Tell me about your Home Theater Setup

[The Monkey]

My Pop has asked me to recommend a home theater for him. $10k budget including HDTV. Any ideas, suggestions. Anyone with similarly priced setups out there?

[OverlordXenu]

Does he have a preference for the type of TV? I'm loving my $1800 60" LCoS tv by Sony.

[The Monkey]

He'd probably prefer plasma, but is open to all.

[n_maher]

How big is the room it's going in Vincent? Is this going to be a hybrid HT/TV room? Basically I think the first thing that you need to figure out is what is an appropriately sized TV. If it's a HT only room then you'll only be dealing w/ high-def content so you can go larger. If this is a dual duty room my experience is that it's better to err on the slightly smaller side so that regular def material doesn't look awful.

[The Monkey]

It's going to be primarily home theater/hi-def. It's ok if standard def is sub-par as there are other TVs in the house.

EDIT: hi-def viewing definitely will include sports/action.

[ronnielee54]

It has been my experience that if the room has a fair amount of natural light such as a living room or den, and it cannot be significantly darkened in the day, that you tend to get better results with LCD's than Plasma's. If it is going to be in a basement and you have a good installer artound your area, you might check out an overhead setup.

[fordgtlover]

Is a projector an option?

I've got a infocus SP5700 projecting onto a 100 inch home made screen. It's only SD, but I dig it. As with almost all projectors light control during the daylight hours is an issue, but I have mostly managed that without making the room look like a photographic darkroom.

So far I haven't made an in-roads into HD at all, but I'll probably go for another projector - eventually.

Are you interested in amp and speakers as well?

[fierce_freak]

Also, if you can't control the lighting in the room, definitely go for a screen with a matte finish as opposed to shiny. I have matte on my 40" Samsung (4069 I think), and I'm very happy with it.

[Dusty Chalk]

A friend of mine has Gallo Reference 3.1's for front left and right, I think that's a perfect solution for the "single person sweetspot" problem. They retail at US$3K. Definitely get that woofer amp.

[guzziguy]

Sorry to bring this old thread back to life, but I have similar questions and figured it would be best to keep just one Home Theater Setup thread.

I recently took delivery of a Samsung LN40A640 TV. It's great and has me interested in also building a low level HT setup around it. I'm wondering if anybody can recommend an "all in one" HT package to go with this TV? It must include BlueRay support and I'm looking to only spend between $500 and $1K. Here's an acceptable example from OneCall.com. Of course, I'm hoping that you can recommend something twice as good and half the cost.

Here is some info about the setup:

• In 14'3" x 12' 4" bedroom. So need smallish speakers.
  
• Used only for HT.
  

So please feel free to recommend HT solutions for me and, as I am a complete HT noob, please feel free to recommend features I might need. Also please point out any good online references that I can peruse.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

[grawk]

A decent cheap ht receiver that has what you need

+

Home Theater Direct middy and flat panel speakers and a sub.

[tkam]

Good luck, there isn't going to be much in that price range that supports blu-ray. Your really asking quite a lot for that price range, 5.1 speakers + blu-ray + something to drive them. Hard to squeeze that under $1k and have it not sound horrible.

[guzziguy]

A decent cheap ht receiver that has what you need

+

Home Theater Direct middy and flat panel speakers and a sub.

This looks interesting. Of course, it also looks like it will quickly get me over the $1K limit.

Good luck, there isn't going to be much in that price range that supports blu-ray. Your really asking quite a lot for that price range, 5.1 speakers + blu-ray + something to drive them. Hard to squeeze that under $1k and have it not sound horrible.

I'm not looking for a top-notch setup, just a reasonable improvement over the TV's sound system. I've seen several packages with blu-ray under $1K. Of course, they very well might sound horrible. That's why I was hoping that somebody had actually heard some decent in the price range.

[grawk]

You're probably better off going 2.1 for home theater for bang for the buck. Add surround as you can afford it, but you'll do better maximizing your money on the front 2 to begin with.

[Grahame]

Don't you want something like ...

Cool Stuff: Star Trek Home Theater | /Film

The Bridge Home Theater

(you know you do )

[grawk]

I should also say that at this point, I also wouldn't pay extra for bluray yet. I'd take the extra cost of the bluray player, and put it towards better speakers. The bluray players will only get cheaper, and better.

[guzziguy]

Dan, you just love to complicate my life, don't you.

While you're at it, can you recommend the receiver?

[grawk]

In your budget, it doesn't matter, get whatever's cheap

[Dusty Chalk]

$350 receiver and speakers

$150-$200 Blu-ray player (depending on whether or not you're willing to settle for a refurb)

I mean, jesus christ, the best speakers we can come up with are at least ...what is it? The AudioEngine ones? So you're not going to be able to get those and a blu-ray player and a pre-pro...or speakers and a receiver (which is how I'd do it) for $500. I mean, come on!

I recommend separating out the player and receiver, instead of getting a one-box solution -- heat is not a transport's best friend.

[Blackmore]

I would say, go mini as possible aego t system : acoustic energy

Personaly I own this one, which stands as front and easy moveble to any place and can be used with any source, bought years ago, great sound, imo

aego 2 : acoustic energy

Or buy one of CANTON's systems CANTON pure music - German Loudspeaker Tradition since 1972 (en)

I own 3 speakers from CD series, one front CD50 ( now CD50II ) and 2x back CD100 ( now CD100II )

Both manufactures are very stylish and great quality, imo.

[n_maher]

I'm not sure I can see a way to do this that doesn't strike me as just wasting $$ unless you're willing to shop used. All of the prepackaged systems I've heard have left me seriously wanting. And for HT I'm just not that picky either...

[morphsci]

I'd also recommend going 2.1 and looking at some of the dvdievers from NAD, Arcam, Onkyo, etc. Trying to get BluRay in there now will seriously cut into the SQ as would 3 more speakers.

[Grand Enigma]

av123 has a fantastic deal ($1,500) on an X Series 5.0 setup that you would be hard pressed to beat at any price. All you might need is a sub but certainly not necessary.

You can can a Pioneer PDP-5020FD for just under $2,000... 50" plasma, fantastic set. Again, you will be hard pressed to beat this TV at any price.

As for a receiver any of the Denon line will do. The 2809 or 3808 are excellent choices.

The Oppo BDP-83 would be the last link in the chain and at about $600 you can't go wrong for a truly universal player.

That would put us around $5,500 if you buy new. That would leave plenty of room from a nice sub, cabling and whatever else you might want/need

You can also go the projector route and still end up well within your budget. Something like the Sony VPL-VW40 or VW10 and the Optoma HD80 would do well for projectors and a 100" screen from Elite Screens or DaLite would fit perfectly. A screen and projector would run about $3,500 tops.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Grand Enigma

[grawk]

Scroll down a bit zach, it's now a $1000 budget

[Grand Enigma]

Fair enough. Portable DVD player with nice headphones.