System #57 (Ascent i, Theater i, Descent, Script i)

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Robin hasn't posted on the forum in almost two years. Alas, I am afraid she has moved on from us.
 
Here to stay and I'd have it no other way...

Hi Guys,

I am still here.
I am in the process of setting-up a brand new, bigger more luxurious HT in my home. I plan to continue to fly my Script i's but from the rear instead of the sides. I will be adding speakers to my system as well. I am currently recieving estimates and in consultation with a couple of great contractors (carpenter and electrician).
I have many questions for this noble group of gentlemen at the ML owner's website concerning the steps of setting-up my new HT room. One question, how to go about installing low cost sound dampening wall treatments, I am just not sure where to begin, as I have a limited budget with most of my $'s going towards gear, speakers and cables. :DI plan on documenting the remodeling process on my new HD camera. I will be posting all of photos regarding my HT here. And please remember I would never leave you because you know I love you guys.:music:
 
Hi Guys,

I am still here.

One question, how to go about installing low cost sound dampening wall treatments, I am just not sure where to begin, as I have a limited budget with most of my $'s going towards gear, speakers and cables.

Hey Robin glad to see you back.
Try GIK Acoustics and ATS Acoustics, both make inexpensive quality
wall treatments. I prefer ATS's hanging system over GIK's.

www.atsacoustics.com
www.gikacoustics.com
 
Making a silk purse out of a sows ear in California prior to Washington...

From mid-2005:

Robin, if you are still out there....................it's been +7 years now.

Did you ever move into your Martin Logan ready home?

A blast from the past, thought of your system today when thinking about ceiling suspended speakers.

From late in 2009:

Great to hear from you. Yes, unfortunately, I am still renting my Washington home to a lovely couple. I will not be able to move up there for a couple more years per the two year lease agreement they signed last month, so in the mean time I have made the big decision to modify my California home. If my plans are approved by the electrical and carpenter contractors I will have a really awesome HT in my current home. As you know, I have been dreaming of a larger listening room for years now and now it look like its going to finally happen.

But yes, I still plan to go up to Washington taking all of my audio gear / ML speakers for a really huge HT eventually...

I will post photos here as construction proceeds. I am sooo excited to be proceeding with this big project at long last. I plan to help as I am able by moving some demo'ed stuff out of the room to the dumpster, removing wall paper, patching small picture holes and painting. The really big stuff will be handled by my big strong son and the contractors. The fun part will be moving in the new and old audio gear and setting up the new room HT room toys like the remote controlled multi-function HT dimmer lighting. The audio sound set-up including my hopefully repaired by then - Descent speaker.
I am figuring this remodel will take approx. six to eight week providing their are no major problems or set-backs. Wish me luck. :music:
 
You may also check out Auralex. I ran into Guitar Center one day and they were running a deal at the time for 1' x 1' acoustic panels (I am not sure if said deal is still going) but I bought 64 of the damn things for something like $150.

I know they can be found online for pretty cheap as well. But as a warning, the glue that they come with is very dangerous to walls and the panels unless you are looking for a permanent solution which from the sounds of it you may not be haha, like myself. I just pinned the panels to an old bed sheet then hung the sheet up because I know I wont be in my current living situation too much longer haha
 
My New HT room from start to finish...

Yah! I am finally finished. My new HT room is finally completed. I:music:t only took four months and $15K to finish properly. :eek:

I began by having the wall to two of my bedrooms removed. I had my carpenter install a load barring 4" x 8" beam. He then removed the wall between the two bedrooms. The new room is now 10' - 11' x 21'. The height of the room is the standard 8'. My carpenter framed in one of the old entry doors, making it into a wall with the hallway of my house.

I hired an electrician to add 40 amps to electrical outlets next to where my new audio equipment. My electrician removed both ceiling lights from the old bedrooms. She then removed the electrical outlets and a light switched from the wall which was removed. I had her remove another light switch from another of one of the bedrooms walls as well. She added an electrical outlet to the center of the ceiling (where the light fixture had been in one of the bedrooms). She then added four 12 volt Halogen recessed lights to my strategically designated areas of the HT room. Then new low voltage Halogen lighting was all wired to a magnetic Levitron dimmer switch near the only door of my HT room.

