Show Off Your System! The HTF Theaters Thread (1 Viewer)

[John Dirk]

My Cinemascope home cinema was built as an extension to the rear of an 1865 Victorian Villa in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. I named it the “State” in remembrance to the art deco State theatre which once proudly stood at the entrance to the Village of Devonport . My cinema was built at the rear of the house and connected to the house by a breezeway. The construction is timber frame with exterior weather boards. Double sound GIB Board walls and ceiling are held away from the timber frame with resilient channel. Green Glue was used between the two layers of GIB on the walls and ceiling and everything is insulated with sound batts. Concrete floor construction overlaid with a floating timber floor. The raised stepped seating also floats over the timber floor and none of the timbers are anyway attached to the concrete slab. As I was a cinema projectionist for over 35+ years my HT is run exactly the way cinemas were in the past, with curtains coloured lights and old style presentation. I make up playlists in JRiver and the whole show runs through in order seamlessly, shorts, trailers, main feature etc etc...

The projector is housed in a cupboard above the rack in the small foyer at the rear of the cinema, the hot air is extracted to the outside.

I don’t ever use the two Oppos in the rack these days as all my films (2600) are now stored on a Nas with 105TB storage.

The whole show is operated from an ipad using iviewer4.

My player is JRiver and I use madvr with the 1080ti card.

I upscale everything through madvr to 4K feeding this to my 4K JVC NX9.
I run Atmos through my McIntosh gear with a total of 11 speakers and 4x18” subs. The rack image has the description of gear.

I have 12 seats over 3 rows of four, which are on risers.

There are two coves on the ceiling which house miniature downlights and RGB twinkling stars. The borders of the coves are coloured with RGB LED.

All the walls and ceiling are covered with Vertiface, black on the ceiling and burgundy on the walls.

Motorized Goelst curved track main curtain which turns at 90deg and hides the curtains away into side walls. RGB overhead and footlight LED miniature spots to colour curtain.
Curved Goelst track motorised black velvet masking with four stops for 4:3, 16:9, 1:85 and scope.
Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Projector JVC NX9 with Cineslide housing an Isco IIIL anamorphic lens.

Three dual 10" Power Sound Audio MTM-210 speakers behind the microperf screen. Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Four 18" V1811 Power Sound Audio Subwoofers under stage.
Surround speakers 7x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KLC-KS7502 in ceiling speakers
Atmos Speakers 2x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KS-7502 in ceiling speakers
Surround and VOG 3x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KL-7800 inwall speakers

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That is simply amazing and a great testament of what can be done with persistence and [presumably] a fair amount of sacrifice. On top of all that, you get to live in Auckland, easily one of the most beautiful cities on earth.

Pardon my envy!

 

[3dbinCanada]

My Cinemascope home cinema was built as an extension to the rear of an 1865 Victorian Villa in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. I named it the “State” in remembrance to the art deco State theatre which once proudly stood at the entrance to the Village of Devonport . My cinema was built at the rear of the house and connected to the house by a breezeway. The construction is timber frame with exterior weather boards. Double sound GIB Board walls and ceiling are held away from the timber frame with resilient channel. Green Glue was used between the two layers of GIB on the walls and ceiling and everything is insulated with sound batts. Concrete floor construction overlaid with a floating timber floor. The raised stepped seating also floats over the timber floor and none of the timbers are anyway attached to the concrete slab. As I was a cinema projectionist for over 35+ years my HT is run exactly the way cinemas were in the past, with curtains coloured lights and old style presentation. I make up playlists in JRiver and the whole show runs through in order seamlessly, shorts, trailers, main feature etc etc...

The projector is housed in a cupboard above the rack in the small foyer at the rear of the cinema, the hot air is extracted to the outside.

I don’t ever use the two Oppos in the rack these days as all my films (2600) are now stored on a Nas with 105TB storage.

The whole show is operated from an ipad using iviewer4.

My player is JRiver and I use madvr with the 1080ti card.

I upscale everything through madvr to 4K feeding this to my 4K JVC NX9.
I run Atmos through my McIntosh gear with a total of 11 speakers and 4x18” subs. The rack image has the description of gear.

I have 12 seats over 3 rows of four, which are on risers.

There are two coves on the ceiling which house miniature downlights and RGB twinkling stars. The borders of the coves are coloured with RGB LED.

All the walls and ceiling are covered with Vertiface, black on the ceiling and burgundy on the walls.

