My Living Room Home Cinema - The Evolution......

AidenL

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Just deciding to chart up my progress in my Living Room Home Cinema set up. I had a previous thread, but it became a bit disjointed, so decided I’d start all over again with the progress over the last year or so.

This all started because my speakers were damaged by my three year old niece, she pushed the tweeters in, and I started thinking about an repair, which became thoughts about a speaker upgrade. And you all know how upgradeitis starts.......

The room is 20ft x 13 ft. wide in old money, has a 5ft bay window at one end, and a smaller side window, with an 8ft ceiling height.

I had a Panasonic 65VT30 in an alcove in the corner, slightly angled out to turn into the room. This was my main viewing display back then. Thoughts turned to a Panasonic ZT as the last of the plasmas, and then someone said – look at a projector set up ! Then the trouble for my wallet started!

Before.jpg


The plan was to be to wall mount the screen and leave the stand and kit in the alcove, and this is what eventually happened. But the projector and screen thoughts kept coming.

Plasma.JPG


I'd planned to mount a screen in the ceiling, which would drop down electrically when activated by Zone 2 in my Denon 3313 as it was back then. This was upgraded last Christmas 2013 to an Anthem MRX 510 receiver.

The Draper Sesame ReAct 2.1 became the front-runner and a 104” diagonal 16:9 became the only option due to width.

There was a ceiling light in the centre of the room, which dropped down about 14 inches, and that had to be removed and replaced with LED down lighters which are controlled by an infra red touch controlled wall switch – my Harmony Ultimate controls the lighting.

Speakers ended up as:

Front 2 x R700

Centre 1 x R600C

Side surrounds – 2x MK K4T Tripoles.

Rears 2x E301s in white mounted in the bay window.

Sub 1x R400b as installed originally was replaced by a Paradigm Sub 1 in March 2014

Projector – as 4k was rapidly approaching (or so I thought!) I thought I should I be sensible on the PJ and go for something like an Epson8100 and so I did.

I commissioned a local installer from 10 miles away -who I didn't even know existed beforehand!! - to do the full install.
Old Sub.JPG

Late in the project, we decided to take off the skirting and run all cables inside rather than surface mounting them to the plasma. There’s a 25mm recess behind the skirting, they were studded out to allow Cat 6, HDMI , power and coax / sat to run behind and the wall was chased out.

The couch in the bay window is electrically reclinable and the headrests are electric too, so it’s comfy, with a minimalistic look. The Eames chair (repro!) gets used a lot too, so room for 4 happily there.

P1010297.JPG

So, this week, in May 2014, there will be a 130” diagonal Draper ReAct 2.1 2.35: 1 scope screen fitted – this will be exposed as I didn’t have the dimensions to recess it and it was also impractical I was told. As well as expensive!
Scope.jpg


I have home demoed a JVC X500 a few weeks back, and was very impressed, but based on some homework, I think it may not have the lumens to light up what is effectively a 55 sq. ft. 1.0 gain screen, when using the zoom method for scope.

I’m using a HTPC networked to a Synology DS 413j, 12 Tb, now full – which I need to upgrade in the next few weeks.

HTPC.jpg

I’ll probably stick with Synology and go 8 bay or 12 bays for future proofing.

I’m also looking to have an Oppo for disc spinning.

After all that, I still have a few upgrades planned, in no particular order:

· 4k PJ – this will probably wait till Autumn now, looking closely at the Sony HW500 – its still big money, but I guess 4k will be on all our lists of wants soon.

· Speakers – looking at MK 150s and KK Quattros – will wall mount and be selling off my Kefs.

· Amplifier – Looking at Anthem, ATI, and Emotiva – haven’t has a power amp yet, just wondering if it, along with that speaker upgrade will improve sound, in the absence of room treatments which I cant really do.

· The screen wall will be wallpapered a darkish brown pattern which will help to hide the overspill of the black bars when using the zoom method on the projector.


Wallpaper.jpg

Hope you enjoyed seeing the changes, I know I love looking at other setups and builds. I’d love to have a dedicated room, but space doesn’t allow it and we get quite a lot of use from our living room anyway.

I'll post some pics of the new screen later on in the week when its fitted.
 
Thanks Lee, its a work in progress :)
 
Yeah, I can't wait to see the new screen up tomorrow :)
 
What a beautiful view from your bay window - is that a lake?

How much light can those curtains block out?
Even with a react screen, windows opposite the screen are not good for daytime viewing but if you haven't done already, I would ensure that they have blackout lining.

Some nice kit you have there and looks like the upgrades will be even better - good luck!
 
What a beautiful view from your bay window - is that a lake?

How much light can those curtains block out?
Even with a react screen, windows opposite the screen are not good for daytime viewing but if you haven't done already, I would ensure that they have blackout lining.

Some nice kit you have there and looks like the upgrades will be even better - good luck!
Lough Erne :) And the Sligo mountains behind .....

Curtains are fine in daytime, though yeah, blackout would make them better - might get that added in actually - but its ok for footie on a sunny day if I close them.

The upgrades are ongoing, screen didn't get fitted today, but its happening soon.....
 
Looking good...

The Sony HW 500 is a superb projector with the best picture I have seen to date on a projector. I bought one brand new via Marata and have not even had it delivered yet due to the Mrs nearly divorcing me for buying it without telling her. If your interested in a brand new one delivered straight from the distributors let me know, maybe save my marriage. :)
 
Ok, been a whole since an update on here.

The scope screen has been fitted, I posted some pics in the Draper ReAct thread, I need to get some in here also, will do that next week.

On the projector front, I actually went with a JVC X500 - a few reasons - lack of 4k content presently, absolute stellar reviews , plus cost. I'll be having that installed on Monday.

Bought a Darbee Darblet also, so that will be fitted in the chain when it arrives next week.

For bluray, I toyed with an Oppo 103D , but have actually ran with a Sony BDP S6200, also arriving next week.

The next two purchases are interconnected - a Sonos Connect, and Roomie Remote - Roomie has full Sonos, Spotify and XBMC integration now, so I liked the look of the interface and decided to try it out - again, arriving next week. All my control will be moving to an IP base where possible, the rest via Infra Red blasters or Serial as required.

Last item is a Humax HDR S1000 1T. To compliment my Sky HD box - only reason for that is, we can't record ITV in Ireland via our Sky boxes, so this is the only solution.

So all in all a lot of changes for next week, will post pics as the evolution continues.
 

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