New HT room

[Blue Man]

I am building a new home with a 15x20 HT, I plan on tearing the seating and using a projector and a 5.1 system. I need input on speakers and pros and cons of wall vs. ceiling mounted. the room is dedicated and I would like to spend about 5000.00 I am looking at the Sony VPLHS20 and AIM speakers, I want one powered sub and a butt shaker. What would you do and use?

 

[Snap]

Dedicated HT Go 7.1

First things first. If you are going with a "Dedicated HT room" and you are doing the seats and all the butt kickers and what not...go with 7.1 right off the bat. No doubt in my mind, unless the room will not support it.

Second: Is the 5K for everything or just speakers? I was not sure about that.

Third: In Ceiling speakers are awesome for looks, and the Wife Factor! If you have a dedicated HT room, I would rather see.....Bi-Pole/d-Pole side surounds, book shelf surround backs. Tower fronts. Nice center chan. and 2 subs! (2 nice well calibrated subs will all but remove the need for the butt kickers in my mind. They just draw attention to my butt instead of the movie. And no body but my wife needs to have that attention! )

But I am going to need to know if that 5K is for everything, or is if for the speakers. If it is for everything....It is not going to happen. At least not good anyways. Seating is going to run you at least 500 a chair. 7.1 speakers are going to run you at least 2500. Throw in receiver, DVD player, and lets not forget about the projector, and screen. You need 3K for a good projector and a half way nice screen. See what I am getting at??

Post some more details....

Blessed

Snap

 

[Blue Man]

Ht

It is a dedicated room.
I will not buy any theator seating.
I have thought of upgrading to a 7.1
I need projector, speakers, subs, wiring, and receiver.

I plan on a stepped platform to tear the seating.

 

[jcPanny]

Suggestions

Here are some sugestions for your new HT:

Panasonic AE900U: $1900 after rebate from visual apex or Sanyo PVL-Z4 for $2100
Screen: $200-1K

Speakers: Axiom M22ti or M60 fronts, VP100 or VP150 center, QS8 surrounds and surround backs. $1500+

Sub: 10 or 12" SVS or HSU $400-600
LFE: 2 or 4 Buttkicker LFE modules and amps $1K

Receiver: Yamaha RX-V2500 $700

I think you can put together a great HT room in your budget. You might have to add the surround back channels or buttkickers later to meet your budget. I think you will get much better performance from bookshelf or wall mounted speakers for the money than inwalls. Axiom and other companies make some nice finishes for their speakers that will look great in your room.

For projector info, check the site projectorcentral.com. Based on reviews, the new Panasonic and Sanyo models should perform much better than the Sony you listed. It is always best to see/hear for yourself whenever possible.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Sony has been known in recent years to be a solid step behind Yamaha, Denon, and Pioneer for their A/V receivers and that is often combined with poorer quality and a sound that many don't like. This is something that you may want to research deeper.

As others have said, (great post above by the way) - In-wall/ceiling speakers look great. But, they have a performance drop off that is related to the engineering necessary to get them into the wall/ceiling. This drop off in performance can be rectified by spending enough money.

Generally, at the same price point - a in-wall speaker will not sound as good as a bookshelf type speaker. Unless one of the two are over/under priced significantly you will get much better audio going with an external speaker.

In a dedicated HT? External speakers are the ONLY way to go! If you don't want to see them, then build the walls out a bit and hid speakers behind them behind acoustical cloth. Not really cheap to do that though.

Panny AE900 or Sanyo Z4 plus a Axiom or Aperion setup with a SVS sub and Yammie receiver? Sounds like a golden ticket.