Update to our dedicated cinema room

[R B Customs]

Hi Guys,

it's been nearly a year, and progress has been made in our cinema room so I thought I'd share it here.

this is my last Thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18045161
and here is a reminder of where I was up to:

The room as it stood previously (allbeit with blinds hung and speakers mounted on wall)

We were all pretty pleased with the setup at first, the video aspect was very good, but the sound was deffinitly lacking. This is somehting I've been aware of for ages, and I tried to get Daddykins to go for a better speaker package but there was no chance. 'big speakers' as he put it were an absolute no-no, as he, like a lot of people thing that larger speakers only means they go louder.

I could not see his reasoning, but most of it was down to looks, simply not liking the look of anything but small satalite speakers, granted he did whack a fair amount out on all the other equipment, so for the time being I left him with his decidion to buy the Tannoy SFX 5.1 package.

So, over time he has seen the light, demod some other gear and done a bit more research. We decided to go for a new setup.

Summary of improvements:
-added a pair of 10.1's as fronts
-added a pair of wharfedale Vardus VR-400 floorstanders as temporary rears (will be replaced very soon, but to be honest they dont make bad rears after being set up properly[or in-properly] on the amp)
-added Nordost speaker cables to the front half
-upgraded to an IN81 projector (form and IN80)
-upgraded to a TSR-577 onkyo amp from a 507
-added the MONSTER of a centre-channel > Wharfe' diamond 10.CM
-re-sprayed the whole screen with the latest UK black-widow paint (to get rid of a mark on the old one)
-resized the black anamorphic mask slightly and re-covered it to make it much easier to use and tighter.
-added a virgin V+ HD box
-added my Marantz SACD 7001 SACD player
-added a mordaunt short Alumni 9 subwoofer
-heath-robinson solution to darkening the ceiling above the screen has been ditched as my dad has painted a portion of the ceiling purple! this is MAJOR progress guys!!

-moved the equipment down to the bottom of the cabinets after removing the bottom draws (or drawers? :S) leaving the top surface clear.

To do:
-move the radiator
-paint the door (lol)
-re-paint / decorate the room (will be done in summer)
-new, matching blinds (late this week)
-install new rear speakers (10.1's or 10.DFS bipolar speakers)

Pie in the sky:
-add a logitech harmony one remote
- add a popcornhour / NAS combo
- acoustic treatment


We decided on the Wharfedale 10.1's + centre, this was swayed by the increasing amount of time he spends listening to music in the cinema room. This is how it looks at the moment:

THe anamorphic mask is in the 16:9 position in this image.




Okay so first up, I'll cover the new monster of a centre speaker - the wharfedale Diamond 10.CM.
I still have to pinch my self, checking if I dreamt that I actually managed to get this one past 'half-a-job-hitler' (my dad)
This thing is massive. It's 55cm wide, with two 6.5" drivers, a 2.5" midrange driver and a 1" tweter. I was concerned a little bit about putting this with the 10.1's, having bigger mid/bass drivers than the 10.1's so I demo's them all as a setup and my concerns were gone. it seems to be rare that anythign other than voice and very mild sounds come from the centre channel, so it didnt seem to have a negative effect on anything I watched.
Having the seperate midrange driver seems to have made everythign a lot better.

I could have really done with more information on this speaker before I bought it, so if anyone wants extra pictures or info on it please ask!

CD for size comparison

Our tannoy subwoofer popped mid-dark knight (ha ha) so It went back for repair and came back smashed to bits, we cad credit to spend so we went for the alumni 9. I'm very happy with it, i've got it intergrated quite well but it's still an on going project, tuning it bit by bit.
I was less than impressed with the literature that came with the sub mind... it hardly covers anything.

WIth all of this new stuff getting put in I had to fulfil a little dream of mine... some home theatre signs.
I knocked six relevent images up in photoshop to be printed at 10x15cm and put them in these frames. the parents actually really like them! result!

The rear of the room is still not quite to my tastes, and never looks god in photo's, I gues it's a goo job you only ever look forward! That sofa is a sofa-bed, part of the origianl plan for this room was to make it double up as a guest room too, so this squishy seat fits the bill. Makes a better bed than it does a chair, but it's alright.

