His and Her Room!

[The Chukker]

What a beautiful set up you have -- I am extremely envious of your HT space -- what I wouldn't give for high ceilings like yours <sigh>. Are your blinds (in the upper three windows) powered/automated? I can't see any pull strings...

 

[westcott]

What a beautiful set up you have -- I am extremely envious of your HT space -- what I wouldn't give for high ceilings like yours <sigh>. Are your blinds (in the upper three windows) powered/automated? I can't see any pull strings...

Your Def Techs would really like this room. Plenty of space to stretch their very long legs.

The upper windows are on RF remotes using roller hurricane shutters. They are on the outside of the house and the remote works one or all of the windows using the roller shutters. The arched glass and the sheer height all but eliminated most conventional solutions. I do live near the water here in the bay area, south of Houston so an investment in very expensive hurricane shutters was not a complete loss and it should really help with my AC bills this coming summer.

My wife and I did all the work including floating and isolating the new Vermont Maple Floors for acoustic benefit, wiring, lighting, electrical, masking, taping, floating, mudding, texturing, painting, and equipment and furniture selection. All the wiring is run in a channel beneath the flooring and that is why you will see nothing plugged into the walls. My wife did most of the furniture and color design and selection. I just told her that it had to be a fairly dark color and flat latex.

The curtains are black out curtains and were installed in this room and the kitchen on the first floor.

Thank you for the kind words and I am glad that you like it. Architecture is a big part of the quaility of sound that you will derive from your system. When I saw this house, we bought it on the spot.

Thanks again for the kind words.

 

[westcott]

So many new faces

Thought I would drag my HT to the top again since there seems to be so many new members who may not have seen it.

http://community.webshots.com/user/jbwestcott

P.S. Replaced my first lamp and I hope this one lasts longer!

 

[mazersteven]

Great looking room. Those Klipsch must be really bright in that room with wood floors, high ceilings. No bonus room upstair to make a dedicated room?

 

[gmichael]

That's a very nice home you have there westcott. Thank you for sharing the pics.
Great systems.

 

[westcott]

Great looking room. Those Klipsch must be really bright in that room with wood floors?

The wood floors are floated and isolated providing the one of the best possible acoustic solutions. It was a very time consuming process and ate into my budget but was well worth it. I knew I would not easily be able to hang acoustic treatments to the walls without more salesmanship on my part (my wife is warming up to the idea after I mentioned I wanted to cover them in fabric and that she should select the material).

,high ceilings?

High ceilings were a conscious choice. I like the sound of a larger venue. Having a large room sounds completely different from a small one. It minimizes the effects of room interactions which can color the overall sound. The Klipsch speakers further reduce room interactions due to their more directional nature and single point source design over most of their frequency range. The larger room allows speaker placement further from the walls and ceilings, reducing room interaction even further.

No bonus room upstair to make a dedicated room?

The bonus room was traded for the high ceilings in the "His and Her Room" and a master bedroom that is 20' x 35' upstairs. The other three rooms in the house were too small, too square,or unable to acomodate the large screen and the ideal speaker placement (center speaker primarily) with 9' ceilings.
It is very difficult to get a large screen in a lower ceilinged room and still provide proper center speaker placement (ideally in line with the left and right drivers) as many here with front projectors can tell you. And since standard definition programming is still the predominant source of content, I still wanted to have a quality CRT to watch for most of my viewing. There was no way my design would have fit in a lower ceilinged room.

 

[Tomorrow]

What time are drinks and movie?!

VERY nice, Westcott.

 

[westcott]

What time are drinks and movie?!

VERY nice, Westcott.

Thanks. I am glad you like it.

Drinks and movies are played just about every night I have a new DVD from NetFlix.

If you live or are visting the Houston area, you are more than welcome to stop by.

 

[mazersteven]

Thanks. I am glad you like it.

Drinks and movies are played just about every night I have a new DVD from NetFlix.

If you live or are visting the Houston area, you are more than welcome to stop by.

Houston here I come.

 

[westcott]

I went ahead and bought a new CD player (CX-355).

My wife and I got tired of shuffling CD' so we bought a 300 disc Megachanger and hooked it up using the optical digital out to the AV receiver.
Sounds great and no more hunting for that CD and replacing broken jewel cases.

Wish it had non-volatile memory but for the price, a very convenient device.

We will see how reliable it is.

 

[AVRat]

My CD changer is 11 years young and still going strong even though I usually run it in shuffle mode.

 

[RMK!]

Hi Westcott,

It was your dual purpose TV/projector implementation that got me thinking then buying more hardware. Thanks a lot!

Just kidding of course. Really nice job by you and the wife on the room, you guys make a good team. Thanks for the pictures and inspiration.

 

[westcott]

Hi Westcott,

It was your dual purpose TV/projector implementation that got me thinking then buying more hardware. Thanks a lot!

Just kidding of course. Really nice job by you and the wife on the room, you guys make a good team. Thanks for the pictures and inspiration.

I know what you mean. Some of the setups I see just make you wish money was no object. I was saving my pennies for some ampage when the wife asked me' "When are we going to get a flat panel for the bedroom?" I love my wife!!!!

She really enjoys the system and was really happy when I told her that TNT is in HD now. She has loved the Stephen King Nightmare series running recently.

 

[westcott]

My CD changer is 11 years young and still going strong even though I usually run it in shuffle mode.

I really hope I get even half of the life you have out of this player. It was very affordable and has been real enjoyable. I just put together a spreadsheet but hope to add a UPS before entering any large amount of data into the player.

I am glad to hear your success. It helps me sleep better at night.

 

[westcott]

Well, I bit the bullet and switched satellite providers from Directv to DishNetwork and I am glad I did. The MPEG4 decoder does provide a better quality picture and the tuner is much quicker, easily changes resolution on the fly, and operates flawlessly so far. The macroblocking has been reduced considerably on SD programming and even my wife commented on the better quality picture. Not to mention the additional HD programming.

Anyone want to buy some HD and SD equipment for Directv?

 

[tbewick]

Very nice. Presumably the system has a lively sound for music? I'd imagine jazz and period instrument classical would sound superb in that room.

 

[westcott]

Very nice. Presumably the system has a lively sound for music? I'd imagine jazz and period instrument classical would sound superb in that room.

Thanks twewick. This shared room has been a real pleasure for me and my wife.

What you do not see is the massive man hours that went into isolating and floating the wood floors for better acoustics (fiberglass panels under the floor). I am still trying to convince the wife (almost there) to add some geometric sound panels to the room. As you know, every opening to a room acts as a sound absorber and with over 17,000ft2 of open spaces onto this room, room loading is not an issue.

But, I have to agree, classical woodwind and brass intruments shine. The piano also comes to life in this room with good recordings and that seems to be the real challenge now a days.

 

[Sheep]

So when are the acoutics treatments arriving? That shipping guy sure is late!

Maybe one day, when I have a jetpack, I will fly my HPM-100s over and we can enjoy those and the Altecs.

Wicked system as always,

SheepStar

 

[westcott]

Folding Painting over Projection Screen







This is the latest project to make the projector screen less conspicuous. I made the frames, stretched the canvas, primed and painted the canvas, and assembled the painting with piano hinges and some other hardware to keep it closed and open. I used a magnet to hold them closed when folded open and a hook and pin to hold it closed against the projector screen.

I am no artist and was really blown away by the quotes I got for the work but after doing it myself, I have a greater appreciation for the cost and time involved in a project like this.

I still need to make a few adjustments to the right side but I will need some help.

 

[adk highlander]

Nice example of geometric abstraction

I really like it. Great room that you keep making better.