Home Theater Geeks 481 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
 

00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I feature a home theater based on Star Wars in honor of May the 4th, star Wars Day. Stick around Podcasts you love From people you trust. This is Twit. Hey there, scott Wilkinson. Here, the Home Theater Geek.

00:41
In this episode, I'm going to feature a home theater that I wrote about in AVS Forum in 2018. Why now? Because it's very close to May the 4th, star Wars Day, and this theater certainly fits. Its owner is Patrick Williams, and, although he no longer owns the house that this theater is featured in, it was in Nixa, missouri, and he built this theater in the house that he had constructed from the ground up, and he dubbed it the Force. His new home theater is also wonderful, but it has nothing to do with Star Wars, so we'll look at it another time. I'll put the link to the Force in the show notes on AVS Forum. Like I said, it was featured in 2018. So, as with most custom home theaters that start from scratch. He started with a floor plan. This one was drawn by Sean Byrne at Quest Acoustical Interiors, the company that provided all the acoustical treatments as well, and he's kind of an AVS Forum legend. And another such legend, jeff Parkinson also consulted on the project.

02:02
Now, as we can see in the next picture, the project, as we can see in the next picture. It shows us where the forest theater is located in the house. It's in one corner of the ground floor. Sure is nice when you can include a theater in a new house build which can avoid many of the compromises of an existing room, of an existing room. Now the walls and ceiling are insulated with a material called r13 pink fluffy, as we can see in the next picture. And, uh, you, here you can see the r13 pink fluffy. You can also see these uh, metal um channels, they're called, which are going to be used to isolate the drywall from the studs and the rest of the house to keep the sound in and also keep the interior sound in and exterior sound out. And you, you can see in this photo. He also built the side and rear surround speaker back boxes. These are going to be in wall speakers and he had to build these back boxes to put them, to put them in. There are some also in the ceiling for the overhead Dolby Atmos speakers. Interestingly, in the next graphic you can see how he minimized the sound of air flowing through the HVAC system heating, ventilation and air conditioning. He insulated the supply and return chambers with something called Linacoustic RC duct liner and he's going to great lengths here to really damp any sounds that aren't part of the movie in his room.

03:55
Now the next graphic we can see the drywall is up. He used two layers of five eighths inch drywall sandwiched and between them is sandwiched a layer of what's called green glue, which is a very special glue, comes out of a glue gun and it's designed specifically for its acoustic absorbent qualities. The concrete floor was covered with something called Serena mat and three quarters inch OSB, which stands for oriented strand board, with a gap around the perimeter to avoid contact with the walls Yet another step in isolation. Now, patrick had some problems with the drywall installation, but he was on hand to ward off any major disasters. He says that Jeff Parkinson warned him about several things to look out for and suggested that he be on site in that phase of construction, and he's glad he did. Everything that could happen, he said did happen. For example, there were large gaps between the first layer of drywall and the ceiling which needed a lot of caulking, and fortunately he was there to catch that and correct it because it would have cost a lot more to fix later in the process. He also provided in the next graphic a super wide angle shot of the entire room and you can see MDF paneling designed to look like the interior of the Death Star, and it was painted, of course, later on, which we'll see. The second row riser in the next graphic is a big base trap. It was built as one big base trap and the stage itself is filled with a mixture of sand and sawdust. It took about three tons of sand that he hauled into that room and filled the riser and the front stage as well.

06:09
In the next graphic we can see the MDF paneling which has now been painted gray and includes cutouts backed with frosted plexiglass. The LEDs behind these panels can be set to any color, which of course, I would turn off when watching a movie, but when you're in there otherwise, it's kind of cool. And also I want you to take a look and notice the black projector box at the back of the room. It's vented with a large flex tube into. Well, I'm not sure where it's ventilated into, but it's vented somewhere so that the projector doesn't get too hot.

06:50
So in the next graphic we can see the acoustic panels which are shaped to conform to the Death Star motif and the in and you can see some of the acoustic panels, this yellow, those yellow material that was integrated into the paneling and all of this acoustic material was from quest. And all of this acoustic material was from Quest and they are in specific locations to provide absorption, diffusion and reflection, which I've talked about on this show more than once, that you really need to have a balance of those things in order to get the right acoustical environment. The ceiling panels are from a company called Acoustimac and he used Guilford of Maine Anchorage material for the wall treatments and paneling just because he liked the texture of that material. Now, in the next picture we can see the speakers that he used, which he had from a previous theater. They're Aperian Grand Versus Towers and, interestingly, only the center channel is behind the screen. The right and left channels are actually outside the screen area, not far, but a little bit so that widens the sound stage, but a little bit so that widens the sound stage. You don't see in this photo two subwoofers from a company called Rhythmic. They're the FV15HP subs and they ended up flanking the center tower and there's a layer of LinacousticRC, that same stuff that he lined the HVAC duct with behind the speakers as well to limit the reflection of any sound from the speakers from that wall behind them.

08:49
So in the next graphic we can see the LED lighting above the finished screen, which can be set to any color, but of course, as I said before, it's turned off when the movie's playing, or it better be. In the next graphic we can see the door to the force, which is integrated into the motif beautifully, I think. Now in the next graphic he sent me with a little joke. He said when I sense conflict between the good and dark sides of the force in my visitors, I'll set the lighting to represent both Blue for good, red for dark. I thought that was hilarious and you can see in this picture and in the next one the home theater seats that he chose are from HT Design. They're the Warwick black leather motorized recliners with lighted cup holders and USB ports Pretty cool, and they look really comfy. It's a beautiful looking theater. I imagine he probably misses it, although, as I said, his new theater is really good too Really good Now.

10:05
Patrick has some great gear in it. It had some great gear in that theater An Oppo UDP 203 UHD Blu-ray player same one. I have. Universal disc player wonderful player. Sony PlayStation 4, probably has a 5 by now Denon receiver which I'm sure he's upgraded by now with Outlaw power amps. He had an Epson 5040UB projector in there and I'm sure he's upgraded that as well. The screen was a Sievertson Cinema White screen, 117 inches wide, 2.35 to 1, acoustically transparent so that the subwoofers and the center channel speaker could shine through no problem. In addition to the Aperion versus Grand towers in the front, he also had triad in wall and in ceiling speakers for the surrounds and the overheads, which triad makes wonderful in wall speakers. So I'm sure it sounded fantastic, along with those two rhythmic subwoofers.

11:14
Now, when all is said and done, patrick says he spent about $70,000 on the Force Theater and he wrote me and he said, as my wife says, there's your Corvette. I don't know about you, but I'd be more happy with a home theater than a Corvette. He says he was able to save about $10,000 by laying the Serena mat and the OSB board on the floor himself, building the speaker, lighting and HVAC back boxes, caulking around the seams of the drywall, which you really had to be careful with because of a problem there that I mentioned earlier and installing the acoustic paneling and fabric on the walls. So that's not jump change. That's a lot of money, but look what he got for it. It's amazing and particularly appropriate for this week, since we just saw a few days ago May the 4th, which is known as Star Wars Day, and what could be better than taking a look at a Star Wars themed theater. So clearly the home theater force is strong with Patrick, and may it also be with you.

12:33
Now. If you have a question, you can send it along to htg at twittv and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show and all of Twit's shows, including Home Theater Geeks, are available on YouTube for free, but with ads. If you want to go ad-free, join the club. Go to twittv slash club twit to join and get all of twit's programming ad free. Until next time geek out.