After removing all of the wall paper and wall prep., which took ten, eight hour days to accomplish. I painted all walls and ceiling with Benjamin Moore Arua Ultra under coat and finish coat paint 10 gallons total. I began by painting the entire room with 5 gallons of undercoat. Then painted the ceiling and front screen wall with two coats of flat black. I also painted the closet doors near the front screen wall and around the two windows flat black as well. All the other walls were painted with two coats of flat Anchor Gray.

I opted not to have all of my Audioquest cabling installed in the walls so all of my cables run around one side of my HT room. Where the cables are visible I wrapped them is a black nylon coved bundle at the baseboards. I did have the electrician in stall one of the side speakers Audioquest cables under the house. My new HT now is all high speed HDMI 1.4 cabling. No more component cables, thank god. Anyway, I must have purchased a mile of speaker cabling for all of the speakers. I had to spray paint (flat black) some of the Audioquest cabling to camouflage it (at the front part of my HT room - Theater screen wall).

:music:See the lovely photos of my new HT room below and in the following posts.
 

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New HT...

We used special plastic adhesive sheeting to protect all the carpeting, which is is excellent condition. The trick is you can only leave the adhesive sheeting down for a max. of six weeks. I hired a plasterer whom was a real artist for all the dry wall / mudding / dry wall texturing work. He filled all the holes left by the old light switches and fixture and finished the new wall where the old bedroom door used to be. I had all the old original pop corn ceiling texturing removed prior to paint. As you can see by the photo's this was a labor with a purpose for the optimal sight and sound.
 

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New HT a lot of work but worth it.

My home was a complete mess during this process of course. I should go back to the very first thing I did, besides the planning, I had to completely move everything out of these two bedrooms. All the stuff I had saved and collected over the years. Not to mention all of my son's stuff. It was like moving out of my house. The only items to eventually return to the new HT room was my guitars, music gear. More on my music set-up later...

I had two layers of sound board installed at the back of both old closet spaces for sound canceling for the rooms bordering the new HT room. Notice the old door to one of the bedrooms is gone and a new wall installed.
 

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My New HT coming to be...

The paint was to be so dark I had the men at the paint shop tint the undercoat paint darker as well. It is very strange to paint a room so dark I must say.:eek:
 

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New HT continued...

In my research and talking to audio installers for HT light control is a HT room is so important to front projection big screen picture quality. Sooo a flat black ceiling / front wall and trim it was to be.:)
 

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New HT continued...

I had my carpenter build a movable raised platform floor for the second row of seating for my HT. My son carpeted the raised movable platform and installed four sturdy collapsable handles (two on each side) for moving the platform about if needed. My son also patched the carpet where the old wall separating the two rooms used to be. He used pre-glued carpet seam tape and a very hot iron. He did and excellent job. :D
 

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New HT system progress...

We installed ceiling vent deflection devices as the forced air heating and air conditioning can not blow directly on to the ceiling mounted projector. I found the new halogen low voltage (12 volt) Luton switch dim-able lighting to be perfect lighting control for my HT room.:cool:

Through much thought and soul searching I came to the decision to mount my ML Script i's to the rear wall instead of hanging from the ceiling. They are now assigned to surround rear position of my 7.1 speaker system.
 

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New HT system progress...

I wanted the very best noise canceling system for the rear of the closet where my audio gear and music systems were going to be placed. I used the Auralex Acoustics M32 Roominators-DST kit, this in combination with the sound boards at the back of this closet space would do it for me.
 

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New HT a lot of work but definitely worth it...

Haaa slowly methodically moving in all my new and old audio gear. This part was shear heaven, not work but so much fun. Good clean audio fun.:)
 

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New HT system progress...

I gotta say my Anthem P5 monster looks awesome even before it is on it's audio stand. I made the decision to use my Mackie SR1522z's PA speakers as fronts for my HT. They sound great and are very dynamic with excellent range and depth. The Mackie's with their 2 fifteen inch woofers and horn plus they two integrated amplifiers a 400 watt class D for the fifteens and a 100 watt for the horn that is 500 watts per speaker and sound wonderful for HT. You may ask what did I do with my ML Ascent's well more on that later...

I wanted the very best wall sound treatment panels os I had my son install the six ATS Acoustic - 24" x 48" x 2" beveled, Navy, Microsuede noise reduction sound panels. They look and most importantly work great. :D

Notice the white Audioquest speaker wire going to my Theater i center speaker, which I then decided to remove and spray paint flat black to camouflage at the front and rear (Script i's) of my HT.
 

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awesome job Robin - well thuoght out and looking good!

what are you going to do for seating?
 
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