Home Cinema
Page 6 of 8
Upgrading
| 19th November 2000
- Cinema Seats |
|
| A while back, we'd
mentioned to Vicki's brother, Gary, that we wanted some cinema seats if he
could find us some. He has friends with cinemas and managed to get us some for
a fiver each. They are actually in very good condition, and where there are
tears or blemishes, we have got enough to swap bits to leave us with some very
nice authentic ex-cinema seating. |
The Red triangle over the plan of the bottom floor
indicates the position and direction of the photo.
| December 2000 -
Bar |
|
 |
| Over the last few
weeks, Dad has been spending a day a week constructing his old bar outside the
Picture House. It's like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle, and it's shaping up very
nicely. We have optics and other bar related items to use. |
| September 2001
update |
|
This update follows
several changes in the Picture House.
First of all, Roland supplied
me with a used Barco 1209 projector. One of the best projectors in the world,
the image is simply stunning. Unfortunately because of the physical size of the
projector and it's requirements in terms of throw distance, I can only get a
6.5 foot screen. I'll shorlty swap my 8 foot screen for a 6 foot one, I
think. |
The next major change in
the Picture House is in the audio department where a new Denon AVC-A1SE
courtesy of Roger Batchelor is pumping the room with outstanding sound quality
and volume.
Also the Raurk Dialogue ones have been returned to Ruark and
will be replaced some time soon with 7 ceiling mountable versions. Mean time
I'm running the system with my old TDL speaker setup.
| September 2001
update |
 |
We're still using
those horrid light blue sofa seats and the home cinema seats idea has taken a
separate tack altogether. I'm working with an experienced AV furniture
manufacturer to manufacture and sell our own home cinema seats through
www.homecinemaseats.co.uk. At the time of writing, the
seats are into their second prototype.
And lastly for this update, the bar
was finished ages ago with the ceiling and walls skimmed, but the decorating is
still in progress. We're waiting for Vicki's brother to have some free
time. |
The Red triangle over the plan of the bottom floor
indicates the position and direction of the photo.
October 2001
update
Vicki's brother Gary has decorated the hall throughout the house
which makes a huge improvement.
He's currently working on the Bar area
outside The Picture House, erecting wooden 'beams' to create a 'ye olde beer
house' feel.
Grooves are cut out of the corner edges of the wood and once
stained, the wood has a great 'worn' look to it.
The Picture House door will
be filled (it used to be a front door and the letterbox is still visible!), and
painted white. The Dolby Digital and DTS plaques will be fixed once done. |
|
March 2002
update
Installation of my new Ruark Dialogue IIs. 3 speakers at the
front and 4 at the back for a full-on Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES
system.
The first photo here sees the left + right speakers installed with
just one bolt through the middle of the bracket so I can get the toe-in angle
just right. When I am happy with the angles, I will drill the remaining 4 bolt
holes per speaker to secure them in place.
Each speaker takes 4 bolts, plus
I had to drill an extra 2 holes to move the curtain at the rear right to
squeeze the speaker in. Adding the two extra bolts for the fronts means 32
holes to drill into the reinforced concrete ceiling.
I found it easier to
simply stand on the floor drilling upwards but the holes still took ages to
drill. The drill bits were only effective when cold. So each drilling session
meant the swapping of 7 drill bits and took about 15 minutes and deepened the
holes by a couple of millimeters. Being only able to drill for a couple of
hours a day, it actually took 3 weeks to get all 7 speakers up. All my drill
bits are blunt, of course, but I managed to melt a couple and shred one
altogether.
My friend John Thompson helped drill through the last hole and
once the last speaker was connected, he calibrated the sound system using a
£6,000 SPL meter. Unfortunately the room EQ is far from perfect. There is
a drop of 10dB at around 1000 Hz. But until I get a separate processor and
power amps so I can use a 'room eq box' to correct the eq, there's nothing I
can do about that.
The next step is to hide and secure all the
cables.
Subjectively, the Ruarks are a huge improvement over the TDLs.
The sound is crisper much more defined. With Saving Private Ryan, the front
soundstage is convincing, with the dialogue in the Omaha beach scene just about
intelligable. Which is the same as I remember it at the cinema.
When I put
on Phantom Menace and Gladiator, this was the first time I had ever experienced
EX and ES. Happily I couldn't distinguish which speakers the surround effects
were coming from - but instead felt immersed within the soundstage and the
movie itself.
I'm very impressed and extremely happy. |
|
|
|
| May 2002 -
Bar |
|
|
| The Bar is complete
and I consider the home cinema finished enough to erect the Dolby and DTS
plaques plus the Picture House poster. |
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