# Newbie Basement Theater Project Thread



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Hey everyone, Im new around these parts and just purchased my first home earlier this year. The first project to tackle is the basement. I dubbed it the Ronald Mcdonald House for the abundance of red and gold. Anyway, I have been reading through this board for some time now and decided on a 5.1 setup. Last week I began pulling the trigger on some components which should all be in by the first week of January. I have very limited experience with most things home theater, but what I have learned so far has led me to believe my choices will leave me with a quality system that doesnt break the bank. Here's a list of what I went with:

TV - Vizio D650i 65" LED
Receiver - Denon AVR-X2000
Front Towers - Pioneer Andrew Jones SP-FS52
Center - Pioneer SP-C22
Surrounds - Pioneer SP-BS22-LR
Sub - Dayton SUB-1200
Bluray - Panasonic DMP-BD91
Surge Protection - Panamax MR4000

I am very pleased to be right on track with my original budget of ~$2000 for all things electronic. I still havent found any wall/ceiling mounts for the surround speakers so maybe someone can chime in on those. 

The first pic is the original speaker layout (not ideal). The rest are before and afters. Will get the second coat tomorrow and hopefully be finished with paint by Wednesday. Still waiting on wall plates, tv mount, and speaker wire. I think it's an incredible improvement over the dark, dungeon feel. I'll be updating this thread with more pics and info as I go!

Let me know your thoughts! Also, I relocated that left surround speaker to the right of the pillar, adjacent to the right surround location. I dont plan to use the rears at this time.

So, without further adieu, I give you the Ronald McDonald Project...


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

Your not painting it black? Whats going on :laugh:


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Haha nope! *grabs flame suit*


----------



## Bruce Fisher (Nov 24, 2007)

Looking good!


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

You may want to consider some base traps or carpet.... and some acoutstic panels. with that hard wood and smooth walls being down in a basement your going to have an echo chamber.... probably end up cancelling out some freq's.


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Looking good Brad. Ronald won't be stopping by any time soon! Good advice about the floor and treatments. All in due time though.


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

willis7469 said:


> Looking good Brad. Ronald won't be stopping by any time soon! Good advice about the floor and treatments. All in due time though.


the best part about watching a build is spending other peoples money...your gonna need this, your gonna need that... :laugh:


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Haha! This is so true. Especially when they have a big budget!!!!


----------



## vidiot33 (Dec 12, 2013)

Congrats on your theater build! With your equipment list, I think you've gotten the most possible bang for the buck. Your floor will be reflective, but how much depends on your ceiling height. If you don't want to carpet, you could put down a throw rug at your reflection points. The walls should be treated, but although I'm a big believer in wall treatments, I haven't done it in my space get. Please keep us posted!


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Paint is finished and things are arriving. Speakers/mounts and receiver should be here on Monday and my Monoprice order should be coming in soon after. This Dayton sub is HUGE! I cant wait to fire it up and see what it can do. Went with a Sonax Extra Wide TV stand. The quality is great and it's nice and solid, but I think I'm going to have to modify the center shelf to fit the Pioneer center speaker. Furniture will be the next challenge along with an area rug and possibly some wall treatments, but this is where I stand for now!


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Hey! Its looking like something!


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Speakers and Mounts arrived today and I couldnt be happier. The quality on these Pioneers is wonderful! The center and bookshelves are a little larger than I had expected so I have a few simple questions...

First, I had originally planned to place the center speaker in the tv stand's center shelf, but the speaker is too large so I am forced to either modify the stand by lowering the shelf or putting the speaker on the top of the stand, as pictured. The photo is taken from where the main listening position will be. What would be the preferred setup for sound quality? I like the cleaner look of the speaker in the shelf, but dont want to go through the trouble of modifying the stand if it's going to sound worse in the end. Thoughts?

