Home Theater/Game Room Thread

Bought these yesterday for a long overdue theater upgrade.

They are, and I may wind up using them that way, but more likely going to use them at ceiling height firing down. I'll probably test both and see which sounds better.

Layout of my basement as it is now (7.1):




I’ve got the 4 surrounds in those back 4 columns. The rear pair are fine but those side pair aren’t great because they are behind the main listening row. I’m debating whether to shift those two forward to the front columns and use the middle one for the new atmos. I think the rear columns will hold both the surround and the rear atmos speakers so 2 in each.

Just ordered a Denon 11 channel receiver to be able to do 7.2.4 Atmos and a 50' 4k ready HDMI cable. Now it looks like I need a new Nvidia card so my HTPC can playback UHD HDR movies.

The Atmos receiver came today. It has a lot of functionality that didn't exist when my Onkyo 976 was made but it is missing two key things. There is no direct input for IR that I can see. It probably has an IR window that I can hit with a little emitter but the Onkyo was better in that regard - it had a direct input port on the back. It may be that the Denon app can be used to power on and off the receiver, if so I may be able to get by without IR on this one at all.

The bigger thing it is missing and the one I'm not sure how I can get around, is a switched AC output on the back. The Onkyo and just about every other high end receiver has one. No idea when or why they stopped building those in, or if I got unlucky and it is only this particular Denon that is missing one. I need that to activate my Fuhrman power ports to switch on the sub amps.

My mistake, there is an IR input on the back so I am good there. There is no slave outlet but there is a 3.5mm 12v trigger output. I've never used one of those before but I should be able to take a mono 3.5mm cable, strip it down and hotwire it into my furman powerport to trigger.

I started running the upgrade cables last night. When I built the room I left a length of conduit behind a trapdoor just in case I ever needed to upgrade. Took off the trapdoor and it is still there and ready to go:



I am adding cables for 6 additional channels, I had to bundle them all together in order to get it to fit:



Took a few tries to get it done. My fault for not starting with a sturdier guideline, but we did eventually get it through:

Tons of science if you are doing ported or bandpass but I have no skills so I'm sticking with sealed. Sealed speakers are easy and produce deep bass but they require lots of amp power. Parts Express sells a CNC cut MDF kit for these drivers, I considered just buying those but I figured I'd try building some myself.

two down two to go

I finished the last of them last night. My original plan was to put them behind the screen and replace one of the subs I have back there with these 4, then I realized there is actually room for them within the room, if I don't mind them being seen. I'm going to run some temp wires and get them hooked up in the room this weekend and see how they sound.

About threw my back out but I got them all moved in behind the screen last night.

Can do but the "upgraded" room won't look much different as everything is hidden behind the screen or behind the columns. I did order a new Atmos compatible receiver last night - NAD 758V3, has Dirac instead of Audyssey, supposed to be a step up in quality.