New HT Room

[rmk]

Nice seating.... Now all you need to make it complete is some speakers and a few subs...

Good idea, I'll start working on that. Any ideas?

 

[rmk]

Very, very nice. I really like the color.

Thanks, I wasn't too sure about red leather at first but now I like it a lot. It reminds me of the leather in a Mercedes 220S I had many years ago.

 

[rmk]

I made some small changes last night that have helped the sound and the layout of the seating. I moved the wedges outboard of the seats so that the three seats are centered in the room. It’s not the way the systems was designed but it looks OK and provided a much better view from the new locations for the L& R seats.

I also re-ran Audyssey (for the umpteenth time) and may have finally got it right. I disabled all other EQ (SMS-1 and ARO) before running Audyssey. Audyssey nailed the distances but I have to tweak the levels a bit. It also sets all of my speakers to large confused) so I changed that to small and for simplicity sake, set the Xover to 80Hz. I then ran the SMS-1 room graph and made a few small adjustments but did not run ARO this time.

The sound is really well balanced and the off axis is excellent. It may be there is something to this Audyssey EQ after all.

 

[Adam]

I still love that room...

I like the microphone holder. That would be nice to have. When I run my set-up system, I put a stack of pillows on the couch and set the mic on top of those. I'm high-tech, babeee.

Something that I don't see on those chairs is a place to store remotes. Perhaps in the wedges? They have handy cup holders, but I don't see a pouch or anything for the remote(s). Do they have one?

Thanks.

 

[rmk]

I still love that room...

I like the microphone holder. That would be nice to have. When I run my set-up system, I put a stack of pillows on the couch and set the mic on top of those. I'm high-tech, babeee.

Something that I don't see on those chairs is a place to store remotes. Perhaps in the wedges? They have handy cup holders, but I don't see a pouch or anything for the remote(s). Do they have one?

Thanks.

Remotes? ... you should only have one
There are large storage compartments inside the wedges under the pad on top. I'e already got them full of CD's and DVD's. The cup holders are lighted but my "floor sample" set came minus the transformer and power cord. I have one on order from Berkline. Not sure how utilitarian they are but they look cool.

I did the pillow stacking thing too until I stumbled upon that
mic stand (approx $20) on ebay. It does make it nice for running multi position EQ. Audyssey uses up to 8 positions and a stand like that is the only way to really do it right.

 

[gokou777]

Wow. It is purely amazing.

Hopefully one day, I will have a nice setup like urs too.

still working on getting me first house....

longgggggggggggggggggggg way to go.

 

[Adam]

Strangely, it never occurred to me to shop for a mic stand. I just found some on Amazon for not too much money. Thanks for getting my thinking!

I could always do it the Gene/Dave way (credit to the Florida group for this pic) :

 

[rmk]

It figures that Gene’s only appearance in my HT Thread would be to give the audio version of half the peace sign.

 

[Adam]

It figures that Gene’s only appearance in my HT Thread would be to give the audio version of half the peace sign.

"Half the peace sign." Hee, hee! Never heard it put that way before.

 

[jostenmeat]

rmk, I'm glad there are some like you who prolifically share with others their upgrade path. If only because I know whose brain to pick! So, two sets of questions for you, and no need to be comprehsensive. I'd be happy with any kind of insight unique to your experiences.

1. Are your rears dipoles? And your sides monopoles? I typically would see those types in the reverse positions. Have you tried monopoles as "rears" and dipoles as "sides"? How much difference, if any at all, do you find with either design in either position? I ask because I have only monopoles, and never tried other designs in those positions. It will most likely remain this way, but I still am curious nonetheless for your thoughts!

2. Regarding the order of calibrations you described, I again would find the reverse order to be recommended. I'm sure you are aware of all this stuff, have much more calibrating under your belt than many, etc. But I read that doing the simpler stuff before Audyssey would allow its processing powers to be more focused on areas where simpler stuff cannot remedy as easily. Example: passive acoustical treatments first, then say ARO, then SMS-1, then Audyssey. Outside of the treatments, I think you did it in reverse. Can you share your thoughts on this? Perhaps it just works better for you in your setup (obviously), but maybe there's a particular thing you can share with me/us in this regard that we have never read about before.

*ok, I re-read my post, and maybe for #2, its because you can more easily adjust to taste bass response... ? (for if you did Audyssey last, why would you fiddle with SMS-1 all over again?...)

THANKS!

 

[rmk]

Good questions and thanks for the comprehensive pass as i never get comprehensive.

rmk, I'm glad there are some like you who prolifically share with others their upgrade path. If only because I know whose brain to pick! So, two sets of questions for you, and no need to be comprehsensive. I'd be happy with any kind of insight unique to your experiences.

