Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Maybe I should start a v4.0 build thread somewhere

That is a phenomenal job! Nicely documented too. What do you think about adding a bottom "plate" to attach to the bottom of the feet? That would make it closer to the SVS look and you could move it around without risking breaking one of the feet off.

I was looking into the idea of the bottom plate, and research is showing that it won't impact performance at all. I thought that it would, but I guess it doesn't.

It does, as you elude to, help make the feet more "snag proof" in that there is a much decreased chance that a foot could be bent since each foot is supported by the other three feet via the bottom plate.

Even these taller, skinner feet are really solid. Shorter and fatter ones should work even better.

We'll see what happens.

One stop at Lowes, and another at Home Depot (plus a shipment from Parts Express) and a lot of progress was made in a matter of 30 minutes.

Lowes had the new feet I was looking for, Home Depot had the cord caulk that was needed for sealing the woofer and amp, but still allowing for them to be removed later if need be. Parts Express was the source of my black deep thread screws.

Here is what I've got:

Caulked (last night) port tube on the top.


New feet (needs paint obviously):


Rope/cord caulk:


Woofer installed:


Inside look at the woofer:


Amp installed:


Front view with new (unpainted) feet, and a movie showing the size:


So tonight, besides cleaning up the dining room (again), I will get the new feet painted as long as they meet with approval, and I will move the sub down to the theater and see about a test run with it.

Thoughts on the new feet?

Man, that is impressive. I like the shorter feet.

I think the feet look great.

That thing is huge.

Can't wait to hear your listening impressions.

The new feet look better, Nick, and should be plenty long enough to give the driver room.

The feet look great. I also like the subtle texture of the finish on the box. You can see it well in the "inside look at the woofer" picture. Also, good call deciding not to use screws on the port.

Well, as life would have it, I didn't get a chance to give it a test run tonight. I put it all together, then went on a 4 mile walk with my wife and dog. Then came home and mowed the grass (it got dark, so I was using the outside flood lights to guide the way) and then I came inside painted the new feet, took a shower, and now my wife and oldest want to watch a movie. It is already after 10:00 pm, so no time to test things out and still get done with the movie before it is REALLY late/early. Tomorrow... No excuses.

FYI, it is 16.75" wide by 17.5" deep and 33" tall (with shorter feet).

What, may I ask, are the benefits of soffits, besides the obviously easy to run cables and lighting in them. I see them all the time in custom theater builds, is there a sonic benefit?

Hi Scott and welcome to this massive thread.

The soffits that I put in, and most soffits for that matter, don't do much if anything for the acoustics inside the room. There are too many flat/hard surfaces.

People use them to run wiring and lighting, as you mentioned, as well as a place to hide long HVAC runs of insulated flexible duct so that it has plenty of space to obsorb the sound waves traveling through it.

Now, there ARE people that have turned their soffits into large acoustical pannels/bass traps. They basically replace the bottom and sometimes the sides (with just enough structural support) with acoustical dampening material and then cover the soffit with acoustical fabric. That is a lot more work, but I am sure that there are great acoustical benefits to it since you are adding absorption to the entire "top of the walls" corners around the whole room.

You can still run gyour HVAC ducts, cabling, lighting, etc through that space as well.

For me, personally, it was a matter of time and money. It would have cost significantly more and taken a lot more time to do. I am not building an "all out, no holds barred" theater, but something that is more modest and still has a number of improvements over a basic theater space.

My 2nd sub goes in tonight, and I am already getting my wife convinced that it is time to build acoustical panels for the walls. For about $150 in materials and a little bit of build time, I should get a great improvement in sound. I really should have built those sooner since the "bang for your buck" value is so high.

This is by no means that "best theater build ever" and I've learned a number of things along the way. I am super happy with how the theater looks (in person when the camera colors aren't wonky) and sounds compared to any previous version of my theater (2 other houses, 3 other theaters).

Thanks for stopping by and if you have other questions, just fire away.

EDIT: Here is a link with someone asking about how to add acoustical material to a soffit. A user there, BIGmouthinDC links to an AWESOME theater (that by the way uses Axiom Speakers) that put acoustical material in the soffits and how it was done. He makes it sound so simple, but then again 'BIG' helps with installs as a living.

How to mount rigid fiberglass to soffit?