The couple was building a new garage and wanted to make the room above the garage a state-of-the-art theater with as big a screen as possible. Seating for up to 18 people was also on their wish list. They wanted to try and re-use some of their current gear in the new system. We took them to hear a JBL Synthesis home theater system we had recently completed in a large room and after that, there was no question, they wanted a JBL Synthesis system!
Audio Advice worked with JBL Synthesis, the client, and their architect to design a room with good dimensions from an acoustic standpoint that could also comfortably seat 18 people. After the room was laid out, we worked with Kinetics to design a complete acoustic package that was able to repurpose some of the panels they had used in their smaller theater.
The ideal room dimensions were 30 feet in depth by 19 feet wide with 12-foot ceilings. This size easily allowed for 2, 12” risers with 3 rows of seating. The slope of their lot worked out perfectly for walking in from the existing space to the rear of the theater and still leaving normal ceiling height in the garage below. We slightly offset the seats and the screen to allow for a wider aisle on the right side of the room in line with the theater door.
Since the couple wanted a very immersive video experience, we had them visit our Raleigh showroom to try out a few different seating positions in our biggest theater. This process allowed us to determine the right screen size field of vision for where the primary seats would be in their room. A huge 17 foot wide 2.40 screen is where the math landed. Now we have our great home theater design tool to help people anywhere determine the best screen size.
The couple did not want to see any of the gear or a projector in the room and by working with the architect, we were able to design a small closet that housed the gear and the projector directly centered on the back wall of the room. This outside area would have a small bar, popcorn machine, bathroom, and artwork in addition to the equipment closet.
However, they did want the interior of the theater to have somewhat of a commercial look with as many speakers visible as possible.
Video
To fill up a screen that large, we chose, at that time, the top-of-the-line Sony laser projector, the VPL-VW5000ES. We added the Panamorph DCR lens to give them much more brightness on widescreen content. A separate video processor was also used.
For the best theater experience and due to the width of the screen, we put the speakers behind the screen. At that time, the screen that had the best performance on audio properties and video quality was a Seymour screen, which used a woven design that is totally acoustically transparent.
To add to the commercial look, the screen was mounted on two pieces of UniStrut which run from the floor to the ceiling. We floated it at the correct height in front of the main speakers with the front three subwoofers visible underneath it.
Audio
The main surround sound processor was one of the pieces we repurposed. It is a Datasat RS20i. They had been using it in a 7.2 channel system. The new configuration was going to be a 7.4.4 channel system. Datasat is one of our best-sounding surround sound processors and we also like the fact it can be upgraded. We added their new Dolby Atmos and HDMI circuit boards to bring it to current specs.
The main front speakers are the incredible JBL 4367 studio monitors. To make the important center channel sound as good as possible we mated it to a JBL SUB-18 and bi-amped this using the Datasat’s built-in crossovers. Two additional JBL SUB-18’s were used for the subwoofer channels at the front of the room. These would not fit in the back of their room due to their extreme depth, which led us to use two commercial 18” JBL subwoofers that while they are very wide are only 14” deep. We knew a space this large could easily support 4 subwoofers and the result was just spectacular. There are some scenes where your pants legs actually move, yet the bass is super fast and tight without any booming.
For the surround channels, we used 4 commercial level JBL speakers that worked out perfectly from a size and performance standpoint. To continue the commercial look, we used JBL powered studio monitors for the 4 Atmos channels with some custom brackets we had to source from Germany.
Three Mark Levinson ML532 power amps run the front of the room with one channel driving a 4367 and the other channel driving a SUB-18. The client had some older Rotel power amps we repurposed to power the surround channels and rear subwoofers. We also reused all of their older power conditioning from Shunyata and Transparent.
Sources
At the time of completion, the Cambridge Blu-ray player was the best on the market which was used for disc playback. A Kaleidescape Strato S 4K Movie Player would be the main source for the best possible video and audio with a Roku Ultra used for video streaming.
Control
The clients already had a Lutron RA2 lighting control system which we added on to for the theater with 5 zones of lighting. Control 4 was used for both a handheld stick remote and touchscreen. The lighting dimmers were all hidden in the equipment closet.
Seating
Two types of seating were used in the theater. The couple already had been using the Cinematech LeGrande theater seat in their old theater and wanted to do a row of 5 of these for the main seats. The new Legrande had been upgraded to have dual motors and is by far the most comfortable theater seat we carry, albeit it comes with a price tag to match. The client wanted to spend as little as possible on the other two rows and sourced their own seats that are like movie theater seats for the other two rows. Luckily they found a vinyl color that was very close to the Cinematech leather.
Calibration
Final calibration of the room was done using the Dirac software built into the Datasat. After some tweaking, the room sounded just amazing. We also calibrated the projector for the best possible picture.
The couple tells us they spend 2-3 hours in this room every single night. Movies and streaming series have never looked or sounded so good. Every guest they have had over tells them it is far better than any theater they have ever been in. Before COVID, they were able to have many movie afternoons, filling the room up with friends to enjoy a new release.
With a screen this large and a great audio system, they also tell us it is so easy to see and hear the difference between a Kaleidescape movie vs streaming.
Upgrades
Since completing the original installation, these homeowners have added a Roon Nucleus Plus Music Streamer which runs into the Datasat USB input for music listening with their large music collection, Tidal, and Qobuz. We swapped out the original video processor for a Mad Envy Extreme which was a huge improvement in picture quality and also added automatic screen size changes the homeowners love.
On the horizon is an upgrade to the new Sony GTZ-380 projector and a new Stewart G4 acoustically transparent screen. The new Panasonic DP-UB9000 Deluxe Blu-Ray Player will go in soon to replace the Cambridge blu-ray player.
We were very lucky to work with this couple in creating their ultimate home theater and are thrilled to know they use it every single night!
This theater includes:
