Home Theater Build-out
(all photos are
'click-able' for larger
image)
| The part of the room used for the theater is 19' x 16' with a 10' ceiling height. We're adding a header (foreground top of first photo) to visually separate the HT area from the rest of the space and putting a tray ceiling around the room. Also, a new "front wall" is added to make room for the electric screen and the speakers, which will be recessed into the front wall. | |
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Building the sub-woofer cabinet The subwoofer cabinet, like all the speakers, must be less than 9" deep to fit in the wall. For the required volume of ~3 cubic feet this means it's 29" high and 36" wide. This is a ported cabinet design using a 12" driver from Parts Express. First photo is a rear view of the inside of the cabinet, you can see the port running along the bottom and up the side (port length was too long to use a simple straight port tube). Second photo shows the port outlet on the front of the box and you can see the angled area behind the port opening, which allows the port to turn sideways and go along the bottom of the cabinet. The cabinet is tuned to 19.5Hz which provides low frequency response down below 18Hz. WOOF! |
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| Here's the front wall with the sub, center channel, and electronics box mounted. The sheetrock will mount directly to the front of each speaker cabinet and on the enlarged image you can see some 1/2" thick wood trim to provide a firm edge for the plasterboard. The electronics box will house the 500W subwoofer amplifier, IR remote control extender system, electronics for low-voltage "ambience" lighting, and maybe a few other things. | |
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All joints between the speaker cabinets and the surrounding framework were covered with construction cement and then screwed together. The center channel cabinet has 1/2" clearance to the "back" wall but the sub cabinet touches, so it was glued to the old sheetrock to prevent any vibrations. The center channel speaker cabinet has a rectangular cut-out - to hold the speaker baffle board. I decided to install the baffle board and drivers as a unit because there are six 2x3" full-range drivers and two 2" port tubes. It's easier to mount and seal the individual drivers and tubes to the baffle board when it's out of the cabinet, then a simple matter to mount the whole assembly into the cabinet with wood screws and foam tape to make a tight seal. On the center speaker I used 1/16" aluminum angle for the "sheetrock trim ring" instead of the wood on the sub and electronics boxes. I did this to keep the width of the speaker and grill cover as small as possible. This same treatment will be used on the front (left and right) speakers as well. |
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Building the front speaker cabinets These cabinets are 6" x 8" x 30" high. Each cabinet will have 6 full-range speakers measuring 2" x 3" each, arranged as "line array". Line arrays provide a very wide horizontal dispersion so no matter where you sit in the room you can hear both speakers. And since they are full-range no cross-over is needed. The cabinet is tuned for a low-frequency cut-off of 80 Hz, the sub-woofer will take over from there. |
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Completing the frame around the movie
screen The active area of the movie screen is smaller than the space between the windows so I need to add framing on the sides. Also, the screen has tensioners on the left and right sides to keep the edges from curling, but they are ugly and distracting when the screen is down. My idea is to make the side walls larger than necessary so they protrude in front of the screen to hide the tensioners from view. These side walls will also serve to hold the left and right speakers. |
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Here are 2 close-ups of the wall that protrudes in front of the screen. The first shows the space where the screen will "hide", second is the rear of the framing. (click for larger images) |
Overall view with lots of notes on the work so far. |
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