Well, i have finally started on my summer project. To create the most amazing gaming/movie watching experience in my bedroom. My bedroom is large as far as bedrooms go, but small for a home theater (128" by 159", 10.6' by 13.25') so it is going to be difficult to get the throw i want. I'm shooting for a 146" diagonal 720p wide screen. Im also on a budget of next to nothing. Ill keep this thread updated with pictures (although it might be a while in between, i need to clean my room which i have been putting of for 4 years.) Any input would be useful.

Plans.

4 speaker stereo audio (until i can afford surround)
HT pc (my current desktop, more about that later)
Video Game Systems (to many to type out)
10.6" 720p projector. (as soon as i build it.)
Screen - Undecided

I plan on building or modifying a cabinet to house all the electronics in.

My current pc. (is it good enough to make a good HD HT pc?)

Amd Athlon XP 3000+
1gb ram
500w power supply
540gb of hdd space
2x Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS graphics cards in SLI

Ok, first off, i have some quetions. I am planing on using my curent stereo as the front speakers for my audio system. I have 2 KLH 510 loudspeakers attached to a Realistic STA-85 AM/FM Stereo recever. The first problem is that my mid-ranges are shreded, both of them. (dont know how it happened) Is it posible to replace them and what whould i use?



MY second question is that my set up crackles when realy loud highs are played. It never clips on the bass but the highs crackle. What could cause this? (note: the recever was perchesed new in 1983 and the speakers were perchesed used at the same time). Oh, and dont laugh at how old it is. It can still compeet with my uncles Bose system in terms of audio quality.

(picture of the recever if it helps any)

Here is the wall i am going to be projecting the image on. (once everything is rearanged). Its 128" wide ~8' tall and the only things on it are an electricl socket and a vent.

you can replace the speakers that are shredded. take them out and go to Rad Shak to match them up. replace the tweeters too so you get rid of the high freq crackle. nothing wrong with "older" equipment. I have a D/C amp that I have had for 30 years and Fisher speakers. 400 Watts of power, 4 channels.

I thought I might have been the only other person in the world to own Fisher speakers! I loved the Fisher speakers I had... I wish i'd never sold them, but the cones were in bad shape... wish i'd been more DIY oriented back then rather than a young dumb kid ready to blow some cash...

I think partsexpress.com would perhaps have something you could use. I don't know a whole lot about speaker design, but I believe you really need to look at the overall size of your speaker cabinets as this can effect the speaker selection, crossovers, etc... I'm going to be replacing the speakers in an old pair of HLX speakers my father had. The cabinets are nice and heavy duty and in great shape, it's just that the driver cones have disintegrated over the years...

Thanks for the replys guys.



The radio shacks by me are usless and over priced now. (they realy dont have anything anymore). Also, i have had the speakers conected to other recevers and the highs were fine so i realy think its my recever crackleing. Could it be a dead capacitor some where? And how loud is 400w? mine is only 35e rms and it can shake the house.



Same with mine. My dad origenally put this system togeth and it sounds great, the cabnets weigh a good bit and are verry solid, not to mention they look nice. Ill have to pull out the mids and check on partsexchange. Thanks again for your help.

Pictures comeing later.

I found it! I found my floor! I havent seen it in 4 years.



Alothough i still have to deal with all this...

OMG!!! You freaking slob!!! Thank goodness it was still there after all those years. What would you have done were it missing?

I dont know. Fallen through to the garadge below? This task is so daunting though its just such a mess, im afrade of what might be under it. Then again, im also curious. Maby i might find all thoes things i lost. Moral support would be nice though.

We're all there for ya dude. Tie a rope to your waist and something solid and wade right in!!!

I'd post a current picture of my basement but it'd make your place look organized.

OMG! you get the prize for messiest(sp?) room. imagine what you will find in there? if we dont hear from you in a few days we will send help. dont forget your locator beacon.

I dont think its possible to make my room look organized. unless...

MWAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!! (now if only that would work....)

No, that award goes to my friends brother. His room is worse than mine and to top it off he has small animals livving in it that he keeps as pets... and they arent in cages.

And dont worry, ill keep my beacon on at all times.

