Our latest HT project

[Electrodynamic 2]

I know this thread is a teaser because we don't have the pictures uploaded yet, but as of last night we finished up our latest HT. The system includes a Denon 7.1 receiver, Denon up-converting DVD player, Panasonic 1080p HD projector, HDMI cabling, 20 Hidden Audio transducers, 124" 16:9 screen, Lutron automated lighting, MX900 remote, 2400 watt amplifier, and four BM 12's ported to 30 Hz in a 12 ft^3 box.

The neat thing about using Denon receivers is that the upper models (this customer has a 987 model) have a 7 band EQ per channel, where each channel can be EQ'd independantly or the same EQ setting applied to all channels. The receiver is also super user-friendly and very little setup is required, although you can still go in a tweak the hell out of your system if you want.

We watched Top Gun last night after we were done and the bottom end of his system is incredible. Both Marty and I like the way the four BM's perform better than we do the four Mag 15's IB in the ceiling. #1, the BM's are floor-placed, where as the Mag 15's are IB in the ceiling. The bad thing about ceiling IB systems is that since the enclosure is your attic, the drywall moves slightly (not enough for you to see of course) the further you get away from the drivers location so you loose SPL due to cancellation. Having said that, the floor-mounted BM's SLAM! They are incredibly loud even though they're not moving any further than 10mm total. The quatro of BM's operate effortlessly - never moving far enough to warrant any kind of distortion even at ear-splitting levels. There are numerous scenes in Top Gun where the jets are taking off or flying by and the bottom end that the BM's deliver is just intense with impact. The extremely low part of the booms were moving my shirt and jeans when I was sitting on the couch approximately 15' away from the subwoofer enclosure.

We're going to go back to the house to demo some of our CD's and DVD's to the home owner pretty soon, so we'll definitely get a better feel for what the system is capable of at that point. The subwoofer enclosure should be covered by that point as well (the enclosure is raw MDF because a decorative cover is being made to conceal the enclosure to where you can't tell that it's even there).

Anyway, I'll try to post pics of the screen and the subwoofer tonight or tomorrow!

[Electrodynamic 2]

There, I beat you to it.

[Megalomaniac 0]

no dedrohedrons? (spelling)

[Electrodynamic 2]

Nope. Four 12's was over-kill enough...no need to have more surface area and/or more output. Size was also a factor.

The decahedron (sp?) is the project up in Michigan with 10 10's.

[Megalomaniac 0]

eD says its a must.

lol. now please get some pics up!

[bose301s 1]

Nope. Four 12's was over-kill enough...no need to have more surface area and/or more output. Size was also a factor.

The decahedron (sp?) is the project up in Michigan with 10 10's.

Yes, and we have been making some progress on it. We have a cardboard model of the enclosure made and may start cutting the wood this weekend. I have some pictures for you of that, but I can't find my card reader atm so those will have to wait.

[topgun 262]

Um, wow.

Pictures are a must.

[JimJ 11]

Subs are all well and good, but...

What's providing the rest of the sound?

All that and no seperate pre/processor & multichannel amps?

[Electrodynamic 2]

The in-the-wall transducers are providing all the sound. The transducers attach behind the sheet rock and essentially make the drywall a speaker. And before you think "man, it must sound muffled", it doesn't. Everybody thinks that, and then they listen to them and go "wow." The transducers are good from about 90 Hz all the way up to 16k Hz (which is where most males can hear up to). It's super neat when people sit and watch your system for about 10 minutes before the confusion becomes too much to process and they ask "where are your speakers?" And with 16 transducers up front and 4 in the rear, loudness isn't a problem even with 120 watts x channel. If you take a look at our HT web page we have a picture of our demo room that has 16 transducers in the wall surrounding the screen. You can try to find them if you want, but honestly you'll be wasting your time. The drivers are behind the sheet rock. They are literally invisible.

Processing and amplification is all done in the receiver. The Denon does everything we can ask from it; it decodes in more formats that we've ever thrown at it; it up-converts all video sources (you play a VCR on your 1080p TV/projector); etc. For performance and budget, a HT receiver was the way to go for this particular installation.

[JimJ 11]

Very interesting...I wonder how changing the way the wall's built impacts the final sound, whether it's better to go with closer-spaced studs, double layers of drywall, etc...

What ever happened to that line array project, that was something a tube nut could get excited about

[Electrodynamic 2]

The thicker the drywall, the less efficient the transducers are and the more it alters the frequency response. The transducers we use designed specifically for standard thickness drywall. ...on a side note, we are going to try fixing some of them to the body pannels of cars and see what happens - people down south LOVE it to be loud outside their vehicle. Instead of mounting horns under your car, why not have your body panels make sound?

Oh, and the Line Array project is still active. I just took down pics on our site because (as usual) everyone tried to pick them apart and find out what drivers we were using, whether they were our own or someone elses. If anything, they should have been concerned with what kind of crossovers we were using. But that's beside the point. The Esprit's are SO distortion-free that it spoils you. You listen to them at what you think is a normal level but when you go to talk to someone next to you, you can't because it's so loud. But it doesn't appear loud. Absolutely ZERO listener fatigue. Most people live their entire lives without ever experiencing zero listener fatigue, but the Esprit's give it to you every time you sit down.

[bose301s 1]

The thicker the drywall, the less efficient the transducers are and the more it alters the frequency response. The transducers we use designed specifically for standard thickness drywall. ...on a side note, we are going to try fixing some of them to the body pannels of cars and see what happens - people down south LOVE it to be loud outside their vehicle. Instead of mounting horns under your car, why not have your body panels make sound?

Oh, and the Line Array project is still active. I just took down pics on our site because (as usual) everyone tried to pick them apart and find out what drivers we were using, whether they were our own or someone elses. If anything, they should have been concerned with what kind of crossovers we were using. But that's beside the point. The Esprit's were SO distortion-free that it spoiled you. You would listen to it at what you thought was a normal level but when you went to talk to someone next to you, you couldn't because it was so loud. But it didn't appear loud. Absolutely ZERO listener fatigue. Most people live their entire lives without ever experiencing zero listener fatigue, but the Esprit's gave it to you every time you sat down.

I love when that happens, I can get that with my stereo in my bedroom, B&W DM603s and a Denon receiver.

[sundownz 197]

The line arrays are quite amazing, Nick tells the truth!

[Lord Baccus 1]

Pics please

[///M5 2,833]

If you need help measuring the bibration response of the different rock setups, I think I can help.

[TheOtherSide 0]

Sounds good to me. I'm actually about to build a sub for a HT application and was pondering 2 BM's for it. Our setup is almost identical:

Denon Source - 3808ci

110" screen

Panasonic 1000U projector

B&W 600 series front/center/dual rears

DVD-to be determined either denon upconvert or HD-DVD

[Electrodynamic 2]

Well I have the pictures on my computer but I can't upload them to our site yet since we just changed everything over. Sorry guys.

[johnecon2001 82]

u suck.

What a tease.

[Electrodynamic 2]

Ok, Jake was able to help me out and host a few pics that I sent him. I'll post more pics of the screen when I get them uploaded. Oh, and the subwoofer isn't finished by any means - there will be a decorative cover over the top and front of the subwoofer enclosure so you can't see it.

[cjj2d 0]

Droooool.....