# Want to share my build



## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

I'm not an expert by any means and the most I've ever done is build some speakers or subs but I decided to make due with the small basement seeing I'm not getting a bigger house anytime soon and at least make the best of it. I've had some theater projects in the past but they were kind of cobbled together. This is more complete in my eyes. Still not ideal but I'm happy and I will not tinker except to replace the surround speakers with something better in a little bit. I will try building those too.

Anyway I posted it on a youtube video for anyone who wants to see. Video basically has no real composition of any kind so ignore the quality of that 








All I can say is it was a learning experience and while it was not an expensive build, it still cost me more than I thought it would. So many little things you don't count on buying.


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## microtheater (Sep 21, 2013)

I really like your setup I imagine those subs really kick. 
Im in the process of building a home theater in a small room 8x18 with 8 foot ceilings. I would love to know the details of your system could you share them with us?


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Hi microtheater, I put the details in the end of the video but here it is:

Receiver: Pioneer 1227K
Sub amp: Behringer EP4000
Bluray player: Sony BDP-S360
Sub EQ: miniDSP
Subs: 3x Dayton DVC385-88 in 38CF cabinet, tuned to 13Hz (approx.)
Front speakers: Dayton SD315-88 12" driver with Selenium D220ti tweeter and Dayton Horn
Rears: Stupid little Insignia speakers with dual 4" drivers and 3/4" tweeter (these gotta go very soon LOL)
Projector: Sanyo PLV-Z60, 720P

I've currently set the crossover in the receiver at 80Hz and its worked out well. Its lower than what the rears can do but it still sounds fine overall. For the rears I will end up building something around the Aura NS6 and Vifa tweeters which are both sitting here looking at me.

The screen is 86" diagonal. The paint is a mixture of Behr silverscreen and Glidden flat white at a 50/50 mix. I found the silverscreen by itself was fine but my projector is just a little underpowered and I was lacking a bit of 'pop' on the colors so I lightened the grey some more and now its better.

Room is about 10 feet wide close to where the screen is (first 6 feet of the room) and then after that it opens up to about 13 feet wide. The whole basement is about 21 feet long.

Umm that's all I can think of. If I'm missing anything, let me know


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## microtheater (Sep 21, 2013)

Thank you for the reply I honestly never made it to the very end of the video as I thought it was just the movie playing.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

No worries at all  Ya I should have probably put the details before the movie. Makes more sense that way actually LOL.


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## dougc (Dec 19, 2009)

Very nice! I bet it sounds amazing.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Dougc, I'm very happy with it overall. Only thing is I've found a couple movies that sound a bit bright and I wonder if that's because the LCR speakers I've built have a fairly flat frequency response. Maybe they mix certain movies with the assumptions that there might be a lack in midrange and they bump it a bit to compensate. not sure but 99% of the movies I've watched so far sound very good


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Nice build, SVT. And you're local too! I really like a well-designed and put together small room. That sub wall must sound amazing in there... usable down to 9Hz!? :T

I like the bar area too, cool idea to have the side firing LED lights. Ikea chairs look clean and comfy, and the colours (and artwork) all come together really nicely. Really well done.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Great job mate! :T

I also like the design of the front wall - incorporating the subs and placing the screen above it turned out awesome. Happy listening!


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

I echo what everybody has said already. Wow. Great room. I liked the video and the various phases. Job well done! Excellent work! I am sure you will enjoy for many years.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Owen, well you know what, maybe one day I can invite some local friends from this forum for a movie/beer day  You up for it? Who else is in TO? Anyway I'm very pleased so far. Mind you my exposure to high end theater is very limited but I do like my two channel audio and music so my goal was to follow the same principles. The only thing a few friends have said is that I should bump the bass up a few more DB. Right now its about 1-2db above flat compared to all the other channels. To me this sounds very even and nice but I think a lot of people want more thump. I don't know how actual theaters are calibrated for bass though.

BTW when I was first breaking in the subs, I didn't want to disturb the neighbours or myself too much so I set a test tone to something stupid low. I think it was maybe 7Hz and while the subs are down probably 6-7db by then, it was still producing good output. I know because after about a minute of being in the basement with the subs at 7Hz, I thought I was going to hurl so I quickly stopped it. Not sure if its normal but I actually felt sick. LOL. Wasn't even loud. Woofers were moving about 2-3mm. 



