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Peterman's HT

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peterman
48K views 105 replies 29 participants last post by  Todd Anderson 
#1 ·
November 2016 - DONE!
It's been functional for about a year and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. Finally knocked out the finishing touches this week, mostly cosmetic.





April 2015 - Atmos ready, new subs and surrounds, better acoustics

Current Equipment List
Receiver: Anthem MRX-710
Mains: Paradigm Reference Studio 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Surrounds: Chase Home Theater M1 Monitor (x6)
Atmos/Height: Home Theater Direct MP-R80 (x6)
Subwoofer: Power Sound Audio XS30se (x2)
Display: LG PV250 60" Plasma TV
Blu-ray Player: OPPO BDP-103
Media/Web Streaming: Apple TV
Media/Web Streaming: Fire TV Stick
Local Media Server: Mac Mini (Yosemite)
HDMI Cables: Monoprice/Rosewill with Redmere
Speaker Cables: Monoprice 12ga CL2 in-wall
Sub/Interconnect: Monoprice CL2 RG6 Coax

June 2014 - Looking a little more polished and ready for 11.1
Details and photos

Additions
Onkyo TX-NR737 (review coming Fall 2014)

Upcoming projects
-riser for 2nd row seating
-re-build side wall acoustic panels (from 2" to 4" thick)
-re-locate side wall panels to cover first reflections
-add bass traps in rear corners
-add ceiling speakers for Dolby Atmos (maybe)
-new subs (maybe)
-additional LED accent lighting (maybe)

March 2014 (Rev 01) - Wiring, layout, and aesthetics
Photos of progress during this stage can be found here:
post 12 (wiring)
post 19 (more wiring)
Post 20 (revised layout)
post 31 (still more wiring)

Updated equipment list:
Receiver: Onkyo TX-NR626
Mains: Paradigm Studio 100 v.2
Center: Paradigm Studio CC v.2
Surrounds: Definitive Technology Studiomonitor 350
Subwoofer: Paradigm PW-2200 v.1
Display: LG PV250 60" Plasma TV
Blu-ray Player: OPPO BDP-103
Turntable: Rega Planar 3 with Elys MM Cartridge
Media Streaming: Apple TV
Media Server: Mac Mini Server
HDMI Cabling: Monoprice/Rosewill with Redmere
Speaker Cabling: Monoprice 12ga CL2 in-wall
Sub/Interconnect Cabling: Monoprice CL2 RG6 Coax

December 2012 - It's done (but not really)
After we moved into our house last October, I claimed a room upstairs and have since turned it into a comfy little home theater. It was just a plain white room, so the paint, lighting, wall treatments, and some wiring have all been added. We already had the furniture so I decided to go with mostly natural tones for the room itself. I had the speakers already as well (except the subs), and have been trying out some different combinations of electronics. I did the work to the room myself with a little help here and there from my wife. No extensive construction here since the house was already finished. My goal was to have a comfortable and attractive room, clean wiring and nice lighting, with minimal sheetrock disturbance (which means I spent more than an ideal amount of time swimming around in the insulation in the attic space above :mooooh:). I have plenty of ideas for improvements to both the performance and aesthetics, but I'm pretty content with it for the moment, so I figured I'd share a few photos.






Full frontal nudity :gulp:

Original equipment list:
Processor: Emotiva UMC-1
Amplifier: Parasound HCA-1205A
Mains: Paradigm Studio 100 v.2
Center: Paradigm Studio CC v.2
Surrounds: Paradigm Cinema Phantom (although two of the Danas I had just finished reviewing are pictured)
Subwoofers: Paradigm PW-2200 v.1 (x2)
Display: LG PV250 60" Plasma TV
Blu-ray Player: OPPO BDP-103
 
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#8 ·
Thanks for the comments. The room is about 15' wide by about 16' deep and is dedicated to music and movies. I am more of a music guy, but I have been using it for lots of movie viewing lately as well. We do have a living room downstairs with a TV which is actually where we spend most of our time (thanks to a super comfortable couch and close proximity to the kitchen).