So, after lunch i am going to run out to the store and buy some plastic tubs to put things in. Ive found the best way for cleaning messes like this are to get a lot of grabage bags and a lot of platick tubs. You throw any trash in the garbage bags and anything that needs to be sorted or delt with in the tubs, that way you can clear enfough space to start organizing the things you put in the tubs.

i'd recommend an EPIRB strapped to your back ! Oh My...

A what? also, does anybody have a hasmat suit i could barow? lol. ((by the way i actaully still sleep in that room and spend a good deal of time in it so it isnt as dangerous as it looks)

-edit-

i looked it up on google. Its an Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon for anyone else that comes along and wonders.

it's used by ships at sea... in case they sink...

Man your room is scary

If you are getting some stuff from radio shack... http://www.radioshack.com/uc/index.jsp?pag...l&noBc=true

Thanks for the cupon Areosoul22.

While cleaning my room i found these 2 lenses (there are two more, but i dont knw where they are). They are high quality glass lenses from a copier.



The one on the left has a fl of ~115mm, the one on the right, strangly, doesnt focus to a point. They are very nice, but a little dust with some finger prints. no scratches though. Any ideas if or what i could use them for? im thinking maby a precondenser.

Here is it focusing on the driveway, there was smoke coming from the asfault in less than a second.



If anyone is interested i might be willing to part with them.

I delved into the depths of my room again and cleaned another 10 square feet or so . I also found that i have hard wood floor and that the rug is just an area rug... (how did i forget that? ) My goal is to have half the floor cleared by the end of tomarow . I will report back tomarow morning and if i dont return by the night send a serch party .

ps. i am haveing fun with the smilies.

Hey, didn't I see your room on COPS the other day!?

The crackle in your tweets is probably from rubbing voice coils. They tend to warp out of round when overheated (as when you're really cranking 'em).

Given the age and shape of the speakers you'd probably be better off just scrapping those and buying another pair. There's a whole slew of specs provided with drivers that need to be taken into account for the crossover circuit and cabinet that you have. Just slapping in drivers with the same physical dimensions and impedance won't neccessarily equate to good sound.

If you really do want to give it a go, Parts Express as mentioned above is a really good source and there are tools you can download to help make proper driver selections but it can be a bit daunting.

Thanks for the advice, but i realy do want to keep these speakers, because they look good and to tell you the truth they sould beter than my uncles bose system

I would replace the speakers that are bad and keep the cabinets. I only mention Rad Shak because I replaced some speakers in a pair I had and they worked quite well and werent that expensive, of course there are other places to get replacement speakers. Now heres the kicker, the fishers I have now were FREE! I was driving to Fedex with a few enclosures to ship and someone was throwing these away!!!! needless to say I stopped and grabbed them up. got them home and hooked em up and they are perfectly fine. it amazes me at what people throw away.

one man's trash; another man's treasure.

Thats how i got most of the things i own. My bicicles, my motorcycle, my snow mobiel ect.

While cleaning my room today i found my rocket. I Still cant beleve i managed to loose it. Its nice to have it back.



Now i can scare my friends with it again.

Well, my floor is half cleaned now. On to the other half. Ill have pictures later. I cant wait to get this done

cant wait to see what else you will find! cool rocket. deactivated I hope.

Dont worry, its inert. It still scares the hell out of people though. I also found my katana and wakizashi yesterday.

Ok, so, im getting near finishing cleaning the floor, then i just need to organise evrything and give the place a good scrubbing. In the mean time i need some opinons. Im thinking of getting a large cabnet type thing with double dorrs and installing all my game systems and my computer in it. Does that sound like a reasonable idea?

na. just put 'em on the floor.

I never like the idea of enclosed cabinets for electronics (ie. doors on front and a back) This creates too much dead air space and the electronics can overheat. I perfer shelving, whether free standing or attached to the wall. JHMO.

... let's see a pic of the progress !

Pictures after lunch. Also, i already thought of the problem of ir circulation, im going to put some fans in the side of the cabnet to keep the air moveing.

You will need room for the air to go in and out of the cabinet (cold air in, warm air out, just like the projector). Just circulating hot air won't help any. I just cut a rather large hole in the back of my entertainment center a month or so ago for just that reason. Now I can keep the front door closed, but there's still enough air flow.

