My New Theater

[bkeeler10]

Update: theater has been painted (well, mostly - they ran out of paint so will finish later). Picture attached. We went with a very deep, coffee brown that I think will look really nice.

Our general contractor let us know that he will be out of town for like two months starting at the end of April. Fortunately, he is determined to get us done before he leaves. I say, he'd better have us done! Anyway, nice to have a pretty firm finish date.

It's kind of surreal - I've been dreaming of and planning for a dedicated theater for years now, and it's so close and yet it's hard to believe it's almost here. Exciting!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Thanks Sonnie. Does your room have its own HVAC system, or are you tied to the rest of the house? How many walls/ceiling/floor are shared with adjacent rooms (as opposed to being exterior walls)? As I recall, you have a nice "buffer zone" hallway just outside your theater which I bet helps a lot on that side.

Yes... we do have the hallway between the house and room, but we leave the door open to the house most of the time, unless we are having evaluations with lots of speakers in the hallway, then we keep it shut to keep the cat from coming in and using the speakers as a scratching post.

We also have a separate HVAC system for the hallway and the room... a small unit of course.

You are sure getting close... can't wait to see it all done.

 

[JStewart]

I got to thinking about the subs again, and perhaps the way to go is to use three 18" boxes. It's hard to imagine how that would not be enough output in my fairly small, sealed room. In fact, there's a bit more radiating area in the three 18" woofers than there would be in four 15" woofers.

So its not Rythmic, but just in case you haven't seen it. Chane is closing out an 18" passive sub and their amp at a ridiculously low price.
https://www.chanemusiccinema.com/index.php?route=product/special

 

[bkeeler10]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm pretty set on Rythmik, but that is a great price for sure. I would have liked to see some specs on those - maybe I'll check with Jon on that.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Great color choice.

 

[Asere]

Congratulations! All the hard work and dedication is paying off. Can't wait to see pictures once completed.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I guess the only question is: what movie will you watch first????

 

[bkeeler10]

Congratulations! All the hard work and dedication is paying off. Can't wait to see pictures once completed.

Thank you sir. Work has slowed on the theater itself, while other "higher priority" things are finished up.

I really need to get going on acoustic treatments and building subwoofer boxes, but other things have taken all my free time and some of my sleeping time too. Can't wait until this thing is finished so we can start living again. The latest thing has been our kitchen, which got torn out last week and should be mostly operational again by the end of this week.

 

[bkeeler10]

I guess the only question is: what movie will you watch first????

Good question. I am so picky about the movie experience that I haven't wanted to watch many movies since my previous system was taken down. All that's really been available for a couple of months now is an old 30"ish 4:3 CRT TV and its speakers Not happening. So, needless to say, the list of movies we haven't seen but want to is really stacking up.

Small list of front-runners that I still haven't seen: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes, Thor: Ragnarok, Spiderman: Homecoming
Stuff I want to watch again: Oblivion, Mission Impossible movies, Hunger Games movies, Gravity (still one of the best Atmos mixes, I hear)
Concerts: Celtic Woman (sorry, but I do love them); Chris Botti Live in Boston, Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague (I've heard great things about this one.

Any suggestions, Todd? Or anyone else. I tend to shy away from R-rated movies, so I will probably ignore those suggestions

 

[Todd Anderson]

You know what?

Go "Gravity Diamond Luxe" with Dolby Atmos. It won't disappoint!

 

[Asere]

Tron:Legacy and 9 are loaded with bass
My wife thinks I am

 

[JBrax]

I’ve gotta admit it’s really hard removing all the “R” rated movies while providing suggestions. However, I understand and do what you do. Todd and Asere have provided a few outstanding titles that I couldn’t agree with more. On a side note thanks for the Hans Zimmer suggestion and after further research it’s on its way. The Art of Flight would be my suggestion.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Looking great.

Just remember: don’t commit the cardinal sin. Don’t hook up the projector until you have everything you want done for the next three years complete. Once the projector and speakers are operational, nothing else gets done.

