DIY Reader Home Theater: DIY Made Easy
We wired the room, installed the equipment, and calibrated the system ourselves—and we couldn't be prouder. My home theater desire started in 1994 when I went to a friend's home theater to watch Jurassic Park on laserdisc. All I could say that day was, "Wow. . .that was amazing." For the next 10 years, my living room was my theater, but my wife suggested that we do a room addition to the house and make it my dedicated home theater. I was all in favor. It took about two-and-a-half years of research, planning, and learning to complete my room. I spent a lot of time reading Home Theater magazine and Audio Video Interiors, doing research, and getting ideas from others.
I worked with an architect to implement the things that I wanted in the 15-by-25-foot room, such as two-by-six staggered stud walls for sound isolation and a 9-foot soffited ceiling. Next came hiring a contractor to build the room. I also worked with an electrician to lay out the 10 separate 20-amp circuits that feed everything in the room.
So, here's the DIY part of the story. I had a week between the framing and drywall stages to wire the room. I ran about 150 feet of 14/4 in-wall speaker wire, seven runs of RG6 to the projector, 200 feet of RG6 for the cable and satellite feeds, 100 feet of Cat-5 for networking, and one 30-foot HDMI cable.
The room was then drywalled and, after my wife and I installed the baseboards and the crown molding at the bottom of the soffited ceiling for rope lighting, we painted. I enlisted the help of a friend to build the TV riser, seating riser, and window cover/poster frame. For the carpet, I wanted something a little different, so I got a black carpet with a 2-foot gray border. Black is a great color for home theater because it absorbs rather than reflects light. The theater was really coming together.
Without gear, the room was just a shell with no soul. We tackled the audio first. The center of my system is a Lexicon MC-12 V5 pre/pro that handles all the audio and does digital room correction. Power comes from two Adcom amps. Two NHT VT-2.4 towers and five NHT VS-2.4 speakers for center and surround duties handle all the sound from 80 hertz up, and two Outlaw Audio LFM-1 subs and a Definitive Technology sub handle the bass.
For the video, we have a 56-inch Samsung DLP HDTV fed by a DISH Network HD satellite box and an Oppo DV-981 upsampling DVD player for everyday TV watching. For movie time, the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player feeds a Sony VPL-HS20 projector through the HDMI input and shines on a 106-inch Da-Lite screen that lowers in front of the DLP TV. All of the electronics in the rack are plugged into a Panamax MAX 5300 line conditioner. For control, we chose the Philips ProntoPro TSU7000, which I programmed myself.
The only thing left to do was watch a movie, so my wife and I invited all the people who helped make our theater a reality over for a Saturday barbecue and a movie. I was very proud. One of the benefits of doing it yourself is that, if you ever have a problem, you are familiar enough with your system to know what to do. As far as budget, I spent $55,000 for the room and equipment. Now, that may sound like a lot, but I know people who have $50,000 RVs and don't use them as much as I use my room.
Equipment List:
Original Budget (2004)
Equipment Budget (2006)
Rough Value of Existing Equipment $57,000
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