Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things Official Axiom Demo Rooms . . .

I am pretty excited . . . I will have the honour and pleasure to host the first two official Axiom Demo Rooms outside Axiom facilities. They will consist of one dedicated Home Theatre Room and a medium size Family Room.

The construction has started a few months back and I am finally getting at the stage where you should be interested to see what is going on. Hopefully, the project will be completed by the end of November. The video projector will determine the official opening date; there are several, soon to be released, exciting 1080p projector models … We will talk more about video eventually but for now back to the construction project.

The rooms are part of an addition which I am building for my own home. I will post pictures shortly and I will give you all the details which interest you and even more. . .

Wow, sacrificing your own home in such a manner. You are the man JC!

Can't wait to see the pictures.

Yes, pictures will be great. That sounds very cool.

Hi Rick,

I know that I deserve a lot of merit for this but I will not get any and you know why . . . it is for a great cause; supposedely it makes it easier !

I will have the drawings of both rooms available shortly.

Hi JC,

That does sound really exciting. I personally am very curious to see what makes your room so official .

>> I personally am very curious to see what makes your room so official

The pair of EP800's on the left wall, for starters

Hi guys,

A few things will make them official; there will be a direct link to request an audition, all the audio speakers and subwoofers will be Axiom products and only Axiom products, the amplifiers will be Axiom amp, etc. In a few words: it will be as Axiom as it can get.

Furthermore, the host will be an Axiom audio expert.

I will post the first two pictures shortly; drawings of the Home Theatre and the Family Room.

Here is how it all started . . . it was almost three years ago when I joined Axiom. Ian is a very generous person and right from the start he gave me a pair of speakers to listen to music and movies on his Axiom creations. And, once in a while, he would send me additional speakers to test and evaluate. Soon, I had to face the fact that I needed, if not a dedicated room at least a decent one for these products. I also wanted so much to be part of the proud Axiom owners who invite people to listen to their system.

So at first, I tried to re-arrange our living quarters to make it a possibility; I had the blessings of my wife (what an exceptional woman!). As much as we tried, it was rapidly clear that we had insurmountable hurdles to bring my project to maturity. So we then ponder between selling our house to build a new one or to buy an existing one or to build an extension to our home and all possible scenarios in between.

Here we are two years later with what we think was and still is the best solution; an extension to our home . . .

Finally, the drawings . . .

Home Theatre


Family Room


What are your first impressions?

jc

The sizes look good and the layout looks really nice. Is the family room the top left area in the second picture ?

I'm guessing that the two pictures are "stacked" one above the other somehow but I haven't quite figured out how. Is this a two-level addition out back or two areas on top of the existing house ?

I didn't see ceiling heights in the drawings -- is anyone crunching the numbers to make sure all three dimensions are compatible ?

Anyways, looks like it's going to be real nice.

Hi Bridgman,

You are right, it is a two-level addition out back and the Family Room is over the Home Theatre. If you rotate the bottom picture 90 degrees clockwise; the stairs will stack up. The area on the left of the stairs is an outdoor storage area (that was probably the reason you had a difficult time to figure out how they match).

I will be posting real pictures and you will have a better idea.

Final dimensions will vary; they are not finalized yet. We will have a chance to talk more about the dimensions of both rooms. I am counting on everyone's input.

A very important point . . . the budget is not unlimited.

JC,

I’ll look closer when I have more time….At first glance, I’m not sure where your plumbing wall is on the first floor for the family room WC. You’ll want an 8” plumb wall to insulate the drop, unless you don’t mind hearing waterfalls.

Your dimensions should always be in 4’ increments whenever possible because all your sheet goods, dimensional lumber and even floor coverings are standardized with the four foot rule. Even if you move it out two feet to make a four foot incremental step, it’ll be a financial wash because waste will be less. Considering that, and also the HT room size I currently have, I’d suggest you go 16’ wide in the HT room. With your depth, you are probably looking at a screen width of at least 96” inches. My 12’ wide room is about two feet too narrow for my 96” screen for me to position my M80’s where they should really be, and even at 14’, I think I’d be wanting more width. Also, if you go 16’ wide, you could get four seats across.

