Building dedicated HT room from scratch

RxPolksterRx

I went to postaround 20-30 pics this weekend and it only came up small 5 kb thumbnail pics. The files were 1500-2000 kbs though? Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Wanted the pics to be larger files so you could actually see them.

But room is completed except for chair rail, crown molding, and the enclosed media shelf in the back (4x5 hole right now- will be fir blurays and Oppo in the future).

First impressions- Wow- plenty of sound and blown away bass- had to turn down the Epiks in the MAACC setup ti around a 1/4 or less bc it said it was reading too loud. They are usually left at this level unless I want to really impress and turn them to less than half and even at that setting the room, along with the house (3 floors up) begin to shake! Need to tweak the highs, especially the FXIa6's, because some highs are too bright- almost piercing.

The picture is incredible and haven't done any calibration to it yet.

Only thing I didnt calculate on my initial drawings were the seats in the fully reclined position. I would have made my riser about another 2 inches higher (9 right now after carpet) or raised the screen up another 3 inches to be able to see the full screen with someone taller sitting in the front seats. I also thought I would have a walkway behind the seats to get to the shelf, but not possible d/t the chairs being only a couple inches away from the back wall. The seat company sent me the wrong configuration (front sears were to be a love seat- right now have 2 right arm chairs leaving one without an arm completely. They are sending me the correct one as we speak white glove. And actually going to keep all 6- got the new chair for 50% off.

But any ideas on how to make the sound less bright? Used an SPL meter and used 75 as a reference. Oh and how should I position the epiks? I have them both in the front right now - 1 between the center and the RIght rti12 and the other between the center and the left rti12. I have the subs firing towards the speakers and each other- should I turn them and have one of the woofers facing the wall and the other towards the seats or leave as is?

Thanks for all the help throughout!!

RxPolksterRx

Pics to be posted later today!

RxPolksterRx

Finally here are the pics as promised...not sure why they got turned counterclockwise on some since I had saved them correctly...sorry! I will be posting more when the room is all the way completed. Ended up doing all of this in less than a month (4 weekends- 2 very hard weekends and 2 ~ well you know...)

Start of room-

Old HVAC placement-

HVAC unit moved back 3 feet- old placement is now back of room-

Old door placement-

Open door frame-

New door framed-

Added breaker box-

Steel studs of screen wall in place-

New back wall up before other is taken down-

After the first weekend of work- stage for back seats

Insulation in place (R19)

Back view of the drywall-

Trim painted and a nice view of the trim under the stage. Carpet on the stage with 2 elictric outlets to use-

Living room of my new house...some may say get furniture first...but I like to get the most important things out of the way! haha..

Make anyone smile any day of the week seeing these 3 boxes...

Epson 6010!

Back 3 Lane 175 Grand Slam seats-

R30 insulation over ceiling and sound dampening ceiling tiles-

after screen was up and front heights in place (pinpoint am40 mounts)

back speakers

Door up and in place-

trim up around door

screen with all speakers in place

mood lights up and can see sconces. will be putting up crown molding to hide the rope lights

equipment rack with my other goodies- I will be boxing in the hole seen to the left and making it an in wall shelf for blurays and Oppo-93-

Star Wars and up and running!

RxPolksterRx

Have a total of 4 cans and 1 track light, 2 sconces, and 2 rope lights in the room. Each set is controlled by a lutron URC RF dimmer switch (3 total) and a URC MX-880 remote.

Still need to put up the chairrail and finish the back cabinet and put the trim around it. I also still need to put up the crown molding.

RxPolksterRx

Total cost came in at ~ $18,500. Less than $1,000 was labor since we did almost the entire job: electrician- $300, drywall/mudding/ceiling- $300, $200 off rent to my buddy who helped, 200 to others for gas, tools, etc.
Largest expenses:
1. Projector/screen- $4200
2. Epiks- ~ $1725 (can't remember exact shipping costs)
3. Chairs- $1620
4. SC-57- $1,484
5. 9 new Polk speakers- $1780 (all bought from Polk Direct except FxiA6- $500 from chrutchfield with free psw 8" sub).

Couple things I would have done differently-

1. Calculate for finishing costs. My $10,000 budget was stuck to...but just for equipment.
2. Either raised my screen up another 6 inches (matte is at around 7'3" and actual screen 7') or raised the riser another 2 inches - used 2x8+ pad/carpet. Right now the back row can't fully see the bottom if they are reclined and the fronts are not.
3. I did a great job drawing everything to scale and worked out great...except I didn't calculate the chairs in the reclined position. In order for the chairs to be reclined and not hit the chairs in front, they had to be just a few inches from the back wall and not leave the walkway I had planned on having to get to the shelf. It will still be usable but will have to reach over the middle chair.
4. Built the door frame before electrician came out- the light switch is on the other side when the door is opened- glad I leave my remote by the door to turn the RF lights on.

Things I'm glad I did-

1. The whole project and that it is fully paid off. Also glad I used the same credit card- got close to $300 cashback for the project.
2. Bargained and looked for deals. Saved several thousand at my local A/V store comparing prices. This way I know the person I bought it from and know the warranties are good. What's the worst that can happen- they say no- which they did once or twice but glad I went local and have a place like that here.
3. Research. Spent countless hours reading and then rereading over and over to be sure on a product before buying it based on just one persons thought.
4. Creating thus post- you all helped out a great deal and gave me great ideas/thoughts.
5. Insulate- r19 in all the walls and r30 on the ceiling. Helps dampen the sound but can still be heard on the 3rd floor when turned up a bit.
6. Power- ran 3 dedicated lines to the room- 1 for just the projector and A/V stack, 1 for the outlets, 1 for lights (will tie in later for other lights as the basement gets finished).
7. Upgraded carpet choice. Sure it cost an extra $400 for it (got $100 off bargaining), but love the feel of it and like knowing it will last.
8. Putting trim up.
9. Went all RF. Love being able to control everything with a push of a button, including the lights.

Just a few things..I'm sure there is a lot of things I left out of both but tired of typing on my iPhone (sorry for typos). Haha!

Sherardp

Theater looks great and all good comments for anyone looking to start a project. You mentioned wanting to tame brightness, in your SC 57 there is a setting that will handle that. I forgot what it's called, but give your manual a look over it's in there though. Enjoy the theater.

Lietuvis91

Oh man, that looks really sweat! Nice write up too. I will build a ht room one day, so your experience is nice and useful to read through. Good work!

I wish I could help u with the brightness issue. Typically your speakers will have this tendency to begin with (which rtis do) And then the design of your gear can either tame it or make it worse. This might mean the new pio receivers r on the bright side. I have read this before other places. I hope you find that setting to tame it. That would definitely be the easy and cheapest solution.