1. Are your rears dipoles? And your sides monopoles? I typically would see those types in the reverse positions. Have you tried monopoles as "rears" and dipoles as "sides"? How much difference, if any at all, do you find with either design in either position? I ask because I have only monopoles, and never tried other designs in those positions. It will most likely remain this way, but I still am curious nonetheless for your thoughts!

First, you are correct regarding the preferred placement for dipoles/ monopoles. When I first did the room there was very little space (relative to the seating) on the right side of the room and the Revel Embrace di/bipoles are rather large and stick out 9" from the wall which would make them over hanging the right most seating position on the original sectional couch. I had the Revel in-walls from my previous room install and decided to use them instead and place the Embraces on the back wall. In hindsight, it may have been better to use 4 in-wall monopoles instead and I may at some point do just that.

2. Regarding the order of calibrations you described, I again would find the reverse order to be recommended. I'm sure you are aware of all this stuff, have much more calibrating under your belt than many, etc. But I read that doing the simpler stuff before Audyssey would allow its processing powers to be more focused on areas where simpler stuff cannot remedy as easily. Example: passive acoustical treatments first, then say ARO, then SMS-1, then Audyssey. Outside of the treatments, I think you did it in reverse. Can you share your thoughts on this? Perhaps it just works better for you in your setup (obviously), but maybe there's a particular thing you can share with me/us in this regard that we have never read about before.

*ok, I re-read my post, and maybe for #2, its because you can more easily adjust to taste bass response... ? (for if you did Audyssey last, why would you fiddle with SMS-1 all over again?...)

You are correct sir,

Again, that is the conventional wisdom and that was my approach at first (actually many times) but each time I did not like the addition of the Audyssey EQ. It noticeably deadened the sound in the room. I assume that was the result of too many layers of EQ.

In any case, I finally tried Audyssey first and it sounded very good. After looking at the FR graph on the SMS-1 and doing a little tweaking there, it sounded even better. Overall pretty happy with everything at this point but the tweaking is fun and will continue.

 

[engtaz]

rmk, nice setup. Looks well thought out. Conrats. majorlosers toy's at his GTG were off the hook cool.

engtaz

 

[rmk]

rmk, nice setup. Looks well thought out. Conrats. majorlosers toy's at his GTG were off the hook cool.

engtaz

When you said toys I was thinking really cool AV stuff like speakers, subs and electronics but you really meant toys... Different Strokes

 

[hillbill]

You live in my neighborhood...? Because I have the exact same neighbor!

BTW...the room looks AMAZING ! Great job.

 

[rmk]

In the spirit of “prolific posting” of pics, here are a couple more of the room concentrating on the room treatments. I have ordered another armless chair to expand the basic seating to four with a goal of never having more than four people in the room at one time.

Note to the wise; do not attempt to paint metal in-wall speaker grilles with flat latex paint and a brush/roller. I did and after two coats they still looked BAD!. My solution was to cover the Grilles with brown speaker cloth trying to match the acoustic panels. My install job was a little sloppy but they look pretty good (from a distance).
Ceiling and right wall

Ceiling and rear wall

Left wall

 

[jostenmeat]

Dammit rmk, if I ever want to rid myself of upgraditis, I'd have to put you on ignore. I'm trying to stay in remission, but I fail everytime I visit your thread.

Just sent out an email asking for some cloth samples (b/w white and wheat) to match my ceiling. More treatments could be on their way.

 

[Adam]

Dammit rmk, if I ever want to rid myself of upgraditis, I'd have to put you on ignore.

Agreed!

Heck, sometimes I feel like I need to upgrade my house when I look at those pictures...

 

[rmk]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. It is amazing to me that a year ago I thought a dedicated room for my hobby was out of reach and here I am. I also find it interesting that I am gravitating toward a true Home Theater room rather than the multipurpose one I imagined. If you see me talking of painting the room black or building a riser for another row of seats, please talk me down.

I ordered another pair of in-wall monopoles to try out in place of the SB di/bipoles. There really is no end to the madness.

 

[mike c]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. It is amazing to me that a year ago I thought a dedicated room for my hobby was out of reach and here I am. I also find it interesting that I am gravitating toward a true Home Theater room rather than the multipurpose one I imagined. If you see me talking of painting the room black or building a riser for another row of seats, please talk me down.

I ordered another pair of in-wall monopoles to try out in place of the SB di/bipoles. There really is no end to the madness.

DON'T paint your walls black. your panels are already chocolate.

paint your walls DARK BROWN.

 

[rmk]

DON'T paint your walls black. your panels are already chocolate.

paint your walls DARK BROWN.

They are browner than they look ... just about the same color as the deposits you son leaves in his diaper

BTW Mike, very cute kid.