# Lake Martin Theater



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

My wife and I started to remodel our house in December of 07, part of the remodel is a dedicated HT room with a small equipment room next door. The HT room slab is 13x23. The house is progressing nicely which now gives me some time to finally work on the HT. Did I mention we are building this place almost single handed? I have more time than money and with a full time job I don't have much time either.

Our goals are;
1) To have a place to experiance music and movies that defies description!
2) Just because!
3) To improve the value of our home.

Note #3 came about recently when we found that a move is in our near future.

As The room stands now it has 2x4 walls 9' tall with spray foam insulation. the roof is a small 4 on 12 pitch built with 2x6's and also spray foam insulation. The attic area is sealed between the HT room and equipment room and closet with plywood and spray foam. 

The only common wall with the rest of the house is the equipment room and a closet both of which are built with double sheetrock internally.

We then built 2x4 x20ga metal stud walls isolated from the floor with 1/2 recycled rubber used for concrete driveway seams. Next is 2x6 20ga metal for the ceiling, 8 1/2' tall, there is a 2" air gap between the exterior walls and interior walls.

The conduit for wiring was next we used 1" Carlon flex for all the speaker runs and 2" for the run to the projector and console. (that 2" is hard to work with!)

The metal stud walls are then insulated with R13 and the ceiling has R19.

The next part was fun, (NOT!) 1/2 plywood liqued nailed and screwed to the metal studs and then all seams, recepticals and ducts were Siliconed with the 50 year flexible stuff.

This room is completely decoupled from the rest of the house, no part of this room touching any house structure except for the rubber between the walls and concrete slab, and of course some concrete screws keeping the room from walking when the LFE kicks in. 

We will be using a 4x18" IB sub woofer that is a horizontal line array Unfortunatly I had to anchor it to the slab to keep it from ejecting itself into our neighbors yard, yikes. 

And that is where we are today. 

I will now attempt to load some Pics. 

Maybe not, I will try again later, Rick


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)




----------



## mitchok (Feb 5, 2008)

Welcome to the club... been working on my HT since last year. Look forward to seeing progress on your HT.

MitchOK

*MitchOK Construction Thread*


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

As the room sits today.


----------



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Uh-oh... and my room is 18' x 24' x 8.5'... so I suppose I am looking for a lot of fun plywooding my room. :sweat: 

Check out the Green Glue... that stuff looks like it is the ticket.

Nice work... :T


----------



## Rodny Alvarez (Apr 25, 2006)

Looking good!!:T


----------



## speedklz (Jan 14, 2009)

Keep up the work....Over a year and I am still working on mine


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I have done some more work. All the plywood has been covered with Bituthane a 60 mil rubber product, that stuff is so stickey it will rip your fingerprints right off your fingers!!!!!!!!!!!!










Exterior shot of the 4 18" FiCars










Finished off nicely










And now we have 5/8 drywall :yay2:










Woofer OB boxs for my mains each housing 2 15" Daytons










Rear side 










Finally some progress:yay2::yay2::yay2::yay2::yay2:


----------



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

You know I am envying you right about now.... :foottap: I have plywood and sheetrock sitting on the floor in our HT room now, but I cannot seem to get past the wiring and little piddly things that I have to get done. 

I can't wait to hear about that IB setup. It should really be killer in that room. 

The room looks very solid too! Of course it _is_ solid, so it should look that way. :sarcastic:

I wanted the foam insulation, but I could not afford it, not with all the other stuff we are doing, but I am getting the blown cellulose, which is supposedly better than regular insulation for sound isolation.

So tell us about the rubber Bituthane... what made you decide to go with that and how effective is it supposed to be?

Also the OB mains... those look interesting.


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

rickp said:


> I have done some more work. All the plywood has been covered with Bituthane a 60 mil rubber product, that stuff is so stickey it will rip your fingerprints right off your fingers!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Most impressive..:clap: :T
I do hope you have some fly screen wire on the other side of that vent, otherwise you're going to have all sorts of crawlies making their home in there..