I could go on and on and write a book on construction recommendations, but will not bore you as I don’t know your experience with the trades. Feel free to PM or email me with specifics and I’ll be happy to assist. I’ve built a thing or two before….

I agree with mdrew, I hav a 14' wide room, with a 92" 16:9 screen, and I love the space, its a perfect width for the room.








If my door was not to the left of my screen, I would have gone with a bigger screen no doubt, but I need to protect my speakers from the walkway...

"The video projector will determine the official opening date; there are several, soon to be released, exciting 1080p projector models."
-----------------------------------------------------------

Curious to know what projectors you have in mind. I am also in the market for a new projector and 110" screen with a 10k budget.

Craig

Hi mdrew,

Many thanks for all your suggestions and generous offer. The dimensions will vary only by a few inches; the rooms have been built. I will post additional pictures soon.

If I had the budget; I would have gone with a 15'+ x 27'.

May be next time, who knows!

Hi Hutzal,

Thanks for the software and the golden rules. The dimensions could have certainly been optimized but I had restrictions to work with.

I would have loved a perfect ratio room with perfect acoustic treatment and a perfect acoustic response.

Do you think that it would be fair for most of the people who has to compose with imperfect room environment 99.9% of the time?

Hi Craig,

I wish I had that kind of budget . . . it would most likely be a JVC - DLA-RS2.

I am waiting for the reviews on the newest models from the ususal more affordable players . . . Epson, Panasonic, Optoma, Mitsubishi, Infocus.

Which models are you considering ?

What are the qualities you are looking for in a projector?

Quote:

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A very important point . . . the budget is not unlimited.

---

There's always a catch.
Ian should have dipped into his jet budget for this i think.

I have some great comfy chairs you should consider:

Eech, that photo was ridiculously large.
Sorry about that.
Just go to photobucket and login with:
user: chessers
pass: axiom
and check out the HT Final album.

Hi,

Ian is going pretty deep; all the speakers and a good portion of the electronics.

Your chairs look pretty comfy. Where have you found them?

Jc, I am considering the Sony VPL-VW60 and the JVC DLA-RS2 or the JVC DLA-HD100. I have the budget of 10k but would rather spend less and get a video scaler(DVDO).

Hi upyourkilt,

I am really curious about the DVDO scallers. Have you had a chance to experiement one? The new DVDO iSCAN 50Pro looks phenomenal. The added Mosquito feature is very goood. This algorithm was originally developed and sold as a stand alone box by a Montreal firm. I saw a demo when it was originally introduced many years back at the Montreal Hi-Fi show (FSI Show - Le Festival du Son et de l'Image); it was $3000.00 for that feature only.

I will be putting the accent on the sound for my demos; I will most likely choose a projector which can easily fill a large screen with a decent picture over one with a pristine picture of lesser size. The Panasonic PT-AX200U seems interesting !

Hi,

I am not totally building from scratch; I had restrictions also...

Here are pictures of the outside . . .

Actually JC, we first discovered the chaise lounges in a place closer than you may realize. After visiting the Axiom factory back in '04, we attended a spa resort about 40 minutes away called Grail Springs that had them in their luxury rooms.
We asked them about where they procured the chairs and found out they were custom ordered. The maker was Rowe, though i'm not sure they still build this style anymore.
I think Vogel has something similar, though i'm not as sure about their quality.
www.vogelchair.com
Our versions are extra wide (chair and a half) so they can fit two reasonably proportioned adults.
They were not cheap as chairs go.

Hi chesseroo,

Thanks for the details and the origin! I love the fact that they will host two persons . . . my kind of chair !

JC,

That looks like a lot of work. Are you doing it yourself?

Hi Mojo,

I act as the general contractor and I do physically get involved; I have bruises to prove it.

I love construction; I have built three fairly large houses in my good days. I have not built the one which we live in now which is far more modest.

I love construction and using the latest / different construction methods. I always have a strong overwhelming tendency to over do it; though on a budget!

The secret to a successful construction is to hire qualified, skilful and reliable trade persons. So far I have been very lucky. They are not always available but they are worth the wait.

JC,

I’ve been using a DVDO VP-50 for over a year now and am waiting for the Pro model to show up in the mail (I bought it through DVDO’s upgrade program).

