Wow, definitely having your home theater apart from your Living room is the way to go. I have to deal with TWF (The Wife Factor) which is basically a Female Human Being that goes around the living room, trying to hide your speakers and every pice of gadgetry you might have in it. May be, one day I'll switch my apparent for a hose with a basement.

That's cool! Finally a set-up that uses money in a way that's functional for the entire house - not just for the room you're decking out. For what good is the sound and oomph if you can't isolate yourself from the rest of the house... which was the original point in the first place... nice job.

@manduvi: funny!

those are some seriously ugly seats...

and heinous movie theather carpeting too!

how can you go wrong?

My friends home theater room has seats like those and they are so comfortable that I fell asleep during the movie.

What I wouldn't give for silence like that in my basement office.

Nicest home theater setup I've seen yet.

Someone obviously did their homework and put the money where it really matters.

I think my favorite part is looking at the time, money and effort that went into this, and then looking at the movie on the screen. It's like buying a Ferarri to pick up eggs at the supermarket.

From the Electronic House site...
"Soundproofing proved to be a challenge for homeowners turning their basement into a dedicated home theater on a $70,000 budget."
I'm having a little trouble grasping the idea of the words challenge, $70,000, and budget all used in the same sentance.

Note to stupid filthy rich guy from a couple days ago:
This is how its done.

@joelja: They may be ugly, but they're probably soooooooo comfy.

This is great until you're watching a movie and don't hear the fire trucks outside as the house burns down around you

@PSXNDC

Not to worry about hearing the fire truck. I have a similar theater, 12" thick double walls, isolated cieling, and floor, sound panels, double sound insulated and sealed doors. Its not anechoic enough to make your ears hurt but it is dead quiet. Anyhow my point, after spending 20K on the theater it turns out the kids use it more than we do and when I do get to watch a movie its by myself or with friends. My wifes favorite part is that she can no longer hear the explosions, 'while she is sleeping'... so no need to fear the sirens, everyone else is listening for me.

I really designed the room for an audiophile first so for me its all about the audio although I duz luv me some big 'splosions. Now I just got to convince myself to demo the new Sanyo Z2000 or JVC 1080p projectors.

@earthling: for audio, nothing I've read comes close to this man's custom rebuilt barn: [www.positive-feedback.com] Huge bass baffles, bass trap corners, side diffusors, etc., and some very careful HVAC design.

The same Richard Bird of Rives Audio gave me some "Level 2" advice for my living room, but that barn is Warp Level 9.

"Rives Audio believes that many rooms ended up over-damped, and that diffusion was a better method of 2-channel design". I have sliding acoustic panels to improve the sound but don't need isolation — anyone who doesn't like Kenny G with the knobs at 11 can leave the house. ;-)

After all that, he skimped on the projector.
Only analog imputs, not even 1080p...
[www.projectorcentral.com]
Someone introduce this guy to his local Runco dealer.

@pete

If you introduced him to the local Runco dealer, his $70k budget would be blown before doing any changes to the original basement.

I'm always envious upon seeing home theaters and music rooms. I have close to 200 DVDs and over 500 CDs that I really need to get a proper setup for.

A friend of mine built an isolated home theater in his basement. I am sure he did not spend $70K, just put some thought into how the walls connected (or did not connect) to the rest of the framing. Mostly for the wife factor, he did not want his wife stomping on the floor (ceiling of the home theater) telling him to turn it down. I think it is an excellent idea. He also has some damn comfy seat, I went over there and watched 300 in HD and 4 out of the six guys were seriously snoring half way through...how to dampen THAT sound?

@earthling: can you provide some more details (I'd like to build a similar system for 20k :^)

with all that sound isolation, you'll really hear the nuances of the farting sound made by thigh rubbing against leather seat