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Sonnie, 
I used the Bituthene because I could not afford the mass loaded vinyl, the stuff that is in the middle of Quiet Rock. The Bituthene is 60mil thick wear as the Grace Water and Ice is only 30mil thick. My thinking is mearly logic and is not based on science or testing so we shall see in the real world how all the sound contianment room amendments work someday, soon I hope. 

The box's you see are the bottoms for my mains and line arrays will sit on top of them.

Prof.
There is most definatley bug screen on the inside of the vent, I have to protect my investment you know and thanks for the kind words.

Rick


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Rick: Whatcha trying to do with that IB? Stun fish in the lake?:joke:


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I am not so concerned with the fish but, I am a little concerned about the neighbors wondering where the thunder is coming from when there isn't a cloud in the sky:whistling:


----------



## Pinhead-227 (Dec 24, 2008)

I've been wondering this for a while about IB's... Does your HVAC unit pressurize your house? If so, does it have any effect on the movement of the drivers? When you open and close the door to the theater room, do the woofers move in-and-out from the change in air pressure?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

The 3 AC units recirculate the air in the house so no, they don't pressurize the house. The speakers probably will move if you slam the HT door I will check and see.


----------



## Rodny Alvarez (Apr 25, 2006)

So when is the grand opening??

I'm only about 45 minutes from you, I'll bring the popcorn:bigsmile:

I'm afraid the neighbors are going to call the police on you, they can probably hear you couple miles away, specially at night when the crickets are singing:devil:

:hsd::hsd:


----------



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Let me bring the popcorn... we have one of those big popcorn machines that we purchased from Roman at Ultimate Home Entertainment... it makes the absolute best popcorn. :meal:

So when was that grand opening again? :bigsmile:


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Count me in, too. I am close.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I would like to do a demo day when everything is completed.

So here is the guest list so far;

Rodney Alvarez
Sonnie
hgjones4841

I am afraid I am in need of much more advice on things like;

Installing a tray ceiling for lighting purposes was in the plans is there a right or wrong way to do this???

I have 3' in back of the screen and will have 2 corner traps 703 4", the walls will be covered with 703 1"

The side walls will have 1"703 48"up and 1" 703 panels at reflection points.

My wife want's 3 row of seats (I know the no seats on the back wall rule) so I am building a riser for the back 2 rows, shall I make a bass trap out of it......ideas?????

Will I need corner traps on the rear wall???

Should I treat the ceiling somehow????????

All advice is greatly appreciated

Thanks, Rick.


----------



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

How tall are your ceilings now... do you have room for a tray? As far as a wrong or right way... I would say that is your preference.

If you have 3' behind the back of the screen, take that away from your 23' depth and 20' is going to be hard to get 3 rows without being on the back wall... and still then it will be tight.

You can try without the corner traps first, then if you need them, add them. Same with treating the ceiling. You already have your front wall with side reflection points and the two front corner traps... I would see how that sounds and measures, then consider adding more if needed. You don't want to get your room overly dead.


----------



## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

VERY, VERY nice work!!!!!!!! I am in the middle of building mine and I can really appreciate the amount of work you have done.  How are you planning on covering the walls? 

Matt


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

I suggest that you start a dialog with bpape of GIK. He can give you good advice on overall room treatment.

From my experience with a Velodyne FSR-18 in a 12.5 x 20.5 x 8 room, you will need a lot more bass traps to really get what that IB will do for you. I have 7 GIK Monster traps in my room and could use more if I had the room. I am in the process of treating the suspended ceiling with R30 above to see how much that helps.

Know that proper trapping will make a HUGE difference in your room's bass response. I was a non-believer until about 6 weeks ago.


----------



## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

Have a look at thewire's "my gik pillar trap" thread!
The improvement in his waterfal is amazing...


----------



## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

hjones4841 said:


> I suggest that you start a dialog with bpape of GIK. He can give you good advice on overall room treatment.


