Custom Install Feature

CUSTOM INSTALL

HERITAGE HOME THEATRE HITS THE RIGHT NOTE

The clients for this project came to us at the beginning of a signifi cant renovation of a heritage property they were undertaking on Sydney’s Upper North Shore...

As avid music lovers, their brief to our

Senior Systems Integrator, Christian Lambros was to build a room that sounded like a dedicated home theatre but did not look like a conventional theatre — which they described as “typically dark and somewhat formal.” Instead, they wanted the room to be bright and casual… essentially a high-end media room that could also work for everyday use.

The room selected featured several large windows, a day bed and a fi replace, none of which could be moved. Although this was aesthetically pleasing and a unique space to work in, it did create some acoustic challenges — such as sound refl ections — as well as the challenge of ensuring the audiovisual equipment did not alter the overall aesthetics of the room in ordinary day-to-day use.

We partnered with acoustic experts Artnovion to assist with audio absorption at the front left and right walls to overcome this. Artnovion has long been the choice of interior designers and cinema designers, thanks to its stunning looks and superior performance.

The Artnovion designer liked the look of the wood trim absorbers and mimicked this on the front wall with Artnovion Avalon fl ow acoustic wall panels. The resulting acoustic improvements included improved speech intelligibility, superior noise control and the elimination of unwanted reverberations. The front Left, Right and Centre sound stage is managed by three (3) Bowers

CUSTOM INSTALL

CUSTOM INSTALL

& Wilkins CT8.2 LCR Custom Theatre Speakers.

The B&W CT8.2s offer a unique modular baffl e design that allows them to be used as an LCR speaker in either the vertical or the horizontal position. With signifi cant performance to match their in-room counterparts in the 800 Series Diamond series, these large onwall speakers were cut into a brick wall and then mechanically isolated on rubber mounts to ensure the best possible sonic performance.

Flanking the sides of the room and supporting the low-frequency reproduction are two (2) of JL Audio’s formidable In-Wall Subwoofer Systems with a Single 13.5-inch Subwoofer and 1,000 watts of amplifi cation. We then selected Bowers & Wilkins CWM7.3S2 in-wall speakers and Bowers & Wilkins CCM7.5S2 in-ceiling speakers to complete the room’s rear-channels and Atmos effects channels. The in-wall speakers were once again cut into the brick wall and all were colour-matched to the room paint to minimize the presence of the installation.

With the speaker array taken care of, we chose to use Krell’s Cinema 7 Power Amplifi er in this installation. Although the unit is the smallest in Krell’s multichannel amplifi er line-up, this unit is still more than capable with a conservatively rated 105 watts per channel into all seven channels at eight ohms with all channels driven. We chose Marantz’s excellent AV 7705 Processor to manage the sound processing. The AV 7705 offers a full 11.2-channel capability and has been specially designed for home theatre surround duties with eight HDMI inputs, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound decoding, multi-room sound and Hi-Res audio support.

To fi nish off the sound duties and ensure the best possible outputs, we installed a Thor PS10 Power Conditioner. The PS10 is an expert at stabilizing under/ over voltage 240V grid situations which translates to better sound and picture

CUSTOM INSTALL

CUSTOM INSTALL

quality while at the same time protecting valuable equipment.

All of these components were hidden away into two rolling professional equipment racks ganged together and hidden under the bench.

In a home theatre, the centrepiece will always be the projector, so we installed Sony’s VPL790ES Laser Projector, which uses Sony’s latest laser projection technology to deliver a spectacularly bright (2000 lumens) image for a contrast and colourrich HDR picture capability. This projector is a standout, with Sound+Image magazine describing it in their review in December 2021 as: “The best home theatre projector picture that we have ever experienced — and we mean ever.”

The projector was housed in an Ultralift motorized projector dropper, which signifi cantly contributes to the system’s discreet design by allowing the projector to be concealed entirely inside the ceiling when it’s not in use. To control the entire system, we employed a Savant Pro solution, programmed specifi cally to the client’s requirements. Savant has a complete set of automation control features, controllable via app or through Savant Pro remote devices. This provides the clients with one-touch solutions that allow them to sit back and enjoy this exceptional high-end media room.

This system is a good example of how you can have a capable theatre installation without compromising the aesthetics or the functionality of a multi-use living space.

EQUIPMENT LIST

• 3 × B&W CT8.2LCR on wall speakers • 2 × B&W CWM7.3S2 in wall speakers • 2 × B&W CCM7.5S2 in ceiling speakers • 2 × JL SYS213 Dual 13” Fathom in wall subs and 1000-watt amp • 1 × Sony VPL790ES Projector • 1 × Severtson 141” Ultra-wide acoustically transparent screen • 1 × Marantz AV 7705 AV processor • 1 × Thor PS10 Power conditioner • 1 × Apple TV • 1 × Panasonic DPUB9000 Bluray player • 200 metres of Inakustik MSR speaker cable • 16 × Artnovion Avalon fl ow acoustic wall panels • 7 × Inakustik Premium XLR cables

Inakustik Micro Air Technology

INAKUSTIK

Cables are essential in all hi-fi

systems, but choosing the correct cable for your particular application can be tricky in a world where there are thousands of manufacturers, most of whom seem to build almost identical products using almost identical materials.

So when you fi nd a German company whose cable designs are entirely unlike those of any other cable manufacturer and whose cables are clearly highly engineered for their purpose, it’s time to take note. Inakustik has been making cables since 1977 and uses ‘air technology’ insulation in its cables to deliver a unique take on cable dielectrics.

The approach — and the resulting cable performance — has certainly convinced us here at Len Wallis Audio. “A cable should not offer anything additional to your system, nor change anything. It should simply reveal the quality of your equipment, and that neutrality is what makes Inakustik’s Air and Micro Air cables perfect for all reference systems,” says Tim Wallis.

Inakustik’s latest creation is the Reference LS-404 Micro Air speaker cable. The complex manual assembly of each cable is conducted in Inakustik’s German factory, including both mechanical and performance testing quality control conducted on each fi nal cable. The new designs retain the air-insulation concept from the successful higher Reference Air series, where a three-metre pair of speaker cables can set you back more than $10,000. But the new Micro Air confi guration allows a more affordable solution.

The LS-404 Micro Air speaker cables are available as three-metre pairs terminated with banana plugs for $1,600, or terminated with spades for $1,700. Bi-wire confi guration and custom lengths are available to special order. Despite the more favourable pricing, the new designs maintain Inakustik’s use of air as a central component in the insulation dielectric, which the company claims reduces cable capacitance signifi cantly.

Normal dielectrics can increase capacitance many times over with the material that insulates a cable absorbing electrical energy and releasing it later, causing smearing of the music signal. Air does not do this and is therefore the ideal insulator. The Micro Air cables use a diamond-shaped structure to create chambers that increase the distance between conductors, and so also increase the air content in the insulation.

Eight concentric high-purity copper conductors are used in the Reference LS-404 Micro Air in addition to the air dielectric (compared with 24 cores in the Reference Air speaker cable). The multicore architecture allows the magnetic fi elds of the positive and negative conductors to overlap and neutralise, reducing the cable’s inductance.

The surfaces of the banana plugs and spades are fi nished with a durable rhodium coating, with the contact surfaces and the screw connection of the spades also manufactured from a single piece, thereby avoiding contact resistance. “The proof is in the pudding with cables,” concludes Tim Wallis. “I strongly suggest an audition.”