So, here I start my home theater room PLOG. The garage door is removed.

Now removing drywall and insulation from the ceiling.

Framing the garage door.

Right side wall framing. Removed dry wall. Added more power outlets. The green wire is speaker wire for the stereo.

Left side wall. Big cutout for a bay window - for the wife factor.

Speaker wires and signal wires at the equipment position. Note that the speaker and signal wires cross at right angles to the power line wires. Where they run parallel to each other, they are separated by a minimum distance of 18 incles. In this picture, I made the electrician run the wires straight down until they got to the height where they were running horizontal. This gave a separation of over two feet rather than about 8 inches. It probably would have been fine but the walls were open and it only took a few minutes to make the change.

Drywall at the equipemnt postition. Green wires for 7.1 channel audio. RG6U and CAT5e wire to go to the projector on the ceiling. Two power outlets. One is a dedicated 20 amp circuit for lots of power to the audio.

Projector position. Coax cables (for VGA), CAT5e cable for control signals and power outlet for the projector.

Walls and ceiling started to be painted. Dark burgundy on walls and dark blue on ceiling (wife approved).

Now for something a little different. I bought an electronic ballast on ebay and the Ushio bulb from LumenLab. Here is the room lit by the Ushio bulb. The purple and blue are easily seen. The eye doesn't perceive the color as being that light.

This is more like the eye's perception except for the ceiling closest to the bulb which still looks light.

Here is the wall with the silver screen paint (Kelly paint version of the Behr paint).

Here is the camera pointed at the Ushio lamp. I think this is a pretty cool picture.

About 6 weeks ago, I bought a pair of Acoustat 1+1 electrostatic loudspeakers on ebay. My wife and I drove to New Orleans to pick them up. We made a mini-vacation of it. We stayed at the Bourbon Hotel on Bourbon street. When we got there, the hotel upgraded our room to a two story suite (we paid $116 a night for the room). Here is a picture of the base of one of the speakers. The previous owner has recovered the speaker with a light grill cloth. I wanted to change it to black. I already owned a pair of these speakers that I had bought 20 years ago last July. I still haven't found any speakers that I can afford as much as I like these - if you want to hear what they can do, you need to power them with at least a 200W RMS continuous per channel amp. The minimum recommended power is 100W.

Opening the base to expose the power supply which puts the 1+KV bias on the electrostatic panel.

Here the grill cloth is removed and the panel is removed from the base.

A view of the front of the panel.

Another view of the front of the panel. Yes, that is my reflection on the tv set. The painting is one that my wife and I bought from an artist in Canada on ebay.

I bought 6 yards of black grill cloth on the internet. Here is the sewing position.

A faily close up view of the panel from the front.

Here you can see three of the Acoustats standing, nearly touching the ceiling. No new socks on yet.

Here is the speaker with the grill cloth sock being slid over the frame. The first one was a b...h.

Another view of the speaker with the grill sock partially in place.

Here are all four speakers in black. Three of them have new grill cloth covers. The third one from the left still has the old black grill cloth on it. The cover is sewn. I just have to take the last one apart and put the final new grill cloth on it.

those are massive1

Those are so awesome looking. What kind of price do those go for?

I'd like to know what they output! I've seen theater speakers at the cinemas that are smaller than those!! Sweet!

The original pair I bought new for $1600 in 1984. The second pair I bought on ebay about 6 weeks ago for $305. Their usual used price is somewhere around $650-$700.

Their output? They are so clear sounding that without realizing it you will have them turned up quite loud and think that they are not playing loud at all until you try to talk and realize that in order to be heard you have to shout.

What I like about them is that they are crystal clear at a whisper and are also crystal clear at high volumes (if you have an amplifier capable of the power they will ask for) and at any volume in between.

I can't wait to hear them in a 7.1 channel system with my to be Lumenlab projector.

The room now has the flooring down, the molding in place and I am starting to attach the wall plates for speaker wires and signal cables. The 60" rear projection set should be replaced with a new Lumenlab projector within a week--barring unforseen snags.

Speaker cable wall plate.

Another view of the room.

Yet another view.

what's the size of the room??
(dimensions?)

It was a two car garage. It is 24.5' by 23'

chickwhite,
looks fantastic!
nice colors.
Must be driving you nuts though, trying to watching the rear projection infront of your screen knowing it will be THAT BIG!
Toby

The picture quality on the old rear projection TV is so poor. You just cannot get good convergence on it. I got all the speaker cables finished today. Strike that, I didn't finish the three rear channels, just the 5 front and side channels. Listened to several CD's while working on my projector. Waiting on an Outlaw Audio AV preamp - does 7.1 channel sound, Dolby digital, DTS digital. My current AV receiver is supposed to do Dolby digital but it only indicates it is doing Dolby Pro Logic. Also waiting on the Outlaw Audio 770 power amp (7 channels @ 200Watts RMS @ 8 ohms, 300Watts @ 4 ohms--my Acoustats are 4 ohms).....and finally 2 Outlaw Audio LFM-1 subwoofers. I had a dedicated 20 amp circuit installed for the 770 power amp.