I guess i wasnt clear. The fans would be in the side of the cabnet, one pulling air into the cabnet and the other pushing air back out.

I dont want to get off the topic of your messy room or anything but.... I am thinking that your target throw size is a bit big for that room. The room I have my projector in is similar to yours (its 12" x 13) and my screen is a mere 89". The thing is, when you are sitting 9 feet away you don't want to have to move your head around to see the screen. I liked my size alot. Some people might want a little bigger, maybe 100 or 105, but 140 or whatever you said just seems too big IMO. Once you have that room cleared out you should map out screen sizes with painters tape and see what feels comfortable. Good Luck!

[Edit] Also, if you are planning on gaming a lot then size is even more important. Games tend to give people headaches when they are super big and it can also effect your performance. Just my two cents.

Ive actualy decided on 120" because i have an 80" from my psone projector and it isnt big enfough for what i want.

Hmmm, hmm, hmmm, dumm-de-duummmm . . .

Katana - check.

Wakizashi - check.

Live ordnance - check.

Just another day cleaning up x_25's room.

What's gonna turn up next?

Paint ball gun

Live fire crackers (no clue where those are from)

Several pocket knives.

Ill post up a picture of them all together a little later today (although i threw the fire crackers out so they won't be in it)

As promised, a picture of all the dangerous items i have found in my room so far. (found a hammer, no clue why i had a hammer in my room but i did.)

Ok, i have pictures of my progress. (finally got arround to taking some, please ignore the blurry left sides of the images, i got a fingerprint on my lens. )

I cleaned all the crap off of my stereo. (the paint on my wall is very reflective for some reason... maby thats why it makes a nice projection serface?)



Here is all my crap in boxes.



I have so far thrown out 11 bags this size. And i still have way to much stuff in my room (refer to previous photo)



Anyone want 128kb of RAM?

Oh man!

I'm a believer now!

You said you got a motorcycle that way??!?

Yep, it was my uncles old one, pulled it out of the shed and im working on getting it running. Its a 1970 Yamaha HT1. I also got a snomobiel, but im giving that to someone else once they come and pick it up.

Ok, update time, i havent done much since i last uploaded pictures because ive been hnging out with friends that i havent seen in a long time. Anyway, yseterday i went to a hamfest (for thoes who dont know what it is think flea market but mostly electronics.) and bought some cool things. I got a wierless keyboard and mouse for my desktop, i finally found myself an IBM modle M, bought centipeed and milipeed for the atari 2600, a 512mb xd card for my camera (was $10, couldent pass it up), and to top it all off i bought the speakers that i am going to use for my rear chanles. They are 200w speakers and match nicely with my curent ones because they are strong where my old speakers a weak and my old speakers are strong where my new ones are weak.

Now, what i am thinking is i will take the drivers out of thir current boxes and build new ones, But i will put the woofer and the crossover in a seperate box on the floor and then put the tweeters and midranges in their own boxes, mount them on the wall, and run wiers from the sross overs up to thoes.

oh, and here are pictures.



One big (loud) happy family. (yes that is now 12 drivers in my setup)

Man, you might just end up seeing that floor of yours!

I can already see half of it its just i cant get in any spot to take a picture of it because it kind of hard to take a picture of where you are.

geezz.. heavens shall open and let thy sun shine on the floor beneeth you!
LET THERE BE FLOOR!! And god saw that it was.. there..

argh there be fingieprinties on yer lens sailor? wipe it off ya shall! err..

keep it up mate

Woohooo! Keep going dude! Yer doin us proud!

Sorry i havent updated in a while, ive been car shopping. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good condition subaru ipreza or outback sport that is under $5000 in nothren NJ?

[quote name='x_25' date='Jul 9 2007, 06:21 PM' post='240918']
Anyway, yseterday i went to a hamfest (for thoes who dont know what it is think flea market but mostly electronics.)

My Father in law goes to those all the time he is big time into that stuff, thought they only would have ham stuff i guess i might have to hitch a ride next time.

Trust me, they have a lot more than just ham stuff. the last one i was at there was one guy who had an rptv lens but he wanted $30 and it wasnt worth that.