Owen Bartley said:


> Nice build, SVT. And you're local too! I really like a well-designed and put together small room. That sub wall must sound amazing in there... usable down to 9Hz!? :T
> 
> I like the bar area too, cool idea to have the side firing LED lights. Ikea chairs look clean and comfy, and the colours (and artwork) all come together really nicely. Really well done.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thank you very much for the compliment. Its nice to hear something was done right  Being the first HT build but I did plan this out quite a bit.



ALMFamily said:


> Great job mate! :T
> 
> I also like the design of the front wall - incorporating the subs and placing the screen above it turned out awesome. Happy listening!


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks tripplej  I wish I took more pics of the inside of the cabinet and bracing (there was tons) but I guess it does give a clue as to what I was doing. I definitely hope it will last me some few years. It was way more work than I thought it would be. Next on my list is better rears which I plan to build as well. Oh and a 1080p projector. Maybe the Epson 8350 (I'm on a budget)



tripplej said:


> I echo what everybody has said already. Wow. Great room. I liked the video and the various phases. Job well done! Excellent work! I am sure you will enjoy for many years.


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## Nec (Oct 1, 2013)

Very nice! I bet it sounds amazing.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Nec, well IMO it does sound very nice. Sounds big and clean with surprising amounts of resolution. That must be from the compression driver. Only thing I wish I didnt have is a large dip at 55-60Hz but thats a room error that I got to deal with.



Nec said:


> Very nice! I bet it sounds amazing.


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

Thanks for sharing your room. Very good job with it. You will enjoy it for many years to come. What commercial subs would you compare yours too


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Orion. I have not heard too many proper commercial subs so I cannot really say but I was able to hit 110db at 20Hz in the seating position without the subs appearing stressed or working too hard. I ended up backing off because I thought my house was going to break. 




orion said:


> Thanks for sharing your room. Very good job with it. You will enjoy it for many years to come. What commercial subs would you compare yours too


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

svtcontour said:


> Thanks Owen, well you know what, maybe one day I can invite some local friends from this forum for a movie/beer day  You up for it? Who else is in TO?
> 
> ...after about a minute of being in the basement with the subs at 7Hz, I thought I was going to hurl so I quickly stopped it. Not sure if its normal but I actually felt sick. LOL. Wasn't even loud. Woofers were moving about 2-3mm.


Lol, you almost found the "brown note" (kind of). I'd love to check out some local members' setups. I don't know how many there are around the GTA, but there must be a few. Maybe we could work on a GTG for the area. I'm actually pretty limited these days with a 3 month old at home*, but it does sound like a great idea.

_*My wife and I were pretty regular theatre visitors before the little guy came along, and now when we drive past the multiplex we always sigh wistfully and murmur something like "Hello movies, we miss you, and we'll see you soon, promise!"_


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## Greenster (Mar 2, 2013)

I love the design of your room. It would scare me to sit that close to so much bass. I love the Ikea chare idea as well..


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Congrats on the new baby  I can understand you and your wife having your hands full these days. Well I'm always up for a movie, couple drinks and popcorn or pizza so you're welcome to keep my offer in mind for when you two end up having some free time. I generally keep my weekends free for chillin most of the time so drop me a line with a heads up of what weekend works for you two and if it meshes with mine, then movies it is 

PS. I'm not messing around anymore with bass below 10Hz LOL 



Owen Bartley said:


> Lol, you almost found the "brown note" (kind of). I'd love to check out some local members' setups. I don't know how many there are around the GTA, but there must be a few. Maybe we could work on a GTG for the area. I'm actually pretty limited these days with a 3 month old at home*, but it does sound like a great idea.
> 
> _*My wife and I were pretty regular theatre visitors before the little guy came along, and now when we drive past the multiplex we always sigh wistfully and murmur something like "Hello movies, we miss you, and we'll see you soon, promise!"_


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

It does look imposing but you know, once its calibrated, its actually fairly tame. You'd never know there are so many big drivers around except for its very clean and lots of headroom but easy to listen to.



Greenster said:


> I love the design of your room. It would scare me to sit that close to so much bass. I love the Ikea chare idea as well..


