# Rebirth of Relyea Cinema 1



## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Hi everyone.

I'm in the process of re-constructing my home theater...the previous room was sold with with the house, and it's been several years since I've had space to rebuild, but I'm finally after it again! 

Currently I've framed up the front wall, most of the riser (which will double as a sub-woofer enclosure), moved the back door from the theater to the kitchen, and have started the equipment rack which is in the wall shared with the garage.

Speakers will be UREI Studio Monitors for the front main channels (813 for the right and left, 815 for the center), 2x JBL 2242H 18" sub-woofers in custom made cabinets, 1x JBL 2042H 18" sub-woofer for the center front, 2x JBL 2215H 15" sub-woofers in the riser, and a pair of custom made surrounds (currently planned for 8" Thiel woofers, with B&G planar tweeters).'

Screen is an 106" Da-Lite High Contrast Cinema Perf motorized unit...with the perforations, the center channel can be located directly behind the screen, so the center channel sound will come directly out of the picture.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

My original plan for the riser accommodated the exterior door, however my wife made the executive decision to install a new door in the kitchen, and will be remove the door in the theater. 

I'll be able to extend the riser into the corner now, giving us room for a full sized couch in the rear row as well as the front now.

With all the volume available in the riser itself (which is ~10" high), i decided to build sub-woofers into the riser...i had to get creative with mounting, and cut holes in the floor for the magnets to clear when installing/removing the drivers (I'll be sealing up the holes from the bottom).


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Did I mention the pressure is on, as my wife's dining room is full of speaker cabinets? (not to mention part of the living room and garage! eek!)


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Looks like a fun project! I'm quite sure the WAF for dining room being done in early subwoofer isn't terribly high...:rolleyesno:


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Subscribed...and have my popcorn ready. This is going to be a fun build to watch!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

She's pretty understanding...she's a movie lover so that's gained me a little flexibility.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Sounds like you have the all-important Step 1 out of the way.

Unity! ;-)


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Todd Anderson said:


> Sounds like you have the all-important Step 1 out of the way.
> 
> Unity! ;-)


She really surprised me with the back door...she comes to me and says "honey, you're going to do all this work, and someday want to move the door....just do it now". 

It was more work on the front end, but it will keep people (ie our kids) from trampling through our theater every time they go outside...and i won't have to re-carpet the riser later on. 

Don't let her hear this...but she was right.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Wow. I love your wife. 
This is gonna be fun to watch. Not a soundbar in sight!


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

UreiCollector said:


> She really surprised me with the back door...she comes to me and says "honey, you're going to do all this work, and someday want to move the door....just do it now".
> 
> It was more work on the front end, but it will keep people (ie our kids) from trampling through our theater every time they go outside...and i won't have to re-carpet the riser later on.
> 
> Don't let her hear this...but she was right.


Never hurts to argue with a solid voice of reason! >


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

willis7469 said:


> Wow. I love your wife.
> This is gonna be fun to watch. Not a soundbar in sight!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


She's a keeper! And soundbars...it's amazing what some people try to pass off as home theater...ha ha ha.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Made a little more progress on the room today. All the old trim and wall paneling is down. I'll be pulling apart the bay window shelf tomorrow and lowering this to a comfortable seating level (indicated by the red line), and adding custom cushions and backrest. This is really just for spill-over seating, not everyday use...extra cushion and fabric should tame the room a bit more acoustically. The remaining volume below the seat is stuffed full of fiberglass, and i'm thinking i may cover that area with homasote and acoustic carpeting instead of sheet-rock to let this act as a bit of a bass trap...again, every bit will help.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

Very nice, I would also load up that front wall to ease the reflection off those bricks. Are your subs going to be front firing?


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

This is going to be a great build!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Tonto said:


> Very nice, I would also load up that front wall to ease the reflection off those bricks. Are your subs going to be front firing?


Front wall will be a "false wall"...speakers will all fire directly into the room, there will be 3x 18" subs across the lower front. I'll be sheetrocking the face, and based on acoustic measurements I'll decide if i need to fill the voids with sand or something else. I had contemplated removing the fireplace, but the extra effort for 6 inches of room depth wasn't worth it...and this leaves me with a potential selling point should i sell the house down the road.

This will be similar to the room I had back in 2009.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Today was a productive day. Shelf was stripped out, and I'm almost done framing up the new seat. Of course there was a run of romex running through the wall that I now need to relocate, but it's all good.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Looks like this is going to be a great room. So the front wall is a full solid baffle wall with the speakers installed in it, right? (vs. a false wall framed out and covered in acoustic cloth, with the speakers behind) The old theatre looked really nice, and I bet it sounded fantastic. Keep up the good work!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Owen Bartley said:


> Looks like this is going to be a great room. So the front wall is a full solid baffle wall with the speakers installed in it, right? (vs. a false wall framed out and covered in acoustic cloth, with the speakers behind) The old theatre looked really nice, and I bet it sounded fantastic. Keep up the good work!


Correct, this will be a full wall...2x6 construction with sheetrock face, and the Urei's will be soffit mounted. I'll be measuring everything with CLIO once the room is put together, and treating problems as i find them...damping resonances in sheetrock, etc.

