Row Two

In the saga of this home theater, it went through several iteratations. Originally, this bonus room was to be a playroom for the kids. I had built a stage in the back of the room for 'performances'. It never got used. I then built a climbing wall in the unfinished space. That was a great project, but the stage got dragged to the center of the room to be used for a bench between routes. Then the brilliant idea of a home theater came in- along with "heat" and "air conditioning". That let to the project which has consumed much of the past year.

Just recently we added a dual-reclining sofa for overflow. One thing we found- that sofa is heavy. And we have to move it around to be able to climb safely behind it. Which brings us to this post. That would give a higher view from the back. We considered different alternatives- such as building a platform. I was wishing for that stage/platform again. But- that still doesn't let me move the sofa out of the way. Worse- I found that when I did slide the sofa around, it tore up the berber carpet! I needed to solve this problem. Andy suggested 'moving pucks', which would allow it to slide, but not easily. I want to kids to be able to move it. I also wanted it higher, so I kidnapped Steff and went to the big box store and looked at casters for 40 minutes. They weren't cheap, but they're nice rubber wheels, smooth bearings and lockable. I cut a piece of plywood that matched the steel frame. I also bought some U-Bolts, drilled the frame, did a little measuring, drilled the wood.. presto! Raised, moveable sofa.

Hooray!
(Steff is seated in the first row- motorized recliners, some kids are in the second- and Aidan is doing a little climbing between movies)

Bipolar tendencies

I struggle with purchases because I am very careful with what I spend. I want it to be the right thing- both quality and price. This is the reason I held off so long on HD DVD- I was waiting for the right solution- it turned out to be the one that cost $98. I'm quite happy.

But, what of surround sound? I built the system with the future in mind- 7.1 system- even though my current receiver only does 6.1 (though it has 7 outputs, the two rears are the same channel). I got a beautiful Paradigm center channel, some gorgeous Yamahas as mains, and Polks for my surrounds. Looking back on older posts, I really struggled with those choices until the Polks fell into my lap.

But, maybe I wasn't on the right page to start with- surround sound is not supposed to be direction, but the Polks I bought are two-way speakers pointed right at my ear. After doing a lot of reading- that's plain old wrong. You shouldn't know where surround comes from other than 'over there'. Even worse, with direct surround, the experience will be different based on seating position L/R and front row, rear row. Only the guy right in the center (me!) gets the correct experience.

What's supposed to happen is that there's actually a null for the listening position for surround sound. It's supposed to be 'to my left', rather than 'right there!' as we expect with stereo imaging of the front/center combination.

To get this null, there are dipole/bipole speakers. They have drivers facing away from the listening position and out-of-phase so you can't pinpoint the sound, other than the desired 'to my left'.

I found a small pair locally and am trying them out by pulling out the Polks, but I really need some good material to decide if I'm going to go on and maybe go whole-hog with something like Speakercraft. The price people are charging for nice dipoles are very expensive. Try to Google them yourself to see what I mean.

As usual, this decision will take some time.

The peanut gallery

We bought a nice sofa to use as row two a while ago. It is leather and close to the color of our front row of seats. However, it was no higher, so you depended on the front row to recline- and the second row would not want to recline.

I considered revisiting the platform I had originally done for the home theater, but I'd want it carpeted, maybe lighted, etc. Then there was the second problem of the original purpose of the room. There's a climbing wall back there! A permanent platform with a sofa on it isn't conducive to climbing.

I needed a way to move the sofa. I considered some rails to move it back and forth, but it would still be semi- permanant. I really needed a way to move it out of the way completely. The wife suggested wheels, and that was it. I could get some height and mobility by putting it on wheels. I bought some nice big heavy-duty casters, cut a piece of ply the size of the frame under the sofa and attached the frame to the ply with some ubolts.

Steff suggested that for climbing, we spin the sofa around- a place to sit and observe as others work on boulder problems. Excellent!