Urei Theater - Rebirth of Relyea Cinema 1

Hello again everyone. I'm once again under construction here, rebuilding the theater in my new home.

This new theater will be in the family room (no longer confined to the basement!). The room has an existing brick fireplace, which I had considered removing, but it would only buy me 8 inches of depth in the room, and dad convinced me that down the road, having this tucked away may help sell the house...and leaving it there is a WHOLE LOT easier.

The new room brings some new challenges with light control (bay window, back door, and adjacent kitchen), but some advantages (open windows=music on the patio, spillover seating in the kitchen, and the space for 2 rows of seating).

Here's the latest plan for the room...I will be going down to a 2 column equipment rack, and locating the amplifiers in the garage...heat management will be a whole lot easier, and I don't need to dress up all the amplifiers with nice face plates, and best of all I'll be able to keep the wire runs to the speakers very short. Unfortunately, with the limitations of the room, my rear channels can no longer be UREI's, I just don't have the space...so I'll be custom building back channels this time around.
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Construction is underway. I've already framed the front wall, half wall, and most of the riser. I decided to go with 2x6 for the front wall this time...stronger can't hurt.
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I also have room this time around for two rows of seating. I realized that there would be considerable volume in the riser, so figured why not let it double as a sub-woofer cabinet as well. This will only be used to augment the main sub-woofers in the front of the room, I'm suspecting I'll need to compromise on the level due to the tactile effect we experience from sitting on top of this "cabinet".
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I'll keep you all posted on the progress, I'm very excited about getting this room back together.

Absolutely!! Tho I am just a small UREI collector,
I look forward to your progress and images of
this new design and build eagerly!
Rock on Indeed!

Can't wait to see how this turns out! :bouncy:

Barry.

:lurk:

So a few plan changes here at Relyea Cinema 1. My new bride made the executive decision that we will move the back door from the theater into the kitchen. We are expanding the riser into that corner, and will be able to have a full size couch in the back row, and an end-table.

While a little more work, it will make for a much nicer finished product, and reduces the ambient light issue. Beyond that, with our wedding out of the way, I have time to focus on finishing the room! As soon as the door arrives, we will be installing that, and finishing the riser...and I should have all other framing finished by then, so we will be able to move onto sheetrock.

Finally moved the UREI's from the warehouse, so the pressure is really on...they are taking up a lot of space in the dining and living room!
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This weekend a friend called with a lead on a JBL 3635 theater subwoofer. After a few quick texts and a short drive, I parted with $250, and secured what will become the center sub for Relyea Cinema 1. This saves me from having to fabricate a complete cabinet...i'll just add a new baffle to dress this up, and a grille. This will bring the low end compliment to 2x 2242H, 1x 2042H, 2x 2215H. I shouldn't be lacking for LF extension. :D
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Here's the new riser plan.
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I needed to make clearance so the 2215's could be installed. I'll be sealing the hole in the floor from below.
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This arrangement allows me to bond everything together and still have driver access without needing to have removable panels.
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Thanks for the update, I was wondering how it was going. Cant wait to see the final outcome.

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Originally Posted by srm51555

Thanks for the update, I was wondering how it was going. Cant wait to see the final outcome.

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Thanks for watching...updates should come quicker now that I have more free time.

It's been a productive weekend for Relyea Cinema 1. We installed the new back door, and the wifey and I are already much happier with the easy traffic flow to the back yard.

After:
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Before:
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The next step will be to remove the old back door, and reside that face of the house.
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The theater will gain additional seating, and I'll have less issues getting the ambient lighting under control.
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I started demolition of the bay window shelf yesterday. I'm going to lower this to a comfortable seating height, and will add a cushon with backreset. This will gain me a few more seats for sporting events and parties. The volume is stuffed with fiberglass, so i think i'm going to cover this with a low-frequency transparent paneling (homasote perhaps) and let this act as a sort of bass trap.
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Framing up the enclosure for the head end equipment. This will be sheet-rocked and I'll install doors to access the rear of the equipment.
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Getting closer...
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It's looking truly awesome. Can't wait to see the finished results. Excellent work :applaud:

Me too. Nice work

This is shaping up to be quite a nice theater system. Can't wait to see finished build.

