Ok, so here we are with another few days of Covid lock down to manage so I decided it was time to write up my recent build project and share with SNA folks.

The following is my design / build story which I wanted to try and be, predominately, a DIY project.

Intro / Background

For many years I had much of my stereo gear packed away and had a basic set up in the lounge room for TV/DVD viewing using a simple 3ch / AVR. Now the kids are adults and left home and with the time to properly consider, I was playing with the idea that it was finally time to embark on designing & building my HT/AV set up. So, when Covid hit around March 2020, that was the catalyst for me to get serious about the project.

I started planning to convert my garage into a home theatre / 2 channel listening room. My goal was to design and build a space where I could contribute as much of my own labour effort as possible. This approach would give me the opportunity to learn on the job about the many elements that make up the end system as well as saving some money on the build. I have no building trades experience at all, though consider myself reasonably “handy” at general DIY tasks around the home.  

The starting point was a double garage (2 x single roller doors) area of 5.5m x 6.0m x 2.6m height which was already lined with 10mm gyprock sheeting on all walls and the ceiling (no insulation) and a concrete slab floor with 2 single garage doors and a single window in the garage side wall.

As the existing shape was almost square, I had to come up with a design that would deliver a rectangular space to give me a better acoustic shape to work with. Extra storage and equipment rack space was also required while ensuring building code compliance was met on things like minimum ceiling heights etc. The internal garage entry door was close to the kitchen so I decided to apply a 1.8m x 3.0m area to build a new butlers pantry off the kitchen. That left an area of 5.5m x 4.0m to be the HT space and a smaller area of 1.8m x 2.5m to serve as a storage / alcove space accessible from the new media room. The design allowed me to have the AV equipment rack and storage for records/CD’s and other components and speakers parked in this space that weren’t in use in the main system at various times.

See floor-plan pic

Stage 1: Structural Bits

 

The first phase kicked off around May 2020. Basic plan was to remove the garage doors and in-fill with new stud walls plus build the partition wall for butler’s pantry and any related structural elements to prepare the space. This included 2 x NIB walls at entry of the alcove. One of these Nib’s would be the main cabling / power outlet section that services the entire space. Also, a ceiling bulkhead was needed to house a largish projector. I decided to extend the bulkhead to run around the room to also house new lighting and provide additional soundproofing and insulation. The new stud walls filling the garage door sections needed to have windows as the room was not intended to be dedicated as a fully dark HT room, it had to be usable also as a 2ch stereo listening space and also as an occasional family living room, so some natural light was needed. 2 x 1800x450 strip windows would work though I considered double glazed glass sections but decided I could control sound leakage sufficiently with internal shutters and use custom fitted panel inserts for the rare times the system would be running at extra loud levels.

 

(** Note - This is my first major thread posting so hang in there with me, i might get messy lol....)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 20214 yr by DesignAV

A few pics showing how this stage progressed ...

Edited June 29, 20214 yr by DesignAV

...a few more

Stage 2: Insulation & Sound Proofing

My research highlighted that the effectiveness of insulation and soundproofing elements have a big impact on the end result performance of the room. Accordingly, I considered building the space as a “room within a room” by using the staggered studs / clips design model. However, after doing some budgets the build costs were high as I would need trades to do most of it and more so, it would have reduced the available space in the finished room. Also, the desire for the alcove area and windows would have complicated that design too much, so it was rejected.

That left me with a more standard approach to how to best isolate the space. Insulation was pretty simple, as there are many options available. My selections were Fletcher's Pink R2.0 90mm Sound Insulation for the ceiling and R2.7 90mm Sound Break Insulation batts for all walls and bulkhead spaces. The concrete floor was lined with 10mm compressed pine sheeting screwed into the floor to isolate the reflective concrete surface from the room and when ready to install a quality carpet underlay and thick pile carpet to finish the floor treatment.

Hours of research online led me to choose Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) rated at 4Kg per sq/m density as the primary sound proofing material as it was cost effective and like the batts I could install the MLV myself. Each MLV section on main walls was 1500x2500 and required 2 people to hang and fix with industrial type staples. It’s fairly easy material to work with so cutting smaller pieces/shapes for the bulkhead sections etc was ok. Once fully lined all the seams were covered with foil duct tape. Also, any gaps around windows, doors, electrical plates etc I filled with Fullers sound / fire stop putty helping to minimise any sound leakage outside of the space. This delivered a total of 25mm of wall thickness (original 10mm sheets + 2mm MLV + 13mm Soundcheck sheets)

then installing the MLV... not an simple task ... but it got easier the more time spent at it

I did some hand drawings and kept exact measurements for all the stud wall elements as the build progressed because normal home use stud finders would not work though the MLV material so all my speaker locations and cable runs had to be planned out, documented and installed before MLV / final sheeting was completed.

