Building New House

[ACGREEN]

I would like to have comments/thoughts on the basement of the house I am building. The basement will be the primary theater in the house. It will not be dedicated to the theater, but I am going to work hard to get the best sound possible. I am wiring for 10.4 plus Yamaha's presence speakers. Obviously I will only be able to use it as 7.4 plus the presence speakers, but want to future proof. I dream of a Parasound Halo preamp with 10.4 outputs.
I will put an equipment rack in the closet that will feed my basement theater and the whole-house audio/video distribution system. TV will be against the bedroom #4 wall. That is a double-framed wall to help isolate the noise. Also filling the ceiling with insulation. Wiring for electric drapes to cover all the windows sinse it is walkout.

Let me know what you see as potential problems. Thanks for your help.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hi AC,

Since your question is not about REW or the BFD, I’m moving your thread here to the Design and Construction Forum.

Regards,
Wayne

[Sonnie]

Which part is actually the basement?

I'm confused I think.

What size do you plan on building it and how high will the ceilings be?

If you plan on not making it a dedicated HT room, then what else will be in there with it?

Can you give us a diagram of just the basement and how you plan on laying it out?

Thanks!

[Ayreonaut]

I would consider relocating the door to the little hall southward. That would widen that wall for a centered screen.

The * mark the 38% points, the ideal listening locations.

acgreen.jpg

[ACGREEN]

I want to run wiring for audio/video distribution. Is Cat5e shielded? Is Cat6? Can it really handle HD video? If used as speaker wire, what Guage is it? Anyone have any recommendations on how to handle audio/video distribution around the house.

I read that Phillips is going to release a devise that distributes HD video across 110V wiring in your house.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

ACGREEN wrote:

Is Cat5e shielded? Is Cat6?

No. For its intended application, it doesn't need to be.

If used as speaker wire, what Guage is it?

Cat 5 or 6 is not the best thing to use for speaker wire. It’s something like 24 –26 ga. You want at least 14 ga.

Can it really handle HD video? Anyone have any recommendations on how to handle audio/video distribution around the house.

I take it you found that the AudioControl gear I pointed you towards previously isn't going to work??

Regards,
Wayne

[ACGREEN]

Figuring out how to wire the whole house for audio and HD video has been the most difficult. I think I am just going to run the component, HDMI, and audio cables as well as the speaker wire myself. I'll run a few lengths of Cat5e for future components and call it done.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

ACGREEN wrote:

Figuring out how to wire the whole house for audio and HD video has been the most difficult.

Audio isn’t too difficult, it’s the video (as I’m sure you’ve figured out). My son does a lot of big-money installations and he tells me that video distribution is virtually unheard of. People typically opt for a separate receiver (satellite or whatever) at each location. Makes perfect sense, since anyone watching something in Room B is going to be watching something different from what the person in Room A is.

That said – since it looks like you’ve given up on doing this wireless, I found this Googling “component video distribution:”

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/Dist-amps.html#988

You could use RG-59 for the cabling, which is generally pretty cheap.

Regards,
Wayne

[Chris in Dallas]

If you post a section view of your basement walls, I'll try to give you a little input. Have you had any soil tests?

[bhalbardier]

How did your media distribution go? I'm looking to do something similar.

[ACGREEN]

All right, I move in 2 weeks.

I have run component video to 4 different rooms. In these rooms, I have also run composite audio and/or ceiling speakers. This will be nice to watch the same source throughout the house, or being able to access the 400 disc changer or DVR from any room in the house.

As far as the theater room, I did not go with a dedicated theater room. I instead made the main room a large theater. I installed a shelf to hold my KEF Reference 204 above my 50" LCD HDTV, but also behind the 92" Da-Lite tensioned contour electrol Audio-Vision screen. And I just ordered a Panasonic PT-AE2000U LCD 1080p HD projector.

All speaker wires are in wall with an extra set of surrounds wired in. Also, to future proof, I have wired for 4 subwoofers. I also have Symphony in-wall speakers as the Yamaha presence speakers. The KEF Ci200.2QT drop down rear surrounds are used to complete the 11.4 surround set-up.

All of my equipment is stored in an adjacent closet and will be controlled with RF from my iPronto.

NOW...I hope i can get it all to work. Pictures to follow when it is done.

[ACGREEN]

Oh yeah, I also prewired for electric curtains...Any ideas?