New build thread with weird layout/crazy ideas for living room entertainment

[Spadenation]

Sorry in advance if this page doesnt fully load on your computer. Its got way too many pictures on it!

hi there!! finally got a new pre built house and have some ideas for my living room that I have lots of questions about. So I made this quick layout for easy reference. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the best way to accomplish this but I figured id share to get your guys personal opinions on my new project. Thanks for any help. 8)

Anyways this is my basic home layout of what I eventually want it to look like. Furniture and speakers in the drawings are not what they actually look like.

I plan to build all the speakers from scratch

Question marks are unknown speakers.

Edit... 20120109 so the sub im thinking of building is going to be a "tuba ht low profile". Any opinions on this sub?

Edit... 20120109 decided to Use my unbuilt tritrix speakers as side speakers.
However still undecided about center, right, left, and rear speakrs in my 7.1 setup. I have been looking at the "statements" speakers for left and right, center and rear.

The main "living room/ kitchen /dining room" all together is
21 ft by 23.5 ft



Here is the main screen, I know the center channel is up really high. Dont intend to place it up there as of 20120109 i plan to place it on the bottom and find a way around the hanging tv. Anyways the screen is 180 inches diagonally! picture quality surprisingly isn't too bad if it’s dark. The projector is an optoma hd 66 ya i know not the bestbut it works great for me. Got a good deal on it. Oh and just for the info it does already have the felt boarders on the screen. The center channel is also on top because I was thinking of putting the LCD screen on the roof and the projector needs to clear it in order to not produce a shadow.

Edit... 20120109 found out that i really dont want to put the center channel on to of the screen after doing some listening at best buy of all places. (sounds like crap coming from so high up)



Since this room is my main living room area, and there is windows.. I do want an lcd screen for daytime viewing but for a long time I was unsure on were to put it so I want to go big rather than going home, haha and this is were I want to put it.




Ya I know right in the freaking center on the roof haha. I’m a decent welder and plan to make an electrically controlled "TV roof hanger" attached to the studs in the roof that will retract the TV flush up against the roof when not in use. It will rotate the TV and drop it down to viewing level when needed and it will be remote controlled. Suggestions on a remote controller unit and servomotors would be helpful. 8)

Another problem I have run into is the strange layout of the room.
I don’t know where in the hell to put my side/ surround channel speakers because of the hallway and the huge center kitchen bar that protrudes way out into the middle of the room. Should I put the left side/ surround speaker more into the hallway or closer into the room? Trying to make it as far back as possible but worried about the sound characteristics of the hallway wall reflecting sounds forward. Also cant put that speaker on the other side of the hallway wall because there are shelves and a closet in the kitchen that are in the way. Here’s what I’m talking about.




I also have this support beam next to my sliding glass door that makes me put the right side/ surround speaker in another awkward position. is this going to be okay? you can’t really see the support beam too well in this picture but if you look at the floor layout drawing in the first picture you can see it better. I don’t really want to do ceiling mounted speakers because I have no attic above this room as it is downstairs.
The TV on the roof and projector are already too much to put up there.



I like to do some home dj stuff too. So I’m going to have 2 technics with a denon mc-6000 midi controller and a dedicated laptop with tracktor. Are pro audio speakers in this situation really necessary or can I just use the hifi speakers with good results?



Also I’m curious if my ps3, receiver, and computer location is a good idea? or should I just put it in the back inside of my dj table?

The receiver, or processor and amp at this point are unknown as well.

Would a room this size be viable with just a receiver? I would love to get a Rotel but too expensive right now.

budget for the receiver is $800 or less because of all the other stuff I want to buy for this room. I’m looking to get a good receiver that I can sell back at a good price whenever I want to upgrade. any suggestions at this price range would help my search a lot. Got my eyes on either a pioneer non elite line or a Marantz.

ill keep updating this page eventually with actual pictures once I get my speakers built.

Oh and heres a little taste of pictures to come.. haha this is my coffee table. made it myself. oh and you can see the projector screen a bit too in this picture. dj table is going to look somewhat like this coffee table



update!!! 20120207:
im excited! got my tax return and im ready to go! haha so heres my mega boring , well sorta tritrix build you've come to know and love. i put a new spin on the project for my own needs because i wanted them to be more stable and a bit higher up to clear the hight of my couch better.

this is a pic of the inside, pretty much standard



this is the stuffing job i did, ya plane jane



but wait it gets better



bam!!! haha

oh and heres my crossover.. screws unattached



the rest of the pictures you can figure out but this is the bottom frame











after painting







paint on the back of the speakers is fine there is a bit of dust on them tht i didnt notice when i was taking the shot.

but pretty good for spray paint isn't it

anyways thats my first speaker build

Updates 20120331

Heres my dj/ producer / home theater av rack / table

This build is all about saving space!

