my home theater "build" log

[Aharami]

do you live in a single family house, or a townhouse?

 

[purbeast0]

do you live in a single family house, or a townhouse?

single family home, so i can get it as loud as i please

i was in a condo the past 5.5 years before we bought this house, and my $400 JBL sub (which was top of the line to me in 2001 when i bought it while i worked at best buy) literally sat in my closet for the entire time.

 

[Aharami]

nice. go buckwild!

 

[purbeast0]

2 pairs of 3D glasses came today from the MIR for my projector. hopefully i can test them out tonight before friends start coming over. i'm anxious to get a look at em. only really have my st50 to compare the 3d to though.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

2 pairs of 3D glasses came today from the MIR for my projector. hopefully i can test them out tonight before friends start coming over. i'm anxious to get a look at em. only really have my st50 to compare the 3d to though.

How is the ST50 for 3D and general 2D viewing? I'm looking to replace a Samsung set sometime in the next year and I've heard a lot of great things about the ST50 line, especially for the price.

 

[purbeast0]

How is the ST50 for 3D and general 2D viewing? I'm looking to replace a Samsung set sometime in the next year and I've heard a lot of great things about the ST50 line, especially for the price.

3D is pretty awesome on st50, 2d is amazing. the blacks on the st50 are pretty incredible. the black bars on things that don't fill the 16:9 screen literally blend into the bezel when I watch tv in the dark. the black levels on the projector are definitely not near the plasma ones. i strongly recommend the st50.

the 3d on projector is pretty shitty out the box. i was disappointed to say the least. it doesn't even compare to the st50. there is a lot of ghosting on images that aren't right in your face, like stuff in the background. and you really can see almost pixelation in the background images too, like the resolution is just poor. i'm not sure the res on 3d movies but i'd be shocked if it is actually 1080p. when i stood behind my seating area the 3d looked a lot better. the dimness did not bother me at all as i've already experience it with my tv. it wasn't any worse than that.

 

[purbeast0]

so as anubis knows, i ended up picking up those 2 subs yesterday. really rough road trip being hung over lol but i trekked through it. can't believe how massive these subs are. i never would have known they were just that big until i saw them in person, and how heavy they are. i couldn't get them downstairs until today when i had some buddies over for the redskins game so they could help me. here are a few pics of them.

http://i.imgur.com/1oaS7.jpg

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

they aren't hooked up yet but that is where i plan on putting them. i'm waiting to do the in wall wiring before i fire them up, as well as have my new speakers. the mains you see there are the ones i brought down from my living room just to watch the game with down there.

 

[Anubis]

have you decided on the mains yet or are you still thiing about it? I assume you like the subs as you purchased them but how do you feel about how they sounded when you heard them? what you expected?

 

[Aharami]

are those 12" or 15"?
and you dont have to cut up the drywall and drill thru every stud to do in wall wiring. just take out the baseboard molding, cut 2.5" of the drywall from the floor, and run the speaker wires in that 2.5"x0.5" of space. Cover up with a thicker baseboard molding.

Much easier this way

 

[purbeast0]

have you decided on the mains yet or are you still thiing about it? I assume you like the subs as you purchased them but how do you feel about how they sounded when you heard them? what you expected?

they were massive when i heard them lol. in general everything about them is more massive than i expected. i honestly did not know exactly what to expect though as far as sound goes. they hit pretty crazy, and to be honest i personally would maybe turn them down a bit from what he had them set at, like if i was watching a movie. they seemed to be a little overpowering, but he probably had them turned up just to show what exactly they can do.

and as he mentioned and i noticed, he has a lot of things rattling in general in his basement and you could hear some of those vibrations. i'm hoping that because i have dry wall ceiling that i won't hear things like that lol.

i kind of wished and i should have just asked him to hear his other subs hooked up with the same movies so that i could get a comparison of how his sealed dual subs that he built sounded vs the caps. when i heard his dual subs for music, they sounded extremely clean and had a very clean 'punch' whenever the drums hit hard.

