a darker green on the bottom and the same color I had in my last room on the top. I like the darker green a lot better than the other one but it is a different texture than the upper fabric. I wanted to see an almost full sized mockup to see if that was going to be a problem. Now that I've done that, I don't think it will be.


Also, it looks darker than this in real life - the flash really lights it up unnaturally.

 

[chinadog]

Man, the bottom one looks actually black here on my PC. The top looks like a light grey. Maybe my eyes are going. Is that the stain you're going with? I'm looking at them now. What is it? My wife likes the Minwax Rosewood. It's not bad, but haven't settled yet.


Bud

 

[tannerjr]

dark green would be nice - they say "geniuses" choose dark/forest greens

 

[ebr]

Yeah, the colors don't reproduce well at all with the flash. On my best monitor you can tell its green but the other two make it look almost black.


The stain is a "chestnut" on select grade pine. Its made by poloplaz which only sells through contractors. I'm going to have to get it through my builder. I tried all the minwax ones and they don't look as good as this one.

 

[ebr]

Just a quick update. They insulated today. Progress...albeit slow.

 

[SVonhof]

Slow progress is still progress!