Second, as mentioned before, the bookshelves are rather large and I'm worried they may stand out a little too much mounted on the wall as surrounds. I've had these smaller Monitor bookshelves for a while but I've never actually hooked them up to anything. Just curious as to how much of a difference each speaker is going to make. I know it will be impossible to really tell until actually mounted and compared, just trying to get some advice before I actually install the wall mounts so I'm not doing things twice.

Still waiting on the receiver, bluray player, and speaker wire...


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

you should make it fit or else your going to have to build another platform on top and that will get things more complicated. I'm not sure you should be installing 7 speakers at this point. 5.1 will be plenty. adding 2 more speaker to this echo chamber is going to be real trouble i tell ya... real trouble :gulp:

install the 5.1 set up and go from there... you probably dont want to mis-match your drivers. and 'monitors' typically do not make good surrounds as they are designed for direct listening right in front of you.


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

fschris said:


> you should make it fit or else your going to have to build another platform on top and that will get things more complicated. I'm not sure you should be installing 7 speakers at this point. 5.1 will be plenty. adding 2 more speaker to this echo chamber is going to be real trouble i tell ya... real trouble :gulp:
> 
> install the 5.1 set up and go from there... you probably dont want to mis-match your drivers. and 'monitors' typically do not make good surrounds as they are designed for direct listening right in front of you.


What exactly do you mean by build another platform on top? On top of the tv stand? The tv is going to be wall mounted so wouldnt I be ok just placing the center speaker right on the stand? 

I wasnt planning on using both the Pioneer and Monitors as surrounds, but trying to decide if the Monitors would suffice in place of the Pioneers since they are smaller and less obtrusive (7 ft ceiling). I'm going with 5.1 regardless, just weighing my options.


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

okay yes was not sure you were wall mounting TV. you should be fine with center on top of cabinet in fact its better to have that on the cabinet.

your better off using the pioneers


----------



## Serenity Now (Mar 28, 2014)

Great wall color choice. Like the look of the vinyl flooring too. Nice space! Congrats.


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Agreed. If you put the center in the cab, it's gonna get boomy and bloated. Plus ideally your front 3 tweeters should be as close in height to each other as possible. 16" is as far as I'd go. For surrounds, I agree with fschris. And you ultimately have to decide what's too intrusive. Mine stick out almost 17" and are nearly 45 lbs. I decided the WAF in this area. (Sorry honey! Lol)
Curious how you like the mounts. I put some in my Amazon cart for my FIL. Haven't pulled the trigger yet. Nice that your sharing pics too. Makes it fun for the rest of us.


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Serenity Now said:


> Great wall color choice. Like the look of the vinyl flooring too. Nice space! Congrats.


Thanks! I think the wall color turned out great too. The flooring is actually tile. I was told the previous owner was a tile rep so there's a good amount of it around the house. Dont worry gentlemen, I've been looking at area rugs and wall treatments, just havent found any I like just yet. I wanna get everything in there and wired before all that! One step at a time!



willis7469 said:


> Agreed. If you put the center in the cab, it's gonna get boomy and bloated. Plus ideally your front 3 tweeters should be as close in height to each other as possible. 16" is as far as I'd go. For surrounds, I agree with fschris. And you ultimately have to decide what's too intrusive. Mine stick out almost 17" and are nearly 45 lbs. I decided the WAF in this area. (Sorry honey! Lol)
> Curious how you like the mounts. I put some in my Amazon cart for my FIL. Haven't pulled the trigger yet. Nice that your sharing pics too. Makes it fun for the rest of us.


Gonna leave the center on top for now and mount the Pioneers on the wall. I figure if I want to change anything in the future, the tv stand will be easy enough to modify and the "universality" of the speaker mounts will work fine if I decide to go with the Monitors to save some space.

Thanks everyone!


