these days the center of many living
rooms is of course a TV but regardless
of where you put it because of all the
extras that go with it things can get
messy very quickly but what if we could
make all of this go away
leaving us with a beautifully minimal
living space we've got some plants a
nice cozy fireplace and that's pretty
much it also it might appear because
this is no ordinary fireplace it is in
fact an invisible home theater as this
video includes an ad from LG we've got a
massive 75-inch LG qned mini LED TV
inside here as well as a homemade 5.1
surround sound system with two
subwoofers and it even includes a
built-in gaming PC Blu-ray player
PlayStation 5 and more all in one nice
neat package that when you're finished
viewing can be closed up to be hidden
away leaving us with a beautifully
minimal living space and the best bit is
that it is of course all DIY let's get
to it
as you may expect wood is the ideal
material for the main structure of this
build and we'll be starting with two
long lengths of planed 2x4 Pine these
are going to effectively be the legs of
the unit as they all provide strong
structural support for everything from
the folding side speakers to the TV
itself to hold them parallel to each
other the plan is to screw them to a
large sheet of MDF this stuff is 18
millimeters thick so it's pretty heavy
but it's worth it as it will make the
unit super strong
there are a few additions that need to
be added to this before it gets mounted
to the wall however the first of which
is to add a few strips of MDF to the top
Edge to make a long box which will later
be the center speaker for the surround
sound system above the speaker is going
to be a chamber that houses all of the
hardware that's going to be hooked up to
the TV such as a PC console amplifiers
and more but more about this later
so after a good old Sam down it can now
be primed and painted with the final
color I'm going with a deep bluish gray
as being a dark color it should be
fairly unobtrusive when watching the TV
in addition to looking super modern
while it is far from finished we can at
this stage bring it indoors which is
just as well as there appears to be a
storm on the way this is absolutely a
two-man job but thanks to help from the
original perks it goes up without too
much trouble
now before screwing it in place it's
worth noting that there are various
electrical wires in the wall as well as
a water pipe embedded inside it so it's
very important to Mark out the danger
zones so that no disasters occur if you
ever end up doing a project similar to
this it's always worth Consulting with
an expert before drilling into walls
just to be on the safe side thanks to
the Pine legs all of the unit's weight
will be placed upon them rather than the
wall allowing the wall to merely prevent
the units from falling forwards still
it's vitally important that it's done
securely any failure here could result
in you getting squashed by a TV which
would be a pretty lame way to go so
again consult an expert if you ever do
anything like this yourself
so with the unit now mounted extremely
securely onto the wall we now need to
start thinking about the next step which
is of course to add the speakers now
when building any kind of speaker one of
the hardest things to do is actually
choose the right speaker drives as there
are literally thousands of options out
there and their selection has a huge
influence on the overall sound quality
particularly as most drivers have a
limited frequency range that they can
actually reproduce well this is why
speakers often consist of multiple
drivers each handling specific frequency
ranges so after much research and some
help from the guys over at sound Imports
I've settled on a selection that should
punch well above their weight
considering their cost and you can find
links to all of them in the description
below
focusing on the drivers for the center
channel for now I've got a single Dayton
audio air motion Transformer Tweeter for
high frequency detail which can be
paired with dual date and audio
reference drivers for smooth vocals
using an app like Q speakers we can see
that the ideal sealed enclosure volume
for these mid-tone drivers is two and a
half liters so we can use some dividers
to make sure that each one has a chamber
of this calculated Air volume and weld
glue sets we can sort out some holes for
the drivers
pinning a router in place to some MDF
with a screw allows us to use it a bit
like a compass to make the required
recessed holes for them although as the
AMT Tweeter is square a jigsaw is more
suitable here
once this has been painted it too can be
glued in place though I'm using some
screws as well to ensure that it's a
tight fit with no air gaps with the only
caveat being that they need filling
afterwards so that they can't be seen
now unfortunately we can't Mount the
drivers yet because once the filler has
dried it needs sanding down which would
of course just get the drivers all dusty
and we don't want that so in the
meantime I think we can start working on
the side speakers that are the method by
which we can also hide the TV these two
can be mainly built out of MDF although
the side that the hinges will be
attached to need to use the same 2x4
planed Pine as the main unit giving the
hinges something structural to be
mounted onto While most strong hinges
can be made to work here I thought I'd
invest in some fancy heavy duty
concealed hinges to go along with the
whole invisible concept so that they
will only be visible when opened as
