New Build - The IKE afterstorm

[silvrhand]

Well,

IKE came and went along with everything on the first floor, so now I get to do a new home theatre for the living room, which is a huge room.

32x28ft with angled ceilings, I'm guessing around @10,000 cubic feet. The home theatre system before was underpowered, and not the best. So with the rebuilding downstairs I've decided to see what I can afford to improve the downstairs since it gets a lot of usage.

So right now I'm looking at the following budgets:

TV: 55-65" LCD
viewing distance @13'
$2500-5000 budget

Current ideas for TV:
Sony KDL-55XBR8 (might be out of budget, waiting to see what comes of the pricing)
Sharp LC-65SE94U



Home Theatre:
$2500

Requirements:
- HDMI switching (4 input)
- HDMI upscaling (hate having to switch aspect ratios all the time)
- network/ipod intergration would be nice
- high power (due to room size)
- bit stream (blu ray)
- 5.1 is fine IMHO, could be wrong though open for opinions.

I've been out of the home theatre range for a while due to several things but was hoping that someone could work what they would consider a good setup and I could hopefully learn a few things.

 

[Halon451]

Are you entirely sold on an LCD TV for that price range? That budget could definitely get you into some of the nicer plasmas out there, but I understand if it's a matter of personal preference.

Since you mentioned that the system you had before was underpowered, are you upgrading the downstairs electrical system, or perhaps establishing a dedicated circuit for you HT?

As for the rest of your system... whew, there are so many options. What did you have before?

Post some pics of the room if you can, and sorry for the damage incurred by the storm. As a Florida native, I know all too well the pain of having to deal with the aftermath. At least you get to upgrade your HT on account of it!

 

[silvrhand]

Are you entirely sold on an LCD TV for that price range? That budget could definitely get you into some of the nicer plasmas out there, but I understand if it's a matter of personal preference.

Since you mentioned that the system you had before was underpowered, are you upgrading the downstairs electrical system, or perhaps establishing a dedicated circuit for you HT?

As for the rest of your system... whew, there are so many options. What did you have before?

Post some pics of the room if you can, and sorry for the damage incurred by the storm. As a Florida native, I know all too well the pain of having to deal with the aftermath. At least you get to upgrade your HT on account of it!

Plasma = heat/power and the room has a lot of natural light. I currently have my Panasonic 37" plasma in there and during the day it's a bit rough at times.

I will post a picture of the room when I get home tonight, it's a bit of a challenge as all 4 corners of the room are entry/exit points for the house. There is really only one option for the TV setup that the boss will agree too, I'm under some restrictions from the wife unit.

 

[silvrhand]

Here was my initial thoughts:

Onkyo TXSR806S
Home Theater Receiver

Polk Audio Monitor 70 BK
Floor-standing Speaker

Polk Audio CS2 Black
Center Channel Speaker

Polk Audio FXiA4 Black Pair
Surround Speakers

Polk Audio PSW110 (BK) (two of these)
10" 100-watt Powered Subwoofer