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

this only sticks out 8inches and 5 inches and are much better suited for surround if you are interested... and you can spray them to a similar tone of your walls or paint them with some latex to have them almost blend it. all you need is some glue and masking tape to assy. or some clamps if you have them.

http://www.diysoundgroup.com/coaxial-speaker-kits/v6-volt-kit.html


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Denon X2000, Panasonic BluRay, wall mount and wire all arrived today. AVR is a perfect fit!


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Well, after watching TV on this Vizio for about a week and spinning up a BluRay I am not impressed. It's hard to photograph, but there is a considerable amount of light bleed and that's looking at it dead on. Changing the viewing angle makes it even more noticeable. Just for kicks, I hooked up the same BluRay to my 46" Sharp Aquos upstairs and it's 100x better. THAT'S NOT COOL! Luckily, the TV is still within the return period and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I've decided to go with the Samsung PN64H5000 Plasma instead. It will screw with my budget a bit, but there's no sense in keeping this LED around if I'm always gonna notice the light bleed. I dont mind splurging a little more for something that will last, and from what I've read, this Samsung is a beauty for the price.


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

yeah...now were talking... LED LCDs are really the pits. Plasmas were so much better. you should also run the 40 hour burn in slide show on your plasma.... i ran mine for about 4 or 5 days.


----------



## Bruce Fisher (Nov 24, 2007)

Keep an eye on the temperature - not a lot of extra room for air flow. I have no idea how hot those Denons get... You can sometime add a small PC type fan - almost no noise and helps move the air around.


----------



## BradBerger (Dec 14, 2014)

Well, I was finally able to get downstairs and make some progress. I've been tied up with work lately and after finally getting a TV that I'm satisfied with, I was able to get it hung. This Samsung rocks! I also highly recommend Monoprice's wall mounts, this one is their low profile rated for 165 lbs. It spans 3 studs so there are 6 big lag bolts holding that sucker up. Very happy with the quality and for $15, it's a no brainer. I even checked the built-in level with my 0.0005" precision level and it was spot on.

I spent most of last night hiding cables behind the tv stand, but wont take a pic until it's completed. I'm also waiting on the correct length HDMI cables. Once I get it all buttoned up, I'll snap a shot.

Quick question about the plasma. How concerned should I be about burn-in? Eventually, I'm gonna get a HTPC put together so should I be worried about using it too much? Also, should I be running any kind of break-in slideshow?


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

dont worry about burn in. that is a crazy myth and I have no idea why it is so widly known. i mean if i ask 10 years old about plasmas they are like " but what about burn in". this is some kind of legend like santa now. there is a really good burn in process for plasmas and you should get the slides and run them for about 40-50 hours. i think over at the HDDEF forum there is a great deal of info about it. Maybe even here...but I have not looked.

http://www.highdefjunkies.com/forum.php


----------



## Serenity Now (Mar 28, 2014)

Not to be totally argumentative, but I have experience with very recent examples of plasma burn in.

Under normal use in a home plasma burn in is not an issue. I had the chance to buy a store Demo panny ST60 but could not because a bluray menu was burned into the screen faintly. Was left on overnight I was told.

My brother has a samsung plasma with the call of duty HUD burned into the corner. It is 5 years old now. 

I have seen many bar TVs with plasma burn in. Probably older models.

I would not game on my ST60 ever. But I'm paranoid.

If you are careful under normal use you will be OK. Just dont leave it on a test pattern and go on holiday! :bigsmile:


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

Serenity Now said:


> Not to be totally argumentative, but I have experience with very recent examples of plasma burn in.
> 
> Under normal use in a home plasma burn in is not an issue. I had the chance to buy a store Demo panny ST60 but could not because a bluray menu was burned into the screen faintly. Was left on overnight I was told.
> 
> ...



totally agree with you serenity... if you leave something on the screen for hours and hours you can get image retention and it even happens on LEDLCDs


----------



## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

Nice looking Room. I have seen that tile in flooring stores but never in a Do you like it?
I have a thread on wall treatments that I made. The improvement cant be overstated.


