CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I had some free time last week but not enough. I had some spare wood and a sheet of hardboard I purchased over a year ago for this purpose that needed to be cleared from the garage.

Basic frame out of 2x2's (all warped wicked)

Covered the frame with hardboard (1/8")

Hinged front and back.

Covered entire thing with Dazian Expo cloth (3M glued it directly to hardboard)

Placed spare Linacoustic duct liner inside cavity created by 2x2 depth and hardboard all around sides and bottom.

Added a 500 CFM inline duct fan for exhaust (well bought it, haven't added it yet)

Will place exhaust fan in next room with 6" flex duct inside joist cavity to top of projector hushbox and out to the storage room.

Enjoy...

Price was about $40 but I dont remember how much the wood was. Most was scrap including the fabric and most of the wood.

Knocked the sound floor down an incredible amount. I have watched one movie and the heat doesnt seem to be an issue but I want the fan just in case.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Flex duct adds a lot of turbulence noise, but with a 6" you may be OK.

500cfm is WAY more than you need -- 500cfm would totally exchange all the air in the hushbox every 4 seconds or so -- but I suspect it will pull a lot less than 500cfm in that application. See if you hear a roaring wind when you fire it up -- if so, you may want to find a smaller fan.

Hm. The specs say 500cfm "Max boost" (WTF is that??) and 200cfm "free air." By the time you run it through a 6" flex duct and suck air through the hbox, it will probably reduce it down to 100cfm or less. Which is right about where you want it.

stefuel · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:24 am Post subject:

I don't get the whole "hush box " thing. They're big, clunky and ugly. I haven't seen one that makes a decent installation look better. I say projectors, like breasts are best left out in the open. Wink

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Yeah...no fan curves on the box or in the manual so I figure I will take what I get.

THe hushbox isnt for looks...hence the name.

The look spart is just to pretend to pretty up the large box on your ceiling.

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

Looks pretty good to me. Nice job.

wallace

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 2:07 am Post subject:

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Yeah but for $30 doesnt everyone have to learn for themselves.

I am thinking mine will be pretty far away but I wont know until I wire it up and flip the switch.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 2:58 am Post subject:

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I thought about getting a remote temperature gauge...they have the ducstat for another $15 but I figured if it isn't too loud (read: quieter than an un-hushboxed XG) I will just let it run whenever the projector runs. Get the cheapest x10 switch to put it on and set up the remote to turn the fan on and off with the projector.

Yes I realize a timed off to let stuff cool down would be best, but I am going to experiment.

The projector spends less than 3 hours on a week at this point.

stefuel · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:10 am Post subject:

In this particular installation, it looks from the pictures that you have access to the rough framing above the projector. Do you have central A/C or forced warm air heat? If so and you have access to the supply and return trunk lines you could run those to the hush box and use the screen trigger to actvate a relay that closes the same connection from the thermostat that calls the circulation fan on manual. It would be quiet. It would share the heat with the rest of the house. The re-circulated air would be filtered.

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

That would be an option...albeit more expensive and slightly more complicated option.

It would be lots quieter but in the summer it would be pumping my cold basement air upstairs and dropping some heat in there to boot.

Let me try the $30 solution and I will be back in a few weeks with some more questions. Laughing

Ile · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:20 am Post subject:

stefuel · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:11 am Post subject:

stefuel · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:24 am Post subject:

"Unless you happen to own a REALLY quiet CRT projector, I think a hush box is absolutely mandatory equipment. Unless you're almost deaf. Then it doesn't matter."

Oooops, the cat's outta-da-bag now. That's one of the other bennies of owning a AmPro. They are quiet and they can be made quieter. Mine has about 25,000 hours on it now and the factory fans are starting to get louder. Soon I will be on a quest for the perfect replacement fans for it.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Mark_A_W · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:50 pm Post subject:

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

No fair, Mark. You should also include butt-ugly hushboxes like mine if you want an honest comparison. Laughing

(And trust me it looked worse in person than in this picture!)

FWIW that hbox was on my XG. I haven't needed it since going to the 8500 and I just tore it apart to recycle parts last week.

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

bbfarmht · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:54 am Post subject:

When I started using my 6pgxtra I was amazed at how loud it sounded compared to my 808s. To describe the difference I would say it is like a diesel engine compared to a gas engine.