Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
First HT noises in the new house
#122069 12/28/05 05:02 AM
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,379
Likes: 7
axiomite
OP Offline
axiomite
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,379
Likes: 7
So... spent the day packing up the HT system and reassembling the pieces in the new house to see how the room sounded and what kind of room treatments I would need immediately.

Step 1 was hooking up the M60s, receiver and DVD player then popping in a CD (Diana Krall, Live in Paris). That wasn't too useful because the VFD (front panel display) recently died on the receiver and the speakers were set to Small. After a few more grunts and curses I had the sub running and could do some serious listening.

The room is definitely too reflective and imaging was almost nonexistent, so first step will be adding a heavy rug in front of the speakers and doing something about the first reflection points, but overall I was VERY happy with the outcome. My big concern had been getting a boomy sound as a result of the 45 degree roof/ceiling behaving like a square room and emphasizing one frequency, but fortunately the room is sufficiently large that the primary room mode is just over 20 Hz. Boom away, I don't care

I had forgotten how different (and how good) a system can sound in a large room. The bass seemed very smooth and even compared to the smaller basement room where the system had been until this morning. Walking around the house showed that glorious "loft" or "church" acoustic behaviour, where the sound is slightly different everywhere you go but remains almost as clear on the floor below the loft as in the "sweet spot".

Next step was hooking up the DVD player, setting the center and surrounds to "None", popping in Finding Nemo and flipping to the Darla Tap scene.

Holy ^%$&%^*!!

I was always a bit disappointed with the Darla Tap scene in my old room, even after re-arranging the sub and listening position to greatly improve the bass. Here it was different -- the floor shook and the illusion of a giant banging on the wall was very real. Totally different experience.

The sub was running a few dB hot because I had wiped the receiver settings to try and fix the VFD problem (sub went from -5dB to 0dB) but I had run the sub hot before without hearing anything like this.

Next step was to pop in the War Of The Worlds DVD I had given my brother in law then promptly borrowed back

When the ground started splitting open (in the movie) my primary concern was that the loft might collapse, dumping me and the speakers into the kitchen below. The sub reached its limits at least once during the loudest parts, no doubt because it was set a few dB too hot. I will adjust the level down before playing any more DVDs.

Having a "live" floor makes a big difference in the "subwoofing experience". My old HT room was cheap parquet directly over concrete (and yes it was ruined every time moisture came in) while the new house has 2x6 pine over a timber frame.

Can anyone comment re: how much flexibility you need in the floor to get this effect ? I want to make sure my brother-in-law gets the right info before finishing his room. I'm wondering if those little plastic "bubble board" underlays will be enough to give a "live floor" or whether we need something like the 2x6 standoffs that someone here (Craigsub ?) used. I'm sure the floor wasn't the only difference (this room is much bigger) but I was sure surprised how much bass I felt through the floor.

Here are a few pics. First a straight shot of the starter system. The M60s are probably too far apart; this was my attempt to put them 8 feet apart but probably more like 12 feet. The sub is an SVS 20-39 PC Plus.



This pic shows the loft area a bit better. This is from the opposite corner of the loft :



... and here's a pic of the front now that the light fixtures are finally in and working



Last edited by bridgman; 12/28/05 05:15 AM.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8
Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122070 12/28/05 05:19 AM
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441
The house and loft look fantastic, John! I moved from a house with wooden floors over a crawlspace to a home with floors (well, the downstairs, anyway) on a concrete slab. My bass no longer travels through the floor.

Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122071 12/28/05 05:31 AM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10,654
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10,654
Elegant quarters indeed, John.


-----------------------------------

Enjoy the music, not the equipment.


Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122072 12/28/05 05:31 AM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,201
connoisseur
Offline
connoisseur
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,201
Ok....I'm officially jealous of you right now. No fair.
Looks fantastic John.