You can just see the tops of the wharfedale floorstanders at the back there, they're a temporary measure for the moment, but to be honest they do work quite well as rears.

Why are they not at the front? I hear you ask...
-they're pretty crap
-they wont fit anywhere
-they're a little large, even my my standards
-the 10.1s are better sounding, and more pleasing to look at

some adition pictures comparing the mask in 16:9 position, and in anamorphic 2.40:1 position

the purple paint still fails to look anything like it does in real life, on camera... we plan to re-paint with a newer shade of purple this summer anyway, and purple blinds are being fitted this week too.


The Father and son conflict continues:

The door!
some of you may remember the door issue, i.e the refusing to paint the door any other colour than pure white... well that's still a sticking point, and to make it worse, my Dad has decided to put some horrible fake leather stranded curtain 'thing' over the door which looks absolutly horrible, and I seem to be taking it down as fast as he is putting it back up! some things you just can't win I guess.

Speaker stands:
I have a pair of nice, short stands that the centre speaker can sit on, which may not make much sonic difference, I think it looks awesome...he doesn;t aggree.

Also, getting the two 10.1's on stands to not only secure them but to bring them and their twin rear ports further away from the pesky wall, which at the moment is having a strange effect on the bass... it's never going to hapen though

The radiator:
It's not going to be painted, but it is going to be moved. To be honest it's not needed at all, and should be taken out alltogether (it's never even used in winter) so moving it is half the battle!

Bass traps and room acoustics:
yet another sticking / conflicting point. SOund leakage is a concern, and the room does have a slight echo in it. It causes some of the sound to kind of 'ring' It needs deadening, and he does want to soundproof it further, but will the necesary steps be taken??? I don't even know the answer to that one!

Universal Remote
My Dad acuses me of a being a pest every time I bring this one up... he has now started just completly ignoring any reference towards a universal remote...
The biggest complaint about our room is people 'not knowing how to use it' mainly due to the remotes (of which there are now six)
in my opinion it will be the single most revolutionary adition tot he setup -ever- ... but I've already used that to wangle other stuff
I showed him some videos the other night, and he actually payed attention, asked the price (for a harmony one) and said 'oh that's not too bad' and now he's back in 'dont want to know' mode!! AAARRGHH


RICK'S TOP TIP!!!
See those silver things on the edges of the blinds? well this is my solution to total blackout! behind those roller blinds are a set of slotted black blinds which keep most of the light out, and thent he roller blinds run over the window frame, flush to the wall which is great, however, it's tough to get them to stay stuck tot he wall....

one day It struck me that plasterers use those metal corner / edge thingies in such areas, so using small magnets, I just put a handful down each edge. They have no problem going through the blind and the paint and it's really the best none destructive and cheap way to get total blackout!

you heard it here first.

 

[=VTA=MANFACE]

That looks awesome, great job.

I love the lighting above with the spots and the purple lighting behind the speakers, gives it a cinema sensation.

 

[Fr0dders]

this is one of the reasons i moved out of my parents when i was 18 and never looked back

I now have a wife to contend with, but she's fairly placid and lets me do what i want pretty much.

 

[Chris1712]

Good work, a beefy centre makes all the difference. Getting the door and radiator covered should certainly help, and good news on the ceiling!

Would you mind posting some details on your masking? I need to make some for my Graywolf II soon and I'm still in research mode so seeing another implementation would be great.

 

[R B Customs]

Good work, a beefy centre makes all the difference. Getting the door and radiator covered should certainly help, and good news on the ceiling!

Would you mind posting some details on your masking? I need to make some for my Graywolf II soon and I'm still in research mode so seeing another implementation would be great.

sure mate,

I'll just quote from my last thred as it's all detailed there.

The masking had to be the following:
-cheap
-easy to use
-adjustable
-versitile


I had already prepped the boards. I had them cut last week at B&Q. 2x 203cm x 11 inches (yea I know, metric and imperial but I cant remember the exaxt size in metric, and had to measure in inches for the fabric shop, as they could not work in metric :god


I used contact adheasive to laminate the two sheets of hardboard. which was easier aid than done as the last person to use the contact ahesive ( there is a gallon tin of it) has ended up contact-ashesive-ing the lid to the tin. I had to drill a hole through the lid!


this is how it looked:

So today I rang around the local fabric suppliers, I knew one in particular which is a hop, skip and a jump away was open late on night so I rang them ont he off chance and enquired about velvet. they had one piece about 30cm x 150cm left and that was £17.50 odd I asked if they had any alternative and they said no.

I popped down anyway and after seeing the velvet it turned out to be completly not what I was after and way too small anyway. after a lot of browsing and nearly settling for a sheet of cotton @ £5+/m I stumbled across this:

now I must admit - this is the only time I've seen it looking brown. It's a synthetic 'velvet' and came in at a staggering £3.60 per metre! which I think is very very cheap, even compared to the cotton.

The picture does not show it but this stuff looks BLACK and is completly flat. when it's flatteneed out it reflects no light and just looks like a black hole. It's only the flash off the camera making it look the way it does.


I went about attaching it to the board:

and on with the install:
I've added annotations to the pictures.

in addition to the above I'll add this:

hot melt glue (lue gun) is by far the best way to deal with this stuff. I re-covered it yesterday and dint no use any adhesive on the face of the board, only hot glue to tightly scretch the material over it. THe result is much better and completly smooth.

I also shortened the board a little to make moving it up and down easier, and added two more crews to handg it just below the screen when not in use.

I'ts quick and easy, but in my opinion there is no better option for masking a screen for under a tenner! Perhaps a more sophisticated mechanism to hang / swivel the board into place could be looked into?

we find that the board is mostly in place, as nearly every film we have watched has been in 2.4:1

hope that covers it mate, let me know if theres anythign else...

 

[Chris1712]

Cheers mate looks good. Just thinking a hardboard piece might be a bit heavy for mine, its a manual pull down. Don't want the weight making the screen roll up lol.

Getting the right fabric is a pain in Bristol, there's a huge place in the center but they amazingly don't sell flat velvet .

 

[wolvers]

I see you have sprayed your screen. After having rollered a second screen, I'd like to spray my original screen as I'd like to have a smoother finish.

Can you give me an idea of how much you had to thin the paint and whether you used any different nozzles etc? I've never sprayed emulsion paint before. Thanks.

 

[mast3r]

looks very very nice! i love the style of speakers too,

How much are those may i ask, each.

 

[Creelers]

Looks awesome. Love the purple lightning spots behind the speakers. Great touch!

 

[R B Customs]

I see you have sprayed your screen. After having rollered a second screen, I'd like to spray my original screen as I'd like to have a smoother finish.

Can you give me an idea of how much you had to thin the paint and whether you used any different nozzles etc? I've never sprayed emulsion paint before. Thanks.

hey mate,

there was no real science to thinning the paint down, but in terms of gun setup I used one of my bigger guns that I usually use for thick primers. it has a 1.6mm needle (but I might need to re-check that as I could be wrong)

I sprayed it the second time around a few weeks ago on a very hot day, in thefull sun outside. this dramatically reduced the problems I had the first time around of paint stayng wet and the aluminium resting slightly (hence I put the patio heater on last year)

just use very light, almost dry coats. if you put it on too wet the aluminium ill just sink. I sprayed it in loads of directions, as evenly as possible with the final handful of coats being very light, wide spread coats sprayed from a distance to give as little edge to the pray pattern of the gun as possible. THis time around the finish is remarkable, flaless with the excepton of abount 5 or so raised specs which I'm going to leave a few weeks before just picking them off, but in all honesty they dont cause a problem so I'd be better off just leaving them alone

I'd say I was spraying it mixed fairly thin, perhaps thinner than somepeople would feel comfortable spraying. The key to is really is to have everything spotlessly clean - clean water, clean gun, clean mixing aperatus and nice fresh paint with no dry pieces fallen into it.


