New Home Theatre Advice

[spickering52]

I want to treat myself to a new home theatre system in our basement. The viewing area is 15x17 and opens to a back room similar in size. We will sit about 13 feet from whatever we select for our screen. Whatever I purchase, I would like to take with me when I plan to move in a couple of years.

I have contacted several local home theatre companies and am getting mixed opinions. I am very much a novice and would value opinions on the following:

• Budget 10k
• Projector 120in screen or OLED 83-85 in TV?
  • Any suggestions on a TV?
  • PJ suggestions? - I can adjust the light in the room, but have 8ft ceilings. the basement is finished
• Speakers- I have had Paradigm, Klipsch, and KEF suggested to me. 5.1 setup.
• I plan to stream my Apple TV movies, TV, and sports
• Should I try to buy everything online and set it up myself? Do you think I would save that much money?

Thanks, everyone!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Have you ever seen a movie with a bright HT projector on a 120-150” screen?

When I first saw it (SharpVision PJ) back around 1992, there was no going back for me.

Something like the Epson LS12000 2700-Lumen 4K Laser PJ. There are also less expensive 4K Laser PJ like the JVC NZ30, but it won’t look as great as the LS12000.

For a 120" screen, I would just get a nice cheap white screen from Amazon for like $300 and spend most of the PJ/Screen budget on the PJ itself. Have someone local (like Best Buy or someone else) install the PJ and screen for like $200 labor.

If you are installing In-wall and in-ceiling speakers, you could buy everything yourself, including all the wires and speakers and have somebody local do the labor for installation.

 

[shadyJ]

You would be saving a considerable chunk of money by setting everything up yourself. If you don't plan to do any fancy installation work with your walls, it should be pretty easy.

If you have good light control in your room, a good projector might be the ticket. I would allocate maybe $2.5k for the projector and about $1k for the screen. In that budget, I would reserve about $1.5k for a receiver, and the rest for speakers, subs, and accessories. For speakers in that price range, I might be looking at Monoprice Monolith THX stuff like some THX-365 standmount speakers and center, along with their THX subs. Hsu Research also has good stuff in that price range, so take a look at a set of CCB-8 speakers and a couple of VTF-3 mk2s or VTF-TN1s. That would have a pretty tremendous sound. SVS has the Prime series with a decent center speaker.

There is also a lot of bang for the buck to be had in getting active monitors instead of passive loudspeakers, in my opinion.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd go projector if you can, personally don't have a good spot for such, mostly due light. I can't imagine hiring someone to set up something that simple but might depend what type and how you want your projector positioned.