So is it fair to say that the soup can's will no longer be of service? J/K! Btw, how do you think the qs8's will work in that triangular looking space of yours? They won't be going on the slanted wall, will they?

Last edited by richeydog; 12/28/05 05:52 AM.

*Michael*
AV123 Refugee - X-LS Encore, X-Voce, X-Omnis, Elt-Dpa's
Denon AVR-591
Magnavox NB500MGX BDP

Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122073 12/28/05 10:04 AM
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,210
axiomite
Offline
axiomite
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,210
Your new place looks stunning John! Very nice indeed.


Rick
Our Room

smile
Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122074 12/28/05 03:08 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
What a nice place John, I love the floor...you gotta get a different TV man. Personally, you need to go front projection, that would be totally awesome...


M80s VP180 4xM22ow 4xM3ic EP600 2xEP350
AnthemAVM60 Outlaw7700 EmoA500 Epson5040UB FluanceRT85


Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122075 12/28/05 03:26 PM
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 139
veteran
Offline
veteran
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 139
Very nice room/house! My wife would be greener than the Hulk if she saw those pic's! Nothing like log/post and beam homes. She still has a copy of "Log Homes" magazine from 1995.

Definitley go front projection.

Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122076 12/28/05 03:40 PM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915
aficionado
Offline
aficionado
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915
Wow, your new home is beautiful! I'm envious. The speakers look like they even match the floor! But I'm going to have to say it...it's all a bit overkill for the TV!


M60s
VP150
QS8s
Marantz SR6003
Samsung LN52B550
Oppo DV-980H
Insignia NS-WBRDVD
Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122077 12/28/05 03:50 PM
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833
W
Wid Offline
axiomite
Offline
axiomite
W
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833

Absolutley love it, what a great job you did John.


Rick


"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud

Re: First HT noises in the new house
#122078 12/28/05 04:16 PM
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,379
Likes: 7
axiomite
OP Offline
axiomite
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,379
Likes: 7
Thanks for all the nice feedback. Before anyone gets too envious, it's not a real timber-frame house -- that would have cost a lot more than I could afford -- but rather a conventional stick-built house with two wood-wrapped steel beams, 4x12 timbers to support the loft, and a 60-foot LVL ridge beam (which I think is a very cool idea) holding the roof up. I got lucky in that the guys on the framing team had been reading about timber framing for a couple of years and were looking for a place to try out what they had learned so the carport and decorative timber worked out far better than I had expected. Dennis (Tharkun) was also a huge help when I was making decisions about how to finish the house, drawing on his years in the construction business.

I had to make some compromises in order to afford the house, with the TV being only the most obvious one. I would like to replace it in the future if the toy budget ever recharges but my short term strategy of "sitting really close to the screen" has worked for me so far. My father was quite content using miniature binoculars to see text on his TV until we convinced him to upgrade to a 32" Sony so I guess we must share the "frugal" gene

That all said, I would prefer to start fresh and not use soup cans in the new setup. Plan A was to use FMBs on the angled walls (I already have 4 sets of speaker wires run to outlet boxes in approximately the right spots) but I don't think that is going to work because the two angled side walls are not the same length. The one on the left is very short while the one on the right is much longer so one of the surrounds would need to be in front of the seating position even with the 27" TV.

I have a pathological aversion to buying expensive speaker stands so have not jumped to the new FMS-QS, but those may end up being the best solution. In the short term I am looking through the pantry for equal-sized (stackable) cans and have enough to reach up about 2-1/2 feet already

Last edited by bridgman; 12/28/05 04:25 PM.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  alan, Amie, Andrew, axiomadmin, Brent, Debbie, Ian, Jc 

Link Copied to Clipboard

Need Help Graphic

Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics24,940
Posts442,457
Members15,616
Most Online2,082
Jan 22nd, 2020
Top Posters
Ken.C 18,044
pmbuko 16,441
SirQuack 13,840
CV 12,077
MarkSJohnson 11,458
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 585 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newsletter Signup
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4