Yeah, It's impressive. It's also obnoxious. I mean, what's he got there, 40 some speakers and 16 subwoofers. Holy shit man, if you need that many speakers to get the effect somethings wrong. I can imagine if you turn this bitch on your head would blow up like in Scanners.
I hated it when I first saw it, you could do so much better for a lot less money. But I found out it's actually a show room. He sells super home theater packages or something, and that room is just to see all the equipment. That's not even the top of the line package lol.
If you look at it closely, it looks like a "standard" 7.1 system. Each channel has its own subwoofer and tower speaker, and each of those has a dedicated amp.
The artical says it's an 8.8 system? 3 center channels,16 subwoofers and who knows how many speakers in between. 16 subwoofers? WTF? When I need to simulate a f***ing earthquake I'll know where to go.
Now it starts to make sense...sort of. I still think it's an ugly setup. For six million bucks he could have built several dedicated rooms, each with a particular package and looking (and sounding) much nicer. As it is, it doesn't look like a place anyone would actually want to watch movies in.
What cracks me up is the PS3. I know it's supposed to be the best Blu-ray player out there, but it's still funny it in the middle of all that high end equipment.
Do movies look and sound better than in most screening rooms? That's what he claims. So, before dismissing his choice of room treatments, bring a truckload of gear to measure everything-- ambient noise, brightness, frequency response, etc, etc.
And if doesn't surpass THX standards for theatre-- fine, go buy your own commercial theatre, and post about what a failure Kipnis's scheme has been.
I like that he has three Crown Macro Reference Gold amplifiers, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the best amplifier ever made (along with its successor, the Crown Studio Reference). So I'm part way there!