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## kevin360 (Oct 4, 2012)

*Wicked!* (I mean that in the best possible way.) :T
There is something about which I cannot help being curious. What have you done to _contain_ all of that bass? Keeping big bass from leaking badly is one devil of a challenge.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Kevin  

So did you mean bass leaking as in too much bass disturbing neighbors or maximizing room gain? I do find that if I keep the door at the top of the stairs closed as well as closing the doors to the furnace room and the cold storage room, then I gain just a little bit more output. I had to put a thin foam gasket on the doors to prevent them from vibrating audibly. 



kevin360 said:


> *Wicked!* (I mean that in the best possible way.) :T
> There is something about which I cannot help being curious. What have you done to _contain_ all of that bass? Keeping big bass from leaking badly is one devil of a challenge.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

svtcontour said:


> Congrats on the new baby  I can understand you and your wife having your hands full these days. Well I'm always up for a movie, couple drinks and popcorn or pizza so you're welcome to keep my offer in mind for when you two end up having some free time. I generally keep my weekends free for chillin most of the time so drop me a line with a heads up of what weekend works for you two and if it meshes with mine, then movies it is
> 
> PS. I'm not messing around anymore with bass below 10Hz LOL


Thanks! And thanks for the invitation, too. Once things settle down around the house, I hope to take you up on it.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Its a plan.



Owen Bartley said:


> Thanks! And thanks for the invitation, too. Once things settle down around the house, I hope to take you up on it.


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## kevin360 (Oct 4, 2012)

svtcontour said:


> So did you mean bass leaking as in too much bass disturbing neighbors or maximizing room gain?


I meant leaking to the disturbance of neighbors. Prodigious bass is tough to contain and I have a feeling your sub produces bass that _fully_ qualifies as prodigious.

That whole setup is simply fantastic - very well conceived and executed.


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## B- one (Jan 13, 2013)

Can't watch your video on my iPhone. But the fish tank looks nice.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Ah I see what you mean. Well you know, I'm lucky that my house is detached and the theater is in the basement so I guess the bass would have to travel through at least 10-15 feet of soil in between the houses. I'm pretty sure I can play it pretty loud and its not noticeable. Well its only my guess. I have not actually asked my neighbors  The other thing that I've done is calibrated it to be quite level with the other speakers so even though it could produce a ton of bass, it actually only makes enough to match the output of the other speakers. I suspect it doesn't have more output than a single 15" being worked hard. The benefit is that the bass is very clean because each driver is doing only a tiny bit of work 


PS. Thank you for the compliment by the way. It was hard work. I've never done this kind of thing on this scale before but I'm glad I did. I learned quite a bit.



kevin360 said:


> I meant leaking to the disturbance of neighbors. Prodigious bass is tough to contain and I have a feeling your sub produces bass that _fully_ qualifies as prodigious.
> 
> That whole setup is simply fantastic - very well conceived and executed.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

LOL thanks  Its my other hobby. Very relaxing. I tried making the video available on mobile. Not sure when it will happen. Hopefully soon!



B- one said:


> Can't watch your video on my iPhone. But the fish tank looks nice.


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## Eocuph (Oct 9, 2013)

Really like how you blend in the enclosure with the front panel for the projector. Build looks amazing! Great work!


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

You did a great job!!!


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

ellisr63 said:


> You did a great job!!!


Thank you sir


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks  Was the only way I could fit 38CF of air space without it looking like I have multiple dishwashers in the basesment. Thought I have to make a tall wide wall and then the idea hit me that the screen should be on it as well 



Eocuph said:


> Really like how you blend in the enclosure with the front panel for the projector. Build looks amazing! Great work!


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## jstapley (Sep 4, 2013)

Wow, I love your speaker boxes. Here's a short video showing my home theater. 

I went the DIY route and built a 120 inch Goo Screen. 

I decided to go with inwall speakers but I'm not very happy with the sound. I used to have some Cerwin Vega's and they were fantastic but unfortunately I sold them to a friend. I might have to build a nice speaker box below the screen like you did. hmmm.


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## svtcontour (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks  That's a massive screen you have! How are you liking the goo paint? I went with a cheaper route of course but I imagine the goo paints would be somewhat better. The setup you have now is very clean but ya I hear you about inwall speakers. They sometimes leave lots to be desired. I'm very happy with the big speakers but its not as nice as having them hidden (aesthetically) but the sound quality makes me forget all about the big boxes 



jstapley said:


> Wow, I love your speaker boxes. Here's a short video showing my home theater.
> 
> I went the DIY route and built a 120 inch Goo Screen.
> 
> I decided to go with inwall speakers but I'm not very happy with the sound. I used to have some Cerwin Vega's and they were fantastic but unfortunately I sold them to a friend. I might have to build a nice speaker box below the screen like you did. hmmm.


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