The old room was nice, but this new room is going to be better...more acoustic treatments this time, and with the adjacent room, i'll have a far more manageable front to back standing wave to deal with.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Owen Bartley said:


> ...So the front wall is a full solid baffle wall with the speakers installed in it, right? (vs. a false wall framed out and covered in acoustic cloth, with the speakers behind)...


Thanks for the correction on this being a full baffle, and not a false wall...I definitely misused the term.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Work has been insanely busy...and it's been in the 90's with high humidity, so I haven't been working on the room as much as I should. Anyways...I did get a little work done this weekend. The seat height in the bay window is far more comfortable now.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

UreiCollector said:


> Thanks for the correction on this being a full baffle, and not a false wall...I definitely misused the term.


No worries! It wasn't so much a correction as it was me being slow to get my head around the concept. I keep looking back to the pics of your old room, and I love the look of those big speakers mounted in the wall.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Owen Bartley said:


> No worries! It wasn't so much a correction as it was me being slow to get my head around the concept. I keep looking back to the pics of your old room, and I love the look of those big speakers mounted in the wall.


Thank you! This room will be even more impressive with the 3rd subwoofer below my center


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Some further progress...the old door is gone!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Baby steps...but progress...


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I had a great productive weekend. The riser/sub-woofer-cabinet is stuffed with fiberglass, and the decking is installed. Carpet will be bull-nosed around the edge of both the top and steps. I'll be installing trim-work which will hide all of the framing and dress this up nice. I also sealed up the holes i needed to cut in the floor to facilitate installation/removal of the sub-woofers in the baffles.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Looking good. Before you know it you'll have carpet and be almost ready to go.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

bpape said:


> Looking good. Before you know it you'll have carpet and be almost ready to go.


Thank you!  Starting to get excited! Not a huge amount of work left, and momentum is building to get this done.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

Looking good!

If I could be so bold. It might be the perfect time to extend you roof over that entrance. Would be very easy while its not completely finished. Would be much nicer on a rainy day!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Tonto said:


> Looking good!
> 
> If I could be so bold. It might be the perfect time to extend you roof over that entrance. Would be very easy while its not completely finished. Would be much nicer on a rainy day!


 I've got enough on my plate, and all I need to do outside is hang the siding. Besides, the big tree and rain gutters do the job pretty well.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

:smile:


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

The bay window is almost done...it's come a long way since buying the house a little over a year ago. I sure don't miss that door...would you believe someone picked it up to make a picture frame out of it? $20 in my pocket, have fun hanging that heavy thing, ha ha! Of course there was a little surprise under the door from water infiltration, but we were able to fix it up nice.

The front of the bay window seat is covered with Homasote (available from Home Depot) and will have SoundChannels carpeting (http://www.acousticsfirst.com/sound-channels-wall-covering.htm) glued to the face...I've used the product before and like the appearance. The volume is stuffed with insulation.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Looking good!


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Looks great!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Thanks guys!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Sheetrock is hung, and the tedious process of mudding has started. Wifey also ordered the carpet yesterday. I'm going to install illuminated crown moulding throughout the room as well.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Looking good. I LOVE the backlit molding. 


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Yeah, me too, it looks really clean and sleek. That pic is going in the idea file for my room. 

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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I've been very busy here...mudding, sanding, painting, painting, painting, carpet...great results though. I sanded the room twoo Wednesdays ago, cleaned the room and painted the ceiling that Saturday, painted the walls Sunday, and Wednesday the carpet went in. This weekend the screen went up, and today I worked on re-wiring the Urei's for bi-amplification.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

Here's the room today with the screen installed. New Neutrik NL8 connectors are installed too for bi-amping.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

New couches have been ordered...fabric upholstery, power recline and headrest. Using the same units in both the front and back row.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I ran some quick measurements before and after the carpet was installed using an 8" Thiel driver in a 1.5cuft sealed enclosure. CSD showed a halving of decay time...this was just quick and dirty nothing too serious...but gives me a way to quantify the improvement of the room from "day one".


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Making good progress. You'll be up and running soon.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

First light was tonight!


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Nice job. Congratulations!


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## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

Great build thread! Love your detailed pics and the progression from start to finish.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

:T Enjoy!


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I installed the acoustic carpet on the wall today, and my wife helped me stuff the Urei's in the wall. Getting close!

Thanks everyone for your support!!


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

That's an awesome looking, very imposing screen wall. I love it. 

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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

The amplifier rack is populated.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I installed the equipment rack today. Super stoked!


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Very clean looking installation.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I started installing wainscot on the riser today, it's dressing up nicely. A lot of it is hidden by the couches, but I want to do it right...and details count. Speaking of couches, those arrived today too! I'm very glad i took my friends advice and made the riser 10" tall, any shorter wouldn't have been enough, and even at 10 inches it's going to be tight with adults in the first row. The height of the horns turned out great putting the 2nd row _just slightly_ above axis, and the first row a little below axis...it's a good compromise, with a bias towards the back row which is my prime listening position.


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