Home Theater Fun

[dogbert]

My winter project is finishing the basement and I am adding a theater room. Some home theater questions for you guys...

Are you happy with the projector set-up? Any issues or lessons learned?

What would you consider the best value for home theater speakers? Would you go with a out of the box system (been looking at KEF and Klipsch)? Any strong thoughts on in-wall speakers?

My walls are framed, but I still have a great deal of flexibility. Any other ideas or things I should consider?

Thanks in advance.

Make sure you get a decent sub and good front/center speakers. The rear speakers don't need to be super high quality since they are there mainly for surround sound. I'm very happy with my Klipsch 12" sub. I have it in a decent sized room 15'x20' and it's more than enough. Kinda makes the whole house shake.

I am spoiled with my front speaker set-up. I have MB Quart tower speakers and an MB Quart center channel setup. It's driven by a Yahama AV receiver. I had originally gotten the MB Quart L/R speakers a while back when they first started assembling them in the US and got a smokin deal on them. Then I found the center channel speaker on one of those liquidation sites for $50. I doubt they really knew what they had, but that's like a $1500 center channel speaker.

I'm in the process of replacing the rear speakers, but I have to negotiate with the wife on what she'll allow me to do. I'd love to have them mounted in my ceiling, which is on a 45 degree angle downward where it meets the rear wall. I'd be interested in what you find for rear channel speakers.

[ragboy]

This new panasonic projector is amazing, would do it again, should have done it before. The only thing I would say, is make sure you can control the light in the room completely. It still looks great when watching TV with some light and all, but when I am watching a good flick, if it is dark, the experience is unmatched.

I have had infinity and klipsch speakers in the past, but always seemed to want LOUDER, or more clarity. When I got the Definitive Tech speakers, they were very expensive, however, I have NEVER purchased another set. They rock, and I love em. Me keeping speakers that long is an amazing thing, and even though they were expensive, I would say it has saved me the money I was spending before, changing speakers every year or so. Make sure your subs are clean and powerful.

You dont need an electric screen, but make sure you get the good screen, it makes a huge difference.

[Fit to be Tige]

From a music standpoint, we are fairly picky and have an awesome pair of KEF Reference speakers I bought in 2002 and absolutely love them. So I agree that spending the $$ can be worth it. I'm just not sure for my theater room it will be worth spending that much. I guess I was hoping to be under $2k for the speakers, or even less if that's reasonable and still get great sound.

[dogbert]

From a music standpoint, we are fairly picky and have an awesome pair of KEF Reference speakers I bought in 2002 and absolutely love them. So I agree that spending the $$ can be worth it. I'm just not sure for my theater room it will be worth spending that much. I guess I was hoping to be under $2k for the speakers, or even less if that's reasonable and still get great sound.

You should be able to swing that.