# construction materials for home theater cubby



## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

greetings! first time poster, long time viewer. was drawn to this site from CSS (loving the sub builds), will be ordering a sub from them soon to DIMyself.

Anyway, my basement is rectangular, but one corner is angled and completely drywalled. (essentially cut the top corner off a rectangle). I can access behind this wall because there is a workroom and furnace, I need to duck and weave around the furnace so not completely practical....but I digress. 

The previous owners framed in a place where a gas fireplace insert could go. this area is 3' X 3' square. So I can cut out the drywall on the front and make a cubby hole or box (not sure of really what to call this area??)

The space will by 3' wide by 30" high and I am thinking 24-26" deep. I want to use drywall and frame it with 2X4's. I also have 2X120 mm psu fans and a smaller one as well and will install bigger fans on either side and the smaller one at the back.

My main question is I need to put shelves in this cubby. one horizontal shelf the whole width of the cubby 18" from the bottom. this shelf will hold my center channel. in the middle of this shelf I want to but a vertical piece going back to the bottom to provide support. this has now divided the box into three. On one side of the two empty spaces will be my PC which is blu-ray player, etc. the other side I want to put another horizontal shelf half-way between bottom and the other shelf (at the 9' mark) this shelf will be joined to the center vertical piece.

my cubby is now divided into 4. these two new shleves will hold receiver and PVR.

so the million dollar question is, what do I use to make these shelves? MDF and then prime and paint? frame these shelves with lumber and then drywall over (sounds like a lot of taping and mudding), particle board?

I am at a loss for the best solution to make these shelves. I really appreciate any help you experts can give, truly! thank you for your time and apologies for the long winded first post! :dontknow:


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Welcome

My first suggestion would be to not put the center channel in any kind of recessed area. It's going to completely change the tonal balance and cause a lot of resonance problems.

For the shelving, just go to Home Depot and pick up some of their pre-finished shelves and cut them to length. You can get matching edge banding for where they're cut if you're particular about the ends.

Bryan


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## kadijk (Jan 23, 2011)

Good call on the center channel placement Bryan. As for shelves, alot of the cabinets I build for these applications end up getting painted, and so I use mdf for the shelves (and cab for that matter) so that everything matches. Make sure you use good paint, and a good primer if you go this route, cause the mdf will soak up all your expensive paint otherwise.


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## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

thanks for replies, especially in regards to the center
channel, I did not consider that at all. so even if the center channel is right at the front of the cubby this would cause issues?

mdf for the shelves it is! of course now I need to redesign the shelf portion to remove the one for the center channel!

cheers!!


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## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

now that I can reconfigure my cubbyhole ( I really need a better term), it leaves me enough space to include my turntable.
I realize this is not specifically Home Theater, but would incorporate nicely into my overall set-up.
so is there any concern with having a turntable in this cubby? resonance, etc?


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## kadijk (Jan 23, 2011)

Sounds to me like you're making a component cabinet...as for the turntable? I don't know that they are affected by localized sound or by being near amps, but I also have zero experience with them. Bryan might have an idea..,


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## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

component cabinet! wow! brain fart is over...lol...thanks
just looking up resonance of TT's now. I think the bottom will be MDF now as well for support, with only the sides and back as drywall. this would hopefully reduce any vibrations on the TT

thanks.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

A turntable should be OK as long as the shelving is really really rigid.

The center channel (or any other speaker not specifically designed to be in a wall or on a wall directly) should not be positioned in either of those places. It will completely change the tonal balance and will make the xover design inaccurate as you've effectively changed how it reacts to its surroundings and/or how wide it's baffle is by basically making the entire wall the front baffle.

And before you ask, yes, the same thing goes for subwoofers.... 

Bryan


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## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

thanks Bryan, (sub is going in the corner, or wherever the sub-crawl leads me!)
been reading a lot of resonance tonight, thanks. I think I will try the turntable alone first and can always add some form of isolation if needed. 

center speaker will be an Axiom and they have a specific mounting until for it.

let the construction begin.

thanks again


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Good luck

Just remember that in order to do the sub crawl, you have to have first identified where your seat is going to be - so you can put the sub there in the chair.

Personally, I like to use the mains slammed all the way in the corners to make the modal problems as bad as possible. Find the place where the response is best and deep nulls are the fewest and start with your seating there.

Then you can position the sub accordingly and crawl around.

Bryan


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## kadijk (Jan 23, 2011)

Interesting idea Bryan. I actually found an app today that "calculates" seating positions, speaker locations and room modes based on dimensions one can input into the app. It gave some interesting info re modes, but I don't know what to do with the info- if it's accurate...the app is called Designer Lite from the Home Theater Assistant series. Could it be somewhat helpful?


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Like most calculators, it's going to assume a perfectly rectangular space. It's also likely only going to give you data for 1 row. 

How good is it? Hard to say - but for $1.99, not a lot of money wasted certainly. Now, if all it's doing is giving you general rules of thumb (which I suspect it is) you can get that for free online. If it's actually doing calculations (which I seriously doubt), then it's a bargain. The other tools that actually do MULTIPLE passes through and account for all of your furniture, type of speakers, etc. cost a bit more.

Cara is probably the most well known and it's price has come down significantly. I believe it's around 70 Euro right now. It used to be well over $200. 

Bryan


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## SALESEPHOTO (Jul 5, 2009)

Maybe you can find metal shelves (home depot) that will fit into that space. Thats what I used for my
theater and if you can find in black or paint they blend in with the black equipment.

Larry


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## freakydrew (Nov 30, 2011)

I should start a new post on my construction project over the last few weeks!
As mentioned, there was an area behind a wall that had been framed for a gas fireplace insert. I cut out that hole to make my cubby and could access the back by squeezing around my furnace.

Measurements were made, everything was calculated and then when I cut the hole I noticed some plumbing from upstairs bathroom. I had to knock off the corners of the component shelve. I was able to make the whole thing out of MDF. joined with coarse drywall screws which I dipped in glue first (as per the INTERNET).

it was assembled outside of the hole so that the entire thing could be slid into place. There will be a PC, turntable, PVR, and Pioneer VSX 1021 housed in this unit so there are two fans for increased circulation (one for the PC, the other for the receiver).

Observations:
1 - MDF is tricky to work with and very heavy when assembled!
2 - I am really glad I bought an MDF specific blade for my table saw! made things a lot easier!
3 - I am also glad I had previously bought the Hole Cutter for making holes in MDF (Bought for speaker project that never happenned as the mdf for that, is now my component shelf)
4 - speaker wire through finished drywall is not fun. I have a lot of little patches I need to do.
5 - Axiom speakers are absolutely amazing! my wife has no idea what I spent on them....

I just need to patch some drywall and put some trim around the new unit and everything is looking nice!
Of course, I am struggling getting all my components to work with the new receiver but not really had much time to play around yet.

My goal is that the first experience through my new home theater (Axiom 7.1 speakers all around) will be the new Star Wars 7.1!


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