you've perhaps already noticed I
actually made the cutouts for these much
earlier on in the build while the main
unit was still outside as it's much
easier to do with it on the floor
making sure that this is done correctly
at such an early stage also allows it to
be easily modified as required to make
sure that it opens and closes nicely
although it's always a good idea to
allow for plenty of tolerance for
adjustment later
now before gluing them together it's
important to again add the holes for the
drivers
the first hole is for the same model of
mid-range driver we used for the center
channel to keep the sound consistent but
this time instead of using an AMT
Tweeter we'll be going with a more
traditional soft Dome Tweeter which
still sound great but are much less
costly this leaves us with one last hole
to make which as you can see is
particularly large and that's because
we're going to build a subwoofer into
each of these side speakers for a really
impactful cinematic experience and we'll
be doing some clever mixing later to
make the most out of these as they are
key to making the surround sound system
sound amazing as these larger subwoofer
drivers are so powerful it's important
to add many braces to the back of the
front panel to stop it from resonating
and to separate the smaller drivers they
need to be boxed off again with a two
and a half liter enclosure
the glue I'm using for all of these
joints by the way slightly expands as it
dries which is ideal for air tightness
though to be doubly sure it's still a
good idea to complement it with screws
and with that they're ready to be
mounted in place and again many hands
make light work
to match it with the rest of the build
it can at this point be painted but to
make them look extra special I'm adding
a single strip of real Walnut veneer
which divides up the front and gives
them a really nice aesthetic
with the speaker drivers added to both
the center speaker and these new side
speakers it really is starting to come
together
now one of the coolest things about
these side speakers is just how smoothly
they open and close which is of course
going to eventually hide the TV now this
is such a key feature of this entire
build that I'm so glad this is working
as well as it does one thing that you
will probably notice is that we've got
two side speakers a center speaker and
two rear speakers now these are going to
be behind the listener on the other side
of the room as this is of course a 5.1
setup so we've got one two three four
five speakers but where's the point one
well that is usually a subwoofer and
that would be somewhere else in a room
but in this case with this build we've
actually Incorporated it into the side
speakers because these woofers go down
to like 20 Hertz so we can make them
pull double duty and to do that we're
going to use some very special
amplifiers what makes these amplifiers
so special is that they have an onboard
computer that you can manually program
to process the incoming audio signal
with a variety of algorithms these range
from simple things like mixing or volume
control to Advanced crossover filters
timing adjustments and equalizers it's
incredibly powerful stuff and should
allow us to make an audio system that
can genuinely rival high-end home
theater systems
as these boards feature four independent
outputs we can use a total of three
boards to bump this up to 12. one for
each driver and as you can see they're
mounted to an aluminum plate alongside
the power supply but how do we get a
Surround Sound audio signal to them well
these days the surround sound signal is
usually transmitted over HDMI and
thankfully there are decoder boards
available that can extract this surround
sound signal and split it out into its
individual analog channels perfect for
providing a 5.1 audio signal to our amps
we'll have some fun programming these
later but for now they can be mounted in
the top chamber and wide up to all of
the speakers using cable clips to keep
things somewhat neat even so it's not
exactly pretty but that's okay as the
plan is to hide it all by adding some
doors
concealed hinges are again ideal here
only these ones are much smaller and
while everything still needs a final
lick of paint these hide everything
inside the chamber quite nicely
as there's plenty of room inside this
chamber it's a great place to add any
extra devices such as a games console
and Blu-ray player and as there's still
room left over how about a gaming PC
unlike some of my other PC builds I'm
keeping this one simple with an open
frame concept utilizing a single sheet
of aluminum holding together the main
components
this can simply be screwed in place to
the space allotted for it and plugged in
now despite all of these heat generating
components the plan is to keep this
chamber cool with two Banks of fans that
will pull air up from behind the TV and
expel it through the Gap at the ceiling
so things are shaping up nicely but as
you can see we've still got this massive
area at the bottom that we still need to
do something with and I thought it would
be a great opportunity to complete the
whole chimney breast concept by adding a
fire the one I'm going with is long and
thin which should match the unit quite
nicely and as it's intended to be
embedded into walls a simple MDF frame
can be constructed for it allowing it to
Simply slot in place with a mantelpiece
finishing things off nicely though this
might look like hardwood it's actually
MDF with some more real Walnut veneer