Excellent recommendation... :T


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Sonnie,
my ceiling is 8'8" tall I am planning on the soffet extending down 8" and off the wall about 16".
I could fill the space with isulation of some sort.


mdrake,
I am going to cover the 1" 703 48" off the floor with some sort of dark fabric and use chair rail to trim it out with. On the walls I will make some panels for reflections and cover them with a different dark colored fabric. I may build some columbs with traps if I need to.
The ceiling will be flat black and the walls maybe a dark royal blue.

hjones4841,
my room is almost identical so I think your advice will work well for me, thanks.

robbo366217,
I just finished reading the suggested thead, boy my head hurts. Here we go again every step in the HT room has a very steep learning curve for me. So with that being said is there a standard set up of traps and panels to start with?????????


----------



## Rodny Alvarez (Apr 25, 2006)

I know this tread is big but you can get some ideas, check out his bass traps

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=620108&pp=30


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

rickp said:


> So with that being said is there a standard set up of traps and panels to start with?????????


Most folks like panels on the side walls at the first reflection points for at least the front L/C/R speakers. Have someone walk along the side walls with a mirror while you are seated in the main listening position. When you can see each one of your speakers, that is where the panel goes. These are not bass traps; the goal is to absorb the first reflections from the speakers to help prevent the ears from hearing them, and thereby improve imaging. Usually 2" panels are sufficient for this purpose. Also, Bryan Pape recommends absorption behind the front mains.

For bass traps, think large and dense. Even then you will have low freq. room modes that you cannot do anything about. Some folks do floor to ceiling traps in room corners. I have corner speakers, so I could not do that. Hence, the Monster traps from GIK. Bryan P will tell you that controlling sound decay time in the bass is very important, both for transient response and freq. response smoothness. He was right for my room - amazing improvement, and my waterfalls still show that more trapping is needed.

I suspect (and hope!) that your IB will produce significant subsonic energy. Not much you can do about trapping there. Good thing is that multiples of low frequencies are closer together, so the room modes won't be widely spaced and as audible.

If you don't have it already, get the REW software from this site and some means of measuring: calibrated mic or SPL meter into a computer soundcard. As you add traps the measurements will provide info on how much you have accomplished, and to some extent, how much is left to do.

Symmetry is somewhat important - you don't want more absorption on one side of the wall than another. I don't think that front/back symmetry is that important unless you have identical fronts and rears.

Sadly, this is more of a try-and-see thing rather than an analytical process. By that I mean that analysis on paper might give you an idea of what to do, but only by trying will you know for sure. The "holy grail" is uniform decay times, but that takes a lot of work and material (see thewire's thread).

Be aware that absorption can be over done at which point HF response suffers.

Again, get with Bryan Pape to learn how to make the best decisions. Ethan Winer's website also has good info.


----------



## thewire (Jun 28, 2007)

Actually a panel that is at least 4" qualifies it as a bass trap, and no matter where you decide to place it the panel will still be a bass trap hence the name "trap" in a description.


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

rickp said:


> I have 3' in back of the screen and will have 2 corner traps 703 4",


Front traps should ideally be a minimum of 6" thick and floor to ceiling..



> The side walls will have 1"703 48"up and 1" 703 panels at reflection points.


Again, 2" thick panels would be better for your first and second reflection points..



> Will I need corner traps on the rear wall???


Yes..Preferably floor to ceiling, but can be lower if it's more appropriate aesthetically speaking..
Also you might want to look at putting some panels on the back wall as well..


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Rodney, 
by the time I get finished reading that thread I will be done with my room. It looks to be full of good info. I will pull out what I can.

Prof.
I guess i wasn't clear on the corner traps, they will be floor to ceiling 24" by 24" cut into triangles made out of the 4" 703. The 703 1" is on the way, I will use it on the lower half of the wall and use the 2" for the reflection points.

thewire,
nice thread I learned alot from reading it!