For the entry to the HT/Media room – only option was from the main lounge room near the front door. Limited space influenced me to go with an internal cavity solid sliding doors with soft close mechanism. The in-room cavity frame for the doors were lined with MLV to help control sound leakage into the living / kitchen areas of the house.

 

 

Final wall and ceiling treatment used was 13mm SoundCheck gyprock sheets. This added an extra layer of dampening and was the right decision to complete the overall sound proofing approach. The bigger sized sheets are super heavy and 3 guys were needed to lift & fix these on walls n ceilings hence i left this to the experts

 

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Cable runs

Many hours were spent in the ceiling space installing all the insulation batts, and approx. 100 metres of 100% OFC speaker cabling to all speaker locations in walls / ceilings. A dedicated new 20amp power line was installed from main power box to main NIB wall to ensure sufficient amps power was available for existing and future component needs. Additional Foxtel / TV outlets and long run high speed HDMI and LAN cabling to provide media sources and streaming services. The existing garage window was boarded, filled with insulation and then sealed up and covered with the new wall materials.

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Finished space ready for plastering, paint and carpets...

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Stage 3: Final Finishes, Fit Out

 

Carpet and final coat paint finishes were supplied by tradesmen including all lights & power fit off. The main wall for the screen location was painted a very dark grey and a charcoal colour carpet. The remaining walls are a lighter grey and the bulk-head and ceiling painted in a cotton ball white. Even at this stage I was waiting to see how the room colours / treatments worked after the projector / screen are installed and I was prepared to change colours on various surfaces if there was issues with light reflections etc. Completed carpeted and painted space.

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Stage 4: HT Screen and Projector

 

My goal was to have the best image I could for the HT application. This was one area of the project where I had an advantage as my knowledge and experience from many years involvement in the commercial AV industry could be put to good use.

The Screen

 

I knew that screen technology plays a big part in delivering a quality image (colour, contrast, gain etc). Screen aesthetics was also important and I wanted it to look good on the wall. After all the stud walls were built and sheeted, the main wall to house the screen was 3.9m wide. I considered building a false wall to house the screen and all front speakers but again this would reduce the length of the room so wasn’t feasible. The screen size I could run with was also determined by the main front speakers I wanted to use in the system. The main front set (L&R) had to sit beside the screen and not impact the sight line of the projected image.

So, after much deliberation, I selected a Stewart Filmscreen 100” Firehawk G3 Deluxe ScreenWall @ 1.25 gain with a 16:9 AR from Visual Fidelity in Melbourne. The Firehawk delivers excellent images across a broad range of content, increases black levels, has excellent contrast & detailing control and colour saturation. The screen has a silver matt finish and black felt frame. It’s a well-engineered screen that uses high quality components and a clever design allows for a simple installation process. The 100” is big enough and looks balanced with the room size.

 

Then i installed a thickish matt black curtain as a simple way to close off the alcove area during a movie.

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

The Projector

 

Through my work I’m fortunate to have access to professional projection technology so I grabbed a Christie 1DLP BoldColour laser projector (1920x1200 @ 16/10) and it’s an excellent combination with the Firehawk screen. Even though the projector is a used system with 000’s hours logged it still presents an great image. The throw distance was approx. 4.1m so a 1.2-1.5 zoom lens was used. The ceiling space and platform I made will allow for a larger form-factor 4K projector when the time comes (acknowledging a screen upgrade is likely to 17:9 AR).

Further, I wanted to ensure the system doesn’t run too hot so I installed an in-line extraction fan to remove heat from around the projector cavity and chassis exhaust outlet to disperse in the larger roof space. This is a good low cost investment to protect the projector during summer. An access hatch was also provided to manually control the projector settings from within the room if ever needed.

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Here is the projector during initial screen / lens testing and before permanently installing into the ceiling bulk head above the main seating location.

Stage 5 - HT Lighting and surround speakers install

 

Lighting is also important but I didn’t want to get too carried away with runs of LED strip lighting everywhere. So a fairly simple approach was to use LED RGB down lights – I selected 4 x LIFX RGB LED down-lights which were installed in the side bulkheads. These are a cost-effective solution that delivers amazing lighting and colour themes for any application the room is used for. The LIFX system are wifi based and all functions / controls etc are managed by a tablet or phone app. Example pics below

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

The surround speakers were chosen based on a “bang for buck” basis so not the best but still a high quality and recognized HT speaker brand. Magnat surround speakers installed and speaker wall plate matrix with several power outlets and other source connections all housed on the nib wall in the alcove. Ceiling speakers had to wait until acoustic treatment was completed. More on that later.

