Dennis, Looks great, you must be relieved
Dennis - that looks great!! Nice work and congratulations on your skills in getting it done.
I finished the major work in my basement room this past weekend. The only things remaining are small finishing items (most notably filling the nail holes for the molding and door frames, sanding/painting same and mounting 2 wall cabinets, along with a few other small things). I rescheduled the carpeting installation from tomorrow to next Monday to allow me to finish the small pieces and give the room a good cleaning.
While it may not be as grand as your project, I'm still excited to be able to FINALLY get my HT rig out of boxes and hooke up again.
Agan, kudos for a job well done my friend!
WOW DENNIS! That looks GREAT! (I think I hate you
)
Now that's what I call a wall of entertainment!
Beautiful finish work (except for the drywall
).
I'm slowly compiling my own pics. As I get closer I'll start posting but I am a little way off yet. I did finish installing my cables, though. Since my current home will not be my last I am not going all out and trying to keep it simple. For example, I think I am ruling out HDMI and DVI and sticking with component video and composite for the future overhead projector. The temporary TV will have S-video and composite.
My main objective is to get my exterior walls insulated and drywalled which should happen this next weekend (unless I have another round of indecision). Sometimes I think I can not plan enough and then frustrate the wife by taking too long
.
looks very nice......wish i had your skills....
Lookin' pretty darn good Dennis, man that looks like a ton of power under that TV set!
I still think you should have gotten a Front Projector.
Hmm, I think you need more amps.
Like two dedicated amp for one speaker. Now we're talkin. :-)
Appreciate the kind comments, I'm happy with the results of the time and money spent on the remodel, not sure I would want to do it again.
In reply to:
I still think you should have gotten a Front Projector.
The screen is the next HT project, as for the projector........................ that is on hold till the one we want becomes available.
Now there's a system that looks like it means business!
Looking very good, Dennis. I passed by Tracy a few times in the last couple weeks (on the way to and from Yosemite a couple times) and briefly thought about stopping by for a quick ear-blasting, but didn't want to show up unannounced.
Next time you are in the area stop by, you don't need an invitation, would be good to see you again.
Looking good ol boy looking good.
Excelent! Now on to the HTPC eh?
Tharkun,
now all you need is a projector.........
I think I heard your housemates were thinking about moving to the house down the street, what would you think of that?
Looks really nice. That is truely one of the most impressive HT setups around. Just looking at 2 full racks of pure hi-techery with a large TV and a beautiful speaker makes it look...sweet. Nice job!
gorgeous. is that a rocket center speaker?
yeah, hes got his 80's with the car, in the garage...
Appreciate the comments in this and the other thread, this HT rebuild has taken way longer than I wanted. Using the RS850 for center and rear speakers on the 7.1 system.
In reply to:
rebuild has taken way longer than I wanted
Dennis
Well worth the extra time. It looks fantastic! My hats off to you. Nice work.
oz
How High off the ground does your TV sit? thanks
Just a bit more than yours
................. 53" from the tile, the Mits is about 22 pounds more than the Sony but still manageable with two people to slide it in place.
ya, mine is about 30'' from the ground to the bottom of the screen.
do you have any problem with the picture being to dim from sitting so much lower then the TV? i know if i sit on my carpet and look up at my DLP, its is much dimmer then when im sitting at eye level.
Thanks oz..................but I just added a few more things to the system today, so another delay in being finished I'm afraid. Will be wroking on it all weekend installing cables from the HTPC to a 17" LCD tv/monitor, keyboard and mouse that will live on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Still finishing up the 110v power, speaker wires, and sub cables for the amps on the front mains, seems to be no end at times.
Did not have any issues with the Sony but will see about the DLP unit once it is up in place, hopefully will be able to set it up in place by Sunday.
tharkun, any updates? were you able to raise the TV yet?
Just a few more delays...................added a 17' LCD tv/monitor and a KVM consloe to the system, involving running more cables, working on that right now. Hope to be finished and close up the access doors in the tv area so the Mits can be put up in place.
Hey Dennis,
Just out of curiosity had you ever tried a listening difference between your center channel speaker in and out of its alcove?
I was wondering if there are any speaker colourations or boundary effects as a result of its placement.
Bruce,
That was a concern of many on the forum when I built the first HT cabinet. I have done several blind tests with differant freinds that have visited and out of a couple dozen listeners no one has detected any differance. I have placed as far as 20 " in front of the HT center and do not notice any change. As usual this is my expierence here in my room, so others may have differant results.