For the HT room, I would eventually like to add some recliner type seating, maybe in two rows rather than the 'U' shape I have now. Possibly a projector down the road and some additional acoustic treatments. Those are just ideas for now, I'm not actively planning on any of them at the moment. I tend to obsess over finding better gear and and fine tuning what I have (crazy, I know!) so right now I'm just trying to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor thus far. I've been spending a few bucks here and there expanding my music and movie libraries instead.
 
#12 ·
Hey gang, I've been in the process of making some incremental changes to my setup, moving things around, etc. so I thought I'd share some progress and a few photos along the way. While reviewing the Pioneer SC-71, I played with the idea of adding rear surrounds to my setup, which got me wanting to try either front height or front wide as well. I decided to go all out and make the move from 5.1 to 9.1. The thing is, my Emotiva couldn't do 9.1, and neither can the SC-71. I sold the Emotiva and I'm currently in the hunt for a 9.1 AVR. Looking at Denon AVR-X4000, Onkyo NR1010 if I can find a good deal, or NR3010 if I can find a really good deal. In the meantime I have decided to completely relocate my electronics to the closet (door to the right of the TV in my original photos).

Instead of trying to run all the wiring through the attic again, I got some inspiration from HTip's cable management project here. Although I could have concealed everything in the attic, there are a couple reasons I opted to go with this strategy. First, fishing wires through the attic is simply a pain in the rear end (especially during the summer in Houston). Second, I think this method will allow me much more flexibility in terms of my room setup. Also, as a reviewer, it should make it easier to shuffle review speakers and subs in and out but still keep things nice and clean during the evaluation period. I want to be able to easily add/remove/relocate wires from the closet to any part of the room but not have to see them. Anyway, here are a few shots of my initial progress.

Wall-mounted surrounds


Wire entrance to wall below speakers


Speaker and sub cables from left, rear, and right walls entering closet


Speaker, sub, HDMI, and cat5 cables from front wall entering closet


I ran two spare sub cables into the room that will allow rear corner or side wall positioning, and two sub cables to the front wall. The HDMI to feed the TV runs to the front wall, as well as a spare HDMI and cat5 just in case. I also have an IR extender receiver mounted below the TV. The cable from that runs into the closet too. One of my overall goals with this room is to turn it into a convincing theater, both acoustically and aesthetically, but without modifying it to the point that it could not be easily reversed and used for another purpose. If someone were to turn it into a bedroom, there would be little more than some hole patching and painting needed. Therefore I'm leaving the existing baseboard trim completely intact.

Next step is to plan how to mount my faux baseboard and start cutting some lumber. After that, I'll tidy up the wiring in the closet. Next (as in next year probably) phase will be new seating. I am currently trying a two row configuration with the furniture I already have. If I can get good uniform sound results, I'll build a riser for the back row and get myself some nice recliners :)

I hope to show some more progress on the wiring in the next few weeks. Having 5-month old twins means I'm limited to only a few hours a week of hobby time.
 
#13 ·
As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Great thinking outside the box and making it work. I guess your kids will be in grade school before we hang out at your place.
 
#15 ·
Let's hope not, but I know that'll happen sooner than I'm ready. They grow fast!

I also agree with everybody who posted so far, very nice. Very clean job as well. Excellent work!.

Question.

For the person who sits on the single chair (close to the door) and the other side, on the sofa (close to the other door), how is the viewing from that angle? just curious. :)
Thanks for the feedback. To answer your question about the chair by the door, it was mostly there because we didn't have a spot for it anywhere else :) and was never really intended to be a great spot to view the TV from. When we moved into the house we got new living room furniture, so my HT got the hand-me-downs. Right now I've got the seating arranged in two rows to see how I like it, before investing in some nice recliners. The three-seater is up front about 40% of the distance from the back wall. The two-seater is directly behind, about 1-2 feet from the back wall, and the two armchairs are on either side of the two-seater. I'll post some more photos once I get the room cleaned up.
 
