no room for surround

[Rob]

Well after trying to finish my home theater for 5 years since I scored a nice 1200 lumen BarcoData 1001 projector at the Dayton Hamfest and then waited another 4 years until I could find a couple of Sony SD-146 crts to replace the blown ones ($2,200.00 each US) at a price that I could afford , I have finally added magnificent stereo sound with a set of full-range (down to 50Hz) front loading horn 'theater' speakers that I designed myself and just finished building a couple of weeks ago. I'm still working on a full anechoic absorber room treatment but it is coming along well. The 40 foot depth of the theater created nasty low frequency standing waves and a long time delay echo so I have built some serious absorber panels for the back of the room. I'll cover this separately. I'm working on less agressive (thinner) sculptured foam type wall treatments now.

I supplement the bottom end with a pair of 18" subs which are built into the door of the cold-cellar, a 290 cu.ft. all concrete, mostly buried enclosure off the side of my theater room.

Anyhow here's a picture of my 6x8 foot screen setup and the new horns, more details about which may be found posted in the DIY Forum today.

Rob

[Rob]

Here's a side view of the left horn. It is 5 feet 2 inches front to back. The throat depth is four feet. It drops off like a cliff at 50 Hz. At 52 Hz these are throwing a nice bass wave to the back of the room!

Rob

[Rob]

Here are the absorber panels I made for the back of the room. The one on the left is on wheels so that it can be rolled out of the way when I wish to use the woodstove hidden behind it.

The fiberglass triangle shaped troughs are 19" deep and 24" wide at the base built onto 1/2 inch MDF sheet. They are held to form with 2x2" steel hardware cloth mesh and covered with black window screen to help asthetics and reduce the fiberglass needle dust problem.

Rob

[Don]

Your viewing room is 40' deep! :eek:

[THOR]

The way they stick out past the screen don't bother you? What do you sit on to watch your movies? Is that room in your basement? That is some really incredible stuff :eek:

[Rob]

Originally posted by THOR
The way they stick out past the screen don't bother you? What do you sit on to watch your movies? Is that room in your basement? That is some really incredible stuff :eek:

Thor,

If you'll notice, the actual location of the plane of the drivers is within 8" of the screen so that the light from the screen is closely time aligned with the arrival of the sound from the speakers. :)

No you don't notice at all that the speakers are sticking out 'cause in the dark you don't see 'em. They were painted black not only to make 'em sound better, but to disappear when using this room in 'theater mode'.

I just have a stuffed chair but would like to get one of them Lay-zee-boy recliners. Many thanx for the compliments.

Rob

[Rob]

Originally posted by Don
Your viewing room is 40' deep! :eek:

Don,

Yes the basement rec room runs the full length of the house by 1/2 the width. Nice large finished room. The acoustic tile drop ceiling was still high enough that with the big Barco hanging I can actually just walk under it without ducking at all.

For movies I sit 16 feet from the speakers and ~20 feet from the 6x8 screen. For just stereo listening it actually sounds better if I move the chair 5 feet closer to the screen. I guess that means my sweet spot is about 5 feet long. ;)

Rob