----------



## Axiomite (Dec 18, 2013)

I have an 8 year old Pioneer Kuro with zero burn in and I used to play games on it many hours a day, including world of warcraft that had bars on the bottom and sides of the screen (though at a set transparency). Don't have a bright logo or image stay on the screen for hours at a time while the TV is still new, but you should be fine as others have said.

Looks like it's going to be a very nice room, especially with that bar in the corner. You really need some curtains and sound treatment in that room.


----------



## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

Your HT Room has come along nicely. Keep up the great work and proceed one step at a time and you will end up with a result that you are pleased with.

I would stay with the pioneer speakers for the side surrounds. While there may be slight aesthetic losses with the intrusion you will not notice when you turn out the lights for movie time, except the increase in sound quality. Its a pretty open space so I don't see them being too intrusive.

I recommend keeping the center channel on top of the audio cabinet.

I understand the carpet hunt. The carpet industry is a complicated market to work with. The largest throw (stitched edge) carpet you will find is probably 12 x12. Then when you finally find the design you like it probably won't be the thickness you prefer for acoustic treatment. So then you will have to have them cut you a pad just under that size to throw under it to help with the dampening effect.

Have you considered a way to enclose the theater room area and also improve the acoustics. You will have to be inventive and think of different ideas that might work. If you like to keep the area open most of the time for socializing but close it up more for dedicated movie watching some sort of heavy curtains between the post and front left side wall will cut down on the echo. They could be pulled open and tied off with a sash for decorative purposes when socializing. I think you will notice immediate reduction in echo and audio loss when implemented. 

For the windows along the side some custom cut blinds to close during movies and open for cleaning and regular use of the room will pull it together nicely.

As for those older surrounds you have, when you get around to it why not just put them up as rear surrounds. It should add a little extra audio flavor for now.

Anyway...looking forward to your progress and it all coming together in detail. Great job so far and great neutral color choices for the walls...


----------



## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

That's a pretty nice room for a first home theater. 
I noticed the baseboard heaters. What state are 
you in? 

Just keep in mind that Home Theater is a way of life,
not a hobby! And you will never be finished.


----------



## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Great work so far, the place looks fantastic. Amazing what a transformation just the paint was. I like the way you did the proper outlets behind the TV, and were able to mount it very flush.


----------



## Serenity Now (Mar 28, 2014)

Serenity Now said:


> Not to be totally argumentative, but I have experience with very recent examples of plasma burn in. Under normal use in a home plasma burn in is not an issue. I had the chance to buy a store Demo panny ST60 but could not because a bluray menu was burned into the screen faintly. Was left on overnight I was told. My brother has a samsung plasma with the call of duty HUD burned into the corner. It is 5 years old now. I have seen many bar TVs with plasma burn in. Probably older models. I would not game on my ST60 ever. But I'm paranoid. If you are careful under normal use you will be OK. Just dont leave it on a test pattern and go on holiday! :bigsmile:


So... My ST60 has burn in. I just noticed this morning. My wife works out with P90X every morning and the logo is burned into the lower left corner. Weak!


----------



## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

Serenity Now said:


> So... My ST60 has burn in. I just noticed this morning. My wife works out with P90X every morning and the logo is burned into the lower left corner. Weak!


that seems very odd.... we work out with p90x as well and have a similar plasma... i think there is some kind of refresh you can do.... try to do some searches. i would not think this is permanent.


----------



## muzz (Nov 30, 2006)

Yeah, it certainly did look like Ronald!
The room looks great, 100X better than the pictures in the beginning, and I too would take a Plasma over an LED....some will argue, but I just like plasmas much better.
To each their own, but the prices on Plasmas these days is just insane, what a bargain.

Enjoy your room!


----------



## sulliyan80 (Apr 16, 2015)

thanks for info


----------



## cassiebeckette (Jul 29, 2020)

Nice space. I really like your design, you have a good choice. Congrats


----------

