# Semi-Modest Home Theater from Australia



## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Hi all.

Someone recommended I post pics of my HT construction. 

We're currently building our new home on the South Coast of NSW, in Australia. The house is almost finished now. Currently the HT room is painted, but awaiting carpet etc.

See attached pics for some basic construction pics and also a mockup I did in photoshop of the front wall of the HT. Sorry for the quality of the photos, it's really hard to get a shot inside the HT room without a wide angle lens.

My HT set up will be the following:

Yamaha RX-V3800 receiver
Energy Conoisseur C7 floorstanders for mains
Energy center
4 x Athena bookshelfs for surrounds (surrounds slightly bigger than rears)

130" EVO 3D 16:9 screen from OZ Theater Screens here in Australia

Epson TW5500 (when it's released in a few weeks) (called the 9500 or something in the USA?)

The room is 4.4m wide x 5.4m long (14.43' x 17.71' for you yankees) with a standard 8 foot ceiling.

The subwoofers are 2 SHIVA mkIII subs that will be transplanted into bigger sealed boxes. They're currently in teeny 13" cubes with 600watt plate amps and relying on large amounts of EQ from the yamaha receiver - which I hope to do away with when transplanting to the bigger boxes (same plate amps tho). I need some help on how to fill the subs and what to fill them with to give deeper extension, so anyone with advice on that, I'd love to hear from you.

I'll be adding bass traps/absorbers around the room bit by bit after I get the audio gear in. The intention is to start with some front corner bass traps and some panels at the first reflection points and behind the mains. From there, depending on how much more i need, I will add rear corner traps, a couple of panels either side and behind the listener, and maybe 1 on the roof. But that may be overkill, so I'll see.

So that's it. It's nothing really super custom. I mean the room is a room, with rockwool insulation in all walls. There's 6 x dimming halogen downlights. The roof is matte black, as are all the window/door frames and architraves. The walls are all dark brown, with the front wall mixed between dark brown and black. There's 2 small, short windows at the back of the room, and 1 on the left wall, which will be covered with block out curtains. Carpet is dark brown.

Also ordered the chairs, which are 2 x leather recliners and a matching 2 seater leather couch. 

I'll be posting more pics up over the next few weeks as bits and pieces arrive and I start adding things into the room, building the traps, the sub boxes etc. I know it's only a modest setup, but still is more than I have ever had before!

Would love to know what you think!

Cheers,

Scott


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

That's a decent size house you are building. I think you will be happy with the Shiva's in a larger enclosure. I was impressed with what one can do in an extended bass shelf design.
Keep the pics coming. :T


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## chas (Jan 28, 2007)

Looks great Scott...looking forward to more pictures as things progress. Which Energy center do you have?


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## kjlewie (May 24, 2008)

Nice progress so far on a nice looking space. Keep it up. 

I like the custom look of the component rack in your render Are you building it yourself?

Good luck.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

That is an impressive looking house structure!..:T
You mentioned the walls will be dark brown, but in the photos they look bluish!..Has there been a change of plans?


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

kjlewie said:


> Nice progress so far on a nice looking space. Keep it up.
> 
> I like the custom look of the component rack in your render Are you building it yourself?
> 
> Good luck.


Thanks! It's not final. The height may be slightly taller. I'll either build it or have it build. While my woodworking skills are fine for simple sealed subs, I don't rate myself quite so well with furniture. Will probably end up with it custom made.



Prof said:


> That is an impressive looking house structure!..
> You mentioned the walls will be dark brown, but in the photos they look bluish!..Has there been a change of plans?


Ahh yeah, that's the iphone attempting to brighten the image. The small window was shining in light from a clear blue-sky day into the room. In reality, on that day the room was REALLY dark. The iphone just tried to rebalance the colours. The brown definitely has a grey to it too, but no blue. Look at the shot of the roof with the downlights, that's BLACK, but looks brown in that shot! LOL. Sorry about the poor quality. Once I'm allowed to walk around in there again, after the floorboard lacquer has dried, maybe tomorrow!

Expecting delivery of the 130" screen next week!


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

some updates..

Just ordered the bits for my subwoofers..

2 x Exodus Audio Shiva X2's
1 x Behringer EPX2000 (650watt RMS x 2 into 4ohms)
2 x quality sealed enclosures with spikes, cloth grilles, black ash veneer.

Will be 85 litre boxes.

Should be pretty cranking!

w00t w00t!


