The home theater...

[theterminator93]

8/6/21

I think I'm finally DONE with this thing!

2nd row of seats arrived today. Now it's time to get serious...



I made the mistake of adding up how much all the "goodies" in the theater cost.

Projector $1200 (normally this thing is $3000 but I got a GREAT deal)
Speakers $450
Receiver $400
Acoustical Panels (build myself to save $$$) $200
Seats $7800

Yeah, ten grand... but hey, I'm happy to share! That's on top of the $20,000 it cost for me to finish out the basement. I look at that number and tell myself though, "it would have cost $50,000 more if I had paid someone else to do it for me"...

 

[theterminator93]

11/10/21

Browsing this thread again as I'm about to tackle finishing my own home theater this winter. Stay tuned! I'm very excited to share my plans and progress as I get going on this project. I'll be busy with work until the middle of December. I hope to have everything together and knock this out by the end of the year.

I love those seats! I'm looking to do a 2 x 3 seating configuration (Two rows of 3 seats).

Couple of questions Brandon:

Which screen did you get and how much was it? I think for my application I'm going to get a large OLED TV.
Which projector did you get? If you mentioned it earlier sorry I missed it.

So, you went with a 7.1 system? Any plans to add ATMOS height speakers in the ceiling?

Where did you get the corner shelves for the rear surrounds? I've got some bookshelf speakers that are currently on speaker stands that I'd like to get up on the walls.

Where did you put the subwoofer? Which corner of the room?

Here's the screen/projector/shelves and what I paid for them. I snagged the projector at a hugely discounted closeout (like 60% off) from the manufacturer because at the time they had just released its successor, the 5050UB.

Projector: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5040UB - $1200
Screen: Elite Screens AcousticPro UHD 120" - $700
Receiver: Onkyo TX-RZ720 - $400
Speakers: Onkyo SKS-HT993THX - $600
Speaker shelves: These 8"x10" floating shelves from Home Depot - $40

I did run wiring for four overhead in-ceiling speakers. When the time comes to replace or upgrade the receiver, I will get an 11 channel 7.1.4 unit then put the speakers in. If I had to guess, that'll happen sometime in the 2030s.

The subwoofer is more or less front-and-center. When I designed the shelves, I centered the screen and matched the width of the shelves on either side (that go floor to ceiling) to the width of the outer shelves under the screen. The space that remained at the center was conveniently perfect for me to split in half to have a perfectly sized subwoofer cavity and a place to put the receiver and BD player.

Here are a couple fresh photos of the front, with a close-up of the sub/electronics at the center.

 

[theterminator93]

I can't thank Brandon enough for sharing the details of his build. It's inspired me to finish my own home theater (That and the timing is now right for me to dig back into this project.) I'm going to piggyback my build onto this great thread.

So, here's my plan:

• 11.2 Channel 8K ready 140w per channel 2 Channel (Or 98w per channel with all channels driven) Receiver: Marantz SR8015
• Receiver Cooling: AC Infinity AIRCOM T8, Quiet Cooling Blower Fan System 17" Rear-Exhaust
• DOLBY ATMOS Height Speakers: Klipsch CDT-5800-C II (QTY 4) - I found them in stock and for half the MSRP on Amazon.
• I already have numerous Infinity Speakers from my time in the Army to use for my main 7 channels and 2 Subs, I also have two Center Channel speakers that I will wire in parallel to the amp presenting a 4 Ohm Load.
• I also have a Carver TFM-35 AMP (250 w x 2 Channels) to run the subs with. My plan is for a 7.2.4 system with 15" subs.
• Power Conditioner/Surge Protector/Voltage Regulator: PANAMAX M5400-PM
• For the cabinet I found this really nice piece, but unfortunately it's sitting on a container ship and won't be available until March. TELLURIDE TV Stand 85"

I'm still debating TV vs projector. I've got my eye on the LG C1 OLED at 83" but I haven't committed to it yet. I'm also considering the Sony VPL-VW325ES projector.

The room is 19' 6" long x 15' 8" wide with a 9' wide dormer in the middle that I'm going to put the TV or Projector Screen and component cabinet in and center the system on. The ceiling is 8'.

12/18/21

Ok, the Marantz took a sh!t in less than a month after taking it out of the box. Unbelievable for a $4,000 AVR. Fortunately Marantz has a 60 day return policy so FedEx has it and it's on it's way back to them.

After ordering the Marartz SR8015 on 11/18/21 directly from Marantz the unit ran an over the air (Wi-Fi) firmware update about a week after installation and promptly stopped connecting to my home network. It wouldn't recognize the network over Wi-Fi or if directly connected to the router.

Attempted Fixes:

Calling Marantz
resetting my router
plugging the unit directly into my router.
re-initialization of the unit and ...
attempting to reset the firmware


If you were in the market for an AVR what would you buy? I'm shopping again.

