New House Office Setup (V 2.0)

EndersShadow

So I decided to go all in on my HT and move away from 2 channel. I downsized my rig, adjusted my room layout to be more conducive to a kids living room which is what it will be.

We bought some furniture off a Facebook garage sale group and eventually are going to get a small TV and entertainment center and my Salamander rack will go away...

I'm sad to lose my space, but it was my decision and as @DSkip put it "You have the system for the way you live right now"....

I will get back into a serious 2 channel setup at some point, but honestly if this cheap setup works better for my family and can keep my kids still enjoying music like they do.... I'm ok with it...

Some picture of where it was, how it morphed, and where it is now...

When we first moved in



After settling in for a bit..





Flirting with greatness, but alas it was not a match made in heaven:





After some small changes to the equipment





After some additional equipment changes:





After selling stuff off in anticipation of the changes:



Had the chair at this point and was getting ready for the couch. This was option 1.





That was not an acceptable solution, so option 2 was born...





And after the delivery of the couch and installation, this is what we are left with...

Not a bad deal for 100 bucks... Its a rocker recliner...

EndersShadow

And here is why I'm "OK" with that...

















**Note the equipment pictured here isnt accurate to what I have... the list at the bottom is 100% accurate**








Equipment List:
TV: Panasonic 60" ST30 Plasma
Receiver/Pre-amp: Denon X4100A
Amplifier: B&K 200.5 (375 wpc @ 4 ohms, 78 lb monster), Dayton SA-1000 sub amp
Fronts: Polk LSi 15's modded with a db840 sub (crossover upgrade next)
Center: Polk LSi C
Surrounds: Polk LSi F/X (wall mounted)
Sub: DIYSoundGroup Ported Cube 15 box w Stereo Integrity HT-15 D2 sub (build thread here) & Buttkicker BK-Kit-4 (specs here)
Misc Gear: Xbox One, HTPC, Uverse DVR, Squeezebox Classic

Speaker Cables:

Left, Right & Center: Kimber Kable 8VS internally bi-wired with bananas on both ends
Surround Left, Surround Right: Monoprice 14 gauge with Monster Quick Connect banana's on the amp end and quickflex connectors on the speaker end
DIY Sub: 10 foot Audioquest FLX 14/4 with Monster Quick Connect banana's on both ends
Buttkicker: 25 foot Furez 10/2 with Monster Quick Connect banana's on both ends (thanks @helipilotdoug & DouglasConnection for the GREAT WIRE!)

Interconnects:

Left & Right: 1.5m Kimber Kable Hero
Center: .5m Kimber Kable Hero
Surround Left, Surround Right: 1m Emotiva X series (soon to be replaced by .5m Kimber Kable Heros)
DIY Sub: 1M Emotiva X series (soon to be replaced with 1m Audioquest Black Thunder)
Buttkicker: Stock RCA provided with kit (soon to be replaced with 1m Audioquest Black Thunder)
Misc Sub connectors: AudioQuest adapter - RCA male to two RCA female - hard assembly x 2

Powercables:
PS Audio AC-3 2m - B&K 200.5
PS Audio AC-3 1.5m - Dayton SA-1000
PS Audio AC-3 1.5m - HTPC
PS Audio Premier .6m - Xbox One
PS Audio AC-3 1m - Denon X4100a
PS Audio AC-3 - APC H15


HDMI Cables:
Generic 2m - Denon -> Darbee
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 5m - Darbee -> TV
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - HTPC -> Denon
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - Xbox One-> Denon
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - Uverse -> Denon

mrbiron

No spit!....I'm planning the same exact thing. Brother....is that you?

Will you support that damn entertainment center! Unless your making it into a boomerang in which I will shut my mouth and apologize via a hand written letter.

EndersShadow

mrbiron wrote: »

No spit!....I'm planning the same exact thing. Brother....is that you?

Will you support that damn entertainment center! Unless your making it into a boomerang in which I will shut my mouth and apologize via a hand written letter.

HA! Since that pic was taken I spray painted some 2x4 supports and glued them to support the two middle sides all the way down and the another in the middle lol...

So it's fully supported and the shelves are now level lol..

I will post a picture in a bit and expect that letter in the mail by the end of the week hehehe

txcoastal1

I talked to Dan earlier today, he was a little short of breath

Good job dude

txcoastal1

DSkip wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

I talked to Dan earlier today, he was a little short of breath

Good job dude

I prefer to to make them hold their breath.

