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they dont make houses this nice in swansea 
where abouts in swansea? i cant make out the area from the pics 
where abouts in swansea? i cant make out the area from the pics 
Associate
Amazing thread this, just read the whole thing.
End result is superb from what started of with a patch of rough ground.
End result is superb from what started of with a patch of rough ground.
Soldato
+1 I've just spent the last hour or so reading this an I'm so envious. You've built a great house!
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What do you do as a job anyway EVH?
Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465
OP
I haz updates!
Apologies for the delay since the last update. I think it's been worth the wait.
Kit list:
The Bluray player came with a free Star Wars: The Original Trilogy boxset, so that was a bonus!
In fact, I've bought the prequel trilogy and that has arrived today too
The living room and kitchen are 8x10m each, so I opted for larger speakers for these rooms. The B&W CCM 65 are in these rooms, and the CCM 50's are in all the other rooms except the bathroom and ensuite which have ebay waterproof cheapo speakers.
The red 'dog legs' on the back of the speaker is what keeps them from falling on your head. Just push them up in to the ceiling and screw them tight. The dog leg swings outward and clamps down on the plasterboard. Pretty simple mounting.
Being a perfectionist / someone with OCD, I just have to have the speakers aligned. Despite being hidden by a grille it would bug me! This is where my trusty laser line comes in handy. I squared the level up with the back wall (which is also square) to create a perfect 90 degree angle, then just lined the line up with the centre of the hole I'd cut and violá!
A picture showing the flush mounted grille
Here are some pictures of the upstairs. I have actually mounted the speakers now, but these are just some "in progress" shots, as I'd forgotten to take some of the downstairs in my excitement. I chose to orientate the speakers according to where the beds are in the rooms, so when laying in bed you get the left speaker on the left etc
Health & Safety Officer
Apologies for the delay since the last update. I think it's been worth the wait.
Kit list:
- 2x pair B&W CCM 65
- 4x pair B&W CCM 50
- Panasonic DMP-BDT310 bluray player
- KEF KHT-3005SE surround sound
- 2x pair KEF speaker stands
- Onkyo TN-SR609 av receiver
The Bluray player came with a free Star Wars: The Original Trilogy boxset, so that was a bonus!
In fact, I've bought the prequel trilogy and that has arrived today too
The living room and kitchen are 8x10m each, so I opted for larger speakers for these rooms. The B&W CCM 65 are in these rooms, and the CCM 50's are in all the other rooms except the bathroom and ensuite which have ebay waterproof cheapo speakers.
The red 'dog legs' on the back of the speaker is what keeps them from falling on your head. Just push them up in to the ceiling and screw them tight. The dog leg swings outward and clamps down on the plasterboard. Pretty simple mounting.
Being a perfectionist / someone with OCD, I just have to have the speakers aligned. Despite being hidden by a grille it would bug me! This is where my trusty laser line comes in handy. I squared the level up with the back wall (which is also square) to create a perfect 90 degree angle, then just lined the line up with the centre of the hole I'd cut and violá!
A picture showing the flush mounted grille
Here are some pictures of the upstairs. I have actually mounted the speakers now, but these are just some "in progress" shots, as I'd forgotten to take some of the downstairs in my excitement. I chose to orientate the speakers according to where the beds are in the rooms, so when laying in bed you get the left speaker on the left etc
Health & Safety Officer
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Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465
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Thanks. I have an understanding wife!
Anyway, here's some shots of the surround sound system and a little explanation of the IR control which I know some are interested in.
Bought this box from a company I've used a lot on the build; Keene.
I've tried to catch everything in this one shot, but I'll explain anyway.
The ceilings are fitted with IR receivers which connect via cat6 back to the patch panel. Out of the patch port, the cat6 then converts to an IR 3.5mm lead with a dongle, and goes straight in to any input on the commander. From the commander, the IR signal is output to any 1 of 8 IR emitters which are stuck to the face of each piece of equipment in the rack (Freesat shown here).
Simples.
I've tried to keep everything as minimal as possible, but I chose not to wall mount the front speakers, as it would involve a) plastering over existing speaker socket b) fishing wire up the wall c) mounting the speakers.
To be honest I thought about it hard, but if I ever change the eggs, then I don't want it to be a big job. The ceiling speakers act as my front height / rear surround speakers if I want 7.1
Also shown, which might not be obvious is how I mounted the centre speaker. When I first set it up I placed it on the white table below, but disaster.. it was too small to block the speaker socket behind.
I got around that by mounting it to the wall.. here's the genius bit though.. the mounting holes were exactly 53mm wide, which incidentally is the width of the screw terminals on the backbox. So, I just took the front faceplate off the socket, left the screws in the backbox and slid the centre on! job done!
Hope you've enjoyed it all so far, next update will be the HD over cat6.
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Caporegime
Looks awesome!
Is that your wifes input under the TV?
Is that your wifes input under the TV?
Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465
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Last update for a while, thankfully the tech is now complete, minus the multiroom audio (see below)
This is a shot of behind the main TV. Every TV location in the house has 4 Cat6, 2 of which are dedicated for HDMI over Cat6 baluns. 2 for regular ethernet. The balun is powered at the receiver end, as you can see from the red and blue glow. Red = power, Blue = HDMI sync
You are meant to crimp the Cat6 straight through, i.e. not use a wallplate or break in the connection as it will destroy the bandwidth of the signal. I seem to have no problems doing this, but if I were to recommend to someone then I would go via a brush faceplate and have straight cables.