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Are you putting your gear into an AV stand or are they built into the front wall. It's hard to tell from the picture. If you enclose your gear in make sure to put some fans in the cabinet. They will tend to heat up quite a bit. My PS3 doubles as a space heater at times. Your receiver relies on convection for cooling so if the air inside the cabinet is already hot from the PS3 (exhaust to the rear) it may trigger the protection circuitry and shut down. If you get a 120mm computer fan you can always hook it up to the trigger out on the AVR.


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## tiggers97 (May 13, 2008)

Very nice! Keep us up to date with pictures.


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

It will be a sort of entertainment unit/stand/rack thing. I'm going to have it built for me, and I'll make sure there's plenty of open space on the back so that air can flow out the back and up.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Very nice drivers Scott..It should sound great..:T
Pics of the build would be nice..


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

my screen(s) arrived today!

You can see my 130" OZ Theatre Screens... screen.. in the big, long box  Next to it are my two new Apple LED Cinema Displays! Shame the actual mac pro hasn't arrived with them!


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## Jason IB (Aug 12, 2009)

It's great to see more Aussies going the dedicated cinema room! Looking forward to seeing the updates here.........and on DTV


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

OK so some stuff arrived over the last 2 days.. 

Parts for my subwoofers have arrived

- 2 x ShivaX2 12" drivers
- 1 x Behringer EPX2000 amp.

I have to say, as an owner of the original Adire Audio Shiva's (mk1 and mk3's), these new Exodus versions are stunning. The build quality appears to be even better. The basket is more detailed and the magnet structure seems massive. The whole driver feels a lot heavier than my old Shivas. 

As for the amp. The box says 'lightweight', however it's still pretty heavy. The amp puts out 650watts RMS x 2 into 4ohms. Although that's at 0.1% THD. Not sure what these would be at a lower THD, but still I think plenty of power for 2 12" subs. The boxes, as mentioned in previous post, are being built in Adelaide by forum member Crabra.

This new Behringer amp has RCA level inputs. They guy on the phone at Bavas Music said to me that these amps are more 'better' suited to home use. However I am curious as to wether I will need to buy a cleanBox to boost the output of my Yamaha's LFE output before it goes into the amp. My audio friend seems to think that if Behringer included RCA level inputs, then the input voltage on that input should match consumer level voltages. I'm not 100% convinced yet, and I guess I will only be able to tell once I plug it all in and hear for myself. Worst case, the amp is going to be around 12dB softer than the input being fed into it, meaning I'll need to crank the gain. If that's the case I'll buy a cleanBox, which will boost the level by the necessary amount, AND convert my signal to XLR. Best case, the amp has the correct voltage for 'consumer' input voltages on the RCA line level and I won't need to do a thing.

The second thing I'm unsure about is the fan-noise on the amp. I have read of people modifying their EP2500's. However those amps are not the 'lightweight' new models from Behringer. I expect this to be a quieter amplifier. So again, will wait until I can crank them a bit and hear the fan noise. It may be so minimal I can leave them as they are. But if they are loud, I will need to swap the fans for quieter ones - something I have little knowledge about. I may have to procure advice and tips from fellow forum members!

Carpet went in today. Whole house has the same style carpet, however the HT has a darker tone. HT is dark chocolate brown while the rest of the house is just brown. Couldn't get in to take photos, but hopefully will be able to tomorrow, so long as the builder is around to let me in. Really excited about moving in. The wife is sick of me being more excited about the HT room than the entire house being finished though.. LOL!

More soon,

Scottie


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

OK some updates and photos.

Firstly, I did the sub positioning test, whereby placing my sub in the seating position, then crawling around the room to find the best bass response - that place being the spot for my sub.....

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but basically, there wasn't really any place around the edge of the room that produced nice bass. I did get the most bass by crawling to the very back of the room behind the chairs, in the back corners. BUT, when I swapped, and placed the sub in the back corner location and sat in my seat, the bass was even less still.  In a nut shell, I have tried my sub in every possible position available to me, aside from being placed up high off the floor... No matter what I do, the seating area, and in particular my main middle two seats.... is a massive bass black hole. No bass... the only thing I get is floor vibration, but no actual audible low end. Standing up however, makes a lot of difference, and the bass is much nicer as I walk around the room.. but that's up around the 6 feet mark.. so.. kinda useless. 

So, I am at a loss. I have two new sub boxes arriving this week, into which my shiva x2's will go into, powered by the behringer. Part of me is hoping for a miracle of some sort, whereby the new subs have much better phase linearity and the response is more audible at the seating position, but I don't hold my breath.

