As summer finally starts peeking out from behind the clouds, it's time to visit another awesome Home Theater of the Month. As always, thanks to Anthem AV for sponsoring these articles. We encourage you to show some love and check out their amazing products at www.anthemav.com.

Preet Singh (@preeter1340) came by his love for cinema naturally. "I worked at my mom's video store during high school. During college, I worked at Circuit City selling computer hardware and software, but I would always visit the home audio/video department to learn about all the new gadgets."

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Preet's home theater was built by dividing the huge living room into two stories. Adding the second-story floor/first-story ceiling was a job for professionals.

"Most of what I made went right back to Circuit City; with my first few checks, I bought a 32-inch Sony CRT TV that weighed over 200 pounds! I remember getting my first proper AVR, which was 5.1 Dolby Digital. It was just awesome to hear surround sound in my home! I even demo'd it for the girl I was dating, and she is now my wife. I guess it was a great demo!"

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The existing second-story loft/office had a wall separating it from the new theater room. It needed to be demolished and replaced with an insulated, soundproof wall that included the theater entrance.

Now with two daughters, the Singh family bought their current house in Corona, CA, in 2006. "My goal was to have a dedicated theater room where we would not be disturbed or disturb others. We went back and forth about having one or two rows of seating, and we ultimately decided to have two rows since we like to have company over and the kids like to call their friends over. We can seat nine comfortably and 10 if I bring in my office chair. The downside is the rear seats are just five inches away from the back wall. At the end of the day, you have to make some compromises, but I feel we made the right choice here."

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Once the wall was demolished, they discovered a load-bearing vertical beam in the middle, so they had to frame around it.

The planning phase took about seven months, which included some permitting delays. "During that time, I came up with multiple layout variations, but after discussing it with a few friends who have an architectural background, I came up with the final design."

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The existing beam allowed plenty of room for double insulation and acoustic soundboard.

The home's main living room had an 18-foot ceiling, so Preet decided to divide the space vertically and build the theater room as a second story above the living room. "Sound isolation was extremely important. The wall separating the existing loft office and the home theater has double insulation as well as acoustic soundboard. Also, the adjacent wall was built with soundboard and double insulation, and the riser has triple insulation."

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The riser is triple insulated.

"All work stages—framing, electrical, drywall, final—were inspected by the city officials, which gave me peace of mind. One of the inspectors even wanted to come back when it was all finished to watch a movie!"

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Here you can see the rear surrounds, one side surround, and the projector shelf.

As always with such projects, there were a few challenges along the way. "When the existing loft wall was removed, we discovered that there was a load-bearing vertical beam right in the middle. To move it would be extremely costly, not just in material and labor, but we would've had to re-do drawings, re-submit, and then wait several more months. I decided to just continue with the construction and have a thicker wall. Because of this, we lost around eight inches in room length. The benefit was that we were able to have a dividing wall with double insulation and soundboard."

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Preet made insulfoam inserts for the existing windows on the screen wall.

"Also, the new room had four large fixed windows. The city made us change two of them to openable windows for code compliance/egress. I made panels of 2.5-inch insulfoam wrapped in black velvet to put inside those windows to block any potential light. I can remove them when I want some fresh air. I stuffed the other two windows with black velvet-covered insulfoam and installed the Stewart screen over them."

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The theater entrance is very inviting, complete with snacks you can grab on your way in.

Speaking of velvet, Preet used it extensively in the theater. "When I painted the theater ceiling and walls matte black, I was not pleased. It was not a true black. So, I decided to add black velvet in various spots. That was the largest improvement in the room. Just sucked up any reflections and improved contrast."

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The theater includes a lot of movie-inspired decor.

"I swear black velvet is an addiction. When the projector on, you can't see any of the speakers or equipment. I even wrapped the speakers and subwoofers and their grilles in velvet, which is spandex-based and acoustically transparent. The entire ceiling has thin foam panels wrapped in black velvet. This was time consuming, but I did a little every night after work."

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An 8-foot ceiling is not conducive to a fiber-optic star setup, so Preet uses a star projector to get a similar effect. And it's a lot less expensive! Of course, the stars and accent lights are turned off when it's movie time.

"I was originally going to do the first four feet of the ceiling, but my younger daughter said, 'Dad you need to do the entire ceiling.' I also did the first four feet of the side walls. I even removed the HVAC register grille and spray-painted it black, installed black-velvet crown molding, and got a black smoke detector. Any distracting lights in the front are covered with self-adhesive velvet. The only light you see is from the screen."

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The front LCR speakers and subwoofers and grilles are wrapped in acoustically transparent velvet.