This is the other end of the system. I've pulled out the Cat6 cable from the back of the patch panel, and crimped a RJ45 on the end of each run, as I don't want to run in to problems. It also stops me accidentally plugging those ports in to the network switch, which would be BAD.
A HDMI cable runs from the back of the Onkyo receiver, to this balun. You can send the HDMI cable to a distribution amp / HDMI matrix / splitter, before sending it out to the TVs, but that's for another day and let's just say the HDMI handshaking can get "interesting" when doing this.
I may pick up a small HDMI splitter so we can get the feed on the bedroom TV for the time being. It will mean we have to watch the same source in each room when doing this, but for the moment a full matrix is out of my budget.
This is a shot of the finished rack. All it needs now is the blanking plates to cover up the gaps between components, and I need to buy 8x Sonos ZP120's for the multiroom audio. If I move every component up, I'll have an 8U gap at the bottom for the multiroom audio, and that's still maintaining the 2U gap above the Onkyo amp. Plenty of room
Here it is, in all it's glory. From the top..
Hope you've enjoyed reading the thread.
Update: Please see this post for an update kit list!
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=23724908&postcount=618
This is a shot of behind the main TV. Every TV location in the house has 4 Cat6, 2 of which are dedicated for HDMI over Cat6 baluns. 2 for regular ethernet. The balun is powered at the receiver end, as you can see from the red and blue glow. Red = power, Blue = HDMI sync
You are meant to crimp the Cat6 straight through, i.e. not use a wallplate or break in the connection as it will destroy the bandwidth of the signal. I seem to have no problems doing this, but if I were to recommend to someone then I would go via a brush faceplate and have straight cables.
This is the other end of the system. I've pulled out the Cat6 cable from the back of the patch panel, and crimped a RJ45 on the end of each run, as I don't want to run in to problems. It also stops me accidentally plugging those ports in to the network switch, which would be BAD.
A HDMI cable runs from the back of the Onkyo receiver, to this balun. You can send the HDMI cable to a distribution amp / HDMI matrix / splitter, before sending it out to the TVs, but that's for another day and let's just say the HDMI handshaking can get "interesting" when doing this.
I may pick up a small HDMI splitter so we can get the feed on the bedroom TV for the time being. It will mean we have to watch the same source in each room when doing this, but for the moment a full matrix is out of my budget.
This is a shot of the finished rack. All it needs now is the blanking plates to cover up the gaps between components, and I need to buy 8x Sonos ZP120's for the multiroom audio. If I move every component up, I'll have an 8U gap at the bottom for the multiroom audio, and that's still maintaining the 2U gap above the Onkyo amp. Plenty of room
Here it is, in all it's glory. From the top..
- 16 way patch panel (6 IR, 8 Phone extensions)
- 48 way patch panel (upstairs connections)
- 48 way patch panel (downstairs connections)
- Brush faceplate for network cable passthrough
- HP ProCurve 1810-24 gigabit network switch
- Apple AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi access point
- Billion 7800 ADSL modem @ 6496/1024kbps
- DroboPro NAS with 12.5TB storage
- Brush faceplate for coax cable passthrough
- 16 way coax patch panel (2 LNB, 1 Freeview, 1 DAB, 6 rooms)
- Humax Freesat HDR+ with 1TB HDD
- Pure DAB digital radio
- Apple Mac Mini as HTPC (running Plex)
- Sony Playstation 3
- Panasonic DMP-BDT310 bluray player
- Onkyo TXNR609 Black AV Receiver
Hope you've enjoyed reading the thread.
Update: Please see this post for an update kit list!
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=23724908&postcount=618
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Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465
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Thanks. I only did it as somewhere to document the build initially, but it's good to know people have enjoyed the process.
Bought them at Wickes, £9.99 per square meter. Not sure the size of the spacer.. at a guess 3mm?
Man of Honour
That’s quite an amazing setup.
How do you go about controlling everything when you have your components in a rack, surely not a pile of remote controls?
How do you go about controlling everything when you have your components in a rack, surely not a pile of remote controls?
That’s quite an amazing setup.
How do you go about controlling everything when you have your components in a rack, surely not a pile of remote controls?
IR receivers in the ceiling he mentioned I'd imagine. It's a truly epic setup. Wish I had the skills and funds for similar.
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EVH this may sound a little bit cheeky but how much have you spent from the start to today completely? I know you don't have time and got better things to do but a nice break down would be great for anyone who ever considers doing the same.
5 Star Thread.
5 Star Thread.
Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465
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If you go back 2 posts, you'll see my IR commander, which routes all the IR from the receivers in the rooms to each device.That’s quite an amazing setup.
How do you go about controlling everything when you have your components in a rack, surely not a pile of remote controls?
I have a Logitech Harmony One as my main remote, which is programmed in a "wife-friendly" way. I.e. Press 1 button to "Watch a film" and it switches the amp on, switches source to the BD player, turns the volume to a decent level and shuts off any other device which would likely be on, like the Freesat box.
Thanks. I've saved a fortune doing it myself. If you can wire a RJ45 then you're halfway there. The rest can be found online or by calling the suppliers, as I've found they're always really technical in this industry.
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