Motorized Goelst curved track main curtain which turns at 90deg and hides the curtains away into side walls. RGB overhead and footlight LED miniature spots to colour curtain.
Curved Goelst track motorised black velvet masking with four stops for 4:3, 16:9, 1:85 and scope.
Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Projector JVC NX9 with Cineslide housing an Isco IIIL anamorphic lens.

Three dual 10" Power Sound Audio MTM-210 speakers behind the microperf screen. Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Four 18" V1811 Power Sound Audio Subwoofers under stage.
Surround speakers 7x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KLC-KS7502 in ceiling speakers
Atmos Speakers 2x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KS-7502 in ceiling speakers
Surround and VOG 3x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KL-7800 inwall speakers

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Very VERY very nice setup.

 

[DavidJ]

My room is perpetually cramped, so I'm very excited about building our new home where I'll have a bit more space.
View attachment 87223
View attachment 87222


Dolby Atmos 7.2.4 System:

Legacy Audio Focus SE Left & Right Channels
Legacy Audio Marquis XD Center Channel
Legacy Audio Silhouette PRO L&R Surrounds
Legacy Audio Phantom HD Rear Surrounds
KEF CI200RR Atmos Overheads (x4)
3 Seaton Sound SubMersive Subwoofers (2 HP+ and 1 F2+)
Anthem AVM-60 Preamp/Processor
Oppo UDP-203 UHD Blu-ray player
D-Sonic M3a-6100-7 Class D Amplifier (1500W for L,C,R, 400W for surrounds and rears)
D-Sonic M3a-2000-5 Class D Amplifier (Atmos Channels)
Sony VPL-VW675ES 4K Projector
110" Monoprice 1.0 gain screen
Fractal Design Node202 based HTPC running Kodi & Roon
MSR & GIK Acoustic Treatments

Very nice, Dave. How big is your room?

My Cinemascope home cinema was built as an extension to the rear of an 1865 Victorian Villa in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. I named it the “State” in remembrance to the art deco State theatre which once proudly stood at the entrance to the Village of Devonport . My cinema was built at the rear of the house and connected to the house by a breezeway. The construction is timber frame with exterior weather boards. Double sound GIB Board walls and ceiling are held away from the timber frame with resilient channel. Green Glue was used between the two layers of GIB on the walls and ceiling and everything is insulated with sound batts. Concrete floor construction overlaid with a floating timber floor. The raised stepped seating also floats over the timber floor and none of the timbers are anyway attached to the concrete slab. As I was a cinema projectionist for over 35+ years my HT is run exactly the way cinemas were in the past, with curtains coloured lights and old style presentation. I make up playlists in JRiver and the whole show runs through in order seamlessly, shorts, trailers, main feature etc etc...

The projector is housed in a cupboard above the rack in the small foyer at the rear of the cinema, the hot air is extracted to the outside.

I don’t ever use the two Oppos in the rack these days as all my films (2600) are now stored on a Nas with 105TB storage.

The whole show is operated from an ipad using iviewer4.

My player is JRiver and I use madvr with the 1080ti card.

I upscale everything through madvr to 4K feeding this to my 4K JVC NX9.
I run Atmos through my McIntosh gear with a total of 11 speakers and 4x18” subs. The rack image has the description of gear.

I have 12 seats over 3 rows of four, which are on risers.

There are two coves on the ceiling which house miniature downlights and RGB twinkling stars. The borders of the coves are coloured with RGB LED.

All the walls and ceiling are covered with Vertiface, black on the ceiling and burgundy on the walls.

Motorized Goelst curved track main curtain which turns at 90deg and hides the curtains away into side walls. RGB overhead and footlight LED miniature spots to colour curtain.
Curved Goelst track motorised black velvet masking with four stops for 4:3, 16:9, 1:85 and scope.
Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Projector JVC NX9 with Cineslide housing an Isco IIIL anamorphic lens.

Three dual 10" Power Sound Audio MTM-210 speakers behind the microperf screen. Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Four 18" V1811 Power Sound Audio Subwoofers under stage.
Surround speakers 7x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KLC-KS7502 in ceiling speakers
Atmos Speakers 2x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KS-7502 in ceiling speakers
Surround and VOG 3x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KL-7800 inwall speakers

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Murray, that is a gorgeous theater. Simply stunning.

 

[Dave Upton]

Very nice, Dave. How big is your room?

