[Owen824]

We have just bought a large plot of land with permission to build two semi detached large houses on it. The plans have finally been approved and hope to start building in may/june. In essence i would like to try and start ordering my equipment and have all the cables etc in early. the house will be over four floors.

sub-ground floor will have large open plan kitchen/dining/lounge area.
ground floor- will have large lounge
1st floor will have 3 bedrooms and en suite and seperate bath room
2nd floor will have one large bedroom with ensuite.

Now as me and my partner do not have any kids there is a few too many bedrooms which is where i immediately grabbed the top floor room for a dedicated home cinema. This is the main area i need some advice on. it is a large room- 4.2m x 4.9m. this is the equipment i am thinking of going for:

• sony vw60 pearl projector
• denon 3808 amp
• denon 2930 dvd player
• pc
• xbox 360
• wii
• ps3
• tosh hd dvd
• kef 5005.2 (undecided on these so any reccomendations would be appreciated)

the cabling i more or less understand as i will be running everything into the amp and then long hdmi in the walls up to the ceiling mounted projector. i have never been into the world of projector so getting it set up right is my main concern. also screens (electric ones preferrably), mounts, and anything else i have not considered.

i think i have the kitchen/dining/lounge covered as i will use my current sony 40x3500 in their with my denon 2807 and mission m-cubes and will get another 2930 dvd or the newer one if it is out by then.

The main lounge on the ground floor will be getting either a 50 or 60 inch pioneer kuro with a denon 2808 and have yet to decide on speakers but they will need to be girlfriend friendly so maybe get the kef 5005.2's for here and go for something better in the main cinema room. will also either get a dual format high def player or blu ray for here.

i will either have virgin + or sky hd here and will ahve two boxes at the most. one will go in the kitchen/lounge/dining and the other in the home cinema room. the one in the cinema room will be used in that room as well as master bedroom and second bedroom. the one downstairs will work for the kitchen and the main lounge. not sure how i am going to do that but hopefully someone will be able to tell me.

finally we want to be able to listen to music in most of the rooms so that leaves the bedrooms and bathrooms. i was thinking the sonos system for this as it can be controlled all over the house and just buy the speakers to put in the ceilings.

the budget for buying the equipment is about £15k. purely for buying, no installation. also bear in mind that i already have quite a bit of it as seen in my sig but still need a lot. any thoughts on how best to get this to work would be much appreciated. hopefully someone will give me a better idea on how to have music in the bedrooms and bathrooms that you can select depending on which room and all rooms do not have to always be on. i feel the sonos is not the best way. any questions let me know. hopefully not too confusing.

FINAL DRAWINGS

[mossym]

if it is a dedicated room why use an electric screen? why not go for a permenant screen?

[Owen824]

good point. just thought it would be nice to tidy away and also just to have some friends over and press a button and the screen comes down.

can you reccomend anywhere for screens for me to get an idea of costs?

note to self: useful link for screens here.

note to self, thread about my networking: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...=1#post6573878

[mossym]

carada is where i got mine, have to import from the states though. they are top nothc though with excellent customer service. Few others on here have them as well.

seven okas do beamax screens i think, was what i was going to go for before i decided to go carada

[avnutter]

http://www.projectorscreen.co.uk/

[THE_FORCE]

no mention of marble floors Owen ?

[iainsilvester]

One you have the basic locations for your various pieces of kit sorted, I'd strongly recomend running 40mm conduit to take the cables. This allows for upgrade and is future proof.

I imported a Vutec pro screen (as per sig) from the US. Mine was pretty large and heavy and came as a UK model. Very nice screen, very heavy material with absolutely no curl anywhere. Cost me £1,000 all in, including all taxes and shipping (which together ended up being 40% of the total cost). I think the equivalent was ~£1,750 here.

[albriscoe]

Hi Owen

I don`t know if your basement has any outlook ie. windows but if not wouldn`t you think that your cinema is better placed down there (mine is). we have also just completed our 4 story build and I thoroughly recommend you spend as much time as possible in the planning of cables runs and placement of electrical outlets. We changed ours a thousand times as we found it impossible to "work it out" so it got done and altered as and when we did the build.

Also as was said earlier being a dedicated cinema room I am also going for a fixed screen but its all down to taste. In the beginning it had to be a wow factor to have an electric screen dropping out of the ceiling but then I realised that having a good perfectly flat screen is more important and saving a grand or 2 is a bonus as well.

Anyway it sounds a fantastic build and I look forward to seeing it grow

good luck and if I can be of any help I will certainly do my best for you

cheers Allan

[Paul Rushton]

I have the Kef 5005.2 and highly rate them. They are very loud, don't distort and the twin 10" subs do certainly make a rumble on your back when sat down.

[Owen824]

Right, i am a bit hungover due to a late night on the poker at he casino. did not win either.

Anyways, thanks for the screen reccomendations and i think i will go for a fixed one now.

The_Force- i have kept aclose eye on your work and love what you have done and will probably steal a few ideas. as for the marble floors, not quite but it will either be limestone or a slate floors in the open plan kitchen/dining/lounge.

iainsilvester- i will definitely be running conduit but will probably run a bit larger as there will be ethernet cables, etc all going round.

albriscoe- the basement is the ground floor at the back due to the gradient of the land. the kitchen/dining/lounge will have full width (5.5m) concertina type glass doors over looking the river and landscape. plus the room is just too big for a home cinema as it is roughly 55m^2.

Paul Rushton- thanks for the second on the 5005. i really like the look of them. now by twin 10"subs, did you buy an extra sub or does the one sub have twin 10" woofers in it?

anyone have any experience with the Opus home system? just looking for an alternative to the sonos in each rooms. maybe there isn't one.

[connorjordan]

Originally Posted by Owen824

the basement is the ground floor at the back due to the gradient of the land. the kitchen/dining/lounge will have full width (5.5m) concertina type glass doors over looking the river and landscape. plus the room is just too big for a home cinema as it is roughly 55m^2. .

Split into into a games room/ poker area, bar

[Owen824]

Originally Posted by connorjordan

Split into into a games room/ poker area, bar

going to have ping pong and american pool table in the 2 car garage that we will not be using as neither of us drive. edinburgh is easier to get around by bus and both of us work near where we live so no need.

on another note, any dealers in edinburgh that would like to pick up quite a bit of business send me a pm as i will be buying all the equipment above and also my gf's father who is the partner in the project is keeping one for himself will also be looking for equipment. not on my scale but still extra stuff i need to arrange.

[MarkP80]

and also just to have some friends over and press a button and the screen comes down.

- Go for the fixed screen, for all its advantages, but have a set of electric curtains open up when you want to use it!

Cheers,
MarkP

[Owen824]

yeh i thought about that and think i will do that.

[GingerNinja151]

Are you building a place in Edinburgh?

[Owen824]

Here are my first stage drawings. I have some changes i will be making with the architect later this week. goes in order from bottom floor to top floor. the top floor layout is going to change a lot as i want the en suite bigger and the wardrobe smaller as at the moment the wardrobe is 4.5 metres by 2.2m. thats just crazy size. But i think the actual room size will stay relatively the same. so that is my home cinema space. it is 5m wide by 4.2m deep. i plan on putting the screen on the wall that has the entrance from the hall because the other wall is angled due to the roof so not sure i would have enough space. The basement floor with the ktichen etc is getting totally rejigged as i have had some inspiration and do not feel the architect is bringing it out to its best potential. but anyways, that is the basic mock up. will hopefully have final plans in a couple of weeks.

EDIT: ok that link does not work. currently looking for somewhere to upload file to. here are individual files of the plans.

[Owen824]

Originally Posted by GingerNinja151

Are you building a place in Edinburgh?

yes sure am.

[GingerNinja151]

They look great, whereabouts in Edinburgh are you building? (If it's not a secret!)

[Owen824]

cannot give exact location yet as missives have not been signed (due to happen next week) but it is in the edinburgh north area. once the missives are signed will be more than happy to say where the development will be. never know who might be reading these.

[Owen824]

Ok have decided to go for the sony black pearl vw60 projector. now i am going to be in las vegas in april and then back in the east coast in may. would i have any problems buying it from over there and it working here ie stepdown converters, ntsc format only, etc. or would i be better off buying from pricejapan for the same cost roughly?

[MarkP80]

Ok have decided to go for the sony black pearl vw60

- Don't forget to check the projection distance and projector zoom capabilities, to make sure you can get the screen size you want!

Cheers,
MarkP

[Owen824]

well i was on the sony vw 60 owners thread and asked there and they said i will be able to get 100" to 120" with the space i have. I will have up to 4m throw distance from projector to screen.

[mossym]

good choice on the fixed screen. won't regret that one..

[albriscoe]

Hi Owen

plans look very good mate and I`m looking forward to see it all develop so you must put loads of photo on here. try uploading to photobucket first its very easy

I know what you mean about keeping things under you hat, I was scared to death someone was going to pull the rug from under our feet, so my advice is

SAY NOTHING TO NO-ONE

anyway good luck matey

cheers Allan

[Owen824]

Missives get signed next week and the bank has given the go ahead for the project.

just got a quote back for three home cinema chairs and...... £10k!!!! company called Elite HTS which had the banner on these forums. I mean come on, 3 arm chairs in leather. Anyone got anywhere to reccomend. Looking for either nice looking arm chairs or a nice big roundish couch.

Yeh i will be putting lots of pics up and i have a photbucket account already so know how to get them up. it was just the pdf that i was having trouble with get hosted.

[albriscoe]

Oh !! and I think you`ll know about this bit, whatever your budget is and especially with £10 grand chairs just add another £50 grand on top and a little bit for if and you won`t be far away

Allan

[Owen824]

yeh, no way am i paying £10k for 3 little leather cinema chairs. was just something i saw and liked the look of, but not for £10k. need some alternatives now.

[turnamere]

Have a look at the Stressless range, have a big corner set up in my lounge, never had so many people fall asleep on the settee before - very comfy.

Just saving up for the full home theatre set up for my cinema room.

http://www.ekornes.co.uk/uk/stressle...andard_set-up/

[Shockabuku]

This is looking like a great project, best of luck with it. You won't need a step-down convertor for a VW60 as it supports 110v-240v no matter which region you buy it from. If you're planning on buying it over there and bringing it back with you, bear in mind it's BIG! Best bet would be to ship it over yourself.

With regards to cinema seats, yeah the prices in this country are completely insane. I have even considered importing from the USA, and I have found a couple of major suppliers over there who are happy to do that. Send me a pm if you want their details. Also, these seats on ebay have caught my eye. Seems like a reasonable price, but of course it would be a case of buying unseen which could be risky.

[gazzared_typer]

What about these for cinema seating? The trouble with all these links on theinternet though is being able to see the seats in person and having a good play with them.

http://www.reclinersdirect.co.uk/cinema_seating.php#;

Gazza