Velvet also played a part in the DIY masking panels. "I wanted a 'scope screen as we watch mostly movies in the room. So, for non-scope content, I made vertical masking panels covered in velvet. You can buy them, but with a little patience and a few basic tools, they are not difficult to make. And they make a major difference for non-2.35 content."

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The Epson LS12000 laser projector throws a fine image onto the 138" screen.

Aside from the heavy construction, most of the project was DIY. "I did all the design, painting, speaker installation and terminations, AV connections, screen and PJ installation, decor, and wall paneling, with some help from my friendly neighbors.

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Preet got a special-edition Amazon Echo Dot in the form of Darth Vader.

"For sound calibration, I purchased a decibel meter to make sure the sound was level in all speakers. After that, it sounded much better, as I was not too thrilled with Audyssey. The actual construction of the room, electrical, HVAC, plans, and permits was done by a licensed contractor."

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(L-R): Daughters Jia and Kirpa enjoy the theater as much as their parents, and they love inviting their friends over for movie night.

What was the greatest moment in the process? "The day I put the projector up, I played Man of Steel in 4K. That was the first image I saw and whoa! I have an LG OLED in the loft/game room next door, and it is a beautiful TV with great blacks, but the immersion factor with a projector on that big screen had a major WOW factor. It became a theater for me. Even the family was speechless. We ended up watching the whole movie!"

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A lounge sofa forms the front row of seating, where viewers can really stretch out.

Even with the major construction, the cost was not exorbitant. "The plans, permits, and construction cost about $35,000, and it added about 220 square feet to the house. The carpet and some wood at the entry was another $4000, and the equipment, including acoustic treatment, was about $22,000. So, about $61,000 altogether."

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The custom acoustic panels from Audimute can be purchased with any imagery you provide. Also, notice the blacked-out window on the right; the velvet-covered insulfoam panel can be removed if Preet wants to open that window.

"Since we had to have a contractor build the room, I really tried to do as much as I could myself to help save for the equipment. I even looked for gently used equipment that was in like-new condition on AVS Forum as well as Facebook marketplace. I was lucky to find my Polk front tower speakers, Marantz AVR, Emotiva amp, and Polk rear speakers all in like-new condition, which saved me quite a bit."

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Everything in the Singh Home Theater reflects Preet's love of movies, including pillows with two famous lines from Star Wars: "I love you." "I know."

Of course, the Singh Home Theater will never be entirely finished. "One thing I've learned during this process is that there is always a potential upgrade or some way to improve. With my OCD, I was constantly tinkering with the sound and picture. Now, I'm trying to just enjoy what I have. I feel really fortunate to have a dedicated space, and sometimes I bring in my laptop to work in there or just read as it is such a peaceful and quiet room." A well-deserved sanctuary, for sure, which Preet and his family will enjoy for many years to come. Bravo!

Unfortunately, Preet does not have a build thread for his home theater.

Thanks to Joanna Cazden for her work on the photos in this article.

If you'd like your home theater considered for HT of the Month, send an email to HToftheMonth@avsforum.com with a few photos, a brief description, and a link to your build thread if available.

EQUIPMENT LIST

Sources

Apple TV 4K streamer
Panasonic DP-UB420 UHD Blu-ray player

AV Electronics

Marantz SR7013 AVR (powers rear surrounds, overheads)
Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 3 5-channel power amplifier (powers front LCR, side surrounds)
SoundShaker wireless amplifier (for seat transducers)

Projector

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000

Screen

Stewart FilmScreen StudioTek 130 G4 (138" diagonal, 2.40:1, fixed, 1.3 gain)

Speakers

Polk LSiM705 (2, front LR)
Polk LSiM706C (center)
Polk 265-LS (2, in-wall, side surrounds)
Polk LSiM702F/X (2, on-wall, rear surrounds)
Polk 80 F/X-LS (4, in-ceiling, overheads)
SVS PB-2000 subwoofers (2)

Cables

Ruipro Fiber HDMI 2.0 (35' from AVR to projector)
Monoprice RCA cables
Monoprice 12AWG speaker wire

Control

Amazon Echo Dot 5th gen w/Darth Vader stand (controls all lighting & components)
Lutron Caseta Smart Hub

Power Conditioning

Furman Elite-20 PFi 20-amp power-line conditioner and surge protector

Acoustic Treatments

Audimute eco-C-tex custom-image absorbers (4 large 2' x 4', one smaller 1' x 2' on back wall, all 1.5" thick)

Seating

Cavalo Fortuna Media Lounge Sofa (front row)
Seatcraft Kodiak (4, back row, center loveseat)
SoundShaker tactile transducers (4, one under each back-row seat)

Room Dimensions

16' x 13.5' x 8' (LxWxH)

Seating Distances (from the center of each row to the screen)

9.5' (first row)
14.5' (second row)