Folks,

It's about time that I updated this thread - given all of the changes that I've been making to my main theatre. It's gotten to the point where there's only a couple of very minor things to do - so I thought I'd describe the redone version - and post a bunch of pics - which can be seen in the "Theatre Redone" and "Theatre Misc" folders through this link.

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jmackwood@rogers.com/my_photos

I started by stripping the whole room bare. Then I did your basic crack and hole patching, sanding, and then applied a high quality Benjamin Moore paint to the walls and ceiling. Benjamin Moore were very helpful in specifying a paint formulation to give me a Munsell Neutral Value Scale Number of 6.5 (basically a medium to light grey - designed to reflect no colour onto the screen, nor to distract the eye with any colour either.)

The layout was shifted 90 degrees from before; the right side now became the front. The ceiling, side walls, and part of the front wall are treated with 16 audiotecUSA 24" X 48" X 2" black acoustic panels. The back "wall" is my equipment racks, behind which are two layers of curtains - and then the rest of the basement. I think this makes for a pretty good bass trap in itself.

Across the front are three stacks of completely professionally refurbished Koss CM1030 speakers. Also on the front are two Velodyne Servo 1200 subs. The surround speakers are Koss CM1020 speakers (also just refurbished) on custom-made steel / sand-filled stands. I've replaced the Bose 301 speakers that I was previously using for centre rear surrounds with a pair of Paradigm Titans. (The Bose took their place in the family room theatre.) In the back left corner is a B&W ASW 1000 sub and on top of that is a homebuilt sub . (It receives a signal through an external NAD amp from a dbx 100 subharmonic synthesizer, which I use "to taste" to beef up the low end on certain recordings.) As mentionned in another thread the two Velos and the B&W combine together to produce perfectly flat bass response from 15-100 Hz.

I've also gone from a rear projection Toshiba HD TV, to a front projection set-up that uses a Draper 92" (16:9) Salara screen system, with AT 1200 acoustically-transparent screen material (gain = 1.0), and an Optoma H78-DC3 720p single-chip DLP projector. The screen is a "weave" rather than a "perf" type of screen - and it mates perfectly with the projector. The projector is, for intents and purposes, identical to Optoma's top-of-the-line model H79.

Other gear changes include the removal of all five of my Numark stereo equalizers, and the addition of a Velodyne SMS-1 Subwoofer Management System. (As previosuly mentionned it's a great unit, but as it turns out, because the bass response is already perfect, it's not really needed. I'm keeping it anyhow - just in case I ever do need it.)

I got rid of the old LazBoy chairs and added three IKEA Poang leather chairs and ottomen. I've never been a big IKEA fan in the past, but I'd recommend these chairs to anyone who's looking for high quality, very comfortable, and inexpensive seating that seems, at least to me, to be ideally suited to home theatre use.

So how does the whole thing sound? In a word: incredible! It's more than I was hoping for - or expected. With the amps peaking at 2-5 Watts, the room is filled with sound. With somewhere around 2 kW of available power in the system, things could get way out of hand very quickly! I've come to love my small SACD collection even more than before - and my CDs have found new life. Stereo music, or multichannel movies, makes no difference; I'm completely blown away by how it now sounds. I gotta credit the acoustic tiles and the new layout first and foremost.

I've not done anything yet as far as calibrating the new projector. That will come after I put some more hours on the bulb. I can say that I'm very happy with it overall - and how it matches up with the Draper screen. True HD signals are giving images that are outstanding. Upconverted (1080i) signals are giving very good quality images. DVD (480p) looks very good as well. But 480i signals are not impressing me much. I guess that's to be expected - and this thing is put together for a HD future, not a 480i past!

Hope you enjoy the pics. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Jeff Mackwood

Thanks for the update, Jeff. You've done a lot of acoustical treatment since the old setup!

Wow! Jeff those are really impressive photos. I haven't seen a private whiskey selection like that in a long time. You, family and friends must really enjoy the room but, doesn't that dim light and loud noises distract you from the enjoyment at hand.
Thanks for the update the HT looks great. It must be a huge change in viewing and listening enjoyment. Keep us posted on any new additions.
Brad

Jeff, man, would you marry my wife? I might need to come visit her about once a week... Don't worry, I'll bring a movie.