my home theater "build" log

[purbeast0]

spent a lot of time yesterday in my basement. finished painting stuff and got my rack all setup, which took A LOT more time than i expected trying to make the wires look somewhat clean for the rack that i did buy. had to make all the speaker wires and get them to the right length and all. then i hooked up the front 5 speakers and gave it a test run and everything worked as expected!

going to hook up the projector in a little bit and then it should all be finished down there for the time being!

here are some pics i snapped. the empty spot next to the 360 is going to be where my cable box goes once i get a dedicated cable box for down there.

http://i.imgur.com/DnaLUvw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/l2cGaeA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SKaRjyA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TVLUHeY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xig7j4U.jpg

 

[purbeast0]

well got everything done down there that i want at this point. got the projector setup and stuff. here are a few pics.

http://i.imgur.com/tvDjbOB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3R2Kti4.jpg

here is a pic of the main stage area now that there are no wires running all over the place.

http://i.imgur.com/wDBx9hZ.jpg

and here is a shot from the drivers seat.

http://i.imgur.com/CD8P4Ly.jpg

and i took a panoramic pic of the room after i finished down there for the day and left it spotless. looks kind of funny but i've hardly used the feature on my wifes phone so it looks a tad distorted.

http://i.imgur.com/2kaqAlw.jpg

 

[Anubis]

you will want to get some kind of stand for the center to rais it up as far as you can to get it closer to ear level, the L/R are prob OK just standing on the floor like that

 

[purbeast0]

you will want to get some kind of stand for the center to rais it up as far as you can to get it closer to ear level, the L/R are prob OK just standing on the floor like that

yea definitely need to do that and was going to PM the guy i bought them from to ask him about his. he said he made it from some parts at home depot, very simple. i don't plan on really raising it much, but more aiming it up so that it is pointed at ear level.

i do plan on getting some kind of stands for the l and r speakers too.

 

[purbeast0]

after talking to the guy who sold me his t12's about how he made his center channel stand, i'm going to build my own. went to home depot tonight but their saw was out of order so i couldn't get the lumber. got the other stuff i needed though, other than the paint that i will put on it in the end. not sure exactly what finish i will put on it though, but definitely some kind of black finish.

if it turns out good i'll build my own for the sides too.

 

[Anubis]

what are you using? some 1x2s and some plywood?

if you don't want to paint it you could just give it a quick blast of black spray paint and then cover it in black grill cloth

 

[purbeast0]

what are you using? some 1x2s and some plywood?

if you don't want to paint it you could just give it a quick blast of black spray paint and then cover it in black grill cloth

im going to use 2x6 and make a box, then put a piece of plywood on top of that. then going to use door stoppers to angle it up. it will be just under 24" when all said and done, which is perfect.

i'm not 100% how i am going to finish it yet though. i was just thinking of some type of paint. i don't know how i could get that grill cloth to look smooth on all edges though.

that stuff that andrew put on his boxes, how do you do that? it basically looks like the material on the JTR speakers. that would be cool to put on the stand around the 4 sides so it matches, but i have no clue what it is.

on a side note, watched a movie tonight for the first time, and i gotta say something is fucked up with the sound. i noticed the sound immeidately, then noticed that all my settings were changed like back to default. i'm HOPING that since my receiver was unplugged that audyssey just lost it's settings and stuff, and when i can calibrate it tomorrow it is fine.

but then it got me thinking what if my sub wire isn't thick enough. its about a 55ft run, and 12awg was recommended for that at 4ohm, but then i realized that these caps were wired for 2ohm, so i'm hoping that doesn't effect anything. even if the wire wasn't thick enough, i don't even know what i would expect from it.

after the movie, i put on saving private ryan opening scene, a scene i've watched like 5x in my basement, and it sounded BAD. like all around bad, but most noticeably was the subs did NOT pack that punch i was used to the other times i've seen it. but also it felt like all the speakers were not meshing together.

so hopefully tomororow i can mess with audyssey and it will fix the issues. kind of worried me though because i would hate if all the wiring i did was for nothing lol.

 

[Anubis]

yea i read your post on AVS, id just rerun audessey first and see if that fixes things, if not check the polairity of the connections, your speaker wire gauge should not have anything to do with it. make sure that gain knobs on the ep4k didnt get moved

andrew, myself and other finished their speakers with duratex
http://store.acrytech.com/Speaker-Cabinet-Coatings/

itll be expensive for what you are doing, id just spraypaint them. much cheaper

 

[purbeast0]

yea i read your post on AVS, id just rerun audessey first and see if that fixes things, if not check the polairity of the connections, your speaker wire gauge should not have anything to do with it. make sure that gain knobs on the ep4k didnt get moved

andrew, myself and other finished their speakers with duratex
http://store.acrytech.com/Speaker-Cabinet-Coatings/

itll be expensive for what you are doing, id just spraypaint them. much cheaper

ah okay cool. i didn't realize that stuff sprayed on.

if i do end up making 3 stands (LCR) then maybe I would think about getting one of those. It does say it is enough to do a "couple 12 inch cabinets" but do you think one of those buckets would be enough for 3 stands?

 

[Anubis]

you can spray it or roll it, rolling is a lot easier. 1 gallon will cover a ton of stuff. andrew did all his subs with 1/2 a gallon i think
look how well it covers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuav56tGIE4

 

[purbeast0]

you can spray it or roll it, rolling is a lot easier. 1 gallon will cover a ton of stuff. andrew did all his subs with 1/2 a gallon i think
look how well it covers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuav56tGIE4

ah okay yea that looks nice. i already have a small roller handle like that too, would just have to get a roller.

well if this box comes out okay for my center channel speaker i think i am going to actually order some of that if i plan on making the L/R ones too. the duratex actually looks pretty much identical to the finish of the caps.

do you know if you place 2 items that are finished with duratex on top of eachother and slide them around if it will scratch the finish?