but overall man, you all were talking about things that were a bit over my head as far as my knowledge of speakers is. i'm such a noob to all this in technical terms and definitely felt that way haha.

as far as mains go i would really like to get the triple 12's from that lbrown guy over on avs but i don't have the funds for all of it just yet so i'm talking to him to see what we can work with, since he does have other interested people. it's 3 triple 12's and 2 triple 8's, all in the lp version.

are those 12" or 15"?
and you dont have to cut up the drywall and drill thru every stud to do in wall wiring. just take out the baseboard molding, cut 2.5" of the drywall from the floor, and run the speaker wires in that 2.5"x0.5" of space. Cover up with a thicker baseboard molding.

Much easier this way

they are 18" subs heh

and as far as the wiring goes, i'm going to put some speaker face plates in the wall and run the wires up the wall between the studs, and the joists in my ceiling go the same way as the studs along that wall, and i'm going to run it along the ceiling to the area where the beam is covered, then run it to the closet from there. was talking with my electrician buddy this weekend and he's going to help me do it. i'm also going to install 2 20amp circuits that are going to be dedicated for the closet with all my components.

 

[Anubis]

yea andrew runs his bass pretty hot and its not for everyone, they also wernt EQed perfectly and will blend in a bit more when all setup. the rattles are as result of the 2 new ones he built, 1 is a wire/pipe in the back wall and the 2nd is one of his podlights. as well as everything not nailed down but those are the 2 main things that rattle

the subs are JTR Captivators - Passive model

his new ones just sound louder and go a little lower, some of it is the fact that they are sealed vs ported and some of it is because hes got 4 18s vs 2 and hes giving them nearly 5000 watts

he also just orderd 4 more, he will have a total of 8 soon

 

[purbeast0]

yea andrew runs his bass pretty hot and its not for everyone, they also wernt EQed perfectly and will blend in a bit more when all setup. the rattles are as result of the 2 new ones he built, 1 is a wire/pipe in the back wall and the 2nd is one of his podlights. as well as everything not nailed down but those are the 2 main things that rattle

haha yea man the bass is insane in general. he did mention the pipe thing i remember. i'm sure when i get these all hooked up and stuff that i will like how they sound.

i'm also impressed with the quality of those boxes that both austin and andrew made. really wish i had any kind of wood working skills like that, although i don't really have any room at the current time. it would be fun to be able to build things with that kind of quality. to me it is pretty damn impressive to think that the 4 subs he was running that are his normal ones were made from scratch from him.

after seeing that other guy's (i think mark was his name - im awful with names) subs in his truck that are in the 'trashcans' i had wished i was there to hear those. they are just odd haha.

in general sealed subs will sound a bit cleaner/tighter than ported subs?

 

[vi edit]

A good sub is going to sound like a good sub. Doesn't matter if it's sealed or ported. Sealed subs are just easier to "do right" by weekend woodworkers. Plus they have the advantage of being smaller sized and aren't as prone to being over driven due to the sealed nature of them. It's much easier to bottom out a ported sub because there is no built in natural protection.

Downside of sealed is that they can't typically be tuned as low as a similar sized driver in a ported box and are much more power hungry to drive. There's also a limit to just how much air you really move with them.

If you want subsonic bass that can make your concrete floor pulsate you are going to need big ass drivers, in a big ass vented box (or even crazier horn loaded box) and a lot of power thrown at them.