BTW, always had a very small area to listen to with a good stereo image. In this room with the wide spacing of the speakers and being able to move the speakers 3' out from the walls, the sweet spot for listening has expanded to over 8 feet. WOW!!! I am really happy with the way this room is turning out. Now if my projector only does as well as so many samples I see everyone putting out.

Looking darn good chickwhite! Congrats on the job preparing the room, you're jsut about to turn your garage into your own "Drive in"

My Outlaw Audio AV preamp and 7 ch. power amp arrived today, but I got a call from Outlaw Audio today saying they had shipped a second subwoofer yesterday because they had been notified by UPS that the first one had been destroyed in a train derailment. The UPS tracker shows the shipment status as "exception." Under activity it says " THE PACKAGE IS DELAYED DUE TO A TRAIN DERAILMENT." So it will probably be next week before I see it.

Looks like somebody wanted a sneak peak and hooked that baby up.


peace

I received my subwoofer last week and the enclosure was damaged in shipping. So a third one was shipped which turned out to be the charm. It works and OMG does it work.

Can't wait to get my projector completed. Now I have to wait for the Pro field fresnel lens to come in.

why did you choose the woodflooring for a theatre room?
is that a floating floor like khars?
wood flooring is horrible for acoustics, it bounces sound everywhere, hopefully youll be putting alot of furniture in the room to absorb the sound.

Yep, I broke almost all the rules for audio in this room. But the imaging in this room is sweet, the subwoofer is great and the electrostatic speakers are designed to reflect sound from their backside to combine with the direct sound from the front side. Their radiating elements extend from about 4 inches above the floor to about three inches below the ceiling. The active width is about 5 inches. In my previous rooms the sweet spot for imaging was probably only 12 inches wide and maybe the same distance front to back. In this room I can place instruments in space pretty accurately from a width of 7 to 8 feet and a front to back distance of maybe 5 to 6 feet. You can consider these speakers to be a line source almost from floor to ceiling. Anyway, it works!!! I know the theory, but it is not giving me bad results in this room. Both Dolby Digital and DTS sound great. Normal CD's sound great in the processor's 5 channel sound. Straight 2 channel stereo sounds anywhere from great to just good depending on the CD. Well, actually I do have a few CD's that don't sound that great, some recordings in mono from the 30's to the 50's.

The floor is a floating wood floor but it was dictated by the need to minimize surfaces that would hold allergens and be easy to clean. No carpeting and I didn't want tile. The rest of the house is saltillo tile.

I've listened to many high-end setups and I would put this setup against many much more expensive systems.

Hey, is there any update to what your room or PJ look like???
Tell us, it's been months!!!!!!!

I have spent the last couple of days working on my PJ (and a little bit on the room). The projector can't be completed until the new Pro Lens gets here which I am now expecting around the first of the year. Maybe it will be ready in time for the Rose Bowl. I'll post some new pictures over the next couple of days.

My wife has given me an ultimatum to complete everything by mid-January or she's throwing it all out on the street. (I don't really believe her but the room is half covered with the project and tools...so I can't really blame her for how she feels.)

lol - Hey, if you dont finish it soon, so we can all see - WE may throw you out on the street, finish your PJ for you, and watch it ourselves............... LOL

where to you live... i'll be there when she chuck's those speakers... they'll never hit the ground... heehee.... just kidding.

i only wish i had a garage to covert ! right now trying to finalize a garage design of my own (that won't keep us from retiring until we're 80...) great job so far, look forward to some more pics...

cheers,
gs

Here's a photo of the back half of the room. The latest addition to the mess is a 1000 ft spool of direct burial, gel-filled, shielded, UV resistant CAT5e cable. (I had a hard time finding that and could only get a 1000' spool when I only needed about 100' - anyone want to buy odd lengths of direct burial CAT5e cable? I will sell for 20 cents a foot plus shipping.)

BTW My wife wasn't going to throw out the speakers or audio gear, just the pj in progress with all the tools and parts gathered around it. Most of the stuff that you see in this picture. Actually, I'd like to see her try to even move the Audio Outlaw 770 amp - it weighs just over 100 lbs.

I got one picture before the batteries were drained - they have to recharge before anymore pictures are shown.

Click to view attachment

looks awesome

You need a garage to work in so you don't have to build that projector in the theater room.

room looks great.

Looks like cozy digs..

Is that the 'gazelle' in the foreground?