This guy had a creative solution to a null he had @ 40Hz, he has an 8 IB sub set up and instead of using bass traps he removed one of his subs, mounted it in a box and installed it in the problem area, He got very good results from the experiment. To bad the graphs don't come up anymore they were very impressive. Also you need to check out this thread just to see his speakers, they are so big you can actually stand inside them, no joke!!!!! I was watching this thread while I was laying out my room so I ran some conduit to the rear corners of my room just in case I have a similar problem, I think it would be fun to try. As of now I have no idea what to expect as far as problems go. I will get a mic and download the REW when the time gets closer.

http://...Whatever you do... stay a...ard=projects&action=display&thread=992&page=3


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Sorry I did not know that web sight was a problem, anyhow check out these speakers!!!


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Correction to my previous post. Room dimensions, of course, determine the frequency of room modes. What I was trying to say is that the IB will have plenty of energy to excite the lowest frequency room mode.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I was able to spend a whole day on the HT room today, here is a couple of pics.



















Any comments would be appreciated, I am flying by the seat of my pants as you can probably tell.


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

What drivers will you be using in the left and right arrays.?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

There are 10 peerless 6 1/2 truncated mid drivers per side with a center to center distance of 6 3/8. I am also using 10 Dayton planar tweeters per side 6 5/8 long. I will be using 2 - 15" Dayton woofers per side. The woofers and mids are in an open baffle design, the tweeters only radiate from the front. As far as line arrays go they are low budget, but I am hoping they sound better than decent. The center speaker will be my next project, I am thinking a horizontal array with the same mids and tweets and maybe 10" or 12" woofs, of course making it an OB also. Got any idea's.

Thanks, Rick.


----------



## Rodny Alvarez (Apr 25, 2006)

WOW that's a lot of WOOOOFFFESSSS!!!!:dumbcrazy:

:hsd::hsd:


----------



## jmmdm2 (Mar 3, 2009)

That room is beautiful! Lot's of effort and great idea's went into that project. I wish I had seen this thread before I put up the sheetrock in my HT, I would have borrowed some your ideas. A question about your foam insulation, was it sprayed in by a contractor or can you rent some sort of do-it-yourself machine?


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

rickp said:


> There are 10 peerless 6 1/2 truncated mid drivers per side with a center to center distance of 6 3/8. I am also using 10 Dayton planar tweeters per side 6 5/8 long. I will be using 2 - 15" Dayton woofers per side. The woofers and mids are in an open baffle design, the tweeters only radiate from the front. As far as line arrays go they are low budget, but I am hoping they sound better than decent. The center speaker will be my next project, I am thinking a horizontal array with the same mids and tweets and maybe 10" or 12" woofs, of course making it an OB also. Got any idea's.


The whole thing sounds like it will be fantastic!!:T and there's certainly nothing wrong with the Peerless speakers..
Just one thing..Ideally the baffle board for an OB Bass speaker should be a bit larger than you're showing, to prevent sound waves from the front, interacting with the rear waves..
You can see in these photos what I mean..
http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/photos/albums/userpics/10016/normal_DualAugieFront_ha.JPG
http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/photos/albums/userpics/10016/normal_AugieMapleRear.JPG

I should mention also that a true OB doesn't have any sides to it..


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

jmmdm2 said:


> A question about your foam insulation, was it sprayed in by a contractor or can you rent some sort of do-it-yourself machine?


jmmdm2, 
the cost was the same for a contracter to do it as DIY. I think the product is still fairly new and availibiliy still commands a high price for the DIY crowd. I can say that the foam works great for insulating purposes, we added 2400 square feet to our house and our electric bill has only gone up on avarage of 70$ per month!


Prof.
The Peerless speakers were the best deal in this project, I bought a case of 24 for 10$ each!

I probably used the term OB inacuratley, I think maybe they are Dipole? I am not up on all the terminology.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/woofer.htm

I copied the plans from this websight and modified them slightly to fit the 15" woofers. and yes I agree that they bafffles are not long enough to carry the lower frequency's, I will see how they work and if I don't like them I will redesign them later, it's only wood right? I did spend the time doing the math on the arrays though:coocoo:


----------



## Bruce Fisher (Nov 24, 2007)

that is really impressive - nice work!