I guess once the new subs arrive, and I'm still getting no bass, I'll start on the bass traps.

Below are some pics of my lounges and also one of my older subs on the lounge having a listen, to itself 

Also, finally put my screen together. Did the frame last week, and tonight I finally put the screen material on. That was an effort, didn't realise how tiring it could be getting the screen tight across the frame. But the end result is perfect! Screen is huge, and lovely. With all my lights off in the room, the room is pitch black, can't even see the screen. So I can't wait for my JVC HD950 to arrive so I can see how the picture looks! In the pics, I have just rested the screen against the wall.

Well, that's it for now. My sub boxes should arrive late this week, so I'll upload pics of those and the fully assembled subs as soon as I can! My HT entertainment unit is being built right now, and should be ready in a couple of weeks. 

Lastly, I need a projector ceiling mount for my HD950. Can anyone recommend something for me? I don't need any bells or whistles. Just a simple, but strong/good quality mount to hold by baby 

Cheers,

Scottie

Enjoy the pics.


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## chas (Jan 28, 2007)

The chairs, carpet, wall color - all looks great Scottie. Hope you get your bass sorted out. Keep us posted.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Nice chairs Scott and the screen looks great!.:T
What is that sub you're trying to position now?..


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Hey Prof,

It's a SHIVA mkIII in a teeny 14" cube, powered by a 600 watt plate amp  Actually I have two of them. They dont have the greatest response, but I use the EQ in the RXV3800 to beef it up. They're left over from my old house, where there too, I had no bass in the seating position, and ended up needing 3 subs in the room - a small room- just to hear any good bass.

I have had seriously BAD luck with bass response to the point of making me want to throw my subs out the window lol.

I seriously tried the sub in all locations around the room, and none of them gave me pressurised bass in the seating positions  I know the subs can do it, standing up and moving around the room I can hear various places with warm nice bass.

GRR!


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

One thing you could try...and I seem to remember someone else having a similar problem...is to place the sub in a front corner location, angled into the room, to obtain maximum bass emphasis, and then raise it up off the floor by about a foot or so..
Might be worth a shot..


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Prof. said:


> One thing you could try...and I seem to remember someone else having a similar problem...is to place the sub in a front corner location, angled into the room, to obtain maximum bass emphasis, and then raise it up off the floor by about a foot or so..
> Might be worth a shot..


OK I'll try that, for sure.

Though when my new sub boxes arrive, putting them that high in the corner may be impossible due to them pushing my mains in, covering the screen 

But I will give it a go.


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

If anyone here has some good room software, I'd be ever grateful if you could run my room dimensions through it to see what's going on?


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Well.. my frustrations continue... tried several placement suggestions for my subs, and also moved my seating area forward about 3 feet... to no avail. Any closer to the screen and I'll have more of the room behind me that in front, and the screen will be too big to enjoy the movie.

My next frustration is the vibrating floor. It's REALLY annoying. ie: listening to a dance track (which I do a lot of, being a DJ), I hear (well only the top end coz I have no low end, remember) the kick drum, then a few milliseconds later, I feel the vibrations under the seat.

As I said, really annoying. Our place is on bearers and joists. Under the carpet is a layer of particle board. 

Currently my subs sit on the floor, with no spikes or feet. The new subs arrive on Monday and will have spikes. Will this remove some of the transfer of vibration into the floor I wonder?


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Sorry to hear nothings working for you!
Probably best to wait until the new subs arrive at this stage..

Spikes on a sub will generally help to give a cleaner/tighter bass, but I don't think it's going to help your extreme null at the listening position..

My guess would be that the particle board flooring is maybe causing a problem..That's not a normal flooring board..
That being the case, you may need to put something solid under the subs, like a concrete slab or similar..
I finished up putting a sand filled box under my sub., with a layer of that sheet packing plastic/ foam on top (can't remember the correct name for it) before I could get a smooth extension to the lower frequencies..with minimum peaks and dips..

I hope the new subs. work out better for you..


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Prof.

Many thanks mate. Thats interesting about the particle board. I am wondering if it's vibration may actually be interacting with the low frequency sound waves in the room, contributing to the null(s) at the seating position? I mean if a large flat moving mass (the floor) is vibrating at the same frequency as the sound waves, could it not be acting as a large speaker, cancelling out the original sound from the subwoofers? Seems extreme, but it would kinda explain my room issues. 

I ran the dimensions through a couple of room mode calculators prior to building the house and had a fairly even spread of frequencies, with nothing major to worry about.

