Home Theater Geeks 534 Transcript
Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:00]:
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I feature a home theater that's a modern marvel, so stick around. Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT. Hey there, Scott Wilkinson here, the Home Theater Geek. In this episode, I'm going to feature a home theater built by John Durante, who lives in Manhasset, New York, with his wife and 2 teen daughters. I asked him how he got interested in the home theater hobby, and he said, quote, my father had a Mitsubishi projector in the early '90s. We had an automatic dropdown screen that was about 10 feet diagonal, probably 4:3 aspect ratio. I always loved it but never really had a chance to build a theater of my own.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:03]:
During construction of my new home, I was bitten by the bug. Well, welcome to the club. His home construction began in 2023, and it included plans for a dedicated home theater in the basement. His goals were to have a 2.35:1 screen, As big as possible, uh, so that he could create a feeling of stepping into a real commercial cinema rather than just a room in the basement. Uh, he also wanted a modern feel to the decor, which we'll see I think he achieved beautifully. Uh, at least 2 rows of seats, clean and modern and dark, and as he said, a sound system that drops jaws. Well, I think he probably achieved that as well. Uh, now, as he educated himself and, uh, and talked to a bunch of people on AVS Forum, he began to add things like room treatments and more channels, uh, audio channels.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:15]:
And it currently sits at 9.4.6, so 9 main, main channels Uh, 4 subwoofers and 6 overhead speakers for Atmos. Um, he's going to add 4 more 18-inch subwoofers in the future, so it'll end up being 9.8.6, which— that's pretty great. He says the planning took him 8 to 10 weeks or so, but the modifications are ongoing, as they always are. Um, And it was about 1 year from conception to turning the power on. And so, like virtually all home theaters built from scratch, it started with framing. And he framed the walls— the builder actually framed the walls, built the riser, the steps, and the soffits. And we can see that process in the first few graphics here. that he sent me.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:16]:
Here's the basic framing. I believe that's the screen wall. There's the riser and the steps up to the second level. It's a pretty deep riser, which is cool. And here it is with the drywall installed, and you can see where the, uh, rear surround speakers are going to be embedded into the wall. And you can see one side surround there, uh, opening for it anyway as well. Um, he said he installed all the lighting himself and repainted the walls and ceiling. So, you know, he did actually quite a bit of DIY work, which I appreciate.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:56]:
I think it's great. He also built and treated the screen wall himself. He had one friend help hang the screen, the projector, and wire the components to the rack. So in this picture, we see the screen wall pretty, pretty complete. Uh, then next we see some of the speakers, uh, the fact the front left, right, and center speakers and 2 of the subwoofers behind where the screen is going to be. Those speakers are a JBL HDI 3800. Um, and the subwoofers, you see 2 of them there. In the next picture, you'll see, I think, all 4.
Scott Wilkinson [00:04:37]:
It— well, 2 of them are behind a scrim, but there are actually 2 pairs stacked on top of each other there. Those are 4 Seton 18-inch subwoofers. And in the next picture, you can see the screen being hung, which is a Stewart Studiotek 130 G4, 175 inches diagonal and 2.35 to 1. Now, interesting, Stuart, uh, for their acoustically transparent screens, which this one is and must be, uh, they don't do a woven screen. They do what's called microperforation, which is the same technique used in commercial cinemas. Those aren't microperf, those are just perf. Microperf is intended for home theaters, somewhat smaller screens. So, uh, he, he built all that stuff himself and hung it up, and, uh, and I think he did a great job.
Scott Wilkinson [00:05:39]:
So let's talk about this equipment. Uh, the major components include a Kaleidoscape Compact Terra Prime, uh, 8 terabyte server, and the Kaleidoscape Strato C player. which is really the best way to watch movies because they're the same quality as Blu-ray, uh, and you download them. You buy them from Kaleidescape, download them into this local server, which means that you, you're not dependent upon your bandwidth, your internet bandwidth, uh, to watch movies. He also has an Apple TV 4K, but really Kaleidescape is is the premium way to go. Other equipment in there is the JBL SDP-58 preamp processor and a bunch of power amps from AudioControl and SpeakerPower. He also has a MADVR Envy Extreme video processor for handling different aspect ratios and stuff like that. Not seen in this picture is the JVC NZ9 projector, which is a superb home theater projector, the one I would choose if I had such a thing.
Scott Wilkinson [00:06:56]:
It even has a Panamorph DCR anamorphic lens to expand movies out to that 2.35:1 aspect ratio without losing any resolution. Really nice. Okay, now let's move on to the acoustic treatments. Uh, which start with the next picture. And, uh, we can see here he marked off with blue tape where those acoustic treatments would be. Some— well, some of them are acoustic treatments. The ones that are over the speaker cutouts are actually going to be acoustically transparent fabric. He originally installed custom fabric-made acoustic panels Uh, but he wasn't happy with their absorption performance, so he custom made new thicker absorption panels, 4.5 inches thick, on all the walls and ceilings.
Scott Wilkinson [00:07:53]:
Beautiful, really nice done. Okay, yeah, we see here, we see the finished, uh, acoustic panels being hung on the walls, and I think the next one is the ceiling. Acoustic panels, which include absorbers, uh, such as these long rectangular things near the top of this picture looking at the ceiling, and then diffusers, which are these other things lower in the image. You can also see where the, uh, Atmos speakers, the overhead speakers, are located on the outside periphery of this area of the ceiling. And you can see the projector down there at the bottom, which is towards the back of the room. Very nicely done. Here is a view of the back of the room, and this is very interesting. This is a diffuser, but it's not like your normal average everyday diffuser.
Scott Wilkinson [00:08:55]:
It's, it's got these interesting curved Panels, small panels, strips of wood, which effectively break up the reflections in the back of the room. And so, and here's a better, better picture of the projector as well. So I just think that's a beautiful thing. So here it is. Here's the final room. That big diffuser in the back. These chairs are from a company called Valencia. They are the Barcelona with a motorized headrest.
Scott Wilkinson [00:09:28]:
Notice they don't have a headrest. Well, you hit a button and those headrests pop up. There's 4 in the front, 5 in the back, and 4 bar stools behind that, which aren't really meant for critical viewing. But, you know, if you have a Super Bowl party or something in there, that's a good thing to have. Now, the room dimensions, as we look at another picture, Uh, here's the screen, 175-inch diagonal, 2.35:1. Uh, the room is pretty big. It's 27 feet by 18 feet by 10 feet tall, which is a big room. And it was designed aesthetically and acoustically by another AVS member who goes by Silva741.
Scott Wilkinson [00:10:20]:
Uh, and all the equipment, uh, he was guided by a fellow by the name of Zach at The Screening Room AV, who says that— and he said that Zach's advice and guidance was spot on. Without the help of these 2 individuals, Silva and Zach, he would have made a ton of novice mistakes. For video calibration, he had Chris Deering, uh, who is well known in the AV community, perform the video calibration, and he does a fantastic job. As for sound calibration, he originally ran Dirac and REW, which are room acoustic calibration tools. And it sounds great, he says. Uh, recently he had another calibration done by a guy named Brandon Hill, but once he adds the rear subs, he's going to do it in— he's going to do it again with a professional audio calibrator. And, uh, I'm sure it will be even better, although I'm sure it's wonderful right now. And the cost? His rough estimate is between $300,000 and $350,000.
Scott Wilkinson [00:11:44]:
Now that's some serious coin, no doubt about it, and not many people can afford to do that. But this is an example of what you can do if you have very strong resources, and the result is, I think, spectacular. Understated in its design, but that's the way I personally like it. That room completely disappears when it's time to watch a movie. And for that kind of money, even though it's expensive, I'm sure the results are really, really worth it. So, uh, congratulations, John. Uh, you did a fantastic job, and I'm happy to feature your theater here on Home Theater Geeks. Now, if you have a question for me, send it on along to HTG@twit.tv, and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show.
Scott Wilkinson [00:12:46]:
And if you have a home theater you're proud of, even if you didn't spend as much as John did, I would like to see some pics. So send them along. Maybe we'll get you on the show to talk about it. Until next time. Geek out!