Here's my list under consideration:

Denon AVR-X8500HA
Denon AVR-6700H
Yahama Avantage RX-A8A
Anthem MRX-1140
Marantz SR8015


First world problems, I know. LOL

I like my $500 Denon. This is a totally different level though, so I'm not sure if they are up to par.

Which model is it that you have?

At first glance I would gravitate towards the 6700H, but I haven't looked into them in earnest.

Thanks Seth and Brandon.

The Denon 6700H and Marantz SR8015 are basically the same units. The Marantz has a Torordial and the Dennon has an E-I transformer. There are other differences between the two brands. If you're interested here's a good explanation of those differences between Denon and Marantz.

I also like that these units support impedance from 4 to 16 Ohms. I have two center channel speakers that I run in parallel which presents a 4 ohm load to the amp, otherwise everything else is 8 ohm.

The toroidal transformer is a good thing. Marantz is a company that puts their name on stuff; I saw a set of vcr's back in the 89's that were all identical outside, only the front panel with the name was different.
They made some really good stuff in the 80's.
I used to have a quadraphonic amp by them that went with a 4-channel reel to reel; I remember having Led zep 4 recorded
/i/n quadrophonic mix, it was awesome. I traded that stuff for a sanyo tape deck for my 63tbird. It had dolby C and DBX playback, which meshed nicely with the recording deck I bought. Oh, I recieved the tape you made; I'll be working on it later.

I have the 1513. Looks like it's discontinued. It's a 5.1 and I think 75w per channel. I got it in a kit I found on Amazon after doing some research at Best Buy and online. It came with Boston Acoustic speakers and Sub. I think it ran $699 or 799 at the time. It was plenty good for me at the time as the next step was Klipsch, and I wasn't ready to spend $1500-2000 while doing the basement.

I was finishing the entire basement as the house was built with it insulated but unfinished. That allowed for ruining coax, speaker wire, power and everything else before drywall. I also drove 50 miles to get the last plasma Panasonic 60" in the area. For the little we use it, it's just about right for us.

Nice! Denon and Boston Acoustic make good stuff. Sounds like a sweet system for a good price.

I went ahead and ordered another Marantz SR8015 today. Here's hoping it runs better than the last one. According to the tracking info the one I returned should arrive tomorrow and I should see the refund 7 to 10 days after that so it will be a wash on the exchange although my credit card is nearly maxed out with both units on it now plus Christmas stuff and our other regular spending.

I'll be extra careful not to mess it up but I don't think that it's anything that I did to screw up the firmware in the last one. Who knows? I did find a more comprehensive troubleshooting checklist on an audiophile website should I run into trouble with the new one. I've also reset the 60 day return clock with the purchase of another unit.

I should also get my Carver TFM-35 back from the shop next week, it's a 250w x 2 channel AMP. I plan to run my subs with it. Looking forward to hooking everything up.

As I'm going through some of the recent posts, I think your "if I get a projector" choice of the VPL-VW325ES won't be bright enough. Here's the logic....

Unless your room is completely light controlled you'll want something that's at least 2500-3000 lumens to overcome the ambient light.

With lux ratings, that's measured at full lamp power. I'd suggest operating with a more conservative lamp brightness as color rendering is almost universally better at the more "economical" lamp power settings (deeper blacks, better overall color quality and gradients). Not to mention the boost to lamp life and quieter fan operation.

HDR content (4K content's biggest selling point) requires a lot of brightness to show up properly when projected. I have to kick my projector to "bright cinema" mode which is about 1800 lumens and that's just adequate. At my projector's "cinema" brightness level of about 1000 lumens (which has the most accurate color reproduction) HDR content is much too dark. My projector also has a "dynamic" mode (max brightness of about 3500 lumens, surprisingly well over spec) which is what I'd have to use if it wasn't light controlled; but as luck would have it, I've never needed to use it.

Either way, I know you'll do your research and end up with the right mix of equipment for your room.

 

[theterminator93]

I promised Brandon some recent pix of my home theater so here goes. I still need to black out my windows but at night it’s a non-issue. Also still waiting on the AMP for my subs, it should be done next week. 11 channels of sound is no joke! I’m loving it.

Looking good Ron, thanks for sharing!

Joe

Ahhh, so many connection points. I love it.

Thanks guys. Just after I posted the pictures above the electronics shop called and said my amp was ready. I ran down picked it up, ran home and installed it. Then ... NOTHING! After a bit of troubleshooting I believe the sub pre-outs (there are two of them) on the receiver are not working! WTF? A brand new receiver!? Anyway, I'll double check the amp tomorrow and see if there's a setting within the receiver that I'm missing.

