Home Theater
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I have always enjoyed movies. I've watched perhaps 500 over the past 10 years or so and I've come to understand that 90% of the movie experience is SOUND. I had a decent home theater, Klipsh KG-2's, Klipsh center channel, rear speakers and a Yamaha RX-V970 receiver. I yearned for more! Late last year, I decided to act on it & build the "Ultimate Home theater". I had an old friend, named Jim Bunch, who is a stereo-phile "nut" and I persuaded him to help me design and construct my home theater.
I had an affinity to Klipsh horns and his eyes lit up. "I know what YOU want, he said" and we proceeded to sit down and design my system on some paper. About an hour later, he had the design down, measuring 5 feet tall and 14 feet wide shown below and included 17 individual speaker components.
Jim was basing his design on "nirvana" from which we would make concessions. I am working on a page detailing exactly what "nirvana" is so you can be informed as well. Check back and I'll have it done in a few weeks.
I was flabbergasted! This design seemed way too big for a little twelve by Sixteen room. He assured me that this was not the case and pointed me to the Ultimate Horn Page where I spent the better part of an entire evening perusing everything about horns. Included in this awesome web site, was an article called "The Ancient Audiophiles Quest for the Ultimate Home System". As I began to read & to view the list of the "Ultimate wall-banger experience", I saw many, many similarities between it and the system we were now designing. With the exception of the mid-bass drivers, it was very close.
It took Jim the better part of a month to convince me we really need FOUR bass speakers! Most people get away with "home theaters" with a single 10" bass woofer and here Jim was wanting to put FOUR FIFTEEN inchers in there!!
So then we get to the fun part and he starts saying how every speaker needs it's own separate amp-channel. As he began to talk about amps, my eyes glazed over and dollar signs were appearing like little stars around my head. He then proceeded to clarify that he didn't want to buy NEW amps, he wanted to buy "Hafler" amps that used to be sold in kit form for people to put together. He explained that I should be able to get 200W amps for around $200 bucks used, but that with a few "custom" mods he would do would outperform $1000 amps currently selling for new. Hey, that wasn't so bad, but then we started adding up how many amps we were going to need (17 channels total) and $$ signs started appearing before my eyes again! Oh well, by this time, I was committed. After trying a few used stereo shops and getting stumped, I headed over to eBay and found one! My hands were sweating as I waited for the seconds to count down and I won! YeeHa! My first amp. Over the course of the next month, I bid on every single Hafler 200 & 220 that was posted. Supply was short (perhaps one or two per week) and I was determined to get every one that was posted. I got VERY GOOD AT BID SNIPING, waiting until the last minute and swooping in with the high bid.
Diagram of the "wall of sound"
As you peruse the drawing up on top, you notice we basically have three "tower" configurations of speakers, all sitting on 4 bass speakers. The tweeters, horns and mids are all crossed over with the Rane's. (One crossover works on two of the towers). The Parasound AVC-2500 controls the bass through it's bass management system. Hafler amps power the tweeters and horns. The Parasound Amp powers the Bass and the mids.
The Particulars:
Four x 15" McCauley
6244 Bass Speakers - Purchased New
McCauley is the pre-eminent supplier of speaker systems for live bands playing
in huge auditoriums. Their speakers are awesome and not as expensive as you
might think (provided you build the enclosures)
Three x 12" JBL E-120 Mid range Speakers
- Purchased new & used
We were targeting either the E-120 or E-130 JBL speakers. The E-130's would have
been better, but a good deal came up on eBay on "mint" E-120's, four
of them. Well, I bought them and two turned out to be blown (the seller admitted
this & didn't ship me those two) but said the other two were
"perfect". Well, one of the speakers he shipped me was blown and
required to be re-coned. All in all, this was my worst experience on eBay.
Three x 6" x 17" OEM JBL Horns driven by
JBL 2440 drivers - All used
The drivers are the key here. These 2440's are considered to be the best driver
ever built and they hold their value extremely well. They have the famous Alinco
magnets in them. These things are
extremely heavy! They weigh about 25 lbs per driver!I got two of them used on
eBay and was able to get a third used one from a local B&M. We ended up replacing all
the diaphragms inside the drivers so we would be guaranteed some sort of
uniformity. For mounting these, we simply framed a "L" shaped piece of MDF where we could screw the front of the horn onto the wood and for the base,
we used a nice glob of body-filler (used for repairing dents in cars) covered
with aluminum foil. When the filler had dried, we removed the aluminum foil! In
the end, the round driver was perfectly supported!
Three x 2405 JBL
diffraction slot Tweeters - All used
JBL makes several different tweeters. Probably the most common is the
"bullet" tweeter. However, its dispersion pattern is narrowly focused.
The 2405 diffraction slot tweeters provide a wider dispersion of sound. This is more
important if you want all seating positions to hear the sounds. Also, the 2405
(as opposed to the 2404) has the famous Alinco magnet which is preferred.
Two Rane
AC 23B Crossovers
I needed to cross over 3 towers. Either I get three 2-4 way crossovers or I get
a one 2-4 way and one 5-way crossover (a 5-way can do two of the towers). I
decided to get two 5-ways just because I wanted the same model driving all three
towers. Rane makes one of the best crossovers out there (Ashly is most likely
better, but harder to find & a little more expensive).
Three Hafler 220 Amplifiers - All
used
Again, these are the classic Hafler "Kit" amplifiers sold in the 70's
& 80's. The only interesting thing we did with these is that we removed the
on/off switches, leaving them permanently powered on and switched them on using
the Furman sequencer.
Parasound
2205A Amplifier - Purchased New
As Jim wanted the classic Hafler 500
amp (two of them) to drive the mids and bass, I never did see one for sale on
eBay during my month there buying up other components. We opted instead for a
NEW Parasound
2205A amp that delivered 220 amps per channel over 5 channels. The important
part of this amp was that each channel has it's own power supply to limit
distortion over the other channels.
2 x 12"
eminence
Gamma Pro 12cx for rear speakers (not shown above) - Purchased New
These were recommended by my local B&M as good rear-channel speakers. Rear
channel speakers are important, but not as important as the speakers up front.
These speakers are actually two speakers in one as it includes a small horn as
well as a mid-range. I've been extremely pleased with these speakers. The movie
"Saving Private Ryan" really pushes the rear speakers to the max and
these delivered!
It took about 2 months to assemble the speakers, we custom built all the
cabinets using 3/4" MDF sandwiched with 3/4" Particle Board, glued
together with this $50 glue (1 qt) that dampened vibration to a HUGE extent. The
idea behind using two different types of wood is that sound travels through
material depending upon the density. By using two pieces of different types of
wood, vibration should be kept to a minimum. We ended up with EXTREMELY HEAVY
cabinets that looked like crap, but when painted black and hid behind our fabric
and screen, we really DIDN'T CARE HOW THEY LOOKED!
Building your own speaker enclosures is not for the faint of heart. Getting the interior dimensions is an art form. Jim had some software that he used where he input all the variables from the speakers and out pops the recommended interior cubic feet required. It's then up to you to figure out the actual dimensions to ensure the volume is right on. If anyone out there knows of a web site or freeware software that can do this, I'd put it on this page!
Another aspect of building speakers is to choose "sealed" or ported speakers. Jim spent the better part of a night explaining why ported speakers are better but the complexities of building them are just way too much for the average person. We opted for sealed enclosures and I've never regretted it!
Oh, man the horns, the horns. These things were PLASTIC and they reverberated like crazy when you thumped them with your finger. Jim pulls out THREE bottles of "Noise Killer", a professional damping "fiberglass like" resin that's kind of thick & he has me apply 5 coats of this stuff (3/8 " thick over the horns) and wouldn't you know it, these horns WERE DEAD BABY. No reverb, no twang, it was like they were made out of cement.
Sound is a funny thing. You want your speakers to make sound and project it out into your room, but you don't want the sound to vibrate the speaker itself or the cabinet it is in. You want them "DEAD AS A DOORNAIL". Well, all told, I wouldn't be surprised if all my speakers weighed OVER A TON. I was guaranteed that they would not make a sound except through what they projected!
The Rack:
A couple of notes on the rack:
We installed a IR repeater on the front of the screen and a IR reciever / flooder at the top of the rack (you can just see it in the picture below) which captures all the IR signals from the remote and floods the rack with the signals. This takes the problem of contorting your arm and remote so that the rack receives the IR signal. The rack itself is made from 3/4" MDF for the sides and bottom, the racks were screwed into the MDF. The MDF was covered in fabric and we used 1/4" MDF for the rear covers, also covered in fabric.
The particulars:
Furman
RR-15 RackRider Power Conditioner - Purchased New
The power distributor was used to plug
in the DVD, the VCR and the Parasound receiver. It cuts down on having all too
many plug-ins. It also has two cool "pop out lights" that illuminate
the rack. The lights are adjustable so you only get the light you want (and not
ruin the dark adaptation of your eyes in the process).
Furman ASD 120
Sequencer / Power Distributor - Purchased New
When you get down to the power
requirements for the entire system, we installed a new 100 amp sub-panel in the
closet next to the rack and fed 60 amps into the Furman sequencer. A sequencer
is necessary when using amps and crossovers. It's important that you turn
everything on in the correct order to avoid "popping" the speakers. By
hooking everything up to the sequencer, it turns everything on in order with a
single button and turns them off in reverse order.