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Stage 5: AV components Fitout & Configuration

 

All AV components, source and LAN connections, speaker installation, systems set up and configuration I did myself. The end game HT Surround design I was building towards is a 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos capable system. The system as installed and running is pretty much 90% there though currently operating as a 9.1.0 system

Home Theatre Hardware

Projector and Screen:

·        Christie GS 1DLP LaPh System + 1.2-1.5 zoom lens

·        Stewart FilmScreen 100” Firehawk G3

 

Home Theatre Speakers

The opening speaker set up for the HT surround system was: -

·        Main Fronts R & L – JBL L100T 3-way floor-standing

·        HT Centre – Magnat Shadow Centre 213

·        Sub-woofer - JBL ES250 300mm driver

·        Surround Side L&R (main) Magnat RD200 Di-Poles Atmos

·        Surround Side L&R (fronts) Magnat IW810’s

·        Surround Rears L&R - Magnat MSP70's 3 way stand mounted

·        Ceiling High Fronts – Magnat IW810 (not installed yet)

·        Ceiling High Rears – Magnat IW810 (not installed yet)

 

The source components are:

·        AVR is a Denon AVR-X6200W – 11 channel x 110w amplifier processor for media streaming and a Sony UBP-X700 BlueRay player. I was still playing around with image alignment re 2nd pic

I

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

Stage 6: Artnovion Acoustic Treatment

Many of the HT projects I had researched indicated that addressing the rooms acoustics can be a defining factor in how well the space will perform.

Accordingly, I looked at specialist acoustic treatments and decided the ArtNovion range of acoustic reflectors, diffusers and dispersion products would be a good fit for my project. I received great assistance from local Brisbane guy Christian Corsini who dealt directly with Artnovion in Portugal (note this was before Artnovion appointed Cogworks as their official distributor.)

I sent him my baseline room dimension, descriptions of the AV and HT components to be used and the insulation, soundproofing info and they did various calculations and produced some computer models of their analysis findings. 

I was delighted to see that the initial effort I'd put into the shape and structure of my space could deliver a good result acoustically. My room analysis results fell right into the desired Target Reverberation Time (pointer in blue shaded area of the graph in pic) 

...then they helped with a few product recommendations, also while considering my budget which was great. Then some room designs were developed with 3D perspective, outline views

..and finally some 3D renders to help me visualise how their treatments would look in the finished space. I ran with 80% of the solution they proposed and extremely pleased I did.

 

 

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by DesignAV

... the goods were months in transit ex Portugal (and given Covid freight issues) but finally in December 2020 the panels arrived and it was a careful planning process to prepare for the installation into the finished room. Could not afford to make any mistakes when installing the various panels. All the products came with good set-up and install instructions, and well packaged to safely protect the goods during freight transit.

 

For installation, just take time to ensure all your levels / alignments are spot on, follow the instructions carefully and it's a DIY job. This is what you get when engaging AV professionals as they know their trade craft (whichever field they're in). Artnovion and friends are acoustic subject matter experts and while their products arent cheap they are definitely worth the investment and I'd recommend for sure.

 

I decided to source a few low cost foam elements and installed them as bass traps and absorption panels to complete the acoustic treatment. Below is the final fully treated room.

Finished Room (…well almost) lol

The room has turned out really great and is versatile to manage various needs.

When in pure HT mode the room and systems deliver an outstanding immersive environment and while the projector runs pretty quiet due to it's laser technology the combination of insulation and soundproofing layers means no projector noise is heard at the seating position

When wanting to “listen” to CD or streamed 2 channel music, again it is as good a HiFi system that I could ever need. Also, as an extra home living room area where myself or the family want to relax in, it provides a quiet and comfortable space.

Overall, the build took around 6 months and I’m extremely happy with the end result. As with many DIY projects there are still a few minor items to complete, most important being the installation and AVR configuration of the ceiling speakers to complete the 9.1.4 setup.

Hope you enjoyed the journey, I sure did.

Thank you so much for sharing photos of your journey, I really enjoyed looking at them and congratulations on your beautiful room.

 

awesome work mate, you must be wrapped with the outcome!

Wow! fantastic work there mate. Thanks for sharing with us along with the elaborate write-up and abundant photographs. The final room looks really great - especially considering that you did most of the work yourself 👍

 

Enjoy....