This jonstones mix worked out better than the original crown mix that I pilfered of StevenG, it jsut seemd to spray a little better. It also seems a tad more resistant to marking. Te last batch would mark when you looked at it funny, and I did manage to majorly balls up the finish a few weeks after it was put up.

looks very very nice! i love the style of speakers too,

How much are those may i ask, each.

not much at all really; the diamond 10 range was reduced the day before we bought them! the fronts came in at £170, and the centre at £150. from a well known hi-fi retailer. I don't know why the centre was £70- £100 cheaper than anywhere else, but the impression I got from the staff in the shop was that it was just too big and no one had room for it. 2 people had already bought them and were forced to bring them back to the shop for an exchange! It's not as big as the monitor audio platinum centre but it's still fairly large!

the sub was a steal at £99 thanks to getting a credit off the tannoy sub, and the rears will set us back £170 when we get them (if we decide to go bi-polar, I cant see it working very well in our room but Pops likes the idea of them)

Looks awesome. Love the purple lightning spots behind the speakers. Great touch!

thanks I'm ordering some purple spots (dad's idea) It's either gonna look really good or really bad!
those purple lights behind the benches are awesome, they're just LED christmas lights, but they're such a nice colour. the cable is very long so they're plugged in next tot he seat is they need to be turned off. I'm pleased to say they don't colour the screen either! so they tend to be left on.



@Chris:
if it's a pull down screen I'm not sure what to suggest. I think magnets will be key to fixing it in place whatever it is. What about a light weight, stiff pole with a light curtain over it? or a strip of felt? tough call really.

 

[wolvers]

hey mate,

there was no real science to thinning the paint down, but in terms of gun setup I used one of my bigger guns that I usually use for thick primers. it has a 1.6mm needle (but I might need to re-check that as I could be wrong)

I sprayed it the second time around a few weeks ago on a very hot day, in thefull sun outside. this dramatically reduced the problems I had the first time around of paint stayng wet and the aluminium resting slightly (hence I put the patio heater on last year)

just use very light, almost dry coats. if you put it on too wet the aluminium ill just sink. I sprayed it in loads of directions, as evenly as possible with the final handful of coats being very light, wide spread coats sprayed from a distance to give as little edge to the pray pattern of the gun as possible. THis time around the finish is remarkable, flaless with the excepton of abount 5 or so raised specs which I'm going to leave a few weeks before just picking them off, but in all honesty they dont cause a problem so I'd be better off just leaving them alone

I'd say I was spraying it mixed fairly thin, perhaps thinner than somepeople would feel comfortable spraying. The key to is really is to have everything spotlessly clean - clean water, clean gun, clean mixing aperatus and nice fresh paint with no dry pieces fallen into it.


This jonstones mix worked out better than the original crown mix that I pilfered of StevenG, it jsut seemd to spray a little better. It also seems a tad more resistant to marking. Te last batch would mark when you looked at it funny, and I did manage to majorly balls up the finish a few weeks after it was put up.

Thanks for the advice bud, great info. It sounds like this warm weather is the best opportunity to do it. I'm not actually going to paint it with BW to begin with but a shade of Dulux flat matt called Grey Steel that is supposed to be very neutral. I have a room which has well controlled light levels so I'm happy to try that out first. In terms of a mix ratio would you say about 2:1 water to paint?

I'm in no way as experienced as you but I'm keen to give it a go. I have a small compressor that should do the job OK, but I need to get a spray gun. I thought I would just get a cheap Clark one or something similar as it won't get used very much. Would you recommend a syphon type or mavity fed gun? I thought that maybe an HVLP one would be a good choice?

 

[R B Customs]

Sorry mate I can't really give you any advice on ratios for thinning it down, it's just a matter of experimenting. It depends on the size of the needle too. I used the cheapest of my cheap big guns, not wanting to put the mix through any of my decent equipment, iirc it was about £15 off eBay, new a silverline gun.
Just thin it down to the point where it's not splattering out the gun and it is atomising well. This sounds daft, put pay attention to the sound of the spray coming out. You will be able to hear splats coming out and when it's too thick it will procuce a very grainy sound, like White noise!

Don't thin the whole pot down, keep some left over in case you over thin it. I used an empty deionised water bottle (clean) to mix mine in as you can shake it and get it mixed well.

