My Home Theater Project

**bigdady1955** · **03-25-09, 10:58 PM**

Today, the acoustic panels were mounted and the mouldings were finished. Tomorrow, the chairs will be installed, some vent covers attached, the screen mounted, and the equipment set-up. Friday, will be the final painting, a basic calibration, and tying up any loose ends.

The rear wall of the theater
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The rear side wall
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The front of the theater
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The ceiling panels
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**Prof.** · **03-26-09, 07:07 PM**

It's all coming together very nicely..
How is the completion date looking?

**bigdady1955** · **03-26-09, 10:00 PM**

Prof,
Today things were delayed so they weren't able to accomplish as much as hoped. The chairs were assembled and installed, the projector and screen put up, and the equipment which goes in the console was connected. Despite the delay, they expect to be 99% complete with mainly the touch-up painting left to do by the end of day tomorrow.

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**carls64** · **03-27-09, 04:30 PM**

Looks great! Where have I seen that color combination before ;-)
I wish I had more room for posher seating as you have :-(
I think you may find you will want to build out your screen wall for some base traps and kill out your front wall soon. I see it coming

Great job!

**Prof.** · **03-27-09, 07:17 PM**

Quote:

bigdady1955 wrote:

Prof,
Today things were delayed so they weren't able to accomplish as much as hoped. The chairs were assembled and installed, the projector and screen put up, and the equipment which goes in the console was connected. Despite the delay, they expect to be 99% complete with mainly the touch-up painting left to do by the end of day tomorrow.

It all looks very nice BDG..

I have to say though..that screen looks very small, particularly from the back seats..
I realize that you can't have it any bigger with a 16:9 screen, due to the height of the screen..but have you thought about having 2.35:1 screen.?..You certainly have the width for it..

**bigdady1955** · **03-28-09, 12:40 AM**

Today everything was finished minus a few vent covers. There was however, a minor catastrophe. The installer was having trouble with the lens cover on the PJ. While taking it down, he dropped it, and needless to say it no longer works! My AV store sent over a replacement which is all I could ask for. The PJ is a Sony VPL60 which, if mine looks as good as it does , will leave me more than satisfied.

Prof. I agree the seating does seem a mile away, but I think that is a function of the pictures. According to my project manager the distance should be 1.5 times the screen width. With my screen width of 8 feet, the front row should be in the neighberhood of 12 feet away. We're actually 10.5 away, which frankly, I find too close when sitting there. My daughters, on the other hand, love the impact. The second row is 15 feet away which is as close as we can get and still be able to recline without hitting the chair in front. I would loved to have put in a 120" screen, but unfortunately 110'' is all that would fit. And yes, I would love to someday have a 235:1 screen, but that's another story for another day. I've attached a picture of the first thing we watched, which is that wonderful love story "Walle" lol. After taking care of the kids, it was my turn to play. I'll post more later.

Thanx for the feedback.
BDG

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**Prof.** · **03-28-09, 07:22 PM**

Quote:

bigdady1955 wrote:

Attachment 13652

Looking at this photo, you would never guess that screen is 8' wide!!
Front row seating position sounds fine for a 1080p. projector..

**bigdady1955** · **03-29-09, 07:36 PM**

Prof. I think the screen appears that way due to the large wall it's on (17' wide). As a better point of reference, look at my subwoofer (Velodyne DD15) in the attached picture. The sub is 18" wide and if you eyeball it in the pic.(I measured it), you can fit exactly 3 of them side by side from the wall to the edge of the screen. That's a total of 54" (4.5 feet) on each side of the screen. Take both sides of the screen, (9 feet total) from the 17 feet and you have the 8 foot width --within an inch or so. Again, the pictures don't accurately reflect the proportions of what you see posted. I'll post more later.
BDG
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**Prof.** · **03-29-09, 07:55 PM**

Yes..it's definitely the width of the room the room that makes you think it's a small screen..
4.5' either side of the screen is a lot of space..
My screen is almost wall to wall (in a much smaller room) and it gives the impression that it's a much larger screen than it really is..

BTW...Is your centre speaker in the cabinet below the screen.?

**bigdady1955** · **03-29-09, 11:21 PM**

Prof... Yes the center is behind door number 2 lol..

Nothing more has been done since Friday, so there are still a couple of touch-ups to be made. For all intents and purposes though, the project is complete. There were a couple of hiccupps with the programming on my remote, but those will be corrected tomorrow... hopefully. I've attached a few more pics which, like my others, are too blurry ( I have no idea how to work my camera in a darkened room). Well, that pretty much does it. Everything is done except for some grill covers and a few places that need touch-up paint. Thanx for the feedback ( especially you Prof.). It's been appreciated and made the process so much more enjoyable for me.

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**Prof.** · **03-30-09, 06:40 PM**

It's time to sit back, put your feet up and enjoy your new theatre..Well done..

**bigdady1955** · **03-30-09, 07:46 PM**

Prof... That's exactly what I've been doing. Thanx for your kind words, encouragement and willingness to take the time out to comment!

