Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater The new Home Theatre Room (Reno Complete)

Pffff, typical bourgeois excess! Clearly the tax load is insufficient!

Just kidding, I'm incredibly impressed - and envious. And inspired.

Great work, chess.

Tax load?
Actually you can thank the crazy fools who drove up the real estate market starting 5 years ago. We bought in as interest rates were low and going lower and just as the real estate market was getting hot.
Our old house was way oversold last year IMO.
Crazy fools.

Ah well, now we have this wine cellar... conveniently located next to my media room...

Thank your parents for getting it on in a timely fashion for you to be take advantage of the market as you did.

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Even the stairs were without backplates such that if you slipped on the step, your leg would go right through jamming the wood against your shin with horrible agony.

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Chess, am i to assume this happened to you on at least one occassion? At any rate, the renos look great. I know what you mean about the housing market, same thing has happened here too, i think i read average S'toon housing prices are up 16% from last year. There's going to be a whole pile of variable-rate mortgagees who are already over-leveraged that are going to start feeling the pinch with interest rates on the rise. My immediate boss was just transferred from here back to Wpg and has had an "interesting" time finding a home. It's a good thing that he's got some money/flexibility and can move quick. Newly listed houses don't seem to last a day there.

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Be sure to post some pics of your work in progress.

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Yikes. My basement is FULL of "stuff" while I am working in it. Some of it has to wait for a spring yard sale, some has to be positioned in the new Media room, some items have to be organized in the future salon (wife is a hair stylist), some stuff will go upstairs when we get a proper china hutch. In the mean time it is obstacle-city. Drives my wife crazy but she is puttin gup with it. I am taking pictures along the way and will try to post when I am a little further along.

Well it has taken awhile but i finally remembered to check out the SPLs in and out of the HT room.
With the Spirt of the West playing, i had in room peaks around 95dB at the 10-12 foot mark. The Onkyo 797 was set at 75% on the volume knob (0-100 absolute scale).

Outside of the room, with the doors closed, SPL fell to 69dB about 8 feet from the doors.
On the opposite side of the HT wall in the utility room, SPL measured 67dB.
Still quiet enough for an easy conversation.

One floor up in the living room (directly above the HT room), SPL measured 62dB but at this point, it was really only bass sounds that were setting it off. The music was not clear and with any amount of sound (e.g. the family room tv playing) the music in the basement was almost negligible.

Upstairs on the second floor, only a vague bass thump could be heard inconsistently.

The bottom line, media rooms do not need thousands of dollars of high tech gadgetry for sound control. Reasonably good wall design, sound insulation and in-room furniture for sound energy absorption goes a long way.
A decrease of over 30dB one floor up puts the sound into a range of easy conversations while the media room is blasting away. This is VERY acceptable IMO. Bass will always be the hardest sound to control and contain.

Chess - great looking basement!

I am closing in on finishing mine as well (tomorrow we install the drop ceiling). Just a few things left to do (hang doors, molding, connect electric, install carpet).

Cant't wait.

Ray

Wow, Chess...not only does your basement look beautiful, it looks like a blast as well! How fun it would be to drink some wine, play pool, then chill out to a movie. Problem is...those chairs look *too* comfortable which may cause much drowsiness during movies!

Fantastic room, where's your review of your first screening?

There's alot that i could say about our new basement. Games, wine, theatre and music with elegance. We couldn't be more pleased.
The sound in the media room is just stellar. No rattles, no obvious bass humps, minimal bright reflections (some curtains yet to be added to the door).
In the near future we are setting up for a front projector with a drop down motorized screen. As for the chairs, well, yes, my wife can attest to the sleep comfort factor built into those things. They are chair and a half in width so a couple of reasonable proportions could sit and snuggle comfortably. That's not a fat joke, just a fact.