elangoas
Well-Known Member
This set-up was for my in-laws (60 + yrs old), who were enjoying movies and the regular serials on a Philips 29inch CRT, and a few decades old Sharp cassette player for FM capability.. My father in law was a movie buff.. He enjoys watching movies on the 29inch CRT, whenever they were aired on the cable TV channels he would be glued to the sofa.. When he would visit my place, he liked the feel of AT screen set-up at my place and the large 100 inch screen..
I though to spice up the movie watching experience for him in an in-expensive manner.. Had no fixed budget in mind, but to get whatever is necessary for the experience..
His living room was 15ft (L) x 12 ft (W).. I saw the room length as an advantage and choose a puny LCD-LED powered projector from Egate i9 for 5K..
E-gate i9, Resolution - 800 x 480, Aspect ration 15:9 ~ close to 16:9, 120 lumens brightness..
The place where i thought to project the image had windows, which were kept closed most of the time.. An other advantage for screen placement..
Built a screen, covering entire width of the living room.. It was easy to procure materials from a near by wood scrap dealer.. The DIY Acoustic transparent screen was 165 inch diagonal approx, when completed..
Cost to build 165 inch diagonal Acoustic transparent screen <=5K (All inclusive, materials + labour)..
I had unused (Ivory colour) spandex material at home, and used a double layer spandex as it would help boost the lower brightness of the projector.. (Usually it is white over black for screen)..
Got a refurbished chromecast from 2gud.com for Rs 1,500 to cast videos and movies from streaming apps..
There was a window behind the Acoustic transparent screen, thought of fixing a speakers to windows for a near perfect experience.. dialogues from behind the screen..
I saw some posts from FM @Naveenbnc , who had tried Ahuja full range speakers..The reason behind choosing Ahuja was cost, Rs 3,000 for a pair of full range speaker.. Contacted Naveen and got some ideas and bugged him for clarification.. He offered help generously and guided me as this was my first DIY speaker build..
Thank you so much @Naveenbnc for your help & guidance.. Appreciate it.. I will look up to you for any of my future speaker builds..
After consulting with him, i was convinced of an enclosure dimensions (sealed), stuffing polyfill.. Sealed is easier than ported..
I left the window frames as is (behind the screen), in its place and removed the doors on it and thought to plonk the sealed enclosure in there neatly snug fit..
This will bring the speaker behind the screen.. Couldn't space it ideally as it should have been.. But placed the driver at exactly ear height..
Total cost of fullrange drivers + plywood enclosure + polyfill + labour to build didn't exceed 10K..
Since the speaker enclosure was outside the living room, had to keep it safe from rain.. So sealed the enclosure on the outside of the building with Zync sheet..
I had an old Cambridge 6.1 AVR, from my brothers recent AVR upgrade.. So thought to power the Ahuja with it..
With some unused items that i had and spending <20K for Projector + DIY AT screen + Chromecast + DIY speaker enclosure, i was able to change his viewing experience from 29inch CRT to an 165inch screen, and speakers places behind the screen at ear height, without altering the room much..
Though this is nowhere close to best viewing experience in terms of picture quality, this is all i could squeeze in a budget of 20K for a movie buff.. Happy to have done this for him, and now he has started re-watching more movies (black & white) since then..
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