And so it begins... Attic Reclaim (1 Viewer)

[Dave Upton]

You're pumping 8000W of LFE?!? I'm not worthy.

If you want a demo some time, you're more than welcome to head down to Katy for a listen.

 

[JohnRice]

I also like a sub that extends deep, so I started with a single Seaton Submersive HP in my room since I couldn't afford two. I added a second Submersive about a year later, and was absolutely floored at the results. By the way, ARC Genesis is really great at dialing in bass.

For the last few years I've been tempted by the PowerSound sealed dual 15, currently the S3012, which is the same configuration. The PSA is cheaper, but they're getting closer, since the PSA keeps going up in price. I just never pull the trigger.

 

[CyFactor]

Just a quick update, the project is officially kicked off as of about four weeks ago, and I can hear them hammering and sawing as I type. It will be a while, though, because the costs came in a bit higher than I could manage initially, so it's taking place in phases. Sub floor is the first phase, and I am making certain that they spray-foam insulate under the floor. All of the walls and ceiling will be spray-foam insulated as well.

I've decided on a four sub woofer setup. I plan to recess them into the side walls since those will still have attic space on the other side of them. That way they won't take up any space in the main room.

Question: Given the room size of roughly 16' x 20', would four 500W RMS subwoofers be enough, or should I look at upgrading? Right now, I'm running that single SVS PB-2000, and I could buy three more of them relatively cheap. The single sub does pretty well on its own, so I'd imagine four of them would do well to shake the floor especially considering the spray-foam sound proofing.

Thanks! I'll grab some pictures of the mess in progress once the workers leave for the day.

 

[CyFactor]

If you want a demo some time, you're more than welcome to head down to Katy for a listen.

I plan to take you up on that as I get closer to buying equipment.

 

[CyFactor]

Photos of Phase I in progress (engineering the sub floor):

 

[Dave Upton]

Looking good! You are ideally set up for an open baffle subwoofer setup if you so choose!

 

[CyFactor]

Open baffle? Haven’t heard that one before. Off to Google I go. But I was planning to recess all four into the side walls until they had to put a beam on the right-front of the room (screen will cover the wall with the window). So my plan was to buy a pair of front-firing (non-ported) subs for the front of the room and buy a second SVS PB-2000 (for now) and embed them into the side walls for the rear channel. I’ll draw a diagram once they lay the sub floor. They sprayed foam insulation into the floor Friday to help with sound dampening, so I suspect I’ll have a floor by the end of the week. Fingers crossed.

Attached is a panorama from the back of the room. That will be a hallway on the left.

 

[CyFactor]

I can't believe it has been almost three months! This COVID-19 thing halted pretty much everything, but I am about to fire things back up this week.

I've decided not to go in-wall with anything except for in-ceiling with speakers in case we decide to sell the house in 5-6 years. But we did foam the floor and plan to foam the walls and ceiling to help with sound reduction. As of today, flooring is done, electrical is 80% complete, framing is 95% complete, and I am almost finished pre-wiring for speakers (7.2.4 Atmos). Conduit for front channel audio and projector mount are in place. Side and surround are routed without conduit since they'd still be accessible. That front channel will not be accessible once closed off since it's an outside wall, so the front-channel subs and RF, LF and C speakers all have 3/4" conduit. I'm pulling two wires for each LF and RF speaker in case I want to run bi-amp.

Here's how it sits today:

 

[Dave Upton]

I can't believe it has been almost three months! This COVID-19 thing halted pretty much everything, but I am about to fire things back up this week.

I've decided not to go in-wall with anything except for in-ceiling with speakers in case we decide to sell the house in 5-6 years. But we did foam the floor and plan to foam the walls and ceiling to help with sound reduction. As of today, flooring is done, electrical is 80% complete, framing is 95% complete, and I am almost finished pre-wiring for speakers (7.2.4 Atmos). Conduit for front channel audio and projector mount are in place. Side and surround are routed without conduit since they'd still be accessible. That front channel will not be accessible once closed off since it's an outside wall, so the front-channel subs and RF, LF and C speakers all have 3/4" conduit. I'm pulling two wires for each LF and RF speaker in case I want to run bi-amp.

