March 2006 - Reference Theater Part 1 - page 3
Adding Home Automation
My theater system was my first foray into the world of home automation. I used an AMX system to get control of a growing list of remotes and controls with varying levels of success over the past two years. I loved owning the large AMX remote with its fixed buttons. Not everyone uses remotes the same way, but I was able to really get into operating my HD TiVo with the hard buttons while the Simply Home Entertainment programming for my system was intuitive for this Mac user and had many levels of refinements from their top programmer, as I thought of cool add-ons I wanted for my remote. But the system wasn’t perfect. It sometimes locked up and required rebooting from the back of the rack. Because of this and other factors, Duffy and I decided to give Crestron’s Adagio system a run in the new house. We would use their receiver-like “brain” to run a whole house automation system, which would control servers, security, lighting and much more from existing rooms of my home, as well as the new rooms. The cost of the system was very fair, even with color touchscreen controllers for many rooms of the house. Crestron also has a more affordable, handheld remote that can be used in other locations, which saves you from having to use the large, costly color touchscreen remotes. The big remote would be reserved exclusively for my theater, but there is always an upgrade path.
In The Wall or Not in the Wall: - That Is the Question!
As a recovering audiophile, I was able to accept that I had a problem and have been dealing with it. In my old reference theater, I recently made a change from the very good-sounding Krell Mcx FPB 350 power amps to the equally excellent-sounding yet more rack-friendly Mark Levinson No. 436 power amps. I loved the excitement of the Krells, which reminded me of driving my 911 Turbo. However, nine out of 10 work days, I drive my V8 Mercedes to work, which is a much closer analogy to the sound and performance of the Levinson amps,- refined and powerful. The No. 436 amps would be moving from the floor into the rack, along with my Proceed AMP 5 power amp.
What isn’t moving from the floor are my Wilson speakers. Most modern theaters on this large of a scale tend to use speakers that are built into or hidden behind some sort of wall. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, although I was very tempted by the idea of using Meyer Sound’s powered X10 speaker, modified by Hodas. The X10 is just about the most exciting speaker any of us have heard in a long time. At nearly $100,000 in price per pair, they also would require me to pawn my fiancée’s engagement ring or sell a liver on eBay. I think the liver would get sold first, but most buyers would worry about how much Macallan 25 has been run through the sucker.
In the slant-roofed room where my old reference theater lived will now be the “Martini Room,” which will see the large media storage cabinet scraped for drywall that will house large in-wall speakers that are the in-wall equivalent of PSB’s top speaker. They will be paired with a 50-inch plasma that will be flush in the wall. Major lighting changes will be made and, where the old equipment rack lived, will now be blue-green tinted glass. HDTV will be seen from the dining room and the kitchen, and the automation system will be run from a Crestron handheld remote.
In the master bedroom, a similar system will be installed, but in this room, we have specified Meridian’s powered in-wall speakers to bookend a 50-inch plasma. The music will be piped in from the satellite radio from the Crestron automation system and will be controlled from Crestron’s more affordable handheld remote.
Part Two
Check back for part two of this feature where we look at the prewire of the theater, the automation system and rewiring the satellite and Internet to a new home base, as well as a progress report on the project.
For now, the project is ahead of schedule and relatively on budget. There have been no arguments and things are moving smoothly towards the May 5, 2006 completion date. I am not going to hold my breath for the Cinqo De Mayo move-in date, but I also cannot expect more success than what we have had to this point.
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