My dad's theater

[strube]

Well, I wasn't on the forums too much when my dad and I did his theater in his new old house. There was a relatively decent room in the basement for the theater application. Really, the only negative was the 7' ceiling. Since it was an older house, it had a brick fireplace and wood paneling on all of the walls. Also, there was no framing on what was to be the screen wall or the right wall, just some wood paneling nailed directly to the foundation...weird.

I helped him rip out all of the paneling and then I moved to California. He framed up the front wall in a standard fashion and framed out the right one with 1x4's to prevent having to move the heater. Then he did similar over the fireplace after sealing up the damper and packing it with insulation. He also put a header in and made the wasted space under the stairs into an equipment closet. He wired three new, grounded 20A circuits for the room and put in some can lighting and sconces. I think I helped with some wiring before I left, but I can't remember too much about that, other than the HDMI cable being just barely long enough.

He built a riser (filled with insulation). The hot water heater was in the way but he just trimmed the casing and built around it, with a vent in the riser for heat, as you can see shortly. I don't have any pictures of all the construction business, just pictures of after he was done with most of the room...

Right side of the room facing the screen wall:

Left side of the room facing the screen wall:

Riser:

Cabinets housing Cat5e wiring for the rest of the house and future snacks and such:

Under-stairs equipment cabinet:

Here's the vibration-damped projector shelf I designed. It has rubber grommets on the shelf and the frame so the shelf is completely decoupled from the frame. It is also lined above with acoustic panel material to absorb any extra sound:

I will go hunt down more photos now.

 

[strube]

The tray ceiling has a little crown molding in it and some rope lighting behind that. The tray was necessary due to the fact that there was a 2" drop-down from the joists where the original builder ran every gas line and hot water heat pipe, rather than going through joists. We cut out the middle section of the drop-down because there were no pipes there. I think it turned out pretty cool. It also aided in running wires.

Post-carpet pictures:

I came to visit back in March and helped him get everything set up. Then we watched movies until about 3 AM. The telescope liner adhesive-backed velvet really makes the screen float in space. There is a little gap above the corner of the screen that we did fill in with velvet later, but I don't have a picture. Sorry I don't have screenshots to show this perfectly - maybe I can round some up at some point.

Oops...maxed out my images.

 

[strube]

Here's the rest!

We also put velvet on the top of the center and subs to tame the few reflections we were getting.

That's all the pics I've got (I believe). I think it turned out pretty nice.

 

[jostenmeat]

strube, it looks like you guys have at least a few, if not several, more inches of space between the center speaker and pic? I would do my best in getting if off the floor as much as possible, and since you guys have no issues with using velvet on top of the speaker, I am not worried about reflections whatsoever.

Getting away from the masking midbass boosts is a worthy goal, besides the other benefits as well.

If you guys ever need to increase the angle of the center, I used to have two of these (biggest I could find at the time). Whoa, looks like they went up in price, hmm, maybe find them elsewhere, oops:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IATN/ref=wms_ohs_product

 

[just-some-guy]

nice setup.

i agree. raise up that center. sit in the "hot seat". raise up the center until it is on the cutting edge of the screen. also, move the mains closer to the screen.
everyone is different, but i bet, after getting used to it, that will sound better for you.

ymmv

 

[strube]

strube, it looks like you guys have at least a few, if not several, more inches of space between the center speaker and pic? I would do my best in getting if off the floor as much as possible, and since you guys have no issues with using velvet on top of the speaker, I am not worried about reflections whatsoever.

Getting away from the masking midbass boosts is a worthy goal, besides the other benefits as well.

If you guys ever need to increase the angle of the center, I used to have two of these (biggest I could find at the time). Whoa, looks like they went up in price, hmm, maybe find them elsewhere, oops:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IATN/ref=wms_ohs_product

nice setup.

i agree. raise up that center. sit in the "hot seat". raise up the center until it is on the cutting edge of the screen. also, move the mains closer to the screen.
everyone is different, but i bet, after getting used to it, that will sound better for you.

ymmv

Thanks guys!

Now that you mention it, the pics aren't of the final product! I think his center is actually on the cutting edge of the picture when seated, perhaps only barely below now. That overall view picture was before he had built the shelf, and I noticed he sent me pics of the center on the shelf, but no "seated" view. I will double check though. We knew we wanted it as high as possible while cramming the biggest screen (118") on the wall. I know I remember placing the L/R speakers such that they are barely out of the viewing path for all seats in the room. He also built acoustic panels for first reflection points since I was there last winter.

I haven't been back since he finished it 100%, but it turns out I will be going next week. I will likely be able to snag a few more photos of the truly final product. If time permits, I will also shine up the projector insides and check that grate as you suggested, JM.

 

[jostenmeat]

nice setup.

i agree. raise up that center. sit in the "hot seat". raise up the center until it is on the cutting edge of the screen. also, move the mains closer to the screen.
everyone is different, but i bet, after getting used to it, that will sound better for you.

ymmv

I'm glad you say everyone is different, because I prefer wider spread with speakers, perhaps coupled with greater toe-in. If that's what sounds best with imaging and stage, then I suppose the next steps are to treat the nearby boundaries, directly behind, to the side, corner trapping . . . You can also treat the area below the center too, perhaps building a large trap that it can rest on.

 

[just-some-guy]

indeed, everyone is different.

 

[SavidSelim]

very nice work indeed!

 

[stealthrt]

Very nice! You took your time and it shows a lot!

David

 

[DaJuice]

Nice setup

 

[Radio Flyer]

Very nice and clean set up. Great theater for movie nights.