The frame





Its one of the Slot boxes to hold records








The top table section is removable From the base to take the trip to parties. Pritty heavy though. definatly 2 person lift






Here is the frame bars that im going to sand down smoother with my belt sander and then fiberglass over and bondo. The corners of this table are too sharp to just bend a piece over unless i had really thin plywood. But i need them to be durable so im using 1/4 inch







Upside down bottom portion of the table with the av rack frame installed.



The tables feet




The inside corners were pritty rough so i had to hand sand them with this home made sanding block as none of my power sanders could get an inside corner like that since they are flat.



Here i am sanding an inside corner



Installed the light sockets and wires in the table today Going to use floresecent bulbes from the home depot. And once i get things sanded better im going to install a glass plate so they are flush mounted.

As you can see the tables got legs that retract for when its on the bottom base. I had to cut and then re weld them. because my table was too narrow and wanted them to be flush when retracted.



This was before i did any of the fiberglass / bondo work so the light is bleeding through the corners




All primed up and ready to go !





Update 20120429 finished the paint!
and
Loaded the decks



Glamour shot haha



Bottom frame



Check out my Rack!!! Haha always wanted to say that.
From top to bottom:
My Customac mac Running OS X for plex, with amd 6870 grafics, core i7 2600k, 16gb of ram, and 6 drive bays with 2 filled for 4tb total. Then it's my pioneer vsx 53, crown xti 2000 for subwoofer amplification, and my ps3 for bluray movies and games.



Oh naw it's got ricer lightes haha. In the picture they look kinda pink which is not what I'm going for. But in person the lights look red. So my camera sucks.



The record slots. The little square hole inbetween the record slots is for a removable brace to Hold the records upright better when I get more vinyl. I'll post new pics when I finish them.




The legs folded up



The top includes two original black technics 1200, a denon mc 6000, and the maschine all wrapped up with an audio 8 inside.



updates 20120511

24'' apple cinema display



new barstools!!! 8)



the new door to the AV rack






all together see i told you its red light

[Spadenation]

Any thoughts or ideas?

[Chris D]

Here's my thoughts on the various issues you raise. FWIW.

1. Starting with the basic, a living room is a challenging room to make into a theater with projector. If you do it (as it appears you've already started) you'll see that it doesn't really lend to both a properly set up functional theater, and a good looking living room during "normal" use. If nothing else, the screen will be very "ostentatious".

2. Cool if you build the speakers. Whether you do or not, though, just try to get the ENTIRE speaker set to match sonically as much as possible.

3. You're going with a VERY large screen. That's very cool. However, when you get that large, you're going to have very significant directional sound problems from the center channel, regardless of whether you put it above or below. That size screen really needs to be acoustically transparent, with the center speaker behind in the middle. To a lesser degree, you'll have similar problems with the mains.

4. Windows are another reason why living rooms aren't the best, but you are working with the issue.

5. I can understand the LCD screen, but now you're really getting complicated with flip-down and such. Personally, I wouldn't do it in your case. Or if you really want it, do something like a roller cart/stand that can roll the TV in front of the screen when you want to use it.

6. I would put the right side surround on the support wall thing, and the left side surround on the corner of the wall immediately next to the stairs. You do NOT want them to be in front of the listening position. (I think you say that you can't hang the left side surround there, so put it on a floor stand instead, right there)

7. I would not put the rear surrounds so far back onto the rear wall, especially with a big kitchen thing segmenting the room inbetween them. Put them on floor stands behind the couch. Or if you have to, mount them to ceiling brackets behind the couch.

8. You can use HT speakers just fine for DJ and any other music purposes.

9. Put the electronics wherever they're best suited.

10. Receiver is just fine if you're staying budget. There's some decent receivers out there.

11. If you're trying to be functional, that's a VERY bright red wall color. Going darker and neutral colors will give you a much better viewing experience.