12x18 - so i've got about as much gear as one can possibly cram into a space that size

 

[DavidJ]

12x18 - so i've got about as much gear as one can possibly cram into a space that size

Thanks. I'm currently trying to figure out how much gear I can cram into a space that's 11.75 x 15.5.

 

[Bobofbone]

There are only a handful of companies who really do cabinetry "right" like Thiel did without breaking the bank. Legacy is one of them. I also love Aerial Acoustics and Salk Sound.

You might want to check out the local mill wright shops. I had short space to put a door into for my equipment access. I also wanted a smoked glass front. After talking to the shop, I brought in the glass, mounting hardware and dimensions, and had a framed door made to my specifications. It was a perfect fit. At the time, it cost less than a full sized framed door from Lowes or Home Depot. You also need to tell them what quality of wood you need for finishing. I didn't and it the stain was uneven on the finished door-it would have been fine painting it. They had cabinetry in varying stages of completion there as well, so I'd bet they could make whatever you wanted.

I built the shelves. The mill wright shop probably could have made a nicer set.

 

[Bobofbone]

My Cinemascope home cinema was built as an extension to the rear of an 1865 Victorian Villa in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. I named it the “State” in remembrance to the art deco State theatre which once proudly stood at the entrance to the Village of Devonport . My cinema was built at the rear of the house and connected to the house by a breezeway. The construction is timber frame with exterior weather boards. Double sound GIB Board walls and ceiling are held away from the timber frame with resilient channel. Green Glue was used between the two layers of GIB on the walls and ceiling and everything is insulated with sound batts. Concrete floor construction overlaid with a floating timber floor. The raised stepped seating also floats over the timber floor and none of the timbers are anyway attached to the concrete slab. As I was a cinema projectionist for over 35+ years my HT is run exactly the way cinemas were in the past, with curtains coloured lights and old style presentation. I make up playlists in JRiver and the whole show runs through in order seamlessly, shorts, trailers, main feature etc etc...

The projector is housed in a cupboard above the rack in the small foyer at the rear of the cinema, the hot air is extracted to the outside.

I don’t ever use the two Oppos in the rack these days as all my films (2600) are now stored on a Nas with 105TB storage.

The whole show is operated from an ipad using iviewer4.

My player is JRiver and I use madvr with the 1080ti card.

I upscale everything through madvr to 4K feeding this to my 4K JVC NX9.
I run Atmos through my McIntosh gear with a total of 11 speakers and 4x18” subs. The rack image has the description of gear.

I have 12 seats over 3 rows of four, which are on risers.

There are two coves on the ceiling which house miniature downlights and RGB twinkling stars. The borders of the coves are coloured with RGB LED.

All the walls and ceiling are covered with Vertiface, black on the ceiling and burgundy on the walls.

Motorized Goelst curved track main curtain which turns at 90deg and hides the curtains away into side walls. RGB overhead and footlight LED miniature spots to colour curtain.
Curved Goelst track motorised black velvet masking with four stops for 4:3, 16:9, 1:85 and scope.
Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Projector JVC NX9 with Cineslide housing an Isco IIIL anamorphic lens.

Three dual 10" Power Sound Audio MTM-210 speakers behind the microperf screen. Curved 145” Stewart Micro Perf StudioTek 130 projection screen.

Four 18" V1811 Power Sound Audio Subwoofers under stage.
Surround speakers 7x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KLC-KS7502 in ceiling speakers
Atmos Speakers 2x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KS-7502 in ceiling speakers
Surround and VOG 3x Klipsch Ultra 2 THX KL-7800 inwall speakers

View attachment 87264 View attachment 87265 View attachment 87267 View attachment 87269 View attachment 87270 View attachment 87271 View attachment 87272 View attachment 87273 View attachment 87274 View attachment 87275 View attachment 87276 View attachment 87277 View attachment 87278 View attachment 87279 View attachment 87280 View attachment 87281 View attachment 87282

A well thought out, beautiful theater. Very impressive.

 

[John Sparks]

Here is my SPARKSPLEX HT. Entry way thru the garage to the theater. Theater is 12' x 17' x 9' and it was built in 2011.

This is my film room, as I call it.

 

[Mike2001]

We have no good space in our house for a dedicated theater room, so our main viewing/listening areas are integrated into living spaces. Our main living area is a big L-shaped open floor plan, with living room/dining room on the long side of the L and family room/ kitchen on the short side of the L. Here is an overview of the living room.