 

[purbeast0]

ah okay gotcha. well i do know that the box i have right now is definitely in the big ass box category lol. definitely makes sense what you are saying about why people do sealed as well. i was just more curious, and i know i've asked it before and done some research on it, but i feel like i'm not holding onto as much of the stuff i'm learning than i would like to.

anyways, i ordered my speakon adapters for the subs and am going to be ordering a lot of wiring and keystone jacks and face plates and banana plugs from monoprice either today or tomorrow as well.

i'm not 100% sure how i want to do the wiring for the mains and sub as far as where outlet placement goes. i think i may just have 1 6-speaker wall plate behind the center in the middle and just run all the wires from that. they will all pretty much be behind all the speakers up there in the front so there won't be much wire visible or anything. i am ordering some additional wall plates though in case I do decide to do it a little different. i also think if i run all 5 front speaker wires to the same hole in the wall that it will make the project a bit easier.

 

[purbeast0]

ordered a buncha stuff from monoprice today to do the wiring installation. going to try and get it done the weekend after xmas before new years.

on another note, the guy that i was interested in purchasing my speakers from has sold them to someone else . i found it out when i pm'ed him telling him i wanted to blind buy his jtr speakers after hearing the jtr subs i bought, since i now had more confidence that they would sound good. kinda sucks that i missed it by so little, although i don't have the exact funds for it right now, but i could have gotten it pretty easily to cover the difference i'm missing right now.

 

[Anubis]

you could always just get 5 new T8s for about the same cost. less output than the 12s but i really dont think it will be an issue in your space.

I did see that those went to sold last night and thought you snagged them untill i saw your WTB post this morning

 

[purbeast0]

yea i have been in contact with him since last week and contacted him sunday morning and didn't hear back until pretty much yesterday telling me they had sold

and yea, i'm thinking about doing 3 T8's and maybe 2 slanted single 8's for my surrounds. it just kinda sucks that i could have gotten a significantly more powerful system for the same price, although used, but who knows i don't have a clue if i can even really use them to the potential in my space or not.

 

[Anubis]

unless you are having an outdoor concert im not sure anyone can use them to their true potential

T8s + slants would be a great place to start, and down the road if you wanted more im sure you could sell them. they always seem to move pretty quickly when they are up for sale

 

[purbeast0]

unless you are having an outdoor concert im not sure anyone can use them to their true potential

T8s + slants would be a great place to start, and down the road if you wanted more im sure you could sell them. they always seem to move pretty quickly when they are up for sale

yea that is what i'm leaning towards at this very moment to be honest. i emailed jeff last night to ask him about the price for that package and when i would actually receive them.

question about speaker placement - would it be okay/safe to place speakers on top of the caps? or would you recommend just getting a stand for them separate? i was watching dexter/homeland down there last night and that kind of crossed my mind but had no clue if it's a realistic way to place speakers.

 

[Anubis]

its fine many people do it, when im back up and running my mains will be on the subs, andrew ran his SHO-10s on top of the caps before he built stands, you just want to place a isolation pad between the 2

 

[iRONic]

Damn... those subs are monsters.

 

[purbeast0]

its fine many people do it, when im back up and running my mains will be on the subs, andrew ran his SHO-10s on top of the caps before he built stands, you just want to place a isolation pad between the 2

ok cool, good to know.

i'm talking to another person right now about some 3 T12's and he's gonna get back to me tonight w/the shipping quote and stuff.

 

[Anubis]

nice nice

 

[purbeast0]

Me personally? I wouldn't jack with a rack in that space. Just go to home depot and buy a couple rails:

http://www.homedepot.com/Storage-Or...&langId=-1&storeId=10051&superSkuId=203147695

Then get the brackets to hang on there.

Have the lumber guys cut you down some 3/4" inch plywood down into the right sized shelves and call it day. Racks suck if you don't have access to the backside.

And the ones that you pull out and can pivot are crazy expensive.

so i'm thinking of going this route and am going to check out home depot tomorrow and see if i can find something i like and that will work. the more and more i think about it, if i'm going to be hiding my components, that will more than do the trick and be a fraction of the cost.

 

[Anubis]

lowes sells the same stuff, i used it a few years ago when redoing a walkin closet

only issue i see is that most components are a lot deeper than the standard closet shelf, not sure about weight distro/overhang issue