That Other Expensive Hobby

[cyclepuck]

Got the track bike all freshened up after a couple year lay off. Don't mind the finger.

[Cowracer]

Originally Posted by Rod Johnson

*sproooing*

Tim, that is awesome. I can't imagine all the work that went into that. Holy smokes that is cool. I built a stage for my TV, but nothing like what you've got going on. I don't have the room anyways, but wowzers is that theater cool. I love the "Employees Only" sign.

That room is a mud room between the theater and garage. There is a door to the back yard with a doggie door, and my pups use the room as an attached dog house.

I don't even want to talk $$$numbers, I'll never get there, and then your significant other might now how much you really spent... We never tell them the real number anyways, right?

Are those real, actual, movie theater seats?

Ill talk numbers..

Construction (on an off over 4 years) about $2-3k, Counting wiring, tile floor and counter/cabinets in snack bar, carpet, ceiling, drywall and paint. All the work was done by myself, except for some of the framing. My buddy is a union carpenter, and I asked him to help me with the tricky parts.

I didnt have a budget per se... but I did cut costs wherever I could. There are some great bargains out there if you are patient, and look around

A lot of what you see was from the local discount home store. (Hood's Discount Home Centers Homepage) I got huge savings there. For instance, the counter in the snack bar was only $40. Its was a 10' piece that somone ran over the corner with a forklift. I only needed 8', so I got it an better than half off the cost of a pristine 8' piece. The carpet is commercial carpet "tiles". I'd go buy $50 worth at a time, put them down and then wait till the next week to buy the next batch. The ceiling tiles were free for the hauling away (craigslist). I had to paint them, but ya know, the cheapest $8 a gallon paint at the home store worked pretty good.

The screen was $150 (craigslist again) and the seats came from Southern Illinois Univ. Edwardsville's performing arts center. Got the whole set of 12 for $250. I will be replacing them, as they arent really that comfortable. They look cool, but you get a dose of the church-ass after about an hour.

Electronics are all new. Projector was $1100, Onkyo was like $800 and the BIC speaker set (with the big sub) was $1000. Popcorn machine was $300 and Margarita machine (not shown) was $350.

So we are talking about 7 grand for the whole shebang.


I worked for Good Guys a few years back, their employee discount was.... awesome I'm so glad I spent my money on the speakers I have... Klipsch, and JL I've since upgraded the TV to a Mitsu DLP and the receiver to HDMI switching... But I love my Yamaha amps, sorry Denon fanbois, and in the latest upgrade, the old Yamaha now drives my subs. Car subs in a homemade box, and I got a killer deal (free) on gloss black Formica. Its not 1000W worth, but with 3 12s and the kind of excursion that would make Jean Luc's Away team jealous... Ehh, my neighbors probably hate me.

Question for you. Syballant S. How do you quiet that? On a super amplified system with a huge dynamic range, I hear that Hssssssssssss so bad, especially in the quiet scenes. I've been told to pick up a huge EQ, like 28 bands and just turn down that band, but the S is going to be a different freq for every actor and movie??


A) the onkyo has Audyssey on it, so I just let it set itself up.

And B) its a huge room. thats a big help. My biggest accustical problem is that I can hear the ceiling tiles rattle in the frames during big low-freq events. I commited quite a few audio sins when I built the room, but I was about 3/4 done with the construction before I started educating myself on proper theater design. The one major redesign I did for accoustics was the wall with the dog-room door (the one with the Employees only sign) was torn out and re-set with a 45 degree angle. Cuts way down on reflective reverb


Oh, what are your favorite movies to demo??

I just gotta say, The Patriot, the scene where he Gibson rescues his son from the British. Pearl Harbor, during the bombing stuff and when they get the Mustangs up in the air to fight the zeros. Star Wars I, Pod Racer scene.

I don't watch movies just for the sound, but the exploding street scene in Inception really makes jaws drop.