I originally bought the VP-50 for use in a constant image height set up and at that time, there were no projectors on the market that would do the required vertical stretch of HDMI input signals. Currently, there are several projectors that will perform the V-stretch, so the need for the scaler is less. I also use and SDI modified DVD player, so that is also where the scaler comes into play.

If I were starting from scratch, knowing what I know now, I do not think a scaler would be on my shopping list. Here’s why…

- HD DVD and BR looks so good, there is no need at all for an external VP. There is very little a VP can do for these formats that will make much of a difference.
- The newest batch of receivers and pre/pros have great internal VP’s (Reon and ABT), so again, little need for a stand alone VP.
- The newest SD/DVD players with HDMI / 480i output is so good, there’s no need for SDI output, so again, little need for a stand alone VP with SDI input.
- The new receivers have numerous HDMI and other inputs, so again, little need for a stand alone VP to use a switcher.
- No stand alone VP has noise reduction that can compete with Algolith’s Mosquito for compressed video. If you want NR, just buy the Mosquito.

There are reasons to buy a VP, such as….

Independent video input profiles for each source.
Independent video input calibration (limited to the VP).
Lip Sync is generally improved and can be set differently for each source.
Cutting edge deinterlacing and scaling (which MAY be better than your display or receiver, but MAY NOT be)

Considering the pro’s / con’s, if I was not already financially committed, to the DVDO with their generous upgrade program, I would not have ordered the Pro. I would have either sold the VP, or possibly ordered the Lumagen Radiance XD, or would wait to see how the new Cary Cinema 11v pans out.

The Radiance is limited to HDMI 1.1, but you don’t really need 1.3 if your sources decodes the new HD audio codec’s and sends your audio processor M-channel PCM. It then becomes a debate to what does a better job at this; the receiver or the player. But if 1.3 is important to you, the Radiance was designed to be easily upgraded to 1.3. The Radiance also has a gamut of calibration adjustments including grey scale, the DVDO does not.

The Cary Cinema 11v is very interesting. It is HDMI 1.3, has similar calibration functions as the Radiance, but they are using a Faroudja chip which I find odd. Faroudja is outdated and have not come out with anything worth a darn in years. Only time will tell how well this new chip of theirs works. I am also very interested in how well this unit plays with its matched Pre / Pro, the cinema 11a. Apparently, the 11v does all the audio decoding and sends it as M-channel PCM to the 11a via Cary’s proprietary link (similar to the Denon I-link).

Another VP that is not out yet, but only being designed is the Lumagen Radiance Pro. It will have HDMI 1.3, an LCD screen and SDI inputs (the XD has no SDI). They do not expect this to be out before late 08.

So I reckon you ought to jot down your reasons why you want to use an external VP and go from there. It may just be a “want”, and not a “need”, and there's nothing wrong with that!

JC,

Another thing worth mentioning, seeing how you’re looking at projectors.

I use a Panasonic 1000U. I am enjoying this projector very much, but it does have some short comings that I’ll consider for my next projector. I have recently been trying my hand at video calibration with an Eye-1 Pro meter and third party software. I feel I have this unit calibrated as close to D-65 and the 709 color rec as possible. After getting the unit calibrated properly, my Ansi CR sucks…. It’s a miserable 120 and the On/Off CR is only 1200/1. When I calibrated the unit, I ended up turning the Dynamic Iris off. This hurt CR, but improved the grey scale tracking significantly. With the DI on, my mid gamma was getting blown out.

So my leanings from calibrating this unit is to look for a projector that has excellent CR, without the use of a DI. Currently, the JVC is the only projector that does this. I am keeping a close eye on the RS2.

What I do not want to give up though, is complete primary and secondary color / gamma calibration. The Panasonic has this without going into the service menu. I’m not entirely sure if the JVC allows these adjustments or not. Another really cool feature the Panasonic has is its wave form monitor. This enables the user to calibrate brightness and contrast perfectly.

Hi,

I am really impressed by your knowledge on scalers ! How does your VP-50 perform with regular cable or satellite channels (non HD)?

I thought that the Mosquito software inside the VP50 was from Algolight . . . it does not seem to be the case.