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I have the IB and the front speakers up and running now and WOW is all I can say. My room is still bare except for my tools and junk everywhere and the mains sound great even though I just set up a basic crossover and let her rip, it sounds like a wall of sound from wherever I stand in the room. I can stand 3 feet directly in front of one speaker and can still here the other side clearly, unbelievable. I don't think I really need a center channel now, but I am going to build one anyhow. With just the mains on it sounds incredeble, and with the mains and IB together it's scary! I won't do any tuning until I get the room a little further along, no sense in wasting time on an unfinished room even though I would do it in a second if I had some time!

:yay2:


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Open Baffle tri amped mains with IB sub

















Top 3 shelves 








Bottom 2 shelves








Just the beginning of the rats nest!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

WOW!!! That is impressive..It should sound awesome!!
Some nice gear as well..:T


----------



## Bruce Fisher (Nov 24, 2007)

agreed - you got some high WOW factor there!


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Haven't had much time lately but here is some pics of the progress


----------



## Bailman (Nov 21, 2006)

Very nice, Rick.


----------



## Audio1 (Nov 28, 2008)

Wow, I am still new to this site but I have seen and built my share of high end theaters. I was a installer for a higher end company and have done several $100,000 dollar system installs in my years but the equipment alone is just amazing. The IB box you have built is genius and I am blown away by your creativity. Congrats on what you have accomplished already.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Thanks for the kind words, coming from a proffesional they mean alot! I have been working hard on the room and it has come quite far since I last took pictures. I will post some new ones soon. I have had trouble intergrating the home and pro gear together so I have removed all the amps and replaced them with Behringer pro amps. Also I have been installing sound absorbsion panels 2 at a time and listening to the changes, it has been interesting to hear the change in sound quality. For example when I turned on the IB for the first time I was very dissapointed, I had no bass at the seating area but huge bass down each wall and in the back corners. I added the corner chunks (4" 703) and gave it another try. The bass was better at the seating area and killer down the walls, Then I tried putting 2 more subs in the rear corners an wow what a differance! The rear subs are not loud, I guess they just don't allow the bass to stack up there any more removing the null from the center of the room. So now I noticed when I stand up the bass is better at 6.5' standing than it is at 3.5' sitting, so this weekend I am going to move the rear subs up high and put the corner chunks below the subs and give that a try. All the testing I have done so far has been by ear only, thats how noticable the changes have been. I will do some REW sweeps when I get further along. 

Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks, Rick.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

OK, finally out of concern for my neighbors I turned the inside/outside IB completely into the house. I walled off the screen wall and built two side walls. I then cut a 3x7' hole in the ceiling for attic access. The attic has already been treated for the IB and sealed off from the rest of the house attic.

I was listening to the radio (2 channel) while working and when the walls for th IB were completed I noticed much more bass in the room and the seperation or sound stage of the front speakers was noticably better. The speakers are are now backed into a 2x3' cavity with the corner traps, interesting.


----------



## Ted White (May 4, 2009)

What a cool build!


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Here is the latest progress pics.

Here is the soffit skeleton stuffed with r-30 and covered with blue material









Moved the IB completely inside the house for the sake of the neighbors









Blue rope lights (very cool)









Sound absorbing panels of various thickness 


















The brains of the operation


----------



## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

That's looking good.
I like the blue around the soffits. :T


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

WOW!!! that is impressive..
That front wall looks meen!!.:yikes:
The effect of the rope lighting coming through the soffit facing looks very good..:T
The finished result should look great..


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I went to the video store Saturday night and asked the guy for a BD with lot of subsonic stuff, he handed me Transformers. All I can say is that I really had no idea what the IB was capable of I actually had to turn the volume down because of the pressure in the room . I was sitting direcly under my 150lb projector and got up and moved out of fear, if that tank gets blown off the ceiling I may not make it work the tomorrow! The sound wave the IB puts off permeates your complete being.