Talk to me about your jukebox. I snagged a 20" touchscreen monitor from work... Its an older CRT, had vertical collapse and a $7 cap kit brought it back to life. I don't know if its worth the hassle, but I wanted to hook it up to a very basic PC with Itunes so it could be used to play music. What program are you using on it?

The jukebox is just an old POS dell tower running VMJ Virtual Music Jukebox. Its a $35.00 download, available at http://www.mameroom.com/vmj/index.htm It has a couple dozen skins for it, i just happen to like the default one best. It works best if you set your music up in an album/song format, so its best to rip whole cd's rather than just having 20 different "Cat Stevens" songs under one folder. I got it on the home network, so I can rip CD's off on my laptop upstairs and put them on the Jukebox server.

I desperatly wanted to avoid having it look like a windows PC screen, so I used Object Dock (a free download) as a front end.

The screen is a Hope Industries industrial unit. I have about 14 of them in my plant. Very tough but pretty pricey at aroud $1200 each. (I got a bargain on that one ). But any touch screen would do. It even works pretty good on a mouse or touchpad based system.

The force is very strong with this one

Did you notice one of my Force F/X Lighsabers leaning up against the speaker in the picture with the TV? I have the Blue Anakin and the Red Vader one. I need to get the Green Luke one next. I will not own a purple Mace Windu one.

My next project is to convert an old stand-up arcade game I have to a MAME unit. Read up on MAME, its some cool stuff.


Tim

[schrederman]

... is motorless flight. I don't own this sailplane anymore, but I sure miss being at cloudbase... PIK-20B - wingspan 49.2 ft. - Stall speed 36 kts. - Max airspeed 141 kts. - longest flight 479 miles -

[TTNewbees]

[ke5wdq]

My two hobbies are the jeep...





And the tow vehicle... New badges installed.

[cstover]

My wife is my other expensive hobby! She takes all my left over money!

[Fire Instructor]

Likely not as "expensive" as some of the others documented in this thread, but mine is fly fishing!!!


I also tie my own flies, which keeps me busy evenings, and during the off-season:

[4kmprs]

Said goodbye to my other toy today. 5 great years of happy sunny drives.

Thanks for the memories dad, I took care of it well and followed your lead and reminded myself that I was never lost but just taking the scenic route.

Time for the new owner to enjoy the ride.

[Rsgtivr6]

My expensive "hobby" is my family. I just carry the wallet, lol.

Had to sell the '08 Honda TRX700XX quad for the TT, my '95 YZ250 is up for sale, can't fit a stroller AND a pair of 12's in the trunk, and can't play video games when you don't have the free time left after the other stuff.

Some day I will get back to the fun stuff, but for now I am just a line of credit it seems, lol.

[ironj]

All my 'hobbies' are money holes.....lol....where to start......car?
03 10th anniversary cobra
Real long list of bolt on mods
598hp/502tq

[4kmprs]

Originally Posted by Rsgtivr6

My expensive "hobby" is my family. I just carry the wallet, lol.

Had to sell the '08 Honda TRX700XX quad for the TT, my '95 YZ250 is up for sale, can't fit a stroller AND a pair of 12's in the trunk, and can't play video games when you don't have the free time left after the other stuff.

Some day I will get back to the fun stuff, but for now I am just a line of credit it seems, lol.

the 2 seat sl500 definitely wasnt the family car. Lots of fun, but tough to decide who to take with me. it was bittersweet when the buyer drove it away, but it was also with a sesnse of satisfaction as it completed my plans to buy the new roo and still be in a really good cash position for our 3 week trip to Glacier.

of the three week trip, only our first night is planned. we will drive as much or as little as we want, and experience the side trips and tourist traps.

Our kids imaginations and interests will help guide us on this adventure.

Can' t wait!!!

[Rod Johnson]

I really should take some better pictures

[Rod Johnson]

I get a bill from the DMV almost every month