I will certainly consult you if I decide to go that route.

JC,

I do not have HD satellite where I'm at. I can get a whopping six channels, but only if I put up a second, 48" dish. One ugly dish on the side of my log home is funky looking enough....

So..., when I bought the VP-50 I was wishfully thinking that it would improve SD satellite. It did to some degree, but it's still hardly watchable, especially now that I have HD and BR DVD...

DVDO is shipping the PRO model out to me this week and I will let you know if it does any better than the VP-50. If it doesn’t, it’s going back and I’m selling the VP-50 as well.

Mosquito noise, as far as I know, is not really a trade name, but a type of noise. The PRO targets edge detail noise, where the “Mosquito and /or Flea” from Algolith targets edge - and random noise. It’s my understanding that both of these units will do a better job with Satellite and SD DVD noise reduction than the VP-50 Pro.

One thing the VP-50 does extremely well at, is upconvert SD/DVD. It also doubles the frame rate of native 1080P/24 HD to 1080P/48 for a much smoother, judder free HD image and it does an outstanding job at upconverting 1080i. So all is not lost, but to me, four grand can be spent more wisely elsewhere than an external VP nowadays.

If you are not in a hurry, I just read a thread at AVS where Jason Turk is going to set up a shoot out this January. I’d go to that if I could…..
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=924611

Hi,

Thanks for the details on the VP50 and please, let me know how the Pro version preforms. I am not in a hurry for a scaler and I am not sure that I would like to spend money on one, based on your comments.

I will surely check for the shoutcout in January if it takes place.

Picture time . . .

Home theater . . .

Front wall


Yoo can see the Sonopan panels which will be applied to the back wall before building the third tier.

Back wall


The Sonopan has been installed and the last tier built


The left side wall with the entrance door


The opposite side wall (right)


Picture taken from the lower tier


The lower tier and the middle one were poured at the same time when the floor was poured.

In a few minutes more pictures of the family room . . .

Will the Sonopan be exposed?

Hi Mojo,

It will not be. It will be covered by two layers of sheetrock each layer on sound bars. I will have pictures available later.

More pictures . . . this time the Family Room

Front wall


Back wall . . . going to the existing kitchen/dining area. The patio door will be replaced with French doors.


Back wall with the side entrabce at the back right hand side


Left side wall . . . through the studs you can the see the mechanic room where I moved my hot water boiler (fuel) and added an electrical boiler to heat the existing house and the concrete floors of the added section. I needed more electrical power so a second electrical panel was also added which gives me plenty of circuits for the home theater. I will take a better picture of this and will post it later.


Right side wall


As you can see a lot of glass and high ceiling from 9 to 12 feet.

Things have finally started to move up and I am finalizing my pre-wiring. The sheetrock slould be installed at the end of the week.

I'll post more pictures soon!

It looks like it will be a wonderful place, JC. Good to hear that the Sonopan will not be exposed. Otherwise it could double as a second anechoic chamber for Ian . It may be too late now but it would have been a good idea to have staggered stud walls to decouple acoustic surfaces.

Wow! How many houses are you building?

Mojo,

Two walls are exterior walls (left side and front). The right side wall is a concrete wall and the joining space is a corridor and the stair well to the Family room. The back wall is the issue that is why I built a concrete block wall. On the other side of the block is a former exterior house wall (2 x 4 studs). It will be my bedroom.

Looking great JC, I am sure you are pretty excited! it is a very exciting thing to build your Home Theatre.

JC,

When I mentioned decoupling of acoustic surfaces, I was specifically referring to the "mechanic room". But you may not actually have anything in there that generates any noise.

Hi Hutzal,

You are absolutely right; I am pretty excited about the project and the most exciting part for me will be to demonstrate the Axiom spectacular speakers to Home Theatre fans and music lovers.

Mojo,

It is not as critical as the dedicated home theatre room. Not much noise will be generated there except for the fuel hot water boiler. But I will be using the electrical boiler most of the time; the fuel one will be used only when the Hydro will switch to high rate.

My main concern is to avoid the sound from the Home Theatre room to invade the rest of the house.

It's been a long time so I'm sure the project was put on hold...but any updates?