That's nice. I've been contemplating some of these blinds after visiting my sister's new house. They offer many different styles and variation of light blocking. Think there is a blackout that would work and give you the color you want. These are a bit spendy.

Roller Shades​

Graber custom roller shades offer clean, structured design without losing light filtration and privacy. Explore our product options and order swatches today!

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Click to expand...

Thanks, and thanks for the tip. I'll check them out. I'll probably just throw up some white paper in the windows and layer that with aluminum foil. The HOA requires that we use white blinds in the neighborhood.

One of my amps has a bridge that has to be installed to get sound, so start with the manual.
That pic above is nerd heaven, lol.

Thanks Greg. I curly queued the RBG connectors just for you. lol.

That TV is actually quite massive, the dormer opening just makes it look small. The TV is 83" diagonal and is about 6' long x 3' high in size.

Further troubleshooting my subs issues this morning I switched back to my old Pioneer AVR and used its amp to run the subs. I did get some sound out of the Carver but the channels are not balanced. Clearly it needs some more work. Anyway, the amp on the Pioneer is working flawlessly. Very happy to now have Subs.

Per Brandon's recommendation and my own knowledge of the issue I ordered some speaker stands to get my front right and left speakers off of the floor. It's sounding great so far!

And now that I've posted the bulk of the meat and potatoes of that build thread from 2019-2021, I bring us to 2023!

The only real update is that I've chosen which speakers I'll install in the ceiling for Atmos - a set of 4 of Klipsch CDT-3650-C II. They're about a hundred bucks a piece, but I've procrastinated because I don't have a 12 channel receiver yet.

Come out to see the eclipse, and you too can bask in the theater and stroke my ego.

 

[General Zod]

Looks killer! I never got into movies/theater, so I just stayed with music/2.1 system.

 

[supergordo]

That's super cool! I miss basements. Almost no one has them in Las Vegas.

 

[theterminator93]

I bought the 4 overhead Atmos speakers (https://www.klipsch.com/products/cdt-3650-c-ii) to install and connect, and knowing me I'll experiment with 5.1.2 audio to see how they sound. I'll need to paint the covers before I install them, but now I've got something (else) to keep me busy.



I think I've picked out a receiver - https://onkyousa.com/receivers/av-receivers/tx-rz70 - but yeow that is pricey! Costs about as much as what I've got in the whole setup as it sits now (projector + speakers + 7.1 receiver).

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I just bought the Panasonic DP-UB820-K 4K Blu Ray player to add to my system. I looked at the UB9000 but just couldn't justify the cost to myself.

 

[Grog6]

Nice! I've thought about a blu-ray player. I've been using my TV computer to feed 3d dvd's to the old tv; it was a 1080 plasma, and is now in m room. The new LR TV is a 65" HDR 4K LG OLED that I scored for $300. I'm updating the tv computer to match. It has a 3d dvd/blu ray player in it.
BR being all digital, idk how much I'd spend on a player. Digital source, digital video device, how much processing do you want it to do?

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Nice! I've thought about a blu-ray player. I've been using my TV computer to feed 3d dvd's to the old tv; it was a 1080 plasma, and is now in m room. The new LR tv is a 65" oled lg 4k hdr that I scored for $300. I'm updating the tv computer to match. It has a 3d dvd/blu ray player in it.
BR being all digital, idk how much I'd spend on a player. Digital source, digital video device, how much processing do you want it to do?

I have an older Sony DVD player that has SACD capability. I have a cheap Blu Ray player that can play basic Blu Rays. I recently bought a 4K UHD Blu Ray and discovered that my older Blu Ray player can't handle it. So, that set me off on a search for what's the best thing on the market today for the newest formats. Ug! The Technology is always changing.

My streaming services just can't keep up and I quickly discovered while visiting Brandon that to get the best video and audio signals the new 4k UHD Blu Rays are really the way to go.

 

[theterminator93]

Over the last few days I spent some time looking through old photo and video footage I made during the construction phase of the theater as I was getting ready to install the 4 overhead Atmos speakers. I left markers in the ceiling when I hung the drywall to help me ballpark the location of where each cable I pulled was terminated.

Still, with it being 4 years since I did the buildout project, I needed to do the measuring and math to make sure of a couple important points:

• Proper listening angles F/R and L/R for an optimal Atmos listening experience
• Not cutting the hole in a location where I would hit a stud, or bump into either of the HVAC trunks on the right side (requiring complex textured ceiling repairs)

After I was convinced I had the locations correct (I congratulate my younger self for doing the trigonometry and terminating the cables in the right location) and wasn't going to bump into anything, I traced around the templates lightly to mark the holes for each speaker.

