This Northern New Jersey family got its dream home theater in just 4 weeks. Ryan Herd and the One Sound Choice crew built it with a small karaoke stage and kept the sound from leaking into the kitchen upstairs, all on a sensible budget.
July 26, 2012 | by Grant Clauser Some people spend years planning their dream home theater, measuring their room, contemplating gear specs and plotting the best time to take the plunge. Others dive right in. The owners of this northern New Jersey home barely had the front door key in their possession when they took the first step. Ryan Herd, owner of One Sound Choice in New Jersey, said he first met the homeowners the day they settled on the house. However, it wasn’t actually a rush decision. Herd said the clients had been dreaming of a home theater for years and were waiting until they had the right house to put it in. They’d seen plenty of great examples as avid readers of Electronic House, so they knew exactly what they wanted. There was one stipulation—it needed to be done in four weeks in time for a party. The clients were in a hurry, so if Herd was going to get the job, he had to make sure he could deliver in record time. “I have the best crew in the world,” says Herd, “we excel in project management,” so the deal was struck, and work began. Aside from the time constraint, the clients had a few other requests. First, they’d just plunked down a lot of money into the house, so they couldn’t go overboard on esoteric gear for the theater—quality and value were the themes. Second, they wanted a stage. With a little girl in the family who likes to sing karaoke, a small stage would add to the family enjoyment. Finally, they wanted to make sure sound from the theater didn’t leak into the rest of the house. The theater room was directly below the kitchen, so the clients didn’t want a movie or sports game in the theater to drown out conversations upstairs. To help corral the sound, while working within the owners’ budget, Herd tore down the original ceiling of the 288 square-foot room. He doubled the insulation, and used QuietRock sheetrock, plus acoustic treatments on the walls to both keep the sound inside and make it sound great when you’re there. The sound the owners heard was going to come from a Denon AVR3312CI, a seven channel receiver with 125 Watts per channel, plus bonus features like 4K upscaling and Apple AirPlay. The receiver feeds a set of Episode ES-HT900s and ES-HT700s in-wall and in-ceiling speakers plus two ES subwoofers for a full 7.2 system. The speakers include high-performance ribbon tweeters and MDF backboxes, making them stand out from a lot of other in-wall speakers. “Huge kudos for quality,” is how Herd describes them. To give the room a true cinema feel, and to maximize the space in the room, the front speakers were all installed behind a Stewart Directors Series acoustically perforated screen with four-way masking. Lighting up the screen is a JVC DLA-RS40 LCoS 3D projector. With 1,300 ANSI lumens (before calibration), it’s best with a light-controlled room like this theater, but can also be viewed with some ambient light in the room. The RS40 was last year’s model, so the nearest equivalent now would be the DLA-X30 that includes almost the same specs and runs about $4,000. The projector is hidden in a soffit in the back of the room, which helps make the room look elegant and keep the projector’s fan noise from intruding on the movie. The whole system is run by a Control4 HS300, which can be accessed either with a Control4 remote or an iPad. The theater was completed last summer, and Herd still sees the owners from time to time as he returns to add audio or TVs to other rooms in the house. “They love it,”he says. “He (the homeowner) will tell me about the latest movie the family watched.” The official unveiling was for the daughter’s birthday party, and the client noted that guests were impressed. “I was doing demos all day. I had to wipe everyone’s chins off the floor,” Herd was told. Check out some before and after pictures of the home theater here.Want the family room ready for game day? See our family room game day page.
What One Sound Choice clients say
1 Sound Choice installed a flat screen TV for us along with surround sound. We could not be happier with the professionalism we received. They were within budget and time — no surprises. We would highly recommend 1 Sound Choice.
– The Baron Family (1 Sound Choice client testimonials)
(We received) friendly, highly competent, quick and clean installation by 1 Sound Choice. The team followed up a few weeks after completion to ask if we were satisfied with our Media Room and Home Audio System. 1 Sound Choice is truly “top shelf” – they surpassed our expectations every step of the way.
– Mr. & Mrs. Blake (1 Sound Choice client testimonials)
I wanted to build a home theater in my basement and had accumulated quite a collection of high end electronics. But when I discussed my plans with Ryan, the proprietor of One Sound Choice, he quickly convinced me that the quality of the home theater experience starts with the proper room and acoustics. Not only was his audio/visual technical knowledge top-notch, I was impressed with his background in construction and his attention to room acoustics and ensuring the room didn’t just look pretty but also that the dimensions produced the right dynamics. Because I was also limited on the budget I could dedicate to creating this room, I was appreciative that he was responsive to adjusting plans as we moved forward to keep us on budget. Every detail was well thought out in advance, from the placement of outlets to avoid sound leakage, to lighting along the steps of the stadium seating, to one-touch programming of the remotes, to expansion conduits for future expansion of equipment. With hi-tech equipment, it seems upgrades are inevitable and it’s nice to know that the room can also adapt to future upgrades. Overall, I was very satisfied with my home theater. What I thought would be a room just for me to watch movies occasionally has now become the regular gathering spot for the whole family.
– jyrm (Houzz review)
Home theater build questions
How long did this home theater take?
About 4 weeks. The family needed it ready for a party.
Why did the theater have a stage?
The family’s daughter loves to sing karaoke, so a small stage made it more fun.
How did they keep sound from going upstairs?
The team took down the old ceiling and treated the room so movie sound would not drown out the kitchen above.
Did they need the most expensive gear?
No. They wanted quality and good value, not over-the-top gear.
One Sound Choice, 8 Tilley Ave, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444. Call or text (973) 945-5275. We work in homes across Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties. Written by Ryan Herd, founder of One Sound Choice.