# Home theater revamp



## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

*Home theater living room revamp "new pics on page 3"*

*New pics on page 3*


I currently have a 65" rear projection 1080p dlp tv. With a Bose lifestyles 28 for sound and a base model velodyne 10 for a little extra kick. I have an HTPC, blu ray/hd dvd player , and fios hd cable box. I'll be keeping the source components and replacing the tv with an epson powerlite 8100 projector and seymourav 110" 16:9 AT screen. Viewing distance will be 10 ft. A little big for some but i think itll be just right. Befor i settled on size i moved my couch closer and closer to the tv untill it was too much. Then did the math and got 110". The Bose will be replaced by an onkyo tx sr608, wharfedale zaldek speakers, and an avalanche 18" LLT powered by a behringer ep2500. I have already purchased all the components listed. And I'm now finishing my build plan. I'll be building a false wall 2' in front of an existing wall with a fireplace that doesn't work. Here's a sketch of what it looks like. 










And speaker placement










I am waiting on bids from some local cabinet makers. That is really the only thing holding me up right now. The room will painted with all flat paint. Black on the screen wall and maybe the first couple feet of ceiling. The side walls will be a medium grey and the cieling and back wall will be light grey. I have a large window on one side wall. I ordered wood blinds for it to cut light, and it will also get some form of dark curtains. Since the blinds and trim around the window are white. I have a skylight that is getting a cellular blackout shade in the back of the room, and the front door has glass in the top that will get dark window tint. I have a sub build thread going in the diy ported subwoofer forum. Right now it looks like I'll be running a slot port llt of around 20 cu ft. The screen will be diy. I'm not sure how it will be mounted. I bought some poplar 1x4 to build a frame that will be wrapped in velvet. But I haven't decided how to attach the screen to the frame. I'm thinking about trying industrial Velcro. I'm also wondering what to put the speakers on. I don't think they should sit on top of the sub. So I'm thinking I'll build some kind of shelf that runs across just above the sub for them to sit on. I'll have a tower at each side of the screen angled inwards. And the center sitting ear level firing dead center.

Here's a rough sketch of the floor plan


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## fusionrx (Aug 19, 2010)

Sounds like a nice upgrade look forward to seeing pics


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

Let me know if you have any ideas to make it better, or things that you might do differently. I know alot of you guys have gone through this before, and learned from your own mistakes. This will be used primarily for movies and hd tv. And secondly for surfing the Internet and gaming. Last would be music. Which is why I'm going with an llt tuned to 15 hz. So I can rattle the windows. The first movie I'm watching with the sub is master commander.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

The more open you can make those cabinets on the sides, tops and bottoms, the fewer acoustic issues you'll have from resonances.

Bryan


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Looks fantastic, Do you plan on adding surrounds?


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

bpape said:


> The more open you can make those cabinets on the sides, tops and bottoms, the fewer acoustic issues you'll have from resonances.
> 
> Bryan


I don't understand what you mean. the cabinets will be closed. and run from floor to ceiling.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

tcarcio said:


> Looks fantastic, Do you plan on adding surrounds?


it'll be 5.1. I'm not sure where the surrounds are gonna go. I have another set of surrounds as well, if I decide to do 7.1 later. I have stands, I'll move them around the room untill I like how they sound. And then I'll hide wires once I'm happy with placement.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

Well I got the bid back from o e cabinet shop. $970 for the two cabinets and $255 for the five sheets of mdf cutto size for my sub box.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

Any chance of making some of the 90 degree angles in the room disappear?

Specifically the wall near the skylight. What I mean by disappear is to somehow change its shape by adding something that would not reflect the sound directly back at the wall with the screen. Probably a pain, but it might be worth the effort.

Hopefully people with more HT building experience will chime in and say whether it makes sense.

Paul


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Hondakilla98 said:


> I don't understand what you mean. the cabinets will be closed. and run from floor to ceiling.


Sorry. Not sure how I missed this one.

My point was that if you DON'T make them solid so they're just more frames and have openings with cloth inlays, you wont' cause a lot of problems from speaker/cabinet interactions.

Bryan


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## fitzwaddle (Aug 25, 2010)

Fixed: :T


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

fitzwaddle said:


> Fixed: :T


Later I plan on some diy fronts and center. Then I'll do a vertical center channel. But my current center is designed to be horizontal. And wouldn't work vertically.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

aceinc said:


> Any chance of making some of the 90 degree angles in the room disappear?
> 
> Specifically the wall near the skylight. What I mean by disappear is to somehow change its shape by adding something that would not reflect the sound directly back at the wall with the screen. Probably a pain, but it might be worth the effort.
> 
> ...