Here's how it sits today:

View attachment 72535

Coming along nicely! So your atmos speakers will be the only in-ceiling ones? That's a great decision, as many in-wall speakers just don't sound very good.

 

[CyFactor]

Coming along nicely! So your atmos speakers will be the only in-ceiling ones? That's a great decision, as many in-wall speakers just don't sound very good.

Thanks! And, yes. Here's an enlarged picture showing the speaker placement. I circled the wires hanging from the ceiling. I picked up four BB6C speaker boxes and 8" pre-mount kits for quad Bowers & Wilkins CCM382s (still debating this since I'd be moving the pair I already have and buying a second pair). I test drove some shelf speakers that blew away my Klipsch speakers (clarity, power), so even though I will start out by moving what I already have, there are some incredible options available if I didn't go in-wall. I elevated the rear speakers slightly since I plan a two-tier seating arrangement.

Projector mount - above ceiling

Pre-wire kit:

Equipment cubby (would have been a closet, but leaving it as an open platform):

 

[CyFactor]

Checkpoint, June. HVAC system got installed last week, and they spray foamed the walls and ceiling over the weekend. Sheetrock just arrived this morning, so getting close. I started playing with some random furniture placement just to get an idea of how much space I have, and once you start adding an 8' sofa or some theater seats, that room starts to look small real quick. LOL!

You can see the front Atmos speaker boxes in the ceiling in this pic. Placement wasn't quite ideal since the HVAC vents ended up where I was originally planning to put them, but it should be okay. It will be like a 7.2.2 for each seating tier if nothing else.

 

[CyFactor]

Oh, man. I can't believe it has been almost a year already. COVID isolation put everything on hold until a few weeks ago. We got as far as getting the walls closed up, and then just filled the space with storage items.

This is how it looked before we shut the project down last year:

 

[CyFactor]

And here is the progress over the last few weeks (painters are here today, so I'll grab more pictures once they get finished up):

 

[CyFactor]

For the equipment plan, that changed quite a bit over the course of a year. Here is the updated list, and most of it is already here, waiting for the room to get paint and flooring:

• Stewart FilmScreen 2.35:1 126"
• Sony VPL-VW715ES
• GR Research X-Static with Crossover upgrades (R/L Front)
• GR Research X-Voce Center
• GR Research Servo Sub Kit 4 (x2) - Kits are here, waiting on assembly
• GR Research A/V-1RS Surrounds (x4) - Woofers are on backorder, but the kits should be here in the next few weeks
• Bowers & Wilkins CCM684 (x4) - Atmos (should arrive today)
• Odyssey Kismet 3-channel amp (for front channel only)
• Marantz SR6012 (existing system)

 

[CyFactor]

Looking good! You are ideally set up for an open baffle subwoofer setup if you so choose!

It's funny reading back through this thread. Google led me to Audio Circle, and I spent a long, long time in there getting to know folks. As you can see from my list above, not only did I learn a lot about open baffle, I've embraced it. I'll see how a pair of the Servo Subs do in the front of the room for now. I may move one of them to the back of the room (or add a third at the back). I was balancing the front for music and the fact that they'll look amazing all lined up on the front wall with the front-channel speakers. I also learned about Odyssey over there, hence the 3-channel amp - custom designed and upgraded to work well with the X-Static and X-Voce speakers since Klaus (Odyssey) and Danny (GR Research) are friends. This has been a long journey, and I'm guessing around 3 months to first screening.

 

[Dave Upton]

It's funny reading back through this thread. Google led me to Audio Circle, and I spent a long, long time in there getting to know folks. As you can see from my list above, not only did I learn a lot about open baffle, I've embraced it. I'll see how a pair of the Servo Subs do in the front of the room for now. I may move one of them to the back of the room (or add a third at the back). I was balancing the front for music and the fact that they'll look amazing all lined up on the front wall with the front-channel speakers. I also learned about Odyssey over there, hence the 3-channel amp - custom designed and upgraded to work well with the X-Static and X-Voce speakers since Klaus (Odyssey) and Danny (GR Research) are friends. This has been a long journey, and I'm guessing around 3 months to first screening.