The TV is a 77” LG G7 OLED screen, on a pivot mount so we can push it up when we want to use the fireplace or pull it down when we watch (it’s almost always pulled down). The sound system is a 5.1.4 atmos setup, using Sonus Faber Olympica Nova speakers (iii for L/R, Center for center, and i’s for side speakers). The atmos speakers are SF Palladium series 6 in-ceiling speakers. The subwoofer in the corner is an SVS SB16-Ultra. Pics:

I used one of the bookshelves for my equipment cabinet. Being in a bookshelf, I wanted class-D amplification so that I wouldn’t bake my books. After some research, I selected D-Sonics M3a-5400-7 for the LCR and atmos speakers and an M3a-800s for the two side speakers. I use a Marantz 8805 as a pre-amp and my sources are an Oppo 203 for discs, Apple TV 4k for video streaming, Lumin D2 for music streaming and a DirecTV genie for regular TV.

While there is no space in our house for a dedicated home theater, I had been looking for a good way to get the projection experience. With the advent of UST’s, I finally saw the way. When upgrading the setup in the living room, we moved the old sound setup around the corner and paired it with an LG HU85LA projector and a retractable 100” SI ALR screen.

We had this all installed last spring as a retirement splurge (by professional installers - no way I was putting those Atmos speakers in the cathedral ceiling myself) and it has certainly made the pandemic shutdown more bearable. Usage tends to be movies and music in the living room, regular TV viewing and video gaming in the family room.

Media Storage is in a custom cabinet in the garage.

Each pull out drawer holds 1024 discs, 8 pullout drawers, so room for 8k disks in a 40”x128” footprint.

 

[JohnRice]

@Mike2001 I see you have a couple Criterions in your collection. That media storage is epic.

 

[Clinton McClure]

OK, here's a current pic. Small changes and a little less cluttered. Cinderella is replaced with what is clearly not Cinderella. The current amps, which will still change a bit.

Oh yeah, why are the speakers so far out into the room? The back of the L&R is 4' from the wall. Plenty of room for the rather large sub to sit behind them with room enough to walk between them.

Why on earth did I do this? "Imaging" baby! Stellar, open, three dimensional imaging.

View attachment 87257

True audiophiles know that it’s feet that really bring out the brilliant sound of Thiels.

 

[xx Brian xx]

We don't want to have to leave this room and go to another one to watch a movie so I built the living room into a home theater without really looking like a theater room.
Bowers and Wilkins speakers with the center channel built into the fireplace. A 100" screen is hidden behind the panel above the TV. The only speakers you really notice are the two fronts and the sub, the rest are built into the walls and the ceiling. TV is a Sony 65" OLED for regular TV watching.

I installed the screen to drop just an inch and a half in front of the TV.

B&W wall speakers are painted same color as the wall.

There are no components in the living room. Everything is in a smart closet on the other side of the house. I installed two AV Pro Edge HDMI extenders to feed the TV and the projector. The closet temp is controlled by an AC Infinity temp control unit hooked up to multiple fans that bring in cool air at the bottom and send the warm out at the top to the laundry room.
Internet is ATT fiber that goes through a Luxul network with access points through the house and a 16 port switch. I hard wire everything in the closet and all the TVs.

I run multiple receivers to feed different rooms in the house.
Marantz SR8015 drives the 5.2.4 setup in the living room.
Marantz SR7010 drives 3 different rooms with 2 speakers in each room.
Yamaha Aventage RXA1020 drives two more rooms.

I programmed the whole system to be controlled with one remote or our phones with RTI. I installed a keypad on the wall for quick control or I run a RTI T4X remote that can control it all. I also programmed full automation for switching the theater mode. The TV turns off, lights turn blue, dim and then turn off over 15 seconds, screen drops, volume increases on receiver to a preprogrammed level and the Epson projector turns on.

The Goodnight button will turn off all electronics in the house, turn on the bedroom light, set a 5 minute timer to turn off living room lights and set the alarm.