I have some cement pavers coming next week, I'll try sticking the new subs on spikes on top of those. I may even try some of the foam, though I am not totally sure which kind you mean? The white styrofoam?


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

scottrichardson said:


> Prof.
> 
> Many thanks mate. Thats interesting about the particle board. I am wondering if it's vibration may actually be interacting with the low frequency sound waves in the room, contributing to the null(s) at the seating position? I mean if a large flat moving mass (the floor) is vibrating at the same frequency as the sound waves, could it not be acting as a large speaker, cancelling out the original sound from the subwoofers? Seems extreme, but it would kinda explain my room issues.


It's quite possible..The natural resonance of particleboard would be different than normal floor boards..
Anything that resonates in harmony with low frequencies, will have a cancelling affect..





> I have some cement pavers coming next week, I'll try sticking the new subs on spikes on top of those. I may even try some of the foam, though I am not totally sure which kind you mean? The white styrofoam?


No..It's the flexible plasticy foam sheet material that a lot of AV gear comes wrapped in..It's not very thick but it's quite spongey..
I think it's called Exo Foam!.or something like that..


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

*experiment:* leave the subs at the front beside & between ur mains, set the crossovers to flat out and remove any crossover they have from the Receiver ... play some tracks, can u feel the bass 'punch' now :cunning:


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

New subs have arrived.

Am yet to swap the fans on the Behringer, but for testing purposes, it won't matter. Be interesting to see if I need the ART CleanBox for my amp.. since my amp has RCA's, I have a feeling it may boost that input by the 12dB as required automatically.

Also, my JVC HD950/RS25 Projector was posted today, so should arrive tomorrow. Just waiting on the ceiling mount for that. 

Oh, I also ordered some insulation material to use in my bass traps. It's Bradfords Ultratel 2" panels. Cost an arm and a leg, but will be worth it 

I'll post some pics of the subs later today.

So things left to do:

- screw Shiva's into their boxes
- fan-mod my Behringer amp
- test to see if I need cleanbox
- mount surrounds and rears on walls
- build frames for my bass traps
- install bass traps
- hang projection screen on wall (leaning against wall atm)
- hook up all the gear
- mount projector & calibrate

gah,... still so much to do! And I have a massive lack of spare time!

Oh well.. slowly but surely!


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

You may not have to use it as u say, but just incase from what i have read the Art Cleanbox rolls off deep bass .....instead use the Samson S-Convert :T


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Thanks for the tip Mika. Has anyone else here used the Samson?

Checking it out now.


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

*http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/diy-subwoofers/5282-art-cleanbox-frequency-response.html*


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Just fired up the Behringer EPX2000. Seems that I DO need a booster box of some sort. Coz the signal is too soft. 

Question: Is it detrimental to set the sub output on my receiver to +10dB for now, until I get the Samson box?

Cheers.


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

Keep an eye on the clipping indicators :innocent:


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Hey all.

Some more photos 

My beautiful new subs which were hand made by Direct Home Theatre in Adelaide, who is on these forums as 'Crabra'. They look, and sound great. Will be ironing out some room mode issues in the coming weeks as my Ultratel arrives tomorrow 

There's a pic of what happened to one of my down-lights after listening to some music with the subs on.. need to put this one back in its socket... and work out how to avoid such things happening again!

A pic of my surround speaker wall mounts, before I bolted on the actual shelving plate.

There's a shot of all my cables for the 4 surround speakers + 2 outdoor speakers for zone 2. thick cable. Actually really difficult to fit the whole lot into the speaker terminals on both the Yamaha Receiver and the speakers.

There's a pic of the screen, finally up on the wall.

You can see my shiny new JVC D-ILA HD950 Projector being fired from its temporary location. I have a guy coming over this afternoon to look at mounting it for me as I'm a bit apprehensive of doing it myself since it's going to be placed literally vertically up from where it is now... ie: above our heads!

And finally, I have some photos taken of WallE. I took these to compare the brightness to Hihjinx's photos. Mind you these are with the bulb on high and lens fully open. Personally I wouldn't want them any darker. However, looking at my photos, they look TOO bright, but it's not like that in person. It's taken me a few days to get used to the image produced by the projector. At first I was a bit worried that my brightness wasn't enough. But last night's viewing session confirmed for me that it was good enough.. and finally I am starting to appreciate just how amazing this projector is - the colours, the detail, the black level, the smoothness (film-like appearance). Also loving having such a big screen. I feel completely immersed. At the moment the lounge is about 4.4m back from the screen. I'd like to be a little closer, but acoustics (bass) are keeping me from moving forward until such time that I fix the room modes using bass traps.