Great speaker choice Vince. Danny designs great stuff, and it helps he's local to us.

I would suggest considering an alternative/addition to the Marantz for bass correction in the form of a MiniDSP 2x4HD. You'll be able to dial in the subs with that prior to Audyssey and get a much better result.

 

[CyFactor]

Great speaker choice Vince. Danny designs great stuff, and it helps he's local to us.

I would suggest considering an alternative/addition to the Marantz for bass correction in the form of a MiniDSP 2x4HD. You'll be able to dial in the subs with that prior to Audyssey and get a much better result.

Thanks! Danny has been great. Interesting story around those front channel speakers. I was planning to build them, but then I found a set second-hand on The Music Room for less than the cost of a single X-Static. And these have the Skiing Ninja crossovers! I can't wait to fire them up. Turns out the previous owner is none other than journalist, musician and audiophile Steven Stone. I found the thread on Audio Circle where Sean "The Ninja" himself made a personal visit to Steven's house to upgrade them.

Danny is updating his A/V-1RS speakers now to change the tweeter, and he should get the woofers back in stock this week. I'm hoping those kits show up in the next couple of weeks. No rush since the flooring won't be done for a couple of weeks anyway.

And, Houston, we have color:

EDIT: Side note, I'll be changing all of those wall plates and plugs/switches to black.

 

[Dave Upton]

Thanks! Danny has been great. Interesting story around those front channel speakers. I was planning to build them, but then I found a set second-hand on The Music Room for less than the cost of a single X-Static. And these have the Skiing Ninja crossovers! I can't wait to fire them up. Turns out the previous owner is none other than journalist, musician and audiophile Steven Stone. I found the thread on Audio Circle where Sean "The Ninja" himself made a personal visit to Steven's house to upgrade them.

Danny is updating his A/V-1RS speakers now to change the tweeter, and he should get the woofers back in stock this week. I'm hoping those kits show up in the next couple of weeks. No rush since the flooring won't be done for a couple of weeks anyway.

And, Houston, we have color:

EDIT: Side note, I'll be changing all of those wall plates and plugs/switches to black.

Looking good! Did you already pick out your eventual seating/furniture?

Any plans for acoustic treatment and bass traps?

 

[CyFactor]

Looking good! Did you already pick out your eventual seating/furniture?

Any plans for acoustic treatment and bass traps?

Haven't picked out the seats yet, but I'm building the platform based on the size chart from 4Seating for a 3 seat setup (maximum 102" wide), so the platform width will be 105" x 72" x 12". We JUST got done mocking up the platform area using protective floor covering material, and it's going to be tight because of that angled back wall. At least I plan to make it floating so I can move it around as needed.

The platform itself will be a bass trap (making 2" holes in the front and putting rockwool in there). For the front channel, I need to measure once the flooring is installed so I can actually take the speakers into the room, but I'm thinking three 2' x 4' panels (one horizonal behind the center channel, and the other two vertical behind the speakers). I ordered some fabric samples to get a lock on the color. We will probably do 6 movie poster style panels along the side walls (3 on each wall). Then I was thinking a pattern of isosceles triangles on the slopes of the ceiling. I haven't figured out the upper ceiling yet. And perhaps some bass traps in the upper corners of the back wall. I am brand new to room acoustics, so I'm sort of making it up as I go.

Today we got the screen mounted and started assembling the subwoofer cabinets:

 

[CyFactor]

That was a solid day's worth of work, and that's just the raw frame. Next up: 2" holes for bass trap, rockwool insulation, safety lighting and power outlets for the seats. This will be a floating platform and will get covered with the same carpet as the rest of the room. Total cost of this was about $450, which was less than half the cost of the pre-fab risers from 4Seating.