Like you gave any warning

EndersShadow

txcoastal1 wrote: »

I talked to Dan earlier today, he was a little short of breath

Good job dude

HA! That was from running all my empty boxes from the loft closet to the shed lol....

I'm a original packaging hoarder hehehe....

It looks nice and is comfy. Now to get a good sized TV in there and hardwire the house (which is what Ron @txcoastal1 and I were talking about on the phone lol)....

Now THAT will leave me short of breath lol..

WagnerRC

Looks great!

FTGV

Nice pair of RS II's Dan.Loved them when I first heard them at an audio show in the early 80s.

EndersShadow

FTGV wrote: »

Nice pair of RS II's Dan.Loved them when I first heard them at an audio show in the early 80s.

Thanks... They've since moved on. They just weren't right for my room and taste in music hehehe....

It's ok. You can't always win and that's what makes this fun.

My HT is my play area..... For now

FTGV

I would like to find a pair in good shape but they are rare in these parts.

EndersShadow

FTGV wrote: »

I would like to find a pair in good shape but they are rare in these parts.

Yeah these needed a small bit of TLC but I knew that going in and the price was right.

EndersShadow

The loft conversion is complete. I've got all the gear in there. Minus any speaker decisions yet to be made its setup and complete.

My wife likes it, Skye loves it so I'd say its a success.

This weekend I installed some networking equipment to get things setup right on the Roku up there. As detailed earlier, everything BUT PLEX was working good enough wirelessly, however I really wanted to get PLEX working. I knew given the Roku's location and the location of the router as well as the size of the files I would be playing I would need to hardwire things.

So last week I hopped on Monoprice & Newegg and ordered my stuff. From monoprice a 1000' pre-terminated Cat 5e cable, 100 6' velcro cable straps and 100 9' of the same for cable management purposes. From newegg a single 5 & 8 port Netgear prosafe gigabit switch.

All the supplies came in on Thursday and Friday morning to wait for this weekend.

Friday night while everyone slept I installed a 8 port netgear prosafe switch in the bedroom and hooked everything in that room up to it. That consisted of a Roku, Uverse DVR, blu-ray player (which I should just sell since we dont use it anymore), Insignia TV and a ADT wireless networking box for our alarm system.

That left JUST the downstairs Uverse wireless dongle connected to the switch and two free ports at that time. I would utilize one of the free ports for the switch for my loft, and leave one more open for the switch in the HT eventually.

Long term the plan is to hardwire everything but maybe the squeezebox's and our phones/tablets/laptops, etc. But thats another discussion.

Saturday I spend the morning running a Cat 5 cable across the baseboards in the master and into the master closet. From there I went up the door frame and into the attic. Then across the entire attic about 5 feet from the floor where possible. I also crisscrossed the cable on some rafters and rafter supports to ensure it stayed put. We have about 2 feet or more of blown in insulation so I wanted to be able to easily find and check the cable later if needed. Then down the inside of my loft closet doorframe across the baseboards to finally terminate into a separate 5 port switch for the devices in this room. That consists of the regular computer and Roku currently with the possibility of the HTPC from the downstairs rack making its way up here eventually.

So currently in this loft area I have the following:

Computer
Seagate 3TB external backup drive
Cambridge Audio SR20 - not in use yet
Carver C-1 (awaiting some additional mods at a later date)
APC H15
Insignia 43" LED TV
Whalen rack with TV Mount.

I of course took pictures which are below

**On a side note the Salamander Archtype 5.0 in Cherry will be listed for sale soon as will the desk you see in the pictures. If interested in either PM me**

Back of our entertainment center rack in the bedroom with switch #1




Up the master doorframe:




Across the attic (sorry no pics of this, was to focused on not falling through the ceiling and dying to take pictures)

Down the loft closet






Back of the new rack with switch #2







How it all looks totally done (for now)





@txcoastal1 I will still be in contact later this year to get the stuff to do a more professional job using keystone jacks, but this works great for now.

txcoastal1

You're looking good, visibility to minimal.
Residential sux, that's why I got out of the resi market. Back in the day people paid a premium for us to come in and custom wire which could take days to weeks. Wireless took over now people have a heart attack when you give them a price for custom jobs.

