[fjhuerta]

Here is the deal. I am building my new house.

I am very, very happy about it.

I have already bought lots of Ethernet wire. And a 100 MB/sec switch. And I won't be afraid to use them both.

I will install a central server to act as a proxy, gateway, firewall, web, file and printer server. I will store all my MP3s there, and I will source music everywhere via the wired network and the inalambric (IEEE803.11B) network.

But I still want more.

Think. What would YOU do if you had the opportunity of installing, or modifying anything in your home? Please tell me. I am anxious to hear what you think.

Help me make my home a home fit for a techno-nerd.

Thank you all for your suggestions!

 

[hongda]

seeing your previous posts, I assume you already have a plan for a home theater. Some nice features might be recessed walls or panels for monitors if you still have CRT monitors. Built in power generator/line conditioner for your audio equipment? If your a tweaker, a large workshop.

 

[dhwilkin]

Anything w/in reason, or anything at all? And do you only want technology suggestions, or any sort of cool idea? Because I've got a ton of suggestions for the latter, including a secret passage to the "Headroom", w/ flickering lights, using dry ice to produce lots of mist! And for multiple story houses, an elevator would be mandatory.

For a somewhat more practical suggestion, get dedicated, high-quality powerlines and watt-gate outlets installed everywhere.

 

[joe]

hmm...

home theater setup, including a nice fat xenon 35 mm projector...

pool... maybe a secret passage in the house....

video editting studio...

 

[fjhuerta]

Hello Hongda! Nice to see you again!

Yes, you are right. Actually, believe it or not, the HT was the first room to be built. It's an 8 x 3 (meters) room, quite nice. The architect will soundproof it, and I'll build some "tubes" (ala HeadRoom) in order to tune it. It's very nice!

I also got an DLP projector, and will re-use all of my equipment.

As for the rest... oops, I forgot... it should be "within a reasonable budget". I'd kill to have a xenon lightbulb projector.. but I can't.

How about X-10 devices? A nice workshop (VERY good idea!!!)? A jacuzzi with 2 headphone amps in it? (just kidding?).

The point is, within a reasonable budget, what modifications would you do to a house? Since the first walls (of the rest of the house, the HT is done!) have not yet been put up, I can do almost anything...

 

[chych]

Upgrade the outlets everywhere with wattgates... there are cheaper outlets out there though, wattgates are like $200 each... Get some dedicated electric circuits in your HeadRoom and HT room.

Also, I'd look up on room acoustics and design the HT so that it works well... like, have a custom ceiling and walls or something.

Oh yeah, get those windows that Larry Ellison has in his house, you know, the ones that cost $100,000 each and tint

 

[jhoelter]

Quote:

I have already bought lots of Ethernet wire. And a 100 MB/sec switch. And I won't be afraid to use them both. I will install a central server to act as a proxy, gateway, firewall, web, file and printer server. I will store all my MP3s there, and I will source music everywhere via the wired network and the inalambric (IEEE803.11B) network.

Well, since this is an audiophile site, I'd like to ask why you would be using MP3s? There are plenty of lossLESS compression algorithms out there - why not use one of those and preserve some of your audio's fidelity? I'd assume you'd be ripping CDs->MP3...so instead just buy a bigger drive and save em as lessless audio files. Most music will compress losslessly to about 50-60% of original size, not too much worse than high quality MP3s. Anyway, some common formats are Shorten (.shn), FLAC, and Monkey's Audio. With a 100Mbit network you would be able to stream them easily.

Later,
Jeff
-----
"Friends don't let friends use mp3s."

 

[Gluegun]

Get. A. Woman's. Help.

Geeks loose track of some of the obvoius things, sometimes....

 

[Tim D]

I don't think the difference between lossless and hi-quality Mp3 is that big a difference if the bottleneck is most often the soundcard.

I would think about lossless if I wanted true archival quality. But even if my CD collection was destroyed I'd still be pretty pissed even though I had a true archival back-up. On the otherhand, it would certainly be better than the Mp3 rips if such a thing were to occur.

Course the bigger your CD collection is...the bigger the difference between lossless compression and high-quality lossy compression is in hard disk space.

As for the house thing...I'd have a perfectly built speaker room hehe perhaps no windows...hell no doors either! Maybe a firemans pole for access. If you are into Mp3's, get a flat screen 21 inch LCD display running some digital audio visualizations. And one badass soundcard like the LynxTwo which has TRUE high S/N ratio. Most consumer *SBCRAP* cards brag their THEORETICAL S/N ratio that the chip produce...theoretical as in another universe where electrical interference does not exist. The LynxTwo boasts a true realworld measured SN ratio and dynamic range of 116...this is better than my CD player (actually many CD players) by far. The digital out supports word clocking features and all that mumbo jumbo...but its analog stage is probably good enough to be superior to its digital output.