That is great! I guess you must have left the perfect amount of space around the speaker!
You should hang on to that Sony until the part becomes cheap enough to fix, then put it with the Axiom system in your garage
.
The Sony is still up for a decision, have not had time to deal with Sony reps lately. Trying to finish up the cables and racks, the Mits is up in place and seems like it was a good choice. Added a 19" widescreen to the HTPC system last night so a bit more time to finish up things. Once I have things done will post pics from start to finish, the cost of the rack/cabinet project and a review of items added and if I think it has been worth the time investment if there is enough interst in a posting.
I love your set up! Wish I had that kind of $$$
Sad to think that in ten years or so all that nice equipment will be old news and the new stuff will be the size of an i pod ! ( never know )
Silver look is realy bold I would have probably went Black but thats me the guy with $39.99 plastic AV rack.
I look forward to the finished pics.
Cheers
True the equipment could very well be outdated in ten years, but also I could die before then, and one advanatge to the componets all being silver, they show dust much less than black.
In reply to:
one advanatge to the componets all being silver, they show dust much less than black.
Now there is a feature that my wife would like. Mind you her preference is for no equipment to be exposed to gather and show dust
. My plan is to have the equipment in a dedicated cabinet built into the wall. The return air for the room will go through a grille in the cabinet (thus making the cabinet as part of the return air duct) which will then be tied into the plenum. The grille will have a filter in it to reduce and hopefully prevent dust from getting into the entertainment cabinet.
This gives me the return air I need from the Media Room as well as providing more than adequate air circulation/ heat removal for the equipment. The ductwork will be lined to reduce soud transmission.
I've never set up anything this elaborate but routing the cold air return thru your equipment rack doesn't sound like the best way to get air circulating in there. Given how often I have to change the filters in my house, I think a ton of dust would get thru and settle on the gear.
Does you equipment rack open up into a space behind? Maybe just a couple small muffin fans strategically placed would be all you need. I'm amazed at how cool my Pioneer A/V runs. The only thing that gets appreciably hot is the DirecTV receiver so I have it on a shelf by itself.
-Brian
I would also suggest not using a return air duct for cooling of the equipment.
Stay away from using the return air as a method of cooling your equipment. Dust would be the #1 problem and some of the others could be condensation on equipment or if enough heat is pulled into the return you could cause your heating equipment to cut out on high limit.
If your equipment is in a small closet like room I would suggest you use wall grills 1 high and 1 low. This would allow the hot air to escape from the top and let cooler air into the bottom. Its a natural effect that should work.
Have to agree with everyone here. As long as your gear has good spacing, you don't need to worry about ventilation.
The rack systems I used were designed to be installed insdie of a cabinet, I added the thermostatic fan control and two 4.5" fans.
The controller temp is set at 85 degrees and each of the rack fans have a rating of 57 cfm. This has worked out rather well at this point, the fans only are needed when the amps are working more becasue of the volume level, or if the HTPC is being used. When the fans are needed I have yet to see them at more than about half speed, they are ulta quiet so you can not hear them at all.
If you don't mind me asking, how much did those fans and controller run you? I bought an AC fan, but it was horribly loud, so I had to take it out. $30 down the drain...
These were Mid Atlantic brand, same as the racks, so not exactly inexpensive. The controller was $ 144.80 and fans were $ 39.42 each plus shipping. The cooling system was a total of about $200, but I figured it was cheap insurance for protecting the HT system.
A bit closer to being finished, needed to decide where to install the PS2, the IR unit was going to be a bit of a pain if the PS2 was rack mounted. Final decision was to install it above the center speaker, and the IR sensor is black and blends in with the speaker cap.
Dennis what kind of IR unit did you get? The system is looking might fine.
The IR unit is one that was inculded with the Logitech Cordless Controller that we have had for a few years.
Once again Dennis very nice, I must have missed it before, but are those 4 Halos?
When finished was going to post a pic and have a name the components contest, and give the Sony HD unit to the winner. lol
Ya, four of the Halo A21 amps, then on the left rack the Halo C2, and on the right is the Denon 2900. No mount rack kit for it as I'm waiting till the Halo D3 is released, it replaces the Denon unit.
Dennis, it just keeps looking better and better!
If all goes well, I will be completely finished with my basement by Sunday night. It will be nice to have it done and behind me.
Post some pics if you have it all finished.