Parasound
AVC2500 Receiver - Purchased New
There were so many receivers out on the market and I spent considerable amount
of time trying to find the one that would give me the best features and be as
extensible as possible. There are quite a few AV Receivers out there receiving
good reviews. The Parasound won primarily because of the number of inputs it
supported and for it's unique bass management system that it employs.
Pioneer 606D DVD
Player - Purchased demo unit
Again, it seems DVD players are nearly a dime/dozen out there and the only real
requirements were that it supported digital out for the clearest sound possible
and it supported RGB lines so that I could feed RGB directly into my projector
w/out having to convert it first.
Ashly XR2000 Crossover -
Used
I had purchased two older Yamaha F1030 Crossovers which would have worked, but
they were rather bulky and I would have run out of rack space. I could have went
for another newer Rane, but Ashly is actually a better crossover and I chose it
over a new Rane since I could get it used.
Two Hafler 200 Amplifiers - All used
Again, these are the classic Hafler "Kit" amplifiers sold in the 70's
& 80's. The only interesting thing we did with these is that we removed the
on/off switches, leaving them permanently powered on and switched them on using
the Furman sequencer.
For the Projector unit and screen, I was torn between buying a $15,000 Runco and "settling" for a LCD Projector. I had seen a Runco at my local B&M, and it was absolutely fantastic. The question is, was it worth $10,000 more than a LCD Projector? I decided to go with a Sharp ZW99 LCD Projector , it being the top of the line at the time (they have since came out with a newer one that is even better). The one thing I dislike about the Sharp is the noise of the cooling fan. It is quite loud at times and can be distracting. I haven't been able to compare the noise to other projectors, but if I ever do this again, I'm going to put it in another room and have a single hole in the wall through which it projects.
For the screen, we needed a perforated screen. This is because the entire design centered around placing the center tower behind the screen and a perforated screen would allow sound to come through quite nicely. I went with a 40 x 72 Stewart Perforated screen primarily because my local B&M sold them and I ordered most of my AV equipment through them.
Now the screen was a piece of work.
This thing is perforated with all these pin-holes, yet they are
indistinguishable when viewing pictures. This was key so that we could place the
center channel "tower" directly in the middle, behind the screen.
A key part of the home theater design was hiding all the speakers behind the screen and grill cloth. Jim constructed a metal frame and glued the cloth to the frame. He further enhanced it by having two panels on a suspension system that slid out of the way, but protected the screen. One of my main concerns was that I wanted to protect my $2000 investment in the screen from my young sons!
In Summary
Well, the finished product was something to behold. But looks isn't what I was really interested in! After about a week of tuning and adjusting everything, the sound that created by this mix of speakers was nothing I had ever heard. Music, when listened in stereo, caused tears to well up in my eyes because if I closed them I had a private audience and the band was 8 feet in front of me. The dynamic range that the speakers are capable of handling was simply astounding.
And movies?? Earthshattering. You know in the Matrix, when the helocopter crashes into the building? Well, the sound waves from the bass speakers literally hammer into your chest and the room vibrates. It's like I'm standing there next to Neo. During the subway scene, I felt like I was on that subway platform as that subway sped by. My lights rattled, the ground shook and the sound was unbelievable.
So how much did I spend? Well, if you very interested, you are free to e-mail me and I will give you the cost breakdown for everything. If you are serious, you know that we are not talking about a few thousand dollars. I have a detailed breakdown of the costs, including all speakers, wires, components, racks, lumber & room prep.
While out of the ball-park for some (the cost), this is actually quite cheap considering all the components. It took a tremendous amount of bargain hunting and buying on e-Bay to get the prices. Also not included is about 200 hours of my own labor in room prep, speaker building and being the 3rd hand.
It definitely helps to have someone like Jim who did so much of the design, speaker building, wiring and tuning. I didn't get him for free, but considering what other pro-sound shops charge, I got a huge bargain. It was a win-win situation because Jim was able to learn quite a bit about home theaters and how to put them together.
Ok, ok, so you've been reading all this pre-amble. I bet you want to see these pictures, huh? Well here they are!
The
screen closed
The screen open
The screen raised
Center tower
Full view of the rack (front)
Close up of top components on rack
Back of the rack (back open)
Back of the rack (closed up)
Left / middle, Crossover & Hafler
amps
Left tower
Right / middle Crossovers &
Hafler amp
Right tower
Parasound 2205A amp (wish I would have
taken these pictures before we put the screen up!)
Two of the 15" Bass speakers
View of the couch & rear speakers
About.com's
great Home Theater Link page
James Reedy's
AWESOME site dedicated to home theaters...many many links & useful
information
Home Theater "Secrets" -
useful info and inside info
AudioReview - Great site w/tons of reviews
& private newsgroups
Thomas Dunkers' ultimate
horn web site - Great info for horn based systems
AV Science
Audio Visual forum - Great place to ask lots of questions