I brought the inside /outside IB completely indoors now out of concern for my neighbors, boy was that a good idea. Last night before my wife got home I put the Transformers BD on and cranked it up to about 110db, with the door closed and me on tha outside! I walked around the inside of the house and all I could here was the faint sound like someone watching tv in another room. Then my wife comes through the front door, gives me the look you know what I am talking about! "What are you doing" I look at her puzzled for a second and said I am checking the sound out in the house, I get the look again "Have you been outside? I could here this thunderous sound before I opened the car door, then when I did open the door I thought what is he doing in there?" Our driveway is directly in front of the HT room. I went outside and she was right! It sounded like the metal roof was going to come off and the walls were about to lay out flat!!!!!!!! I just stood there and kept expecting to see the walls bulging in and out like a cartoon. I can not imagine what that would sound like with the speakers exiting into the yard like they were! I bet my neighbor can hear my house resonating in there house! What is amazing is that the sound in the house is totally exceptable and non offensive, with the HT room doors closed of course, and the outside sounds like a bomb going off inside a structure. 

The IB subwoofer is the ultimate IMHO for LF punch, its there then its gone, no boomyness, just incredable! 

I am getting everything out to start doing some REW sweeps. I will keep you posted. I also finally ordered carpet which should be here in a few weeks. I can honestly say I am tired of working on this project and am glad I did not keep track of my hours!


----------



## Rodny Alvarez (Apr 25, 2006)

Hey Rick!!

looking good:T


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

You also might find that your neighbour several houses away also hears it very loud as well..
Very low frequency sounds travel in waves.. and great distances, creating peaks and troughs.. 
One neighbour might be in the trough, and hardly hear anything..and the next one is right in the path of one of the peaks...He hears it very loud..
So if you get a knock on the door from someone several houses away..You'll know why he's there.!!:bigsmile:


----------



## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

interesting choice for home theater seats.

Looks good so far.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

SQCherokee said:


> interesting choice for home theater seats.



Good one!

I have a dilema with the seating actually.

1) The room is to small for recliners

2) Real theater seats look great but don't work well for lounging

3) Sofa's are great for lounging but are a little out of place in a HT room

I don't know what to do at this point, but I am leaning toward black leather sofa's.


----------



## kjlewie (May 24, 2008)

Your build looks fantastic. The DIY speakers are truly impressive.

Tanner Ridge Cinema used black leather sofa's to great success in his room.

Alternatively, some of the HT seating can be configured to include a loveseat/sofa section for lounging while still allowing for armrest with cupholders and such. For example, two rows of a set of 4 seats with loveseat could look like this:

IOIOOIOI
IOIOOIOI

Whatever you choose for seating, I do have one suggestion - add seatbelts before that tsunami of sound hits. Great job.

Good luck


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I finally got the USB soundblaster up and running, calibrated everything and ran some sweeps. Everything works fine until I enter filters into the FBQ then I get no sound on the next sweep and the only remedy is removing the filters or hitting the bypass button. What am I not doing right?


----------



## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

That's a nice curve you have there. :T


Maybe BruceK can help with your REW problem.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Here is the IB eq'ed


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Here is more progress pics




























I should have carpet in acouple of weeks:T


----------



## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

wow...I really like the blue.


----------



## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

Wow x 2:clap:

That is a pretty amazing looking HT. Are there any more updates or progress pics?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

I will take some pix and post them soon, I have been way to busy latley. I have installed the carpet and three large couch's. The bass has really come on strong after the couch's were installed. Now not only do you get the punch in the chest, but we also experiance the LF in the couch itself, it feels like a butt shaker X 10, unbelievable! I don't know why you can feel the bass in the couch's, the only thing I can figure is that they are being used as bass traps and or, are the perfect size and shape to be exited at that perticular low frequency. Does anyone have any ideas on this? 

