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.

 

[yamashita]

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!

The resolution and brightness of the projector will affect its picture quality, and using a good screen can also help some picture quality.
My room has a large picture window that turns white when projected during the day, and my wife kept complaining that I should not replace the TV with a projector until I bought a vividstorm s pro UST alr screen.
The color contrast of the picture is also better than the previous white screen when watching movies during the day.
I hope you find this information helpful.

 

[TLS Guy]

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!

The best advice I can give you is to be patient and wait until after your move. I have moved an AV room and it is a massive undertaking and expensive.

I built my current room to have both OLED and projector. It is wired for such. However, I have never gone down the projector rabbit hole. The picture of my 77" LG OLED is so superior to any projector and screen, I have no intention to put in a PJ and motorized screen. I am totally happy with what I have.

We can between us advise you on the install.

If you are building out a new room, then I advise putting in conduit for all wiring. Try and get the equipment away from below the screen. I think that looks awful though commonly done. I will get push back on that, but will not change my view about it.

Are you planning new construction when you move? Having either a new build, or unfinished basement or other area is a big plus. The equipment you may buy now, may not be ideal for your new space.

AV rooms in basements are common but increasingly risky with climate change. I have owned five homes, and all four of the previous homes had water issues at one time or another. The previous home only had one wall below ground and it still gave trouble, and I had to call in the "Basement Authority."

My eldest daughter is just buying her first home, but needs services of the above firm. One of my sons had to spend a fortune completely rebuilding the basement and one small area still gave trouble.

I think with climate change and massively increases rain events, basements are an increasingly bad idea in many areas depending on geology. If you are in any area which is geologically over a glacial retreat, then avoid basements, or at least don't put anything expensive down in them. For many years flood insurance has only covered furnaces and any other items that can not be moved out of a basement. So if you loose your AV equipment in a basement it will be a total loss.

I made darn sure there was no basement in my new home build of five years ago.

 

[Squishman]

If you decide on Klipsch Heritage for your mains (I would personally stay away from any Klipsch that is not Heritage) Crites has a center speaker (CSC-1) that is the only thing non-Klipsch that would match with them. I have one betwixt my Heresy III's and it is amazing after trying a handful of Klipsch centers that never cut the mustard for me.