Spray I in some dry cardboard, and also have something less porous to test on too. It should spray with ni e smooth atomisation, and should not separate or run. The pressure will have a big effect too; if the pressure is too low the paint won't atomise properly and will give you results similar to over-thick paint.

Even so, too thin or too thick, the best result is going to be how even you can get it, so don't make the fatal mistake of trying to cover it in one go, just aim for loads of thin layers, letting each layer dry off before putting the next one on.

Sorry I can't give you more specific help, but it's obviously different for every combination of paint and gear.

For what it's worth, the. Black widow I made cost me 9.97 for a litre of the base paint mix, and 9 quid odd for the correct amount of auto air aluminium fine paint.

Was meant to put this in the start of this post but my iPod is being gay ...... Deffo go for a mavity fed gun, you will need all the help from mavity you can get! It's like spraying tar!

Thanks for the advice bud, great info. It sounds like this warm weather is the best opportunity to do it. I'm not actually going to paint it with BW to begin with but a shade of Dulux flat matt called Grey Steel that is supposed to be very neutral. I have a room which has well controlled light levels so I'm happy to try that out first. In terms of a mix ratio would you say about 2:1 water to paint?

I'm in no way as experienced as you but I'm keen to give it a go. I have a small compressor that should do the job OK, but I need to get a spray gun. I thought I would just get a cheap Clark one or something similar as it won't get used very much. Would you recommend a syphon type or mavity fed gun? I thought that maybe an HVLP one would be a good choice?

 

[wolvers]

You're a legend, I've been busting to get some advice from someone that has done it already. I've sprayed car paints before so I'll just thin the emulsion until it's roughly the same and see how it goes.

I've found a gun on the bay with a 1.5mm nozzle that looks about right (I don't think I can post links here), do you reckon I need a pressure regulator for it? It says that it has a 45-60psi working pressure and I'm thinking that the compressor is going to deliver more than that.

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[R B Customs]

Really cheap guns don't have regulators built into them, however, the compressor is bound to have one. If you gave sprayed car paints through a gun before you're already off to a good start! You might find that you will have to spray at just below full pressure.

Don't be under any illusions that emulsion is intended to be sprayed though such equipment! It's a little tricky.

1.5mm should be fine also, but if you see a slightly larger one, consider that too. What size is the screen??

 

[wolvers]

The screen is relatively small actually, about 70".

Well I've ordered the eBay gun. It was only 12 squids I figure that I can always make the nozzle a little bigger if I need to. I think that Ive got a regulator at work somewhere, should I need it.

I'm looking forward to making a right mess!

 

[Naan_H]

Your room looks sweet mate. Im following this with interest as i have the exact same colour carpet as yours.

Now my parents have no idea about colour coordination, and nor do i for that matter! Hope you dont mind me hijacking here; i can see from your pic that the dark purple walls really go well with the carpet - i currently have a a very light shade of purple all round in a bigger room than yours. Now my parents arent for painting all the walls the same dark colour as it will make the room 'too dark' - they are happy for the 'tv wall' to be dark purple - can you suggest a suitable/contrasting colour that will go on the other walls? im looking to get a tv cabinet (from ikea - prob a TOBO - not sure white or black) to go with a 50inch plasma on the dark wall, and will have white leather sofas too. unfortunately i dont have a full say on the matter, and the folks are set in their ways so have to make a compromise! your suggestions would be most welcome as i cant find many purple room people on these forums!

 

[milkinc13]

looks absolutly amazing set-up!

 

[R B Customs]

Hi guys, thanks for the kind comments.

The IN81 arrived on saturday to replace our IN80. I installed it straight away and roughly calibrated it. Blacks are improved over the IN80 and the gaps between the pixles (or 'screen door effect' ) is imporved, but that was never a problem to me anyway. I'm happy with the upgrade, but if I was making the decission between the IN80 and IN81 when I bought my original one I would not say there was enough in it to warrant the extra out-lay.

Pop's and my brother decided to try and punk me by buying a universal remote from pound-land, telling me it was £25 from a well known catalogue shhop, reduced from £70... it was so funny, I forgot to laugh.
I did try to set it up for a giggle but it turns out it's compatible with one piece of our hardware! he is warming to the idea of a universal remote though and says he's going to buy a harmony one in the next few weeks! result!