#14 ·
I also agree with everybody who posted so far, very nice. Very clean job as well. Excellent work!.

Question.

For the person who sits on the single chair (close to the door) and the other side, on the sofa (close to the other door), how is the viewing from that angle? just curious. :)
 
#17 ·
Thanks! And yes, the Def Techs came with the brackets and screws, and pre-drilled holes behind the cloth. I am using sheetrock anchors rated for ~60lbs and the speakers are ~25lbs. Looks and feels plenty sturdy to me. Although I've almost knocked them down a few times while working on the wiring (standing up while forgetting I was crouched below one :duh:). Only my own clumsiness to worry about :dizzy:

I plan to eventually replace them with some bipole/dipole speakers, something hopefully lower profile, but these were cheap and I'll have uses for them elsewhere in the house when I'm ready to swap them out.
 
#19 ·
Little more progress this weekend, trying to make sense of the wiring coming into the closet. I will [hopefully] have the AV rack installed and wired by the weekend. Since I've got cables coming in both sides of the closet I ran some wire duct around the floor to keep things neat. The scraps I had laying around weren't quite enough so I've got a gap to fill later. Also hoping to order a receiver in the next couple weeks.

few more pics...
 
#20 ·
Nothing major, but I thought I'd post a few pics of the latest progress. My gear has been relocated to the closet, and speakers are mounted and wired for 9.1. The seating has been rearranged too. Next on my to-do list is a riser for the 2nd row. I Think I'll end up needing to raise the height of the rear surrounds from their current position. Once that is all finalized I'll finish patching and touch up the paint.

Rack in the closet - I'll clean up the wiring once I've got a new AVR in there and hooked up


New room layout in progress
 
#21 ·
Cool. You moved those single chairs to the back. Additional seating for the second row. Looks very good. Also, more spacious in terms of moving around. Excellent work! :)
 
#23 ·
Man that's a lot of speakers!!!! The one thing I wish I had was a layout like yours that enabled me to install more speakers. I may go up to 7.1 with front heights as that would really be my only feasible option but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Nice setup Peter! Looking forward to seeing more progress pics as you move forward with your plans.
 
#26 ·
how do you like the surrounds mounted to the side wall and the rear walls? if your not in a sweet spot is it still enveloping? i am guessing you send the same surround signal split to the sides and the surround back to the rear ( 7.1 ) ? thanks.

dave
 
#30 ·
how do you like the surrounds mounted to the side wall and the rear walls? if your not in a sweet spot is it still enveloping? i am guessing you send the same surround signal split to the sides and the surround back to the rear ( 7.1 ) ? thanks. dave
The two sets of speakers on the side walls are my side surrounds (basically aligned with the 3-seat couch) and the front wides (located closer to the front of the room). Altogether it is capable of 9.1. My eventual goal is to add front heights and also angle the front wides toward the listening area, but for now they work nicely even with less than ideal alignment.

There is a definite sweet spot at the primary listening position which is ok for most of the time since it's usually just me using it. One of my short term goals is to work on the room acoustics and seating arrangement to improve surround effects and bass response in the non primary listening seats. That is partially why I have not finalized plans for a seating riser or purchased recliners. I would also like to experiment with dipole/bipole and possibly omnipolar surrounds at some point. All budget dependent though.

Looks great! With the size of the room and the vaulted ceilings I'll bet the sound is really rich and incredible
It's a pretty ideal space for the HT with lots of freedom in terms of speaker and seating arrangements. I plan to improve the acoustic treatments but for now the overall sound is quite good IMO.