Tonight, I finally got off the procrastination train and decided to take the plunge (literally) and cut into the ceiling. All that's needed now is for me to paint the grilles to roughly match the ceiling paint color.


LF overhead speaker hole; no MLV or mineral wool in this section of the ceiling. I was more concerned about keeping noise out of the theater than theater noise bleeding into the room above, which is where there's soundproofing in the soffit (which goes around the HVAC trunks) but not here.




Hole for the RR speaker with the MLV and mineral wool soundproofing visible


Same hole, showing the proximity to one of the HVAC trunks. The one on the other side of the hole wasn't much further away from the edge than this one.


Last 4 speakers all installed!

My AV receiver is 9 channels (7.2) so it doesn't have the capability to drive all of the speakers. Eventually I'll upgrade to a 7.2.4 receiver, but that isn't likely to happen until the mortgage is paid off in a couple years. For now, I will probably change how my current receiver is wired into the speakers. It's capable of driving 5.2.2 setups, so I can move the wiring for the surround rear speakers to connect the front overheads. I've only got a handful of titles with Atmos soundtracks anyway, so this will be a nice way to ease into the new arrangement right away.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

You'll love the sound. My favorite ATMOS Movies:

• Blade Runner 2049
• The BATMAN (2022)
• DUNE
• First Man (You're welcome )
• MAD MAX: Fury Road
• Greyhound (Apple TV)
• The Greatest Showman - Just Amazing!

Honorable Mention: Masters of the Air (9 part Miniseries) Now streaming on AppleTV

I don't remember which Blue Ray player you currently have but I highly recommend the Panasonic DP-UB820-K Blue Ray player. The OPPO's were considered the gold standard of Blue Ray players before they were discontinued in 2018. The Panasonic is as good ore better than the OPPO's.

Amazon.com

What are your favorite movies?

 

[theterminator93]

Honestly, it's hard for me to pick! It depends a lot on my mood, what I haven't seen in a while etc. Despite that I think I'd have to put the LOTR films near the top though.

My BD player is an inexpensive Sony UBP-X700, which I got used because it supported both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Reading more about it though it might not support 12 channel audio either, so it may be time to upgrade that too...

 

[Grog6]

I'm going to have to repair my plasma tv; it's having capacitor issues.

 

[Green T]

Looks great. I really like the projection room window/curtain.
Congrats to your younger self and your present self too.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Honestly, it's hard for me to pick! It depends a lot on my mood, what I haven't seen in a while etc. Despite that I think I'd have to put the LOTR films near the top though.

My BD player is an inexpensive Sony UBP-X700, which I got used because it supported both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Reading more about it though it might not support 12 channel audio either, so it may be time to upgrade that too...

No argument here, LOTR is top of the list too!

Best bang for the buck you can't go wrong with the Panasonic UB-820. If you get one make sure you optimize the settings. There's a tremendous amount of customization that can be done within the menus. Make sure to adjust the setting to get the most out of what you're paying for.

I also recommend the better - back lit remote with it. I bought one of these too.

Amazon.com

 

[Grog6]

My go to for visuals was always 2001 a space odyssey, but the 1080p blu ray ruins the effects. I did not see the wires on the 70mm theater version; I must have watched that every day it was at the theater.

 

[Grog6]

Something that occurs to me: Blu-ray, dvd, etc, is All Digital; The connection into theTV is all digital; other than basic signal integrity, what's the diff in players? I know the 3d content needs a different player, but the drive in my tv pc does all that shit, and handles differences in the video card. So is a dvd player upgrade a software update, basically?

 

[theterminator93]

I rewired the speakers for 5.1.2 and reran the speaker calibration, then tested with Top Gun Maverick. It wasn't a drastically different experience, but it definitely adds dimension and depth. I don't know why I was surprised at the subtlety of having the overhead speakers, but I guess that speaks more to the immersive mixing job done by the sound engineers. More testing is required.

From what I've read about the differences between players, a lot of it is the signal processing algorithms for non-native resolutions and support for higher data rates out of the unit (higher resolutions). Upscaling from DVD or FHD resolutions, support for additional formats/codecs, more "apps" and stuff.

The DAC (receiver/amplifier) does the real work.

 

[Vicinity]

God, when I went to see that movie in theaters, the only seats left were front dead center

 

[Grog6]

Brandon, you mentioned calibration; this new receiver came with a mic originally; I don't have it. Can I use a good shure mic, and feel good about it?

 

[theterminator93]

It's possible. The mic I remember coming with the RX-V473 I had the in-laws buy was a cheap dynamic omni inside a plastic base.

From what I remember all it does is shoot out tones from each speaker to help it measure the distance and relative volume of each channel from the listening point. From that it adjusts output volume and delay so that all channels sound the "same".

 

[Grog6]

Cool. I have those. A high quality flat mic, I do not have.