The sofa may be going the journey! none of us really like it, although it really is a brilliant sofa-bed. but today, over an indian we were discussing the future of the some rooms in our house and it seems they want to ditch the sofa in favour of some proper home theatre seating and / or (comfortable) comercial cinema seating [as it's more compact] Space is a serious issue here though


I've been pricing up some acoustic treatment, as the new speakers have revealed some flaws in the rooms acoustics. I've got my eye on some auralex acoustic tiles in purple! *turns head to camera two* "nice"


oh, and the purple blinds that I got this week completly failed went and picked them up, got them back home noticed that they were the same colour on the inside, great, that they were nice colour that matched well - great also....
but when I got them out of the box you could pretty much see through them, and their claimed 120cm width included the blinds and the fittings! (I measured up before I left and my current blinds were exactly 120cm wide) so I'm still left with the mis-matching brown blinds so the only option now is to get them from that big catalogue shop in either 'blackcurrent' colour or black. I'm leaning towards black, but the stupid thing about these blackout blinds is that they're white on the insides.

Your room looks sweet mate. Im following this with interest as i have the exact same colour carpet as yours.

Now my parents have no idea about colour coordination, and nor do i for that matter! Hope you dont mind me hijacking here; i can see from your pic that the dark purple walls really go well with the carpet - i currently have a a very light shade of purple all round in a bigger room than yours. Now my parents arent for painting all the walls the same dark colour as it will make the room 'too dark' - they are happy for the 'tv wall' to be dark purple - can you suggest a suitable/contrasting colour that will go on the other walls? im looking to get a tv cabinet (from ikea - prob a TOBO - not sure white or black) to go with a 50inch plasma on the dark wall, and will have white leather sofas too. unfortunately i dont have a full say on the matter, and the folks are set in their ways so have to make a compromise! your suggestions would be most welcome as i cant find many purple room people on these forums!

ha ha mate, I know what you're up against! i could have cried every time I heard the words 'too dark'

there was no real planning towards the carpet in our room, we just bought a rememant of a suitable size and to the nearest colour that would not so much match, but go with.

it's annoying how much trouble I'm having accurately representing how the colours of this room look in real life, but I'd say a combination of these two pictures from my first thread:

this one foe the colour of the walls.

and this for the carpet:http://img191.imageshack.us/img191

/1189/imgp0423f.jpg


if your room is not a dedicated room, it might be a bit much to paint every wall with what is really a 'feature wall' colour, I can't imagine that being nice in a living room, and it would, even in my opinion be 'too dark'
Dulux's Mulberry burst' would have been my first choice for the colour in our room, mainly because of the finish. It's quite a rich colour and dulux reccomend it to go with very light purples and blue-greys: have a look here for suggested colour choices to go with it -
http://www.dulux.co.uk/colour/mulberry_burst

I guess it depends on your furnishings too, but you say you have white leather which might fit in with most things being neutral and white, but I'd not add any more colours into the mix.

The advantage you have is that you're using a 50" TV, so it doesnt really matter how dark the room is. Ours is only dark (and believe me, it's not as dark as some peoples 'bat-caved' rooms!) our image is projected, so it's important to have things as dark as they can comfortably be really. the purple colour in our room, with the lights out and porjector on just turns a dark, fairly neutral colour. If it was white the projected image would would pour light onto the walls and that light would be reflected back, washing out the image - turning blacks into greys. obviously there's still issues (the door) but it's a pretty good compromise. this gives you a massive amount of freedom with colours!


hope that helps a little?

Wolvers:
You won't be able to alter the needle size yourself! the number in mm's is made up from the thickness of the needle, and the hole in the needle housing / nozzle! don't get your cordless drill out just yet mate!

 

[wolvers]

don't get your cordless drill out just yet mate!

LOL, ok bud!

Edit; would have been a pillar drill does that matter?

 

[Naan_H]

R B Customs thanks for the advice mate - that dulux site is quite useful, the walls i have look a lot like the gentle lavender at the moment, the mulberry blossom looks like it will go well with it. decisions decisions