My High WAF Home Theater

[kkrambo]

I finally put some of the last finishing touches on my home theater and I'm ready to show off/share. I built this in my basement over the past year.

It has a 7.1 channel sound system with a Pioneer VSX-1015TX, in-wall speakers from Home Theater Direct, and a ULW-10 subwoofer from AV123.

The projector is a Sanyo PLV-Z4. The screen is home made and fixed mount. My DVD player is a basic Toshiba SD-3980 which I hope to upgrade with a PS3 or perhaps an HTPC.

I designed and built the built-in cabinets myself. Check out how the left and right channels are angled in under the cabinets -- That's one of my favorite features.

The ceiling lights are on a dimmer and its all controllable with my Harmony 520 remote control.

My #1 suggestion for increasing the wife acceptance factor (WAF) of your home theater is to put up crown molding. It really makes the room seem richer and more appealing. (But don't try it without an electric compound miter saw and plenty of spare molding.)

I owe thanks to Audioholics, ProjectorCentral, AV123, HTD, and many other places for ideas and advice. I'd thank Home Depot too but the money I dropped there is thanks enough.

-- Kevin

 

[Tomorrow]

VERY nice. And yeah, I like that toed-in wall touch, too!

I'm so dang jealous o' you folks with the dedicated HT's.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Kevin,

Looks great! Nice job. I've not seen that color combination, but it works. I think it makes the area look a lot larger than going dark.

How do the inwalls sound with movies?

 

[Audioholics]

VERY nice look! Clean and neat.

 

[Matt34]

Very well done! I'm going to use in-walls in my living room eventually for the same reason(WAF).

 

[majorloser]

Very well done! I'm going to use in-walls in my living room eventually for the same reason(WAF).

Wimp

Matt, when you get back she'll let you do anything you want.


EDIT: kkrambo, NICE SSTUP!

 

[Nick250]

Beautifully done Kevin.

Nick

 

[audiohead01]

Nice job. How do you like the in-walls????

 

[Sheep]

Wow, amazing job!

SheepStar

 

[pzaur]

That setup looks awesome!

I wish I had a basement...sigh...
I get so many ideas from this place and no realistic way to implement them!
It's so hard to find basements in the Phoenix area. And, the new build we're doing doesn't offer basements. Just a great-room.
(Pat drinks a beer in disappointment...)

-pat

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Nice job. How do you like the in-walls????

Yes, very nice Kevin!

Ping pong torniment at Kevin house! (I bring the chips)

I have the same question. How do you like the inwalls?
SBF1

 

[wilkenboy]

Let me also chime in... OUTSTANDING work here. I'd be really interested in further detail shots of your projector mount solution as well as a description of how you did the built-ins - how deep are they recessed in that wall?

What is the method of construction for your screen?

I'd also be interested to hear what dimmer hardware you're using in conjunction with the Harmony, and how you wired it.

Enjoy!

~Josh

 

[gmichael]

Very nice job. It looks great.

 

[gellor]

Let me also chime in... OUTSTANDING work here. I'd be really interested in further detail shots of your projector mount solution as well as a description of how you did the built-ins - how deep are they recessed in that wall?

What is the method of construction for your screen?

I'd also be interested to hear what dimmer hardware you're using in conjunction with the Harmony, and how you wired it.

Enjoy!

~Josh

I'm not sure what he did with his lights, but single-zone lighting is easy to work with...you can get remote controllable dimmers from Lutron at your local hardware store. They have ones that say on the package something like "compatible with home theater remote controls"...that's what we used and it was really easy to setup.

BTW, Very nice home theater, kkrambo...my wife is jealous.

 

[kkrambo]

Answers

I'm happy with the in-wall speakers. I'm not an expert on speaker sound quality so I can't give you a critical review. But they sound good to my untrained ear. I realize that I may have skimped on speakers relative to my entire project. But top-of-the-line speakers wasn't a high priority for me. I got the multi-purpose in-walls from Home Theater Direct (not the more expensive high definition in-walls). They're very affordable. The build quality seems very good to me, sturdy and not at all flimsy. They were also easy to install using the attached dog-ear-style clamps. I asked HTD about enclosing them (in a box behind the wall) and they suggested the volume of the enclosure.

