Rob W. shared with us a picture of his home theater and we were AMAZED by his DIY acoustic panels. When we gushed over them on the podcast, he shared with us how he did it. Thanks Rob and congrats on the coolest DIY panels we’ve ever seen
From Alan: As to the acoustic panels, I watched a ton of DIY Acoustic Panel videos on YouTube and distilled everyone’s technique down to: 1×4 frames (to maintain an air gap behind the absorption material), Roxul Safe’n’Sound Insulation or Owens-Corning 703 glass fiber panels, and cheap muslin material for backside of the panel. A DIY Acoustic Panel thread on AVS here http://www.avsforum.com/forum/19-dedicated-theater-design-construction/1316623-diy-custom-printed-movie-poster-acoustic-panels-cheap.html told me about some fairly good AT printed fabrics from www.spoonflower.com (note that they require you take responsibility for having the “legal” ability to print the poster by clicking a check box). For a good turnout, you need a 150 dpi image to upload.
Read more…
Alan recently finished his own basement home theater, and he wanted to pass along some tips he learned along the way:
1) He suggests reading books and making use of your local library. Some specific titles he recommends:
- Taunton’s Remodeling a Basement
- Taunton’s Wiring Complete
- Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Wiring (really good wiring diagrams)
- Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Finishing Basements
2) For managing cables and power inlets in your walls, Allen found the least expensive recessed wall plates on Amazon. Rather than sitting flush on the wall like regular wall plates, these recessed wall plates let you plug things into the wall, or extend a power connection (extremely handy for ceiling-mounted projectors or wall-mounted flat panels) without the power cords protruding out of the wall:
Read more…
Looking for a projector? Here is our definitive guide of what is out there that we would recommend in descending price order:
Until the new crop gets announced at CEDIA, here’s what’s out there for under $10,000:
1) Sony VPL-VW350ES: $10,000. Genuine 4K (4096 x 2160). Motorized zoom, focus, and lens shift. Low lag for gaming. Limited to 8-bit with no WCG or HDR. So it’s just a resolution bump.
http://store.sony.com/…/cat-27-catid-all-tv-home-theater-pr…
2) Epson LS10000: $8000. Laser light engine (2 blue lasers, one powering a yellow phosphor). 3 reflective LCD (liquid crystal on quartz) 1080p panels with pseudo-4K (think e-shift or “wobulation”). Powered zoom, focus, and lens shift. Has HDCP 2.2. Can do DCI-P3 color.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do…
3) Epson LS9600e: $6000. Same as the LS10000, but 1080p only. Also has Wireless HD connection box with 5 HDMI inputs.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do…
Read more…
This week Tom completes his review of the BenQ treVolo portable electrostatic bluetooth speaker. We thank Shannon and Rob W. for their donations and James and Shannon for their support. We cover some news from Onkyo and Hauppauge. James likes inwall speakers from SnapAV (LINK), Nelson’s dad got a 90″ Sharp and he wanted to share (LINK), and Infinite Gary has questions about Betamax. Joshua has a mirror issue (LINK), Kris “I Don’t Live in a McMansion” got his new SVS subs and now has some Audyssey questions, and Alan has some suggestions for cable management (LINK) along with a question about backer boxes for in-wall speakers (LINK). Ashley has some video calibration questions, Dave is looking for a display (LINK) and Blu-ray player (LINK) for his non-Audiophile friends, and Don is confused by SVS’s Merlin advice. Rob M. wants to know if he should go HDMI or HDbaseT for his long run, Scott shares some knowledge about home theater construction costs, and Efrain called Trinnov. Jonathan sent us a link to an article from a person that REALLY hated Age of Ultron (LINK), Brian got a defective unit from Accessories4less and reports, and Alan and Rob W. tell us how they remodeled their basement and made the coolest absorption panels ever (respectively). Look for individual posts about their tips soon.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
Tom finally reviews the Oppo PM-3 headphones comparing them the Oppo PM-2s, the V-Moda Crossfade M-100s, and the Alpine Headphones. This week we thank Scott, Steven, and Jose for their donations and John for his support. In the news, Ultra HD, Pioneer gets HDMI 2.0, Oculus Rift, and a use for 4k and curved screens. James has some tagline suggestions (see our Facebook page for specifics), Richard wants to know our thoughts on compression tweeters/drivers and JTR speakers (LINK), and Robert thinks that movies mixed for 7.1 sound better than those mixed for 5.1. Caesar has some questions about HDR (High Dynamic Range) and HDMI 2.0a (LINK), Jeb isn’t convinced we’re right about how to handle dual subs in oddly-shaped rooms, and Scott wants to buy a receiver. Tim’s planned home theater has changed and he wants to know if our suggestions have as well, Mike is having an odd subwoofer problem, and Jonathan found a turntable that uses frickin’ lasers instead of a needle (LINK and LINK). Dev is having a weird problem with his Dayton Sub-1200 (LINK), Bill is wondering what distortion sounds like (particularly harmonic distortion), and Ian is having dialog intelligibility problems. Lastly, Rob (a different Rob) is purchasing a home and needs help planning his home theater.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
Rob W. shared with us a picture of his home theater and we were AMAZED by his DIY acoustic panels. When we gushed over them on the podcast, he shared with us how he did it. Thanks Rob and congrats on the coolest DIY panels we’ve ever seen