**cinema mad** · **03-30-09, 09:54 PM**

Your theatre looks awsome I love the burgundy red colour its A nice big room,

You can tell that your theatre has been well thought out.....

Is your screen A Stewarts Luxus screen wall & studiotek 130G3 ??...

Cheers....

**bigdady1955** · **03-30-09, 11:51 PM**

Hey Jason... Thanx for the feedback. To answer your question about the screen, no its a Stewart Firehawk G3. I want to be able to have some ambient light for when I watch my baseball games, and this is the screen that was recommended to me. If you read one of my earlier posts, you'll see that a minor mishap happened to my projector, so I haven't had a chance to evaluate the performance of the screen. That will have to wait another 10 days.

Take care
BDG

**dradius** · **03-31-09, 10:17 AM**

looks like everything turned out really nice. congrats.

**kepople** · **03-31-09, 11:33 PM**

Wow! That was a quick build!
I went away from the thread for a bit and its done!

Looks great

How does it sound?

Kirby

**bigdady1955** · **04-03-09, 05:38 PM**

Thanx for the feedback Kirby. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am with the sound! It's amazing! For the first time, I have speakers that are a sonic match all around, and transitions from front to back and from side to side are seamless. The bass was the biggest surprise. In my old set-up (my living room), the base was great, but now its sound is much tighter with so much more punch without the boominess and rattles I would hear in the last location. I had never before experienced that feel-it-in-your-chest type of bass, but now I know what people mean by that. Aditionally, I'm now using a power amp with significantly more power than before, so everything is much cleaner. My installer has me scheduled for an Audyssey EQ Pro calibration, which he says will improve the sound even more. Frankly, I don't see what more can be done to improve the sound, but I trust him so we'll see. Again thanx for the feedback.

BDG

**tonyvdb** · **04-03-09, 05:42 PM**

Thats defiantly looking great!

Welcome to the home theater world, you wont ever regret it.

**mdrake** · **04-06-09, 11:58 AM**

WOW, wow and wow.

That is a really NICE room!! Well, done!!!!!
Where did you get your sconce?

Matt

**bigdady1955** · **04-07-09, 09:23 PM**

Thanx for the kind words Matt! I selected the sconce from about 10 offered to me by my project manager. He had it in his showroom, and I loved how it looked, so we went with it.

BDG

**bigdady1955** · **06-28-09, 01:22 PM**

I've included some equipment pics and an updated list

Equipment list

Klipsch RF-83 fronts
Klipsch RC-64 center
Klipsch RB-81 rears
2 Velodyne DD-15 Subwoofers
Anthem Statement P5 power amp
Integra DHC-9.9 pre/pro
Pioneer BDP-95D blue-ray player (for my intro DVD)
Samsung BD-P2500 blue-ray player
Panamax M5300-PM surge protector
Verizon FIOS HD DVR
Anthem LTX 500 LCOS projector (JVC DLA-RS20 repackaged and sold by Anthem)
110" Stewart Firehawk screen
Universal MX-980 remote
Active Thermal Management Cool-It ll cooling system
SVS AS-EQ1 subwoofer EQ (On order won't ship until August)
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Well that's about it. Thanx for viewing

**Prof.** · **06-28-09, 07:18 PM**

Very nice BDG..

You have some very nice gear there..and I bet it sounds awesome!!..

**mechman** · **06-28-09, 07:29 PM**

BDG,

Is that an older Firehawk? I have a sample of the new G3 and it's a pretty dark gray. It can be tough to tell from pictures but your screen 'seems' lighter gray than my sample.

How did you settle on a Firehawk? Did you have a calibration done? Thanks!

**bigdady1955** · **06-28-09, 07:36 PM**

Thanx for the feedback Prof. Yes I'm thrilled with the sound. Having everything in an enclosed room makes the world of a difference as I'm sure you know.

Best
BDG

**bigdady1955** · **06-28-09, 08:06 PM**

Quote:

mechman wrote:

BDG,

Is that an older Firehawk? I have a sample of the new G3 and it's a pretty dark gray. It can be tough to tell from pictures but your screen 'seems' lighter gray than my sample.

How did you settle on a Firehawk? Did you have a calibration done? Thanks!

No Mech, the screen was purchased sometime in March by my project manager. He provided me with receipts for all of his work, so I can definitely say it was purchased new. As to why I chose the Firehawk... it was recommended to me by the P Mgr. to meet my particular viewing needs (I watch a lot of sports with some lights on so I needed a screen capable of dealing with ambient lighting). As I do with everything, I verified this with a Stewart rep. who concurred. Yes, I had a calibration done and was very pleased with the picture, but while searching the web, I came upon a thread in a forum about calibrating my particular PJ and the problems encountered getting it dialed in correctly. After becoming somewhat educated on how the calibration should be done and feeling comfortable enough to go into the settings menu (I had been afraid I'd mess something up), I discovered that my calibrator didn't know how to set up my PJ correctly. Following the settings given to me by a calibrator named Manni01 on that thread, I was able to get the picture to the point that I can only describe as spectacular.

Thanx for you feedback
BDG

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