12. Coffee table's pretty cool!

[Spadenation]

Oh the wires!!!!! thanks for the professional advice Chris. Haha i really needed it

[Spadenation]

updates!!!

look at my updated tritrix build haha tell me what you think

[Hdale85]

Very art-deco.

[aud19]

Nice work :T

[Chris D]

Very cool! Banana worthy. :banana:

[Spadenation]

Thanks guys ! More updates soon! Time to try my hands at the tuba ht

[Spadenation]

Updates!!!

Updates!!!

[Spadenation]

Holy mother of updates!!! Check out the main post 20120429

Holy mother of updates!!! Check out the main post 20120429

[impala454]

Very creative stuff! Kind of a Tron theme going eh?

[Hdale85]

That looks awesome!

[Chris D]

Wow, cool. Also, I'm a big fan of Silverstone cases. Have one myself. It looks good there.

[aud19]

Wow! Nice work once again! Never thought of doing fiberglass/bondo furniture/AV racks before...pretty cool!

Is there much of a learning curve to working with it...?

Have you got some vans/ventilation for that equipment stack?

[Hdale85]

There's a bit of a learning curve I'd say to fiberglass, but it's not hard by any means.

[aud19]

Special tools or anything or just a clean space and sanding etc? I'm guessing ventilation would be helpful...lol

[impala454]

Wear long sleeves

[Spadenation]

Thanks guys!! Ya fiberglass/bondo work is a pain. But the worst part of this job was definitely in the sanding. Sure you can lay all that fiberglass, and bondo real quick but sanding it flat is what really takes a long time. Especially when you try and do a high gloss black coat like I did. Don't forget to buy the bondo trowel thing with your gallon of bondo can't lay it right without it. Wear long sleeves and pants you can take off and throw in the wash right away. Also a really good respirator or even a gas mask if you have it haha, keep the respirator inside though cause you don't want all that sanded fiberglass shards to get on it. Oh ya and freaking 5 boxes of gloves. The fiberglass resin eats right through them. On something this big don't try and do it with rattle cans. Get a spray gun. Its worth it. Rattle cans are way too expensive. Be prepared for the biggest mess of your entire life.

Oh and about my rack nope no extra cooling fans inside. I've thought about putting some in there though. But the rack does have a hole right above the main fan for my computer. Also there is about 4 inches on either side wall for air to travel, and an open back. But so far I havnt got the temp inside there with the receiver and amp running above 85F. But I leave my computer running 24/7 and the cpu doesn't go past 87F, unless I'm running a game or transcoding something. The highest I've seen the CPU is 115F which is way within the limits of 195F it has.

also I have some new pics I'm gonna upload tomorrow. I finished the door for the rack and I've got my new apple cinima display sitting up top. This whole set up kinda ended up over the top, but I like it. It's awsome when I sit there and listen to my jams I feel like I'm operating the mothership.

[Hdale85]

I saw someone say if you use yellow kitchen gloves it's a lot better, those thick ones. Also keep your gloves powdered with baby powder. If you get some on your skin you can also you baby powder to ball it up and remove it easily. The only special tools you really need is maybe a respirator, or at the very least a fine particle dust mask.

[Spadenation]

Ya kitchen gloves would be a lot better, problem is all those fibers get tangled up on your gloves pretty bad and after a while you can't smooth anything out or you keep leaving behind stands of fiber or even chunks of the old resin. Unless you got like a ton of kitchen gloves which would cost way more $$$. I guess you could try and wash them off after using them and then cycling them through but it's up to you guys. But ya that baby powder works. Also a Cheep kitchen pad to scrub the smaller stuff off. Oh and lava soap. It works wonders.

[Hdale85]

Like I said they were saying that you can peel off the resin and stuff pretty easily on the kitchen gloves with baby powder and what not.

[Spadenation]

awesome ya didn't really ever think about the kitchen gloves much. i might have to try that next time. but i do get a bunch of nitrile gloves from work for free.

oh ya and updates on the main post!!

[Chris D]

Fantastic work. Wish I could do stuff like that.

[Spadenation]

haha I'm sure you could chris. looks like you know your stuff better than i do.

[Bryceo]

Fabulous work mate

[Lex]

A lot of work here! Good job. I can't do that fiberglass, allergic as can be to it! Well, I couldn't sand it anyway. If I did, I would have to be wearing a radiation suit, you get the idea...

Dude likes to build stuff, huh?