November 10, 2008

Home Theater Edition

Over the course of this entry we’ve insulated and sheet-rocked the downstairs, built the A/C soffit, and begun taping.

We’re still waiting for the glass for the upstairs shower from Brooklyn Kitchens; nine weeks and counting.

If you recall my last entry, some of the windows were found to not have any brick under them, so the first thing we did is install the brick.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755175

Insulating comes next.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755173

When the insulation was finished, the crew chief came down and had a look. He likes things nice and warm, so he approves.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755176

Here we’ve been ‘rocking and taping, and the A/C soffit has been roughed out.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755181

I’d like to call this the ‘home theater’ edition, as most of the problems that have arisen have been coordinating the installation of what I’d call a modest home theater, and a couple of speakers in the back of the house that will carry music into the dining room/kitchen from my main music system in the living room. I’m fairly good with wiring electronic equipment, so we’re doing this ourselves.

The goal is to have all the wiring and speakers buried in the wall. Guys don’t mind wires, wives to, so this is to keep the wife happy!

I’m certainly aware that installing in-wall (as opposed to freestanding) speakers is supposed to result in sonic compromises. We’ll see. I did say a ‘modest’ home theater! First problem here, the GC is really an ‘old-school’ guy who has no idea about HT technology today, so I had a hard time explaining the whole concept. The electrician, otoh, is much more up to date on HT, but he’s only here intermittently.

The HT is to be located on the wall that is common to the L/R and bath. The left, right, and center speakers will be installed on that wall, around the TV, and the two surrounds in the ceiling. The plan is to install all the components in and on the walls (which means we have to sheetrock the front–living-room side–but not the back–bath side.) Then, we have to test everything, then remove all the components, sans wires, so we can tape, prime, etc. The wires to the HT receiver will be left hanging out of a gang box and then brought into a home theater wall plate. I’ll wire some short leads and banana plugs to connect to the amp.

The first thing we did was to reinforce the wall with 3/4" plywood to make sure we had a stable place to hang the TV and bracket. And naturally, we placed an electric outlet there.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755174

Next we hung the TV bracket, which was fairly simple given that we had access to see where all the studs were from behind the wall. The tricky part was getting the hundred pound TV up on the wall, since it was just my wife and I. A quick check of the BluRay player and we had a picture and sound from the TV speakers.

Now that we knew exactly where the TV went, we installed the speakers around the TV, as well as the ones in the ceiling. We brought up the home theater receiver from the basement, wired up all the speakers (except for the ones in the ceiling–they had already sheetrocked the ceiling without running the speaker wires). Here’s everything in place.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755177
The two round holes in the ceiling are the surrounds. This is an all 1080p system and the sound was much better that I had hoped for, even without the benefit of surrounds and sub. Then we got to remove everything and put it all back in the basement!

Now we’ve done some more taping, there’s an AC vent in the same wall, and the electrician managed to snake those ceiling surrounds without too much trouble.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755180

Here’s a view from the back, inside the bathroom. We’re going to insulate that wall to help with the sound.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755178

You’d think installing a pair of in-wall speakers in the dining room would be easy. The electrician ran the cable and left it hanging in each corner while I placed the speakers. Then the sheetrock guys just came and did their thing and left it hanging there. The below pic is pretty funny; you can see the wire hanging in the corner while the speakers are in the wall.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755179

Sure enough they had to take down some sheetrock and route the wires properly. See
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755182

Posted by denton at 8:04 AM | Comments (12)

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