Home Theatre Project Log...

[bsodmike]

Hello guys

I returned to Leeds in September for m final year @ Uni and I felt it was time I persued a goal I've always had the top of my "must-get-done-before-i-die" list and the plan was put into motion - a home theater (henceforth, "HT") with enough power to make you think you're in heaven, integrating into my den.

It all started with the first 'central' block of the HT setup - the AV receiver. I decided to go with the Denon AVR-3805:

The next item on my list was the subwoofer, and I decided to go with B&W (Bower & Wilkins) for the speakers. The subwoofer I chose was the ASW-675 but I found that it had a slight problem, so I ended up pulling the amp out and shipping it back to B&W. Four, yes four days later I receive the replacement amp via DHL!

 

[bsodmike]

The other pieces of the setup include a pair of DM602 S3s for the front speakers, LCR 600 as the centre and DM601 S3s for the rears, along with a Rotel RB1070 and RB1080 power amps.

I woke up to find Colombo completely being washed away by the pouring rain. I was prodded awake by around 8:30am and we headed off to the Canadian Embassy to grab VISAs as we plan to visit Torronto sometime in June/July.

After we sorted this out and a couple other errands (HSBC Premire Centre etc) we ended up at Meubel House which is another well known furniture shop dealing in teak/mahogany items with that elegant antiquish look (recreations even).

We were now on the prowl for a coffee table and sofa and to my surprise we found both! Sadly, the sofa was of a very dark (stained) colour so I’m currently waiting for a new piece to be made with matching natural looks as the coffee table (pictured from the rear, it has two drawers on the other side).

By around roughly 5pm the console table was delivered by Raux Brothers and I prompty placed my HT stuff on top. The wiring process was pretty straight forward, and I think I’ve dreamt about this time and again - after all I’ve been planning this since September 2005!!

This is the rear of the RB-1070. It is fed the (mono) centre signal that is fed via the Y-splitter to both inputs (what it considers left/right) and the HF and LF are connected for true bi-amping.

A shot of the rear of the LCR-600,

A shot of the rear of one of the DM-602 S3s,

This is the rear of the AVR-3805 receiver,

Here’s a shot of the rear of the Plasma that is currently waiting for the mounting bracket to arrive from down under

At the bottom of the console table you will find the Rotel RB-1070 (the RB-1080 will be added later on)

This is the DVD-3910, now flashed multi-region with Denon Third Link support

The image below pretty much gives you an idea of the room in its current state. On the left is the display cabinet, that primarily houses my DVD collection. On the right is my Dual 2.7GHz G5 with the 23-inch display I was *finally* able to bring home from Uni and I think the spots really add to the ambiance…

 

[bsodmike]

I started off the day today sorting out material for the curtains and ’soon-to-be’ sofa, which we went to take a look at again. I’ve asked for this to be delivered tomorrow but chances are it’ll be delivered by Friday.

I spent most of the evening braiding the main ‘pre-outs’ that link my receiver to the 2x Rotel power amps and have got most of the cable management sorted out (in my head as well) and I believe the wiring is going to almost appear ‘invisible’ once I’m done.

I’m also taking care to swap lines with power orthagonally but need to order some more velcro…Those ‘all’ velcro zip ties would do the job perfectly.

Normally with cable braid you’d heat shrink the ends but due to the nature of some of the cables this might not be possible but I’ll see what can be done

I have also been able to come up with a pretty nice way of placing the 2x main 1KVA UPSes, and it makes wiring the power extremely efficient. Sadly, they come in beige/white boxes so I’ll be spray painting ‘em black sometime soon :mrgreen:

The centre has been tested, infact the RB-1070 is working quite nicely with the 12v trigger. I’ll be making a custom trigger cord at some point, with gold plated connectors. A nice feature of the RBs is that they feature trigger ‘daisy chaining’ which will come in handy.

Here’s a shot of the display cabinet

 

[bsodmike]

I'm currently back in England and I'm going home in July to finish the the HT. I've picked up a Denon TU1800 DAB tuner along with a sexy stand for the front speakers, rear wall mounts for the surrounds and a few extra cables from superfi and this HT should be completed by the second week of July

 

[Johnd]

Nice setup (I like both Denon and B&W) and neat work mike.

 

[bsodmike]

Hiya John, cheers m8 It should be quite something once fully up n' running