Thank you everyone for the imput.

Hutzal - I will let you and mdrew duke it out over the conduit issue , but when I went to monoprice.com looking for 12g in wall speaker wire, a 300ft spool is $143 which is closer to $00.48/ft, not $00.38/ft. Am I looking at the right stuff? On soundproofing, did you used GG? I am shying away from GG due to the cost (twice as much drywall and GG) vs. resilent channel. Thanks for the reminder about the electrical runs.

Photon - (see my comments to Hutzal) Did you use GG? I will check out that site on the hdmi cable. I hope to post some pics when I get alittle more comfortable posting.

Mojo - the 'room within a room' concept is probably not in my ht construction budget. I will get the 5/8" drywall, large sheets and the Roxul Safe 'n Sound.

mdrew - I know you said you didn't read the entire post, but I am having trouble getting the ent/smurf tube at retailers in my area. Any suggestions for getting this online?

thanks again.