Movie buff inspired by dad to build impressive sound system in 5-room HDB flat

Heng YongJie’s passion for sound systems came from his childhood when his dad would take him to a video rental store to pick out a laserdisc to watch. Sometimes they would pick children’s movies and, at other times, action flicks.

“My dad had a surround sound setup at home and I had always been interested in it,” he recalls. “Then as I grew up, he helped me build one at my study table so I could watch movies from my desk.

“From there, I continued the journey. I’ve always been into speakers and sound.”

So when YongJie, 32, and his wife Cycelia Lim, 35, moved into their five-room HDB apartment in December last year, they planned their new home around the sound system — an important consideration for anyone trying to incorporate tech into their home, YongJie reckoned.

He says: “You have to build the house around the speakers, not renovate the house and then buy the speakers or you’ll run into problems.”

They have four ceiling speakers, which are 5.5 inches in depth, which means that the usual four-inch false ceiling in their HDB flat had to be extended to six inches to mount them.

He adds: “With so many speakers, cable management can be a nightmare if not managed properly from the beginning.”

They had to lay down speaker and HDMI cables first before getting the tiler to come in and lay the cement.

Their set-up helps "keep the audience part of the movie", YongJie says. 

"Like, you can hear the rain on the ceiling. You can hear the helicopter flying past."

YongJie’s dad had initially built his own home theatre system after watching Top Gun in the cinema in 1984.

“My dad was drawn to the sounds, like the planes flying across the sky, as well as the soundtrack,” he says. “So he wanted to build a sound system that could play Top Gun at home.”

It was perfect timing then, that YongJie and Cycelia had moved into their new apartment in time for the release of Top Gun: Maverick, which became available to watch on demand this August.

But of course, YongJie and his dad had to catch it at the premiere back in May first.

YongJie and Cycelia are carrying on the tradition, with movie nights a staple at their home.

He says: “Recently, we had a gathering and a cook-off, with three chefs in the kitchen cooking, while the rest — about 10 of us — were waiting in the living room watching movies.

“We watched Jurassic World, Pacific Rim — movies that could really show off the sound.”

Cycelia adds: “Another time, we had a movie marathon with my friends where we watched Iron Man and a lot of the Marvel movies.”

With such a powerful sound system, the couple tries to stay considerate of their neighbours.

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“There haven’t been any noise complaints so far. We lower the volume after 9pm and the movie nights mostly happen on Fridays and Saturdays,” YongJie says, “When we know they don’t have work the next day, or their kids don’t have school, then we’ll crank it up.”

Before they moved in, YongJie had left his number and a bag of potato chips with all his neighbours during their three-month renovation period, just in case they had any concerns.

Being an IT engineer, he adds: “I offered IT consulting services to them at the same time, ‘If you have a Wi-Fi issue give me a call and I can try to help you out.’”

Unfortunately, none of their neighbours have asked YongJie for tech support yet, but the offer still stands.

drimac@asiaone.com