 

[John Dirk]

We have no good space in our house for a dedicated theater room, so our main viewing/listening areas are integrated into living spaces. Our main living area is a big L-shaped open floor plan, with living room/dining room on the long side of the L and family room/ kitchen on the short side of the L. Here is an overview of the living room.
View attachment 87439

The TV is a 77” LG G7 OLED screen, on a pivot mount so we can push it up when we want to use the fireplace or pull it down when we watch (it’s almost always pulled down). The sound system is a 5.1.4 atmos setup, using Sonus Faber Olympica Nova speakers (iii for L/R, Center for center, and i’s for side speakers). The atmos speakers are SF Palladium series 6 in-ceiling speakers. The subwoofer in the corner is an SVS SB16-Ultra. Pics:
View attachment 87440

View attachment 87441 View attachment 87442
I used one of the bookshelves for my equipment cabinet. Being in a bookshelf, I wanted class-D amplification so that I wouldn’t bake my books. After some research, I selected D-Sonics M3a-5400-7 for the LCR and atmos speakers and an M3a-800s for the two side speakers. I use a Marantz 8805 as a pre-amp and my sources are an Oppo 203 for discs, Apple TV 4k for video streaming, Lumin D2 for music streaming and a DirecTV genie for regular TV.
View attachment 87443

While there is no space in our house for a dedicated home theater, I had been looking for a good way to get the projection experience. With the advent of UST’s, I finally saw the way. When upgrading the setup in the living room, we moved the old sound setup around the corner and paired it with an LG HU85LA projector and a retractable 100” SI ALR screen.
View attachment 87444
View attachment 87445

We had this all installed last spring as a retirement splurge (by professional installers - no way I was putting those Atmos speakers in the cathedral ceiling myself) and it has certainly made the pandemic shutdown more bearable. Usage tends to be movies and music in the living room, regular TV viewing and video gaming in the family room.

Media Storage is in a custom cabinet in the garage.
View attachment 87446
View attachment 87447

Each pull out drawer holds 1024 discs, 8 pullout drawers, so room for 8k disks in a 40”x128” footprint.

You've done an amazing job and I'm so happy you were able to achieve your projection dream. It makes a heck of a difference. I did my own Atmos speakers in a regular ceiling and it was still a serious pain, so I think you made the right choice there.

Congrats!

 

[John Dirk]

Here is my SPARKSPLEX HT. Entry way thru the garage to the theater. Theater is 12' x 17' x 9' and it was built in 2011. View attachment 87362 View attachment 87363 View attachment 87364 View attachment 87365 View attachment 87366 View attachment 87367 View attachment 87368 This is my film room, as I call it.

View attachment 87376 View attachment 87377 View attachment 87378

Very nice, @John Sparks . Would love to see a few full-size pics.

 

[Sam Posten]

My "slightly higher than best bang for the buck" basement aerie.


Older projector in pic, currently running a JVC X-790R / 540 from Value Electronics to a no frills 120" mounted screen. As much as I love front projectors they just do not do HDR as well as OLEDs and think my next upgrade will be to an 83" Sony.

 

[John Dirk]

My "slightly higher than best bang for the buck" basement aerie.


Older projector in pic, currently running a JVC X-790R / 540 from Value Electronics to a no frills 120" mounted screen. As much as I love front projectors they just do not do HDR as well as OLEDs and think my next upgrade will be to an 83" Sony.

Very nice, @Sam Posten ! You're obviously right concerning projectors and HDR but I think I'm choosing projectors in this fight, even if it comes at the expense of optimal HDR.

I think I see room for separates in that rack of yours.

 

[John Sparks]

My "slightly higher than best bang for the buck" basement aerie.


Older projector in pic, currently running a JVC X-790R / 540 from Value Electronics to a no frills 120" mounted screen. As much as I love front projectors they just do not do HDR as well as OLEDs and think my next upgrade will be to an 83" Sony.

I could never go smaller. If I had the extra bucks, I'd increase my screen size to a 140", the max my front wall will hold...to hell with HDR.

Don't the higher end JVCs do HDR very well?

 

[Sam Posten]

Not compared to OLED, not at all.

 

[John Dirk]

Not compared to OLED, not at all.

Yep. I recently had a very interesting conversation with Charles Cooper [PVA] regarding this topic. We were initially planning a professional calibration for my Epson 6050 and he asked what I hoped to achieve. When I said improved HDR performance he shut me down right there. No consumer-level projector does decent HDR. According to Charles, even OLED's lack the necessary lumens to match studio monitors and therefore also require tone mapping. The difference is, with OLED's there is enough range to make it worthwhile, whereas with projectors there simply isn't.

 

[John Dirk]

I could never go smaller. If I had the extra bucks, I'd increase my screen size to a 140", the max my front wall will hold...to hell with HDR.

Agreed. One of the few things I didn't like about the house we bought a few years ago was that it forced my screen size from the 150" I had become accustomed to , down to 135". What were the builders thinking???