Progress
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Woah - keep this up, superb looking so far!!

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Originally Posted by UreiCollector

Progress

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Well that must have been fun getting those in there! :blink:

So what's going in the three vacant spots underneath?
Seriously impressed though.:applaud:

A pair of 2242H's on the left and right, which i still need to modify to clear the brick behind the wall...and for the center a 2042HPL which i still need to make a new baffle for (i scored this one for $250 this past spring!). Thanks for the kind words everyone!
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by RedCoat23

Well that must have been fun getting those in there! :blink:

So what's going in the three vacant spots underneath?
Seriously impressed though.:applaud:

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Thank YOU! We're always interested to see what you have crafted up next!

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Originally Posted by hjames

Thank YOU! We're always interested to see what you have crafted up next!

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You asked, I shall deliver :) Thanks for expressing an interest!

The theater has been up and running for over a year...I still have some crown molding to finish and recessed lights to connect, but visual/acoustically it's been awesome!

Here you can see the UREI 813's for mains, and the 815 center, I have modified all for bi-amplification, the only passive crossover is on the "helper woofers". The subwoofers are all home made cabinets, with a pair of 2242H, and a single 2042. Absorbers are from ATS Acoustics and address the early reflections off the side walls...they had an immediate improvement on soundstage and definition.
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(I'm apparently only allowed one photo attachment per post, so more to come)

In the rear you can see the 2nd row is elevated 10", the rear speakers I built are visible (8" Theil woofer, with B&G Neo8 planar tweeter, again bi-amplified), and 3 2'x2' absorbers by GIK Acoustics, which have the 'range limiter' option. These absorbers are awesome! I had quite the buildup of bass in the back corner, and these helped to tame that noticeably. I can't stress enough the importance of acoustic treatment on a room...it really is the #1 step to improving system performance.
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We also lowered the shelf in the bay window, and made a padded seat for "spill over seating". I installed new trim to dress up the window nice. Those with sharp eyes will notice fiberboard below the seat...that is to allow low frequencies to pass though, and the entire volume behind is stuffed with fiberglass to help act as a bass trap.
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Equipment is all racked up, and amplifiers are in the garage in a 7' rack. The Sony TA-E9000ES and TA-P9000ES have both needed work, one I had to swap the power supply on (Sony is notorious for complicated supplies), and the other had a cold solder joint that would act up intermittently. The Behringer DCX2496's have all been modified by myself, to change the gain of the analog stages, so that the A/D and D/A converters are used to their maximum resolution. All remotes and media are in the drawers...and I also wired everything post preamplifier though patch bays so I can easily patch in or around equipment, and also jack in for acoustic testing with CLIO.

The home made rears are easier to see in this picture, again Thiel 8" woofers, with B&G Neo8 Planar tweeters, bi-amplified...
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Here is the view from the kitchen, where we have spill over seating...
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and the lights are in, just in need of attic wiring...
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Here are the amplifiers out in the garage (no fan noise, no heat in the room)...amplifiers are on home brew sequencers, which allow source equipment to stabilize, and then amps come on in two stages. There are a pair of 20 amp circuits just for amplifiers...
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Here's one last one for now...with screen down. Screen is a 106" 16:9 Da-lite High Contrast Cinema Perf....dialog comes straight out of the picture...it's really something else!
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WOW!!!!! What a fantastic build and great workmanship. And I agree with you totally that room acoustics are the most important area to be addressed for great sound.

Thanks for sharing; it's inspiring!

Agreed with Steve - what a fantastic looking project -
thanks for updating the pix and info!

Thank you to you both!

It's been a fun project, and really is rewarding to listen to!

Fred

Another great system build! Congratulations! Thanks for sharing!

Great job, thanks for sharing.

What a job it's a great work! amazing!