My Home Theater Project

[bigdady1955]

Hey everybody. I'm so happy to have found and be accepted as a member of your forum. I love home theater. I can recall back in the early 70's splicing 2 extra speakers onto my stereo in order to have quad sound in my room, (well to me it was quad). Since the early 90's I have dreamt of building a home theater. My dream is finally being realized. We are converting our 22 x 22 foot garage into a theater. The final dimensions will be 22 x 17. A wall five feet in from the garage door will be built the length of the room allowing me to have some storage. Originally, the plan was to seal off the garage door and have access to the storage space through a door in the theater. Not ideal, but there was no other option. Well, actually there was. In order to keep my garage door functional, the tracks would have to remain in place. This would neccesitate building two soffits across the ceiling -one one each side- to hide the tracks. Like I said, "we had no option". Fortunately, my contractor came up with a great idea. He shortened the tracks to a point just inside the storage area and attached them to beams inside the room. I can only get the garage door up half-way but at least now I have access from the outside also. These are the pics of where we are as of today. I'll post more as things progress.


Outside the garage


Inside the garage


The problem with the tracks. The storage wall will be built from the left wall to the right 5 feet in from the garage door


Construction of the riser


The wall for the storage area is framed out. Notice the shortened tracks


The completed riser


HVAC installed


More HVAC. The hole in the ceiling is where the the HVAC unit was brought into the attic


The front of the theater wired and ready for insulation


The insulation is almost done


Sheetrock




The room is mudded sanded and ready for painting



My current setup which will go in the theater (minus the t.v. of course)


Klipsch RF-83 fronts
Klipsch RC-64 center
Klipsch RB-81 rears
2 Velodyne DD-15 Subwoofers
Anthem MCA-50 power amp (currently in the shop. I broke off one of the speaker terminals) My AV store was nice enough to lend me an Arcam amp until mine comes back
Integra DHC-9.9 pre/pro
Pioneer BDP-95D blue-ray player (for my intro DVD)
Samsung BD-P2500 blue-ray player (not yet installed. I'm waiting for the theater to be complete)
Panamax M5400-PM surge protector
Directv HD DVR (I am replacing this with the FIOS bundle next week)
JVC DLA-RS20 projector
110" Firehawk screen

Like I said earlier, I will post more pics as things progress.
Thanx to all of you who so warmly welcomed me to the forum.

[Prof.]

Ah..the old quasi quad surround..I remember it well..I even had it in my car!!

Looks like you going to have a nice theatre room..
Any thoughts on the decor yet.?

[bigdady1955]

Thanx for the feedback. I forgot to attach the renderings of the theater. This is what it will look like.

[Prof.]

Looks very nice..
You mentioned putting in soffits, but they're not shown on the renderings..
Was that an after thought to doing the renderings.?

[bigdady1955]

No,no,no, what I said is if I wanted to keep the garage door functional, it
would require building two soffits to hide the tracks. That was an option. I went on to say "we had no option" meaning that was something Iwouldn't ever consider. I would never have two soffits running across my theater unless there was no other choice. That's the reason for the workaround (shortening the brackets so the soffits would not be necessary). Thanx for the feedback.

BDG

[Sonnie]

Hey BDG... we gotcha in the right forum now...

Your initial starting point is very similar to ours, although our garage is a tad bigger and instead of leaving storage at the garage, we chose to make about a 5' hallway on the house door entrance side.

Your finished project looks like it will be stellar for sure.

[tonyvdb]

All you need now is to get yourself a motorcycle and you can still park it in the garage

Looks good!

[bigdady1955]

Sonnie wrote:

Hey BDG... we gotcha in the right forum now...

Your initial starting point is very similar to ours, although our garage is a tad bigger and instead of leaving storage at the garage, we chose to make about a 5' hallway on the house door entrance side.

Your finished project looks like it will be stellar for sure.

Thanx for moving it Sonnie!

BDG

[bigdady1955]

The painting was completed today. Next is the carpet. It should be installed in 2 weeks.


Rear of theater


Front of theater

[Jon F]

Looks like it's going to be an amazing theater. The paint color looks fantastic. I can't imagine not having a garage, though. Where would I put all my accumulated junk?

[bigdady1955]

The carpet is finally in. I'm very happy with the way it came out. The colors are light brown with maroon lines. Next week the panels, moldings, and equipment will be delivered and installed. The theater should be finished by Friday.

[kepople]

Woo looks Fantastic! I like the carpet...

I will be watching your progress...

Kirby

[kepople]

BTW: What color did you paint the ceiling?

Kirby

[bigdady1955]

Thanx for the feedback Kirby. The ceiling is flat black but if you look at the renderings, there will be two panels attached.

BDG

[Prof.]

bigdady1955 wrote:

The theater should be finished by Friday.

WOW!!..finished by Friday!! It still looks like you've got a lot left to do..
How many people are working on it.?

[bigdady1955]

I know Prof. it seems like alot to me also, but they say it will be done. Mind you that the ISF calibration and Audyssey MultEQ Equalization will not be done until we come back from vacation on 6 April. To answer your question in regard to the number of workers, it includes:1 carpenter 1 carpenters assistant
2 installers and 2 delivery guys.

Thanx for the feedback

BDG

[bigdady1955]

Prof. You were right it was too much too soon. They start on Monday 23 and will be done Friday 27th. I had my weeks wrong.

BDG

[Prof.]

bigdady1955 wrote:

They start on Monday 23 and will be done Friday 27th.

Which month is that!!..
It seems to me that you've got a lot of timber paneling to put in.. if it's going to be the same as your sketch..and I know how long that can take to make up!!

[bigdady1955]

Prof.

Lol... this month. The panels are already constructed and framed as are the pillars and console. It's just a matter of putting them in place. According to the contractor, Monday they will be bringing everything over from the AV store, Tuesday thru Thursday everything will be hung to include the panels, moldings, baseboards, console and chairs. On Friday they will install and set-up the equipment, do a basic calibration, and I should be ready to go Friday night. I agree it seems like alot to do in 1 week, but they say it will be done. Actually, they've come in ahead of schedule. The estimated completion date was supposed to be the week of April 6th but everything came in early, so I was moved up. If they do get it done, I'll post a quick picture Friday with more to follow later (hopefully Ill be too busy playing).

[Prof.]

Wow!! It looks like you'll make it by Friday after all..
Look forward to seeing some pics..

[bigdady1955]

Thanx Prof.

BDG

[Space]

While it looks like a lot has gone into the details of this project, I wonder why it is that you allowed the three leaf wall assembly to be built?

Loss of low frequency isolation is where you get hit. You may never notice it, having nothing to compare to, until your neighbors complain of the low end disturbance. When they do, that is where it is coming from...theoretically.

[bigdady1955]

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll take your word for it. Can the center channel really do all that?? Obviously you know more about this stuff than I do. Thanx for the feedback.


BDG

[bigdady1955]

Yesterday everything arrived except the seats which will come Thursday. Today the pillars were installed as were the lighting controls and rope lights. The console was assembled and some of the mouldings were attached.

The console before assembly



My projector and power amp. My project manager got a nice discount on the JVC HD750 (which is the same as the RS20) so we went with that. I decided to upgrade the power amp from the MCA-50 to the Anthem Statement P5. I've read some fantastic reviews on the amp so I decided to go this route.



The acoustic panels awaiting installation



A couple of the pillars



The assembled console




The rope lighting

[Prof.]

Looking very nice BDG..The columns look very classy..
Some nice gear as well..
Looking forward to seeing the end result..