EndersShadow

txcoastal1 wrote: »

You're looking good, visibility to minimal.
Residential sux, that's why I got out of the resi market. Back in the day people paid a premium for us to come in and custom wire which could take days to weeks. Wireless took over now people have a heart attack when you give them a price for custom jobs.

That's cause people are idiots lol...

My wireless signal on my computer at that location went from 1 mg to 54 every 30 seconds lol... For computer use no biggie, streaming anything over low Rez....
Fuggidaboutdit

However I believe you made a EXTREMLY smart decision and I would done the same. Or at least only do presiding on new builds where everything is open so it's easier to get in and out.

People are cheap, I'm a example, but I realize you either pay more and lose no time or effort or pay less and give time and effort.

For me this isn't too bad, and honestly wiring the kids bedrooms won't be bad at all if I go that route. I am re-evaluating my exit point for the HT wiring though knowing what I do now about the attic. I also won't ever be putting all the networking equipment in the loft closet either.

The master closet would work much better for that.

mrbiron

Sheetrock can always be repaired. Grab a keyhole saw and start hacking away!

EndersShadow

mrbiron wrote: »

Sheetrock can always be repaired. Grab a keyhole saw and start hacking away!

Yeah but I don't have the raw materials to run the cable yet lol

jeremymarcinko

Not to shabby...your cable management skills are much better than mine.

scubalab

Lookin good Dan!

polk500

EndersShadow wrote: »

And here is why I'm "OK" with that...

















**Note the equipment pictured here isnt accurate to what I have... the list at the bottom is 100% accurate**








Equipment List:
TV: Panasonic 60" ST30 Plasma
Receiver/Pre-amp: Denon X4100A
Amplifier: B&K 200.5 (375 wpc @ 4 ohms, 78 lb monster), Dayton SA-1000 sub amp
Fronts: Polk LSi 15's modded with a db840 sub (crossover upgrade next)
Center: Polk LSi C
Surrounds: Polk LSi F/X (wall mounted)
Sub: DIYSoundGroup Ported Cube 15 box w Stereo Integrity HT-15 D2 sub (build thread here) & Buttkicker BK-Kit-4 (specs here)
Misc Gear: Xbox One, HTPC, Uverse DVR, Squeezebox Classic

Speaker Cables:

Left, Right & Center: Kimber Kable 8VS internally bi-wired with bananas on both ends
Surround Left, Surround Right: Monoprice 14 gauge with Monster Quick Connect banana's on the amp end and quickflex connectors on the speaker end
DIY Sub: 10 foot Audioquest FLX 14/4 with Monster Quick Connect banana's on both ends
Buttkicker: 25 foot Furez 10/2 with Monster Quick Connect banana's on both ends (thanks @helipilotdoug & DouglasConnection for the GREAT WIRE!)

Interconnects:

Left & Right: 1.5m Kimber Kable Hero
Center: .5m Kimber Kable Hero
Surround Left, Surround Right: 1m Emotiva X series (soon to be replaced by .5m Kimber Kable Heros)
DIY Sub: 1M Emotiva X series (soon to be replaced with 1m Audioquest Black Thunder)
Buttkicker: Stock RCA provided with kit (soon to be replaced with 1m Audioquest Black Thunder)
Misc Sub connectors: AudioQuest adapter - RCA male to two RCA female - hard assembly x 2

Powercables:
PS Audio AC-3 2m - B&K 200.5
PS Audio AC-3 1.5m - Dayton SA-1000
PS Audio AC-3 1.5m - HTPC
PS Audio Premier .6m - Xbox One
PS Audio AC-3 1m - Denon X4100a
PS Audio AC-3 - APC H15


HDMI Cables:
Generic 2m - Denon -> Darbee
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 5m - Darbee -> TV
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - HTPC -> Denon
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - Xbox One-> Denon
Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI 3m - Uverse -> Denon

Dan kids do make us adjust our ways and rethink what's inportant, but you're not slumming it brother that is a GREAT HT set up.

Enjoy

EndersShadow

polk500 wrote: »

Dan kids do make us adjust our ways and rethink what's important, but you're not slumming it brother that is a GREAT HT set up.

Enjoy

Yup.... just wish I could really I could go full throttle more often lol..

polk500

Ya I here ya,

Cheers

tonyb

Looks nice Dan.

Except I'm starting to wonder if that's your house. All those pics you keep posting. I never see a live human being in any of them.

polk500

tonyb wrote: »

Looks nice Dan.

