The last of my build spamming for you guys, and boy is it a big one!!! This isn't technically a theater, more of a multimedia room, but only HT nerds make the distinction. This was one of the very first projects we did after moving into our house. It is pretty much done, but like all projects its never really done. I have a couple things I will be doing over winter depending on how the car is coming along.
So like my other threads, I will be pulling my post from another site. This one has the distinction of having been pulled from another site before as well. Hopefully its coherent, but if not just skim the pics I will say as I was pulling it together I saw that there were update posts that didn't have pics, but I only grabbed the ones that did. SO I guess a bit of info could be missing, but I can always link to the original threads if anyone wants.
It is finally time! I have been passionate about home theater for quite some time (about 15 or so years) but have never really be able to have a proper setup. Usually that was because of living in a small apartment, or some other similar living condition. Now that I finally have my own house, the gloves are off! I do not post on this forum very much, but I have been lurking for years. I actually started a build thread earlier on another site, so I am going to more or less copy and paste it here for now. Going forward though I will update both sites properly.
(Originally posted 11-30-2014)
I started to write a bit of a back story, but then deleted it. Nobody wants the boring details of how I got here! Suffice to say that I recently bought a house, and the down stairs area was fairly well suited for a home theater type space. It is not without its challenges, but since this is NOT a dedicated theater it should be more than good enough. The only piece of equipment that will be making it into this setup is my Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A2010 receiver which I got a couple of years ago now. I will probably use my Panasonic BR player temporarily, but will be replacing it with an OPPO sooner or later. Why don't we just do a basic gear list that sounds easier?
Main room (7.2 planned, wired for 7.2.4 with bi-amped fronts)
Receiver: Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A2010
Blu-Ray player: OPPO BDP-103
Amp: Emotiva XPA-7
Projector: BenQ W1070
Screen: Visual Apex 106" tab tensioned motorized
Front tower: EMPTek R55Ti
Center: EMPTek R56Ci
Side surround: EMPTek R55Wi
Back surround: EMPTek R5Bi
Subs: SVS PB-2000 (X2)
I also built a new HTPC (click for HTPC thread) and have a Silicone Dust HD Home Run Extend-2
The family room is also going to get a 5.1 set up eventually. For now I will be using my old Integra DTR 5.4 to run it all along with my Panasonic Blu-Ray player, and Canton speakers. Eventually I will change out everything and go with in-wall fronts and in-ceiling surrounds, and a small sub. This will also be the "Zone 3" from the main system. I am going to do Zone 3 as a preamp out into some input (probably AUX) on the receiver in the family room.
Last up is the garage and back yard. This will act as Zone 2, and I will hook it up the same way as the family room. I am using my trusty old Kenwood receiver, and my my Infinity Pimus 150 bookshelfs for now. When I re-do the garage I will probably change the receiver and the go to in-ceiling speakers with a small sealed sub. I am going to just hook up a pair of outdoor speakers to the "B" pair for the back yard for the rare occasion I need some music out there.
I am also doing a wired network thought the house, and redoing all of the cable and antenna RG-6 cable while I am at it.
Let’s get on to the pics, the reason everyone is here!!!
I started by ordering up 1,000ft of 12ga speaker wire, 1,000ft of CAT6, and 500ft of RG-6 to start out. I ended up getting another 500ft of RG-6 and 250ft of 12ga speaker wire. Here is a shot of the first order of wire and some connectors
After the wire came in I built my equipment rack, and got the closet ready to hold it. I punched, formed, and welded the shelves at my work using 18ga brushed stainless steel. I used 1/2" rod for the uprights and everything except the casters is stainless steel.
All finished!
Then came the gigabit switch, and patch panel in the rack style bracket. I have a shelf coming this week for the remaining spaces.
And then the pieces of the new HTPC. Too bad the case didn't fit the MB, and the one HD was dead on arrival. New parts should be here soon.
Then I got the 28" Samsung 720p LED, and made up a bracket to attach it to the rack. This will be used as a monitor for the HTPC as well as a display for the system for adjustments and watching TV in the office.
After that we started cutting holes to plan our routes, and see what we were dealing with. Lucky for us there were no real surprises. You will see the holes later, so no pics of holes in walls with no wires. We also fixed the antenna wiring from the roof into the attic and removed a metric shit ton of RG59 cable that was literally all over the house (inside and out). Years of various suppliers running cable badly led to a massive amount of junk wiring. NO MORE!