LynxTwo has a sampling rate that is so high it could play DVD-Audio with appropriate DVD-rom and decoder (supports up to 192khz sampling rate). You could also write your own upsampling algorithms to turn your audio playback into like 192khz as well. Of course this is where lossless algorithms would really benefit...if you had a badass card like this one. Its only $1000 bucks though.

 

[morphsci]

I would run a good grade of RG-6 shielded coaxial cable to every room, at least two runs to each faceplate (there may be more than one faceplate per room. I would also run speaker cable to all rooms. My favorite for this would be Canare starquad 4S8 cable. I would also run two sets of Ethernet cat5e, one for data and one for voice. I would also have all cable originating from central, easily accessible junction boxes. Instead of Wattgates I would just use standard Leviton, Hubbell or other hospital-grade isolated ground outlet.

 

[fjhuerta]

Guys... you are simply AWESOME!!!! I knew I would get nothing else than top notch responses around here.

Jeff - I don't believe in MP3 as a Hi Fi medium anymore than you do. But I'll mostly be using them as background music - in the living room, in the garden, etc. Thus, it doesn't make much sense to use more bytes than necessary.

That, and me winning my Expanium on that contest

GG -Nice to hear from you again! And yes, the "woman touch" comes courtesy of my girlfriend. She is cool about the whole house wired, tho. She *just* doesn't want me messing around with interior decorations. Which, basically, is fine with me.

Tim - Do you think that soundcard would be a better solution than a crappy SBLive! and a decent DAC?

Chych - The HT room will have accoustic panels, a motorized screen and heavy drapes (there have to be some windows and doors in there, at least according to my girlfriend

The architect / engineer in charge of the project also worked on a theatre in Mexico, so he told me he could design a very good listening room for cheap.

Morphsci - I think your answer was great. Just when I read it I remembered how I always wanted to have at least one more cable "from here to there". I was thinking about multiplexing the video/audio signal on the telephone wire, but your solution is far more elegant and flexible.

Once again, thank you very much for your answers....keep 'em coming!

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

How about X-10 devices? A nice workshop (VERY good idea!!!)? A jacuzzi with 2 headphone amps in it? (just kidding?).

X-10 devices rule.my entire home is computer controlled,remote browsing from the sofa,MP3 Anywhere for full remote control of winamp,liquid player,windows media player,cdrom

Workshop-put that sucker in an "outbuilding" so you have a getaway shack,we all need some room to be alone sometimes.

The jacuzzi with headphone amps-better make them cordless or -BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!!

Suggestions-before the sheetrock goes up wire that house for ANY future changes.That means telephone lines,ethernet,speaker outlets from a main amp "closet",coax for remote video feeds,etc.
And I mean every single room.Things change,habits as well as decor
And do not forget the outside outlets man , very important.Again-speaker or line level audio feed for entertaining guests,telephone line so you don't have to go bounding into the house when doing yardwork,only to get there late and with bruised shins

And a computer hookup just in case you want to do some outside work on a nice day,the wireless ones have reliability issues.

 

[fjhuerta]

Quote:

Originally posted by rickcr42 X-10 devices rule.my entire home is computer controlled,remote browsing from the sofa,MP3 Anywhere for full remote control of winamp,liquid player,windows media player,cdrom

Rick - can you please describe how is your house wired, and how can you do all those wonderful things?

Is it possible to control X-10 using your PC?

My situation is trickier - no sheetrock. In Mexico, *everything* is made out of bricks and concrete (too many earthquakes). So I have only one chance to do it right.

And I have less than three weeks to design it!

 

[Tim D]

http://www.lynxstudio.com/lynxtwo.html

Yes I think a good soundcard to start with is better than feeding a poor digital signal to a DAC. Keep in mind the SBstuff(i'll be nice this time), is a mass market consumer product that does a satisfactory job of computer audio. The demographics of computer users are not that discriminating when it comes to computer audio.

There are plenty of pro-audio cards that are cheaper than a LynxTwo however. But believe me, just because the SBstuff can produce a digital output, and this LynxTwo can produce a digital output, does not mean they are the same. For background music and in-the-wall speakers, maybe an audilogy would suffice. But you asked about "dream" setups. Otherwise you can look into something like a card that can pass unadulterated 44.khz digital to something like an ART D/IO...which might be pretty nice too. The LynxTwo soundcard has an audio bandwidth or sampling rate that is superior to a great majority of DAC's anyhow. At least I haven't seen too many SACD or DVD-A DAC's available. The LynxTwo is a studio card that places it performance closer to next generation hi-rez digital audio. SBcards have yet to master even CD generation that I have seen. SBLive claimed to, but was off, Audiligy...well like always, there are always claims.

 

[Budgie]

Think security too. A closed circuit camera at the main entrance, with the signal injected into the cable tv system on an unused channel, so it is avaliable from any tv set. It can also include sound, as many cctv cameras now have built in mic's. An intercom to the front door is also nice so you can talk without opening the door. You may want to put a camera in other areas also. And in the HT room.