applied to tie it in aesthetically with
the speakers and I think it does the job
so the addition of this fire really
helps to complete the look and I can't
quite believe how cozy it feels simply
with this warm glow and I think it will
make a big difference to the room when
it's in use now we do need to prepare
for adding the TV at this point and for
this we are simply going to add a TV
wall bracket earlier we've already added
the bolts for this which are held
captive by some nuts at the back
allowing the TV mounts to Simply screw
in place
while the unit itself is compatible with
pretty much any reasonably thin TV
having spent so much time on this it
makes sense to go with something a bit
more special and it's rather fortuitous
because LG is sponsoring this video with
their Q LED mini LED TV now this thing
not only features quantum dot Nano cell
technology for fantastic colors but
thanks to the mini LED backlight it can
actually darken various parts of the
backlight which result in really deep
blacks which isn't something that most
LED based TVs can do so fantastic to see
it here and I'm looking forward to
seeing how it performs when it's on the
wall this is definitely a two-person job
one of the coolest things about this TV
is just how thin it is over its entire
back side which means that for projects
like this it's perfect as it can just
slide into it allotted place and then it
won't get in the way when the speakers
fold inwards
to get the most out of its mini LED
backlight it's got Dolby Vision IQ which
can intelligently adjust the picture
settings depending on the ambient light
in the room and the content on screen so
that it always looks good whether on a
sunny day or a cozy Winter's Night
now if you like gaming it is a great
option as well it's got a inbuilt game
Optimizer which gives you all these
stats so presently we're running at 65
64 frames per second on the PS5 and the
reason why you can tell that is because
it's got AMD freesync so it actually
only updates the panel when it receives
an image from in this case the
PlayStation 5. and all this is obviously
thanks to it having built in HDMI 2.1
and it's got two of these ports so you
can get up to 120 frames per second from
either a PC or a PlayStation or any
future devices
if you'd like further details about this
LG qned mini LED TV you can find a link
in the description with which you can
check out its full specifications as
well as pricing in your region and of
course a massive thank you has to go out
to LG for supporting the project with
such an amazing centerpiece and honestly
it is perfect for a project like this
now there are a few things left to do
the most important of which is to
actually test out the speakers and see
just how deep they can go
programming the amplifiers for this is
surprisingly easy as any changes can be
heard in real time allowing the perfect
crossover points and gain levels to be
easily dialed in for pleasing sound
rendition the audio for the left and
right channels is incredibly Rich thanks
to the subwoofers going down to 20 Hertz
but the center channel sounds a bit thin
simply because of the limited size of
its drivers but this is where the amps
really shine as they have the ability to
split and mix the audio signals so we
can take frequencies that are too low
for the center channel to reproduce and
mix them into the signal that goes to
the main subwoofers as they both play
this extracted signal equally loudly it
will appear to originate from the center
making for a center channel that is
incredibly rich
we can also use this mixing ability to
play the LFE subwoofer signal on both
subwoofer drivers too so overall it's an
efficient way of getting the most out of
these drivers
some of you will have noticed that I've
gone with a sealed rather than ported
design for these subwoofers and the
reason for that is for tighter bass and
also because the room size itself boosts
space so having the subsealed results in
it being flat down to about 25 Hertz
anyway rendering a port somewhat
unnecessary and it does sound fantastic
it really is up there with some of the
top home Cinema setups I've ever heard
and it definitely gives the impression
of being in an actual Theater which is
really really cool so very good on that
front but this does leave us with one
last thing now which is to see how
invisible it is when it's closed up and
one thing that you may be anticipating
will be apparent here which is of course
there are some lines where the doors
meet but there is something that we can
do to make these much less visible and
surprisingly it's as simple as adding a
small overlap of masking tape that once
painted does a great job of concealing
the joins
while we're at it we can add some
finishing touches as well which not only
help to distract the eye from any
remaining lines but really add to the
overall look as well
so I hope you guys have enjoyed seeing
the build process of making an invisible
home theater and of course a big thank
you to LG for sponsoring this video and
sending over their qned mini LED TV for
it and you can of course find links to
it down below also in the description
you can find a 3D file that you can
inspect to get various dimensions of
this build and get a feel for how it all
fits together if you'd like to build one
yourself and you can of course visit the
Discord server and Forum if you get
stuck but other than that I'm Matt
you've been watching DIY perks and I
hope to see you next time goodbye for
now
foreign
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