It's refreshing to read that I'm not alone in this. It's funny how we concentrate on something to the exclusion of others, until...plunk...oh, yeah. :clap: All one can do is laugh and hope it was just embarrassing. It looks awesome so far. The drapery material appears to do a good job of blocking light...as long as they're fully closed. ;) You're right about the rear speakers after the riser is in place - they'll need to be higher. Man, I'm familiar with that circumstance too. The good news is that, after putting up 6 of them, you're an expert at the chore now. It's fun to watch these threads in which a 'finished' setup progresses. The initial setup looked great and comfy, too, if not ideally arranged for viewing pleasure. I do appreciate the clean look obtained from installing the gear in a closet and I like what it did for your speaker arrangement/environment. It just gets better and better! :T 9.1 eh, I bet that pans smoothly and convincingly (not a complaint, but...). Do you think we'll eventually have a couple dozen speakers arrayed about our rooms? I find 4.1 (no center) immersive. I imagine 9.1 is amazing.
Yes, my style is to do things in smaller increments (although I do enjoy following the ground-up theater builds). I do one level of improvements/upgrades and soon get ideas for more. All part of the fun of the hobby. I agree that something like a 4.1 or 5.1 system can sound extremely good with careful setup. I plan to eventually go to 11.1 at which point I don't imagine there will be much merit in adding more speakers to the room. Many believe that to be the case with 5.1, although front wides have made a very noticeable difference IMO. Either way, I enjoy tinkering and experimenting with different options.

Looking good Peter. I need to make it back to Houston some time and check your system out.
Absolutely! Another Houston get together would be fun.


Thanks for all the comments guys. I'm still cleaning up some wiring, so I'll have a few more pics to post soon. I also have a receiver review in progress so that's taking priority over some of the changes to the room for now.
 
#31 ·
Hey folks, getting back into an HTS groove after a somewhat crazy Nov-Jan. I did manage to make some small progress on some changes to my home theater over the last few months. No functional changes, but some much needed cosmetic improvements.

First, the never ending wiring project. I changed my mind about how I wanted to route and conceal wiring when I decided to move my gear from below the TV into the closet. Unfortunately this meant disconnecting everything and having a mostly non-functional HT for a few months.

The effort worth it though, as my AV rack wiring no longer resembles a rat's nest, and there is no longer a big bundle of wires laying on the floor around the perimeter of the room. The room is now wired for up to 11.4 channel configuration. I opted against constructing my own hollow baseboard and chose instead to use some off-the-shelf wire ducts from Wiremold. The Cablemate series had just enough capacity to handle the big bundles going into either side of the AV closet, and were relatively easy to mount. They don't give quite the polished look I would have liked, but saved me the time and hassle of building something from scratch. One criteria of my overall build is to do things in a way that could be pretty easily reversed, in case it becomes essential for us to use this room for another purpose at some point. The Wiremold ducts are pretty easily removable, and would only leave behind some screw holes and a few spots for wires to enter the walls.

You can see a few "before" pictures in some of the posts above. Here are some shots of the finished product. As you can see, the joints look a little tacky but I doubt they'll be as noticeable to anyone else as they are to me. I could also paint them to match the wall color. Either way, it looks 100 times better than loose wires cluttering the floor. That along with finally painting the patches on the back wall has made a big difference for me.



I also upgraded my remote to the URC R40. It is pretty simple to program (no PC software required) and easy to use. I have a Lutron IR controlled light dimmer switch as well which the URC is programmed to control. I use a Monoprice IR repeater with the sensor mounted just above my TV. It works great and allows me to conceal all of my gear in the closet.

The photos don't show much change, but the wiring (re-wiring, I should say) took the bulk of the time. I'm glad to be done with it for now. Next on the list are bass traps (I plan to purchase a set of GIK tri-traps in the next month or so), and risers for the rear seating row. I have some other minor cosmetic upgrades in the works and will post photos of those when finished. Beyond that, I plan to upgrade my acoustic treatments on the side wall - from 2" to 4" thick, and with a 2" air gap between the wall and panels. Don't know if it will happen this year but I'm itching for a sub upgrade as well. Not sure yet what I'll get but I'll most likely go dual or quad to help with even response throughout the room (you can see in the photos that the rear corners of the room are wired for subs). A work in progress, as always.
 
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