After we planned out the runs, I got to rough cut everything to length!
So like my other threads, I will be pulling my post from another site. This one has the distinction of having been pulled from another site before as well. Hopefully its coherent, but if not just skim the pics I will say as I was pulling it together I saw that there were update posts that didn't have pics, but I only grabbed the ones that did. SO I guess a bit of info could be missing, but I can always link to the original threads if anyone wants.
It is finally time! I have been passionate about home theater for quite some time (about 15 or so years) but have never really be able to have a proper setup. Usually that was because of living in a small apartment, or some other similar living condition. Now that I finally have my own house, the gloves are off! I do not post on this forum very much, but I have been lurking for years. I actually started a build thread earlier on another site, so I am going to more or less copy and paste it here for now. Going forward though I will update both sites properly.
(Originally posted 11-30-2014)
I started to write a bit of a back story, but then deleted it. Nobody wants the boring details of how I got here! Suffice to say that I recently bought a house, and the down stairs area was fairly well suited for a home theater type space. It is not without its challenges, but since this is NOT a dedicated theater it should be more than good enough. The only piece of equipment that will be making it into this setup is my Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A2010 receiver which I got a couple of years ago now. I will probably use my Panasonic BR player temporarily, but will be replacing it with an OPPO sooner or later. Why don't we just do a basic gear list that sounds easier?
Main room (7.2 planned, wired for 7.2.4 with bi-amped fronts)
Receiver: Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A2010
Blu-Ray player: OPPO BDP-103
Amp: Emotiva XPA-7
Projector: BenQ W1070
Screen: Visual Apex 106" tab tensioned motorized
Front tower: EMPTek R55Ti
Center: EMPTek R56Ci
Side surround: EMPTek R55Wi
Back surround: EMPTek R5Bi
Subs: SVS PB-2000 (X2)
I also built a new HTPC (click for HTPC thread) and have a Silicone Dust HD Home Run Extend-2
The family room is also going to get a 5.1 set up eventually. For now I will be using my old Integra DTR 5.4 to run it all along with my Panasonic Blu-Ray player, and Canton speakers. Eventually I will change out everything and go with in-wall fronts and in-ceiling surrounds, and a small sub. This will also be the "Zone 3" from the main system. I am going to do Zone 3 as a preamp out into some input (probably AUX) on the receiver in the family room.
Last up is the garage and back yard. This will act as Zone 2, and I will hook it up the same way as the family room. I am using my trusty old Kenwood receiver, and my my Infinity Pimus 150 bookshelfs for now. When I re-do the garage I will probably change the receiver and the go to in-ceiling speakers with a small sealed sub. I am going to just hook up a pair of outdoor speakers to the "B" pair for the back yard for the rare occasion I need some music out there.
I am also doing a wired network thought the house, and redoing all of the cable and antenna RG-6 cable while I am at it.
Let’s get on to the pics, the reason everyone is here!!!
I started by ordering up 1,000ft of 12ga speaker wire, 1,000ft of CAT6, and 500ft of RG-6 to start out. I ended up getting another 500ft of RG-6 and 250ft of 12ga speaker wire. Here is a shot of the first order of wire and some connectors
After the wire came in I built my equipment rack, and got the closet ready to hold it. I punched, formed, and welded the shelves at my work using 18ga brushed stainless steel. I used 1/2" rod for the uprights and everything except the casters is stainless steel.
All finished!
Then came the gigabit switch, and patch panel in the rack style bracket. I have a shelf coming this week for the remaining spaces.
And then the pieces of the new HTPC. Too bad the case didn't fit the MB, and the one HD was dead on arrival. New parts should be here soon.
Then I got the 28" Samsung 720p LED, and made up a bracket to attach it to the rack. This will be used as a monitor for the HTPC as well as a display for the system for adjustments and watching TV in the office.
After that we started cutting holes to plan our routes, and see what we were dealing with. Lucky for us there were no real surprises. You will see the holes later, so no pics of holes in walls with no wires. We also fixed the antenna wiring from the roof into the attic and removed a metric shit ton of RG59 cable that was literally all over the house (inside and out). Years of various suppliers running cable badly led to a massive amount of junk wiring. NO MORE!
After we planned out the runs, I got to rough cut everything to length!