That's definitely not gonna happen. It still needs to be a living room. I might put a couple acoustic panels on the back wall. We'll see how it sounds when it's all setup.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

bpape said:


> Sorry. Not sure how I missed this one.
> 
> My point was that if you DON'T make them solid so they're just more frames and have openings with cloth inlays, you wont' cause a lot of problems from speaker/cabinet interactions.
> 
> Bryan


I'm set on having the storage. So the cabinets are happening. I could line the inside of the area behind the screen with acoustic panels?


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

For sound absorption, I plan on putting in a large rug that will cover almost the whole floor from screen wall to the couch(i have hard wood floors), curtains that will hang in front of the window(I'm not sure what fabric), Some sort of acoustic panels behind the screen with the front and center channels. Does that sound like it'll be enough? In know it depends on the room, but I want to plan as much of this as possible now.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

I'm not saying to not have the cabinets at all. All I'm saying is that if you have a way for sound to travel in and out of them (cloth sides) instead of making the sides rigid, you'll cause less problems and still have your storage.

Bryan


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

bpape said:


> I'm not saying to not have the cabinets at all. All I'm saying is that if you have a way for sound to travel in and out of them (cloth sides) instead of making the sides rigid, you'll cause less problems and still have your storage.
> 
> Bryan


That sounds complicated. Especially for ventilation for the component stack, and blocking the noise and light from the components. Not to mention, less sturdy.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

I exchanged the epson 8100 for the new epson 8350. I fired it up in my spare bedroom on a textured wall and it looks fantastic.


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## spartanstew (May 7, 2009)

Hondakilla98 said:


> It still needs to be a living room.


But your title says it's a home theater.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

spartanstew said:


> But your title says it's a home theater.


It's primary purpose is that of a home theater. Bu it's also a living room. If it was a dedicated home theater, this thread would be in the "dedicated home theater forum".


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## fusionrx (Aug 19, 2010)

Its surprising how good a picture you get just firing on a textured wall. I am doing the same and its surprising. I have a beige/sand color. Are you doing it against a pure white wall?


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

fusionrx said:


> Its surprising how good a picture you get just firing on a textured wall. I am doing the same and its surprising. I have a beige/sand color. Are you doing it against a pure white wall?


No the wall it was projecting on is a pale yellow. I picked up some more supplies for my screen. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be watching it in my living room.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

Been a while since I updated this. 

Here I'm trying out 7.1 and trying to decide how high to mount my surround speakers.




Dedicated 20 amp breaker with one outlet in the attic for the projector and the other behind the component stack. HDMI run through and down the wall.








Rear surrounds installed, eventually I'll paint then to match the wall.




Component stack organized and rear cut out for cooling.




Left side surround




Right side surround


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

Got my avalanche 18 out of the attic




EP2500 and FDP




Box I found on craigslist, 8.5 cu ft tuned to 20hz with a 6" port. Turned out to be forum member pdxrealtor. He gave me a demo while I was there. WOW! His setup gives me something to shoot for.





One of the feet broke, I'll see if I can find a replacement. 




Couldn't find a speakon connector in town so I'm running the wires through the port for now.



New couches


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

It's hard to get a pic of it with a cell phone. 



The screen is hanging from the ceiling via cables.




Speakers behind the screen are on a table made of 2x4's that's wrapped in velvet to hide the hearth. The back of the screen is covered with black grill cloth to cut down on light going through the screen.




Today I'm going to work on getting the sub wired up and working.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

The sub is up and running. With way more output than I expected. Everything in my house was rattling. Now I need to buy a mic so I can flatten some peaks.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

Moved the sub into the corner, put the amp and BFD behind the screen, and ran audyssey. Then I enjoyed Jurassic Park on bluray. Man this sounds so much more impressive.


I have a calibrated UMIK-1 coming and I'm thinking about a nearfield sub between the couch and love seat. I ended up with a blown SI HT18 that would go in a sealed downfiring box of around 4 cu ft net. It would be run on one channel of the ep2500 and BFD. I'd recone it as a D2 and wire it to 2 ohms. That would give me around 800 watts. To test this out, I have a 2.5 cu ft ported box tuned to 32hz with 2 sundown sa-10's in it(currently for sale). I can rewire them to 4 ohm and run them next to the couch to see how it sounds. If it makes a noticable difference, I'll order the recone from SI. And probably a 4 cu ft flatpack from diysoundgroup. That'll give me a second 18" sub for around $300.


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## Hondakilla98 (Oct 7, 2010)

UMIK-1 showed up today. Hopefully I can get some measurements tomorrow


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