Note that all these pics were taken with the vertical shift adjusted so that the image touched the bottom of my screen... rather than having black bars at the top and bottom, I only have one big one at the top. Thinking of making a mask to sit up there when watching 2.35:1 films. However I want to see how the room goes once I black out my 3 small windows with curtains.

Other stuff happening: 
Gonna wire up my surround speakers today, and move all my components into position. Got the AV guy coming over today to check out what needs to be done with the projector mounting. Hopefully that is done this week. Today I took in my Behringer amp to the local electronics guy, who is going to swap the fans for the quieter ones. Hopefully that happens this week also. I have ordered a Samson S-Convert box which will boost the sub output of my receiver by 12dB, bringing it in to line with the Behringer's inputs. As I mentioned earlier, my Bradford Ultratel insulation arrives tomorrow. Enough to do all 4 corners from floor to ceiling at 6 inches thick, and enough to make 6 more 4" panels for reflection points etc.

So it's all coming along. I'd say by this time next week we'll be able to use the room properly. Only the acoustic panels won't be finished.

Enjoy


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

Are the mains going to stay where they are in the corners Scott?


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Sadly I don't have any other place to put them  My subs take up a fair bit of space, and then my entertainment unit that is being built is 2.2m wide. So I'm rather space limited  

I will, however, be bringing the mains out from the back wall a bit, as I'll be adding corner traps to the corners which will push them out a bit. I'll also be adding 1st reflection point absorbers to the side walls, which should help with the sound bouncing off the walls!


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

Would u entertain the possibility of placing them on-top of the subs..


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

Definitely something I would think about yeah.. I understand why you want to do this too.. to attach the sound to the sides of the screen...

the only annoying thing would be that the sound stage would dip in the centre for my centre channel, which will sit at the top of my entertainment unit, directly below the screen..... do you think this may create a bit of an issue with such a difference between the main and centre tweeters?


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## Mika75 (Feb 5, 2009)

I recommended this awhile ago to good friend's of mine, the mains and center channel all rest on the same cabinet plane with the center deciding the height below the screen. (i.e. imagine ur mains floorstanding and ur center laying on the carpet between them, now raise the whole 3 up in unison until the center meets the bottom of ur screen)

The loudspeakers are Meridian DSP 5500 firing toward a deep 3 tiered seating arrangement, 3 seats wide ...the sound is always locked to the screen. The driver configuration on the Meridian center channel is such that the tweeter and mid-range are more vertical than horizontal even though the speaker rest's on it's side. 

The diagram u posted shows the Energy center to be a MTM/Dappolito design which isn't the best way towards accuracy when laying on it's side...for ur own experiment stand the center speaker upright and hear exactly I'm talking about.


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

OK some more pics... I actually took these a week ago. So I'll post these, then post some more from today in another post:

Got the rears and surround speakers mounted!

And started on the first two bass traps, these ones are just under 8 feet tall and will be placed in the front corners of the room. The Bradfords Ultratel was really fun to work with. For anyone considering doing the same, just be careful to wear gloves and goggles/glasses. The glass fibres are kinda prickly if you touch them on the wrong angle (random), and I can't imaging breathing in the loose fibres can be good for you - though they stick together really well, it's just when you use a saw to cut the sheets that some loose bits fly around... oh, and they smell kinda bad, but only if you sniff right next to them.. The traps were actually really easy to make. We just made a typical frame and screwed the sides on, then used L brackets for extra strength. I used another bit of wood at the back to hold the material in place and give some rigidity, and then used some smaller L brackets on the front to hold the material in place. Covered them with black, basic cotton material which is breathable enough to let sound pass through. Just got the material from my local fabrics/sewing shop (like a mini spotlight). The back is covered in a really open weave material that is very basic and very cheap ($1 a meter).


More pics coming. I have since covered the traps with black material and placed them in the corners, and also ceiling mounted the projector and placed my mains on to of my subs.

Scottie


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Nice neat job Scott..:T
How many thicknesses did you finish up using in the traps.?


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## scottrichardson (Oct 14, 2009)

those traps in the photos are 6" thick.... so 3 layers of the 2" thick material 

Im gonna do another 2 for the rear corners... though, sadly... they won't be floor to ceiling... but floor to about 5" high. I have window frames in the way!


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Shouldn't be a problem Scott..
My rear traps are only 4'6" high..because of a similar window problem, and they do the job..


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