[roccoleach]

Updated! The blackout theater- 80% complete

above is my unfinished room. Thick parts are concrete, and outside wall (top) is wood insulated with spray foam insulation.I am closing off the small part on the left top side with the double doors.Room is 37 long and 17ft wide. I want to leave the large part of the room open and I would like to build a riser for the 2nd couch.I'm completely open for building material suggestions, as i have nothing but framing done.I'm not at all concerned about sound isolation, but i want to reduce or eliminate echo in the room with absorption/diffuse panels.I'm not sure what one is better, and where i should put them.Any suggestions?

 

[BIGmouthinDC]

drywall, then add acoustical treatments. You would benefit by drawing a layout of how you intend to set up your theater. Screen, Seating, Projector location and Speakers.

 

[roccoleach]

cool how do i draw it? I'm not actually sure yet how. i had the house built with this way with the intention of a theater in the corner, but till now haven't thought exactly how.


what kinda acoustical treatments? i'm highly experienced in the home theater room building and speaker setup, sound levels, etc, in current rooms, but not at all about building a room for the exact purpose.

 

[JamesB77]

Probably the easiest free program to use is Google Sketchup. Might take you a morning to learn how to get around and start drawing.

 

[roccoleach]

ok, how do i find the models of home theater type couches?

 

[roccoleach]




ok here is a mockup, I have an HSU VTF 15H that i haven't added in the picture. i'm thinking of adding buttkicker to the platform. I have infinity Beta 50 speakers, already have all the electronics minus a good receiver. I've got about a $7,500 budget for just the room, and i can almost all the work myself minus the finishing of sheetrock.


Any advice for paneling and screens?



Thanks!

 

[roccoleach]

also taking any input on the riser height etc.

 

[roccoleach]

Ok, well I'm debating how exactly i want to do this, i'm looking at diffusing/absorbing all of the side walls, but don't know where to put which one. any input on that?

 

[roccoleach]

Wouldn't it be better to leave the walls not sheetrocked and let let the acoustic absorption of the open cell spray foam i have aid in sound isolation?

 

[JamesB77]

I spray foamed my basement and the stuff they used was closed cell; when applied to a 2 inch thickness it also acts as a vapour barrier. As such, closed cell foam is a terrible choice for sound absorption. Even if it were good at absorption you are still missing the other three aspects of soundproofing. Mass, Decoupling and Dampening.

 

[roccoleach]

I don't have closed cell, it's framed and sprayed with open cell foam. it's not reflective, and much different.

 

[kromkamp]

Open cell foam is not particularly absorptive, either - certainly no where near as good as fiberglass.


Besides, I 'm pretty sure even open cell foam needs to be covered with drywall for fire code regulations.

 

[roccoleach]

they make a sound dampening sheetrock too... anyone ever use this?

 

[roccoleach]





Well, here is the beginning of my actual construction. I'm building a riser on 2x8. Insulation should be here next week, already ordered 8 Realtraps for corners and ceiling corners.


Below the riser is a hardwood underlayment padding. Everything will be glued and screwed.


On the right i build a detached wall on 24", and would like to mount it to a full plywood wall. does there exist a product to screw spacers between the two walls?

 

[roccoleach]

wow tough crowd :-/


i think i will use sound isolating board from HD to separate the floating wall from the plywood one to try to prevent reverb in the room (i don't care about sound escaping too much) then i will fiberglass inbetween the 24" 2x4's to fill in the gaps. affixed to this on the entire room i will have 2x4' framed acoustic panels wrapped in cloth.


anyone use these guys

http://www.seymourscreenexcellence.com/


I'm thinking of purchasing a curved 174" diagonal 2.35 screen from them. anyone use these? how does the picture work with non anamorphic projections on this type of screen?

 

[roccoleach]




finished 1/2 the riser glued and screwed. used hardwood floor padding to prevent vibration on the concrete. two 2x8x6ft I'm separating it into 2 1/2 to leave a gap inbetween the two sides for access in the future and might consider some shakers mounted inside. Will stuff the whole thing with poly fill etc.

 

[BIGmouthinDC]

You usually finish the walls and ceiling before adding the stage and riser. It is easier, safer (ladder placement) and contains sound better. Trust me you will build your next theater that way.


I used a curved Seymour at the curve frenzy theater, it is a nice screen. Without an anamorphic lens in place it will distort the image a wee bit. the sides of the image will be shorter than the middle. So you let the middle fall on the velvet boarder of the screen.


you would need a light cannon to properly fill a 174 inch diagonal screen with a quality image.


your plans for the use of sound panels from Home depot and the overall wall construction sounds a little off, need more details. You only need to add carpet and cover 25% of the wall surface with absorptive material to get the reverb (RT60) in line with typical theater room goals.

 

[roccoleach]

Thanks for the tips. Sound isolation is fortunately no concern to me but I can still Sheetrock the wall before attaching the risers. I have 3/4" plywood on the outside of the right wall as the adjacent room will be a improvised storm room. Then I built another non support wall to place in front of the plywood (for symmetry). I don't want it to rattle against the plywood when the bass is hitting pretty hard. So I guess i will install that cheap 4x8ft sound isolation boards from Home Depot to allow mounting of the two walls together.


I'm framing the walls out to accept floor to ceiling panels with some 2x4 framed and cloth wrapped 703 foam, separated by columns.


I have carpet planned for the riser and whole room


Will my optoma 8200 not work on a screen this size with anamorphic lense? I hung it up at 22ft away just to mock and projected a movie on the unfinished wall, and it seemed ok. I figure looking in the future it's easier to upgrade the projector vs the screen, right?



Everything is up in the air so to speak, if I could find someone local near atlanta that does good consultations if probably pay them for the help.

 

[BIGmouthinDC]

I did a quick look at the image calculator at Projection Central for the Optoma 8200. The image brightness for a 16:9 65 inch tall image is right at the minimum recommend, 12 FL. you throw on a 2.40:1 bluray and move your anamorphic lens in place and you spread that image over a larger space and it is going to get dimmer. Don't even think about trying the zoom method for 2:40. it drops to 6 FL.

 

[roccoleach]

Ok thanks again for all the help. I'll keep updating with pictures. Y'all probably find it amusing what a retired navy nuke electronics technician whom never used a miter saw before 2013 works out in his head for a room he builds himself. I'm slowly reading through the 100,000 articles here trying to learn as much as possible