Home Theater Project - About to begin! (1 Viewer)

[Liquid Kaos]

Hello guys, I have been looking to build a budget home theater room at my house and wanted to discuss with someone my ideas/opinions thus far. I have visited a couple of home electronics shows, read some magazines, surfed a few sites and forums, etc. My current living room system is a 5.1 receiver, 12" JBL sub, 6" satellites, 57" toshiba rear projection TV.

AVAILABLE DIMENSIONS FOR THEATER:

A) 16x14 - 1.5 Concrete Block Walls, 2.5 Drywall Walls, 8.5 Ceiling Height
B) 20x12 - 2.5 Concrete Block Walls, 1.5 Drywall Walls, 8.5 Ceiling Height
C) 20x26 - "L" Shaped room that has to have the pool table in front of the seating area (Aprox. 8x4 laundry in the corner)

NOTE: One of those rooms have to keep the pooltable. The pooltable is currently in the 20x26 room along with other things that will be moved/discarded. Option C is obviously the most roomy, but will be strange having the pool table between the theater seats and the viewing area.

ALREADY PURCHASED / EXISTING EQUIPMENT:

1) Sharp XR-11X Projector - 1024x768, VGA, RGB, SVIDEO inputs, 2000lumens, 2000:1 contrast ratio
2) Electric 4:3 120" Projection Screen (Black Case/Surround) RF Remote (Should give me 7-8' during 16:9 1024x576 viewing)
3) 25' VGA Cable / 25' RGB Cable / 25' SVIDEO Cable
4) Tilt/Swivel Aluminum Ceiling Mount
5) AudioSource Amplifier (19" Rackmount 2U, 2x150 Amplifier) (FOR SUBS - BRIDGED MONO)
6) Cerwin Vega 15" Floor Standing Speakers (QTY:2) (Maybe convert these to Subwoofers?)
7) Intel P4 3.2ghz, 2GB RAM, GEFORCE 7800 Video, 36GB Raptor Boot, 2x250GB Storage, HTPC Case, Quiet Fans, 500 Watts (VGA INPUT)
8) Windows XP Media Center Edition
9) 150' of 8 gauge Monster Speaker Wire

FUTURE EQUIPMENT IDEAS:

1) Phillips RC9800 WiFi Remote
2) Microsoft Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
3) Sony 400 Disc DVD Changer (RGB INPUT)
4) AudioSource AMP ONE (19" Rackmount 2x75 Amplifier) (FOR MAINS)
5) AudioSource AMP ONE (19" Rackmount 2x75 Amplifier) (FOR REAR SURROUNDS)
6) AudioSource AMP ONE (19" Rackmount 2x75 Amplifier) (FOR DUAL CENTERS)
7) Cerwin Vega 10" 3-Way Floor Speakers (Built into front wall) (QTY:2 FOR MAINS)
8) Cerwin Vega 6" 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers (Built into rear Wall) (QTY:2 REAR SURROUNDS)
9) Cerwin Vega 8" 3-Way Floor Speakers (In-wall, Above & Below Screen) (QTY:2 CENTERS)
10) Dedicated 8 Plug / 2 Gang Power with Dediated Circuit Breaker
11) Some sort of decent power filtering for the equipment (HA - The one thing I haven't researched at all!)

ROOM CREATION IDEAS:

20x12 Room
Stepped Floor, Concrete first 8', Floating wood floor with 4" lift next 8' (FRONT SEATS), Floating wood with 8" lift last 4' (REAR SEATS)
Sharp Projector mounted at 14' from screen
Mostly ambient/non-direct aimed at ceiling or floor
Dark Red Walls/Black Ceiling/Dark Carpet
3'x19" RACK for component storage w/Glass cabinet door & QTY:4 Low RPM 8" Fans
Fan air brought in from cooled room, Exahust air expelled into Attic area
Custom 3" Deep Wall Studs mounted on block walls with open air passageways througout
LAYER 1: 1/2" R-MAX Insulation applied to block walls
LAYER 2: 1/2" Sound deadening material (4'x8') applied to studs
LAYER 3: 1/2" Drywall (4'x8') applied to sound deadening material
Possible curtains on side/front walls to minimize sound reflection

Any ideas? Or should I just build it already and post the picture when I am done? LOL!

Preston

 

[Seth=L]

Why Cerwin Vega? Just currious.

 

[Liquid Kaos]

Well, I have these 7-8 year old 15" floor standing ones that I have had many a loud party with and they sound decent, hit hard, and take a beating without having problems. My current solution in the living room uses only 6" speakers in the surrounds and center and I feel like I am lacking a bit of midbass in the room (above the 12" sub and below the 6" surrounds). Not only that, I can pickup all the Vega's listed above, brand new, for around $700.

Would a $700-$1000 theater speaker system from a discount HT speaker company sound better/out perform?

 

[Seth=L]

For music maybe, but probably not for home theater. You would be very hard pressed to find a budget system as efficient as Cerwin Vega or that can play loud. And if very loud music is your thing then you should probably stick with Cerwin Vega IMO.

 

[Liquid Kaos]

Hehe.. no other comments? I guess I'll start ordering stuff.