I'm also not a cabinet maker. For the built-in cabinets I built a frame out of 2x4s and attached the cabinet walls to the frame sort of like paneling. The cabinet frame is attached to the wall frame. The cabinet panels are fastened to the cabinet frame with lag screws through the frame so the screws aren't visible on the business side of the cabinet. I used chair rail molding around the cabinet to hide the cabinet/wall seem. The cabinet panels are cut from half inch oak plywood with an oak veneer that I stained and poly'd myself. The cabinet shelves are 3/4 inch oak veneer plywood which I had to apply a self-adhesive strip of veneer to the edge.

The cabinets are generally 18 inches deep except the bottom half of the left cabinet (with my components) is 20 inches deep. This cabinet also has a rear door to allow me to get to the back panels of the components. The Pioneer VSX-1015TX is really deep and with component cables connected, 20 inch deep cabinets are still not enough. I should have made it 22 inches deep. Luckily, the shelf that the receiver is on extends out from the wall a few inches so I'm able to leave the receiver sticking out from the cabinet a bit.

The projector mount is just a shelf made with leftovers from the cabinets. The back of the shelf (against the wall) is solid wood from which I chiseled out some notches and covered the notches with metal keyhole plates. I put 3 or 4 inch screws into the wall stud so that the keyhole plates hang on the screws. This seemed a bit to flimsy so I also put some chair brackets on top of the shelf and attached those to the wall as well (these are out of sight because the shelf is so high). My wife says that the projector and shelf looks like the star-trek enterprise. That was totally unintentional although some might call it serendipitous.

My screen is basically drapery black-out lining stretched over a 1x4 frame. I goofed during the manufacturing and this led me to make the border with a separate 1x4 frame and attach it to the first. The border frame is wrapped with black felt. I would probably do it differently if starting over because one 1x4 frame should be enough. TIP: If you make a screen and plan to have a border, the *INSIDE* dimensions of the border should be 16:9, not the *OUTSIDE* dimensions of the border. (That was my goof.) Also, I wonder whether a 3 inch border would have been enough because the 4 inch border seems a bit bold. And I wonder whether something other than felt would have been a better choice. I used a staple gun to attach the screen and border material to the frames.

The light dimmer is made by Lutron. I believe it's called the "Maestro IR". Only my overhead can lights are on the dimmer -- the sconces and the flourescents over the ping-pong table are not. The Lutron IR codes were already in the Harmony's on-line database so I didn't have to teach the commands to the remote. I did go through a few different trial-and-error configurations before getting the remote to control the lights the way I wanted. I wish the Harmony configuration application was easier to use. I don't recall anything special about wiring the dimmer switch. I'm pretty sure it's just like any non-dimming switch.

-- Kevin

 

[redman_43]

I gotta say, that looks REALLY nice. I like the fact that you toed in the speakers like that. It gives it a truly professional appearance. I can only hope that when my wife and I get a house in the next year or so, we are able to find one that is a tri-level or has a basement.

 

[Snap]

What a great job. Very nice system for sure!

Good Job man very nice!

 

[agarwalro]

SWEET!!!

I am jealous. Great job with everything.

 

[Ax-man]

Kevin that is a beautiful HT you have ... I really like the color and the layout, great job and thanks for sharing!

 

[davo]

"My wife says that the projector and shelf looks like the star-trek enterprise. That was totally unintentional although some might call it serendipitous."-kkrambo

Ahh, I knew it got my attention for some reason - I just finished a marathon of the first six movies of Star Trek. My brother in law said he hadn't seen any of them before, so I smashed the emergency glass containing all the movies of Star Trek and we plonked ourselves down for an a/v time warp!

Would have been better at your place though kkrambo, very nice indead. No clutter, clean lines everywhere, minimalist, I want it.