 

[Anubis]

on what forum are people giving you flac for your choics of rack? - this is in responce to a post in another thread.

TBH i think its great, those racks have so many uses, and TBH you dont need a dedicated AV rack. they simply look nicer. however with it being in a closet its not really an issue at all.

BTW you can get more shelves for them if you decided you needed more space

 

[purbeast0]

on what forum are people giving you flac for your choics of rack? - this is in responce to a post in another thread.

TBH i think its great, those racks have so many uses, and TBH you dont need a dedicated AV rack. they simply look nicer. however with it being in a closet its not really an issue at all.

BTW you can get more shelves for them if you decided you needed more space

oh it's just a couple people giving me crap who i've known for a long time online, nothing crazy or anything. and i told em it is just a waste of $$ to do something like that in my current space, although they do look awesome.

 

[purbeast0]

so i made a center channel speaker stand tonight out of some 2x6 and some plywood.

http://i.imgur.com/1iy3vT0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bsn3RRQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SjRQY0T.jpg

not sure how i'm going to finish it yet, was thinking possibly duratex to match the speakers. i also plan on putting 2 angled door stoppers under the front of it to angle the speaker up a bit. that is what the previous owner did and said it worked fine.

anubis, as far as using speaker grill material to cover it, where can you purchase that stuff? also, how do you go about putting it on and making it look nice so that there are no edges so you can't see any edges of where you cut the material? i'm assuming you can just staple gun it to it?

just not 100% sure which way i want to go yet though.

 

[Soccerman06]

so i made a center channel speaker stand tonight out of some 2x6 and some plywood.

http://i.imgur.com/1iy3vT0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bsn3RRQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SjRQY0T.jpg

not sure how i'm going to finish it yet, was thinking possibly duratex to match the speakers. i also plan on putting 2 angled door stoppers under the front of it to angle the speaker up a bit. that is what the previous owner did and said it worked fine.

anubis, as far as using speaker grill material to cover it, where can you purchase that stuff? also, how do you go about putting it on and making it look nice so that there are no edges so you can't see any edges of where you cut the material? i'm assuming you can just staple gun it to it?

just not 100% sure which way i want to go yet though.

PE has it, http://www.parts-express.com/cat/speaker-grill-cloth-fabric/319 , take your pick, theres a lot of stuff on amazon too. Its up to you how you attach, Ive just used a little glue and just spread it out evenly so theres no wrinkles but staples will work if your careful with it.

 

[purbeast0]

PE has it, http://www.parts-express.com/cat/speaker-grill-cloth-fabric/319 , take your pick, theres a lot of stuff on amazon too. Its up to you how you attach, Ive just used a little glue and just spread it out evenly so theres no wrinkles but staples will work if your careful with it.

how do you go about getting it around the edges and stuff, without it looking like you have edges/ends in the speaker cloth? basically, how do you get it to all look like it is all one piece of cloth on the entire piece?

 

[Anubis]

your are gonna have to have a seam somewhere. just place them on the back/bottom and it should not be an issue

 

[Aharami]

go buy fabric from your local Joann store instead of PE

 

[purbeast0]

go buy fabric from your local Joann store instead of PE

just gave them a call, they only have the speaker grill stuff. if i do fabric i'd like to do more of the carpeting you would see than like speaker grill fabric.

gonna check another fabric store near my gym after work. if i can't find any there i may just order some duratex.

probably going to build my l/r stands this weekend too. not sure how yet though lol.

 

[wetech]

so i made a center channel speaker stand tonight out of some 2x6 and some plywood.

http://i.imgur.com/1iy3vT0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bsn3RRQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SjRQY0T.jpg

not sure how i'm going to finish it yet, was thinking possibly duratex to match the speakers. i also plan on putting 2 angled door stoppers under the front of it to angle the speaker up a bit. that is what the previous owner did and said it worked fine.

anubis, as far as using speaker grill material to cover it, where can you purchase that stuff? also, how do you go about putting it on and making it look nice so that there are no edges so you can't see any edges of where you cut the material? i'm assuming you can just staple gun it to it?

just not 100% sure which way i want to go yet though.

Rather then door stops, why not cut the bottom of the box at an angle? Would look neater.

 

[purbeast0]

Rather then door stops, why not cut the bottom of the box at an angle? Would look neater.

my wood working skills are 0. the people at home depot cut the wood for me.

the previous owner told me he used door stops for his and i saw the pics and it looked nice. you probably won't be able to see them since the speakers are black and the stand will be black, and the door stops will be black as well.

 

[purbeast0]

no dice with the carpet. joann fabric doesn't carry it and neither does the local store i stopped in after work (g street fabrics).

think i may just order a gallon of duratex and use that for all 3 of my stands. going to think about how i can build a stand for my l/r speakers similar to how i did these, but i need them to be about 18" tall or so. so not sure lol.

 

[Anubis]

just build 2 17.5 in tall boxes like you did for the center and attach them with 4 cross members. tack on some ply on the top use 2x4s

paint

 

[purbeast0]

just build 2 17.5 in tall boxes like you did for the center and attach them with 4 cross members. tack on some ply on the top use 2x4s

paint

what are cross members?

i was thinking about using like 2 2x10's or something, and stacking them on top of eachother. but i wasn't sure how to actually connect the 2 stacked on top of eachother. and i could just use filler to smooth the gaps like im going to do with this one.

 

[Anubis]

im gonna draw you something really crappy in paint hold on