Except I'm starting to wonder if that's your house. All those pics you keep posting. I never see a live human being in any of them.

Hey Tony there is one of a midget or his Daugther standing on a stool looking at his collection of records.

mrbiron

Russian mail order brides are kinda like vampires....

dee1949

... if you need a quality 32" HDTV to go in your kids system??? Highly recommend below: ... the "REFURBISHED" one at $180.00. Awesome contrast and color. Commercial grade monitor. Just got one for myself.

http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-VT3200-L-32-Inch-60Hz-1080p/dp/B00HRRPPPY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1460951737&sr=1-1&keywords=VT3200-L

EndersShadow

^Nah, happy with the 43" we have now. Fits just right.

EndersShadow

So I'm going to keep updating this thread as I go.

After getting everything in the loft hardwired its working great. I plan to move my HTPC up here so its hardwired, and I already have installed the little NAS I bought from @John Megadeth here as well.

The next piece of gear that I have for the room is a Karma from a member here. I need to say thanks to @scubalab his MRX-500. The HDMI output doenst work but it seems like everything else is working just fine.

I got the chance yesterday to update the firmware in it and play with ARC on my LSi 15's.

I was quite impressed.

This little MRX will work great as I will go coaxial from my computer to it for music (and HDMI to the TV) and for the Roku I will go HDMI to the TV and then optical out to the MRX as well.

That way I dont need to worry about the lack of HDMI switching.

Paired with a Logitech Harmony One Remote it should make short work of things.

I also am looking at snatching up 1-2 cabinets for a VBSS sub soon and make them endtables which would mean 1 or 2 18" subs in that room with a pair of TBA speakers powered by the MRX. Not sure what I'd be using for the subs but likely something small like a XLS 1000 or the like as I dont anticipate needing a TON of power for this sub, its not going to ever be used like the one in my HT.

I think that will make for a VERY decent little system for this setup.

EndersShadow

Slowly getting there.

I'm taking my time on this peicing together things. The equipment is pretty well set, but I'm going to audition an TON of DIY speaker options on May 22nd in Chicago to see whats out there that I might like to build and make my own. Mainly kits from DIYSoundGroup. After that I have a local hi-fi store as well as trying to hook up with @indyhawg to hear his Usher bookies and other stuff he's hoarding hehehe....

I've also found a DIY sub option for under 200 which will require an amp. Its called the VBSS on AVSForum. Its a 18" pro audio driver in a ported 6 cubic foot box that does quite well and digs deep enough for me. I will be clading the MDF in veneer or a false enclosure to make it a downfiring endtable in my room since I need one anyway.

The ONLY complaint I have is on this Anthem it's a PITA to setup this thing using the AVR screen rather than on screen OSD lol. Its NOT the most intuitive but maybe I'm just too use to Audyssey.

Thank God I just have 2 inputs to setup both digital.

Coaxial 1 is from the PC for music. It has the most pure signal path of PC -> Black Cat Veloce coaxial cable -> Anthem

Optical 2 is from the TVs optical out so it will send audio from and source sending audio to the TV, which is current just the Roku and video game systems I have connected through composite etc.

All I care about is the music part and that is a pure clean connection.

Set it up with my really crappy Sony bookies just because the TV speakers while more than loud enough, were reflecting off the back wall and the glass shelf and got REALLY LOUD downstairs while being barely audible in the loft.

The Anthem is still using the ARC file from my LSi 15's + DIY Sub but I care not lol....

Gotta get bookshelves smaller that 9.5" wide it looks like lol..... Shouldn't be a problem.

Some pictures..

scubalab

Sweet lookin' setup Dan! Somethin' in that rack looks very familiar...

You might give the folks at Anthem a call. IIRC, they told me another way to navigate through the menus (yes, the OSD sucks) and perhaps output video through the component?? I can't remember exactly what they said, so might be worth a quick call to them.

EndersShadow

scubalab wrote: »

Sweet lookin' setup Dan! Somethin' in that rack looks very familiar...

You might give the folks at Anthem a call. IIRC, they told me another way to navigate through the menus (yes, the OSD sucks) and perhaps output video through the component?? I can't remember exactly what they said, so might be worth a quick call to them.

Yeah... but I dont have any component cables either lol...........

I will probably buy some after checking that works with them........ Wonder if they make a compnent to HDMI adapter so I can leave it connected to a HDMI Port and leave the composite port open for my gaming systems.......