 

[bkeeler10]

On a side note thanks for the Hans Zimmer suggestion and after further research it’s on its way. The Art of Flight would be my suggestion.

Let me know what you think of the Hans Zimmer concert when you get a chance. There are people over on "the other forum" raving about it.

The Art of Flight has been on my list for quite some time. I'll be checking it out at some point.

 

[bkeeler10]

Looking great.

Just remember: don’t commit the cardinal sin. Don’t hook up the projector until you have everything you want done for the next three years complete. Once the projector and speakers are operational, nothing else gets done.

The only advantage to having waited this long is that I've had to exercise a lot of patience. At this point, it's like hey what's another month? I plan to get everything installed, broken in, calibrated, etc before dropping a disc in the tray. Now, whether that patience persists once the equipment starts rolling in is yet to be determined . . .

 

[Todd Anderson]

Art of Flight is a good one... perhaps a little long in the tooth for my taste, but the first 20 mins are sensational!

Good suggestion @JBrax

 

[JBrax]

Art of Flight is a good one... perhaps a little long in the tooth for my taste, but the first 20 mins are sensational!

Good suggestion @JBrax

Ok, is it possible to both like and dislike a comment? The first 20 minutes aren’t even the best part Todd! We’re done.....irreconcilable differences.

 

[Todd Anderson]

LOL. There's no separation , Jeff!

 

[JBrax]

Someone’s going to the couch at the very least. This is up there with your E.T. take!

 

[JBrax]

Off topic but....Tidal....Bad Wolves: Zombie

 

[Todd Anderson]

Someone’s going to the couch at the very least. This is up there with your E.T. take!

You make a good point. I definitely do not... repeat: DO NOT... recommend ruining your new home theater by trying to reignite that Time Crushed HOF gem from the 80s!

 

[bkeeler10]

Well wow, it's been almost two months since I updated the thread. Remember how in the last update we were pretty sure we'd be done by the end of April? Well, we're still not done and the theater has basically not been touched. On the plus side, we are getting close and all the theater needs really is sheetrock in the A/V closet, a projector hush box built, paint touch-up and carpet.

But it's driving me crazy not being done yet. When we broke ground (late September), my most pessimistic estimate of when we'd be done was end of February . . . now eight months later we still have a few weeks to go most likely.

Remodel is a real pain . . .

 

[Sonnie Parker]

lol... sounds like you are ready for a new theater. What's been holding you up? Can't get your contracting crew to work?

 

[bkeeler10]

Heh, that's the thing right? The theater/music room is where I go to get away from it all, and it is of course non-existent.

The hard thing has been getting subcontractors to show up and do the work. Construction is so busy in general, and we have a couple of huge commercial projects going on around us too. Throw that together, and getting subs to work on small projects like ours is well nigh impossible. Take the plumber, for example, who was supposed to show up and finish his portion of the work. We waited like three weeks for him to come, and when he did he was there three hours and got very little done. That was two or three weeks ago. Our general contractor has been forced into doing some of the work of subcontractors himself, which he doesn't really have time to do and in some cases isn't so good at.

It's actually come to a head for our general, who tells me ours is the last remodel he will be doing for the foreseeable future due to the scheduling nightmare. He has a roofing business that he will be focusing on going forward until this situation reverses itself. In the meantime, we're mostly in limbo.

I think I'm going to have to call on some people I know who have done this stuff before and get to work on what I can do myself with their help. Not that I have time for that, but this situation is really wearing on our family. Since most rooms are getting some sort of work done and are in some state of disarray, we have been pinched into a small living area. We have five kids in one small bedroom, our master bedroom and bathroom are being worked on, our front room is half full of storage and kitchen stuff, our kitchen is only half functional, and the whole basement is completely unlivable.

Okay, rant over. Sorry. We will get there, eventually.

 

[Todd Anderson]

We are getting super close to undergoing some fairly large renovations, including an addition. I think I’m dreading the inevitable long timeline as much as the inevitable house-wide dust!