Did I mention that my wife is super impressed with the whole HT room and really loves it, She is not impressed very easily so that is a very high complement, that makes it all worth while but I still do remember all the times I thought to myself "WHAT THE WERE YOU THINKING, THIS IS WAY TO MUCH WORK AND YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOUR DOING" Now I know none of you out there know what I am talking about right?

Thanks to all of you who gave me advice and ideas, it helped me more than you know. One thing I did notice with all the posts in this thread is that about halfway through you all stopped giving me your thoughts and advice. I think it may have been because the project got a little over the top and you got a little intimdated, this was never my intention. Actually it was just the opposite, I was the one who was intimidated becaues I didn't know what the I was doing. Everything I did came from reading and studying all or your threads and using your ideas, some ideas I used exactly, some I modified because of cost or space issues. I can't say anything I did was an original idea. I am very happy with the results and I have learned a ton! The overall cost of this project was much less than you might think, but that is only because I spent way to much time researching for the right deals on everything and building parts because I couldn't afford to buy what I really wanted. There are some things I will do different next time, but overall I am satisfied.

If I could encourage you in any way it would be that you can do it! There are so many knowlegable people on this websight it's unbeleivable, USE THEM! And if you can't buy what you want figure out how to build it!!!! It is ok to substitute materials example, it was important to me have a sound proof room where I could listen to a movie at full tilt while my grandson was sleeping in the room next door. I didn't know if it was even possible but what I did actually worked. Mass loaded vinyl between the double drywall was way out of my budget so I used Bituthane which is used for waterproofing basements, the cost was nothing comparitively speaking and the result was fantastic. 
GO FOR IT, use your imagination and you will not be sorry, and remember, there is way more than one way do get the results you desire!


----------



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Great work and I know you are excited about finishing work so well done. 

But one question, when is the official OPEN HOUSE, the theater warming, ... you get the idea:clap:


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

hjones4841

Well the carpet layers scratched the out of the walls so I need to repaint and I still need to do the base boards and some trim work but if you promise not to take off to many points during inspection you can come by anytime.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

OK, its finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do need to re EQ the speakers, other than that its all good!:yay2:

Will post some pictures later today.


----------



## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

how about a 360 view of the finished room?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Well, last time I posted pictures it was easy, now I have spent about 1 hour trying to get the photos from photobucket and its just not happening. Can someone give me some help in DUMMY language?

Thanks, Rick.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Entry from hallway to equipment room door









Entry from equipment room to HT room









Entry to HT room









Carpet close up









Looking left at HT entry door, The two tall narrow rectangles are the rear speaker covers and the rest are traps of various thickneses
Notice the blue rope lights in the upper right hand coner









Looking righttoward screen from door









Looking up from door


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

You should be able to just copy and paste the


----------



## mayhem13 (Feb 2, 2008)

I can't believe i missed this thread.......awesome Job. I'm curious as to your opinions of the OB bass bins under the arrays. I've been kicking around the idea of doing H frames for a while now but .......?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Prof. 
Thanks for the tip, that was easy!!!

Mayhem13.

The bass bins are awsome its hard to believe that much bass comes out of that small a unit. It's not the volume I am talking about it's the quality, no boominess, it's there and then it's gone. I love them!


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

More pix.

Looking left from screen









You know where you are now right?









This picture was taken with the flash


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Anyone who is interested may come over for a Demo, as long as you add your review to this thread. 

Rick


----------



## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

Congrats on adding value to your home.
that looks amazing. nice soft lighting and has a nice blue accent light around the top. I like the rgb that displays across the screen too. 

Few Questions for you.
Does everything sound the same since you are using diferent speakers for your l/r and center and surounds?

What are the other rack mount units you have in your pictures? I assume they are active 3 way crossovers and an eq of some sort.

How do you like the berrenger amps for the full range speakers?


----------



## Mark04 (May 7, 2009)

Do you have close up pictures showing how you covered the bottom of the soffits and how you hid the rope light? Thanks!


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

SQCherokee



> Few Questions for you.
> Does everything sound the same since you are using diferent speakers for your l/r and center and surounds?
> 
> What are the other rack mount units you have in your pictures? I assume they are active 3 way crossovers and an eq of some sort.
> ...



The different speakers have integrated wonderfully, the REW and the active EQ's get all the credit for this I think, and all the sound absorbsion didn't hurt either. The sound has to heard to be understood, it's like it's not there and everywhere at the same time, just like the IB subwoofer.

Yes to the active EQ's, I also have an FBQ for eq'ing the IB. The 2 top units are used to boost the signal from the Yamaha reciever to the pro equipment.

The Behringer A500 amps work fine and run cool but I am not pushing them very hard even though they will go loud enough to chase you out of the room! In fact the warmest piece in the rack is actually the BluRay player, everthing else is cold to the touch.

Mark04;

I don't have any pix sorry, I made all the panels on the soffit the same way. I used 1x1 pine to make frames and then covered them with cloth and used a 18ga trim gun and nailed them up.

The rope light frame is very simply a 1x4 ripped in half and nailed in an L shape then nailed to the soffit with the bottom of the L facing up. The rope lights are then laid in the tray and whala!


----------



## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

are the a500s runing mono or stereo?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

All the amps are running stereo. The front speakers are using 3 amps (1 -for -tweeters, 1 -mids, 1 - woofs). The center speaker is using 1 amp, 1 channel for the woofers and 1 for the compression driver. The sides and rears are using 2 amps per pair (1 -tweets and 1 -woofs). Each channel that comes from the reciever goes into the crossover units and comes out as 2 or 3 separate channels per speaker. In other words I have 2 or 3 10ga wires running from each amp through flex tube in the walls and ceiling to each speaker:blink: I have used over 800' of 10ga wire :spend:


----------



## tjambro (Jan 16, 2007)

Your setup looks and I bet sounds incredible! I think you made a wise decision to move the IB inside. I'm glad it has met your expectations. I'm looking forward to getting mine done but I have to finish with the last of the drywall before I build the IB chamber. My Fi drivers should be here the 15th. 

I bet the Transformers scene where the mechanical scorpion comes out of the sand in slow motion made your heart skip a beat. In my old theater with 2 big LLTs with 18" drivers...see my avatar...when that scene played a little drywall from the ceiling fell on my head. :devil: Fortunately, it was just the loose drywall around the ceiling return vent I put near the projector. It was enough to scare me though...the first time.


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Hi Tom, 

YES! The Transformers was awsome! I don't know what db we use as a standard listening level, I will have to check but it's not to loud. Anyhow during the heavy bass scenes the couchs feel like they have but shakers in them, it's way cool:hsd: The FI speakers are great I have pushed them very hard and I think they can take much more than the EP 4000 can dish out. I keep the bass maxed out on the reciever and the amp with no signs of trouble. The good part about the IB is that it is invisable until needed, but when it's called to duty watch out!


----------



## tjambro (Jan 16, 2007)

Isn't it nice to be able to listen to heavy bass without hearing distortion or worrying if you are going to over drive the woofers? Ok, maybe I'm a little mean but you know they are working properly if you have guests over and the men are smiling and the women are holding their ears. :devil:

How many continuous watts can the EP4000 put out? I have a Carvin HD1800 which puts out 900 wpc RMS into 2 ohms. In theory, that will give me 450 watts for each of my 4 FI-IB3 18's. That should give me enough headroom and dynamic room to make me :bigsmile: and to :hsd: In all reality, I hope to never get close to those power levels, but it should be nice to not have to worry about the occasional 3Hz tone that some movie tracks are using now.


----------



## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

Do you have anymore info regarding your surround speakers on the side walls?


----------



## rickp (Jan 14, 2008)

Sure, what would you like to know?

Rick.


----------



## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

This week I started considering an IB and have stumbled across this build. Absolutely stunning in every aspect :T


----------



## StormyToddler (Aug 26, 2